Sweet Obsession: Windy City Kink, Book 1 (34 page)

“What’s wrong?” She leaned forward again, concern creasing her forehead. “Are you okay?”

He took in a fast breath and let it out. “I’m fine. But you…do not ever see him again. He’s going to…break your heart.”

“What!” She gave her head a shake. “Is he married?”

“No! Jesus.”

“What are you talking about? You’re pissing me off!”

“Look. Just listen to me. I care about you. I don’t want you to get hurt. You’re breaking up with him and that’s that.”

“
Why
?”

“Because I said so.”

She laughed and it made his chest hurt. “Riiiight.”

“Trust me.” He leaned forward and pinned her with a stare. “Just listen to me and trust me. Okay?”

She rolled her eyes, picked up her purse and pushed back her chair. “I’m out of here. You’re losing it, Jack. Seriously.”

He watched her walk out of the restaurant. He sagged back in his chair, legs stretched out in front of him. The waitress approached with a flirty smile. “Hi. Can I get you something?”

“No,” he snapped. Then added, “Thanks.”

His whole world was falling apart. What was going on? Some kind of full moon bullshit? First Sasha, and now Emma, two stubborn infuriating women who wouldn’t listen to him. Didn’t trust him. Goddamn.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sasha stared at her parents. “Jack?” Heat flushed up into her cheeks.

Mom covered her mouth. “You
have
been seeing him.”

Sasha blinked. “How did you know?”

Dad spoke. “Payton called me this morning.”

“Payton. Oh my God.” She stared at her father. “She told you about the party?”

“Yes. Since you were there and…uh…helped her out, she thought she should call me and tell me what had happened before you did.”

“I had no intention of saying anything to you about it.”

He shrugged. “I guess she wanted to be proactive.”

“Is she okay? She was pretty upset last night.”

“She says she’s fine.”

“That asshole Colin didn’t show up at her place, did he? I was worried about that.”

Mom delicately cleared her throat at Sasha’s language. Oh well.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Good.”

“So,” Mom said. “She said you and Jack were…together.”

Sasha drew in a shuddering breath. “We were.” And then two pairs of eyes fastened on her with such censure and disappointment, she felt as if she were shrinking down into the cushions. As if she were sixteen again, sick with worry and guilt and shame. It all came crashing back over her.

“How could you?” Mom breathed and her eyes got shiny like she was going to cry too.

“That deviant punk,” Dad muttered. “If he laid a hand on you…”

Sasha bit her lip. “He…” He totally had. And she’d loved it. She cleared her throat, her face burning. “Have you seen him since that night, Dad?”

“No.”

“But you hired him to do that security work for your bank, that big security project Jeremiah was talking about.”

“Jerome.”

“Whatever.”

“I didn’t know until this morning it was him,” Dad admitted. “Payton told me. I’ve half a mind to cancel the contract.”

“You can’t do that!”

He frowned. “I’m the CEO of the bank, Sasha. I
can
do that.”

“You have a contract. Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t back out of it.” Her mind raced. “You’ll get sued.”

“By Jack Grenville? Jesus Christ.”

Her cell phone rang and she automatically glanced at it. Kevin. Huh. Not now. She muted it.

Her lungs burned as she breathed in. “You don’t need to worry about me,” she said quietly. “Jack and I are finished. Again.”

“Really?” Mom blinked, straightening.

“Really.” Hot knives twisted and stabbed inside her. “But I want to know what happened back then. I asked Jack why he left like that, without saying goodbye, without even a phone call or an email, why he dropped out of school. Why he moved so far away.”

“What did he say?” Dad asked, his voice rough.

“He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Huh.” Dad’s jaw dropped. “Really? He wouldn’t tell you?”

“No.” She frowned. “Why? What happened?”

Dad glanced at Mom. “I would’ve thought…” he muttered. “Well, hell.”

The back of Sasha’s neck throbbed. “Tell me.”

“He left because I told him to.”

She sat there for a moment. “You told him to.”

“I wanted him as far away from you as possible,” he said. “If he didn’t leave, he’d’ve been in jail.”

“Jail.” She tried to process this.

“Yes, jail. For God’s sake, what he did to you was a crime!”

She closed her eyes. “You would have called the police?” she whispered. “Seriously?”

“Of course! That was assault! I would’ve pressed charges but it seemed better to deal with it discreetly. He took the money and ran, because he didn’t want to go to jail.”

She swallowed. “You gave him money.”

“Yeah. A plane ticket to Los Angeles and enough cash to get him started there. That way I was sure he was out of your life forever.”

For a moment, she had a hard time making sense of it all. Her father had paid Jack to leave and never come back. But he
had
come back. For her.

Her phone rang again. Good God, Kevin. Again. Irritably, she pushed the button. “Hello?”

“Hey,” he said. “We have a problem.”

“Oh man. I’m up to my neck in alligators here.”

“Where are you?”

“At my parents’ place.”

“Oh. Oh shit. Someone’s at the door. Hang on.” She heard muffled noises as he opened the door. Vaguely she heard him say, “Emma” then something else she couldn’t catch. Then he said, “I gotta go. Emma’s here.” His voice sounded funny.

“Okay. Talk to you later.” She ended the call and returned to the soap opera occurring between her and her parents.

“So. Let me get this straight,” she said, somehow keeping her voice steady. “You paid Jack to leave. You made him drop out of high school.”

“I didn’t make him do that. Actually, he was expelled.”

“What!”

“A word to the school administration took care of that.”

Pressure built behind her eyes and she pressed her fingertips to her swollen eyelids. “Oh my God.”

