Wounded Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (5 page)

“What’s wrong? Do you have to go now? Please, Jyme, just stay a little longer.”

“Cricket,”

“Shh, just hold me real tight before you go.” There was a knock at the door, and I freaked. “NO…PLEASE…JYME, DON’T LET HIM HURT ME. HE HITS ME SO HARD. PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME…PLEASE!” I screamed at the top of lungs through tears. Someone knocked again…louder this time.

“Wait a minute!” Jyme yelled. I clung to him and wrapped my arms around him tighter. I cried into his chest and my eyes started stinging.

“Cricket, I’m right here, and I won’t let anybody hurt you. I swear.”

“But he’s at the door, and he’ll beat it down. He’s done it before,” I said frantically.

“Shh, babe. Are you afraid of me?” he asked softly.

“No.” I assured him.

“Then open your eyes and look at me.”

I slowly opened my eyes and blinked several times through piercing pain. Then I saw him, and I slid my fingers through his jet-black hair.

“Oh, it’s you!”

“It’s me,” he chuckled.

“You know…you with hair; you’ve never come to see me.”

“Cricket, you’re really here, and I’m really here with you. I’m not sure what you’re talking about right now. But I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

“Huh?” I asked him. I couldn’t help it, but I pinched myself. I felt the pain but I didn’t wake up.

There was another knock at the door and Jyme got up from the bed. I really saw him this time. His hair was loose and shoulder length. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, and his feet were bare. I looked around and recognized everything. We were in our room and nothing had changed. The bedding was the same and so was the furniture. I looked out the window, and there were the boats all in the water.

Jyme cracked the door open and mumbled to someone. I got up and walked to the closet. I noticed nothing had been removed; not a single thing. The same thing was true in the shoe closet. My legs felt like jello and I fell to the ground. Jyme ran over to me, and then I saw her face at the door.

Chelle had tears in her eyes; I reached out for her as a baby would for someone to pick them up. She came to me and I cried in her lap for so long. She shushed and soothed me repeatedly. Jyme sat there right beside us. Chelle cried with me, and Jyme rubbed my back in those magic circles he does so well.

“How about I make you one of my famous omelets that you love so much?” Chelle asked me.

I nodded to her and she kissed me on my forehead. She slid me over to Jyme; I laid my head in his lap. Chelle shut the door on her way out and I heard her going down the stairs. Jyme rubbed my back then kissed my neck softly.

“Can I take a shower?” I asked him.

“Cricket,” he said with a sigh and then paused for a second, “of course, love.”

He helped me up and walked me to the bathroom. He turned the water on and pulled out a washcloth and drying towel. He gave me a smile and left the bathroom.

“Robe?” I asked him, he walked over to the bathroom closet door and there it hung on the hook, just as I had left it. He pulled it off the door slowly and then he handed it to me. He turned away from me and then walked out the bathroom door, shutting it behind him.

I stayed in the shower until the water was ice cold; I finally shut the water off when my teeth started chattering. I was terrified of what was coming next. It had been over a year since the last time I slept in a bed with Jyme. I didn’t know how to be with him anymore. And with all the shit I had done at the casino, I was so ashamed. I know I took forever in the bathroom;, I had taken my time lathering up with my lotion from the counter…Jyme hadn’t not changed or moved anything. There was a knock at the door and I jumped with a screech.

“I’m so sorry, Cricket. I have some clothes here for you.”

I cracked the door open and held my hand out. He handed me a soft, sparkly sweater with a pair of skinny jeans. He then handed me a bra and a matching pair of panties. I pulled my hand back into the bathroom and shut, then locked the door again. I let the robe fall and then I heard a loud thunk at the door. I froze; yanking the clothes in front me to shield my naked body. Then, I heard footsteps and then the bed squeaked. I dressed quickly and saw myself for the first time.

I looked like a bus had hit me. I touched the side of my face slowly, reaching up to the eyes. My right eye was almost swollen shut, and my face was black and purple. I had bruises on both sides of my torso. I slowly let my hands trace down my body. I couldn’t believe all the different colors my body had now. Covering bruises and patching myself up was nothing, but this was the worse Trey had ever done to me.

I brushed my teeth and gargled well. I put my dirty clothes in the empty hamper and pulled the cleaner and cleaning rags from under the sink. I sprayed the tub, counter, and toilet down. I pushed my sleeves up, and then there was another knock at the door.

“Just a minute.”

“Cricket, open the door,” he said quickly. I started scrubbing the tub and the faucet over and over. Being here in the safest place on earth with the only man I’d ever loved, made me so nervous. I was used to being on guard at all times…that prepared me for what was yet to come. But being here, safe and sound, with Jyme terrified me more than Trey did. I didn’t know what Jyme was expecting from me, and I didn’t know what all I could give him.

“Cricket, open the door. Cricket!”

I ran to the counter and started scrubbing it down. There was another thunk at the door, and then the door opened. Jyme rushed to me and I screamed and covered my face. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and I ran to the corner of the bathroom, curled up into a ball, and screamed for my life. I knew Jyme would never hurt me, but for some reason, it wasn’t registering with my brain.

“Cricket, it’s only me. Open your eyes and look at me, sweetie,” I heard Chelle say.

I opened my eyes, and there she was. She smiled at me and pushed the hair out of my face.

“Someone get me some water and a cold towel,” she said. Someone handed her a glass of water, and she gave it to me. Someone then handed her the cold towel, and she lightly rubbed my face with it.

“I’m sorry,