“And just to make sure he paid attention, your brothers came with me when I took him his plane ticket and cash. We, uh…convinced him he should leave.” His eyes narrowed. “After what he did to you…he was lucky.”

Nausea rose up inside her, right to her throat, and saliva filled her mouth. Her head spun. “Are you telling me you guys…beat him up?”

Dad looked away again. “I wouldn’t say that.” He shrugged. But she knew. That was what they’d done. He and her brothers had gone and roughed Jack up. Jack had been tall and lanky, but not all that muscular at eighteen. Her dad was a big guy and her brothers took after him, tall and broad. Oh God.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said, and she rose and rushed to the powder room across the hall.

She didn’t throw up. But she broke out in a cold sweat, sitting on the tile floor, stomach churning painfully.

Why didn’t Jack tell her that? Was he embarrassed? Ashamed? God!

It was too much for her, and her head hurt. She rose to her feet, splashed cold water on her face and patted it off with a thick towel, then returned to the den. Her parents stared at her, her mom’s hand at her throat, her dad’s forehead furrowed.

“Sasha,” Mom said. “How could you get involved with him again? After what happened? He’s no good for you! He did awful things to you, dangerous things. Didn’t you learn? I’ve tried so hard to teach you to respect yourself, that you don’t have to let anyone do things like that to you.”

Sasha stared at Mom. Her brain buzzed and her skin itched. Her fingers curled and uncurled. Her bottom lip trembled. “I know that, Mom. And I’m sorry I’ve upset you. But you don’t need to worry. Things are done between Jack and me.” She forced a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m fine. But I have to go.”

She made her escape and climbed into her car, starting it with an unsteady hand. She probably shouldn’t be driving. She was totally distracted and when she accidentally ran a red light, she started shaking. But she had to get home.

When she walked in, Kevin slumped on the couch, his chin on his chest. He looked up at her, his eyes dull, the skin around them pinched. “Hey,” he said.

She dropped her purse and keys. “Where’s Emma?”

“She went home.”

“What’s wrong? Did you have a fight?”

“Sort of.” He raised tortured eyes to look at her. “I called you…to tell you…
shit
.”

“What?” Concern spread through her and she sank down beside him on the couch. “What’s wrong?”

“Jack showed up a little while ago. I guess he was looking for you.” Oh. Her heart leaped. But Kevin’s next words filled her veins with ice water. “I didn’t know he was here and I came out of my bedroom, wearing a skirt and a camisole…and heels. The new black kitten heels,” he added morosely.

“Oh. Oh God.” She fell back against the cushions. “So he saw you.”

“Yeah.”

“And…”

Kevin’s mouth twisted. “He immediately went to Emma and told her to dump me.”

“Oh no.”

“He didn’t tell her why. But she wanted to know.”

“Did you tell her?”

He looked at her, pain filling his eyes, his mouth drawn into a tight line. “No.”

“Kev.” She set a hand on his thigh, her own problems pushed aside for the moment, worry for him taking over. “Why not?”

He hesitated. His throat worked. “I really like her, Sasha. Like, really.” Their eyes met. “I don’t want to freak her out and scare her away.”

“But…you know…if you ever want a meaningful relationship with someone, you’re going to have to tell her. It’s who you are.”

He sighed. “I just couldn’t do it.”

“So what happened? Did she break up with you, like Jack told her to?” Anger rushed through her that he would do that, without knowing anything about it.

“Not because he told her to. But because I wouldn’t tell her
why
he told her to.”

“So…you may have lost her anyway.” She softened her tone. “If she really cares about you, Kev, she’ll understand.”

“No girls understand!” He let his head fall back on the cushions. “You know what’s happened in the past.”

“
I
understand.”

He snorted. Okay, that hadn’t helped, since they were just friends.

And then she remembered why she understood. That feeling that they had something in common, a shared feeling of not fitting in, of being…different.

She
felt
normal. And Kevin was normal. He was awesome. He was her best friend.

Her anger at Jack flared again. What was
with
him? He could not just order people around, controlling everything so it was the way he wanted things. He had no right to come between Emma and Kevin. What happened between them was their business. Maybe Emma
was
the one who could understand Kevin and accept him for who he was. That was something. That was something big and important.

Whoa.

Her mouth fell open and she stared at Kevin.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

She swallowed, her throat thick and achy. “Um. I’m going to go upstairs. I need to lie down.” She patted his knee. “You have to decide, Kev, if you want to tell her. But it looks like you have nothing to lose now…maybe it’s worth a shot.”

He nodded, his face so sad it made her chest hurt.

She rose on legs that had the strength of whipped cream. She climbed the stairs slowly, her head spinning. In her bedroom, she flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Her conversation with her parents replayed in her mind, and then the one she’d just had with Kevin.

All these years, she’d been hurt and angry at Jack for what had happened. Blaming him for wanting to do something so foolish. Blaming him for getting caught by her parents. Blaming him for leaving.

Now she knew he didn’t really have a choice. Her father had threatened to call the police and press assault charges. No wonder Jack had left. Not to mention the physical intimidation. And having him expelled from school. Her stomach cramped sharply and she rolled to her side and pulled her knees up. How bad had they beaten him up? God. She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that burned there at the images she imagined.

He’d taken up Aikido because he wanted to learn self defense. Oh dear God.

She had to be honest with herself, like Jack kept telling her. She had to admit that Jack hadn’t forced her to do anything that night. She’d wanted it too. She
still
wanted it. But she’d never had the guts to tell her parents that. Instead, she’d let Jack take the punishment for it all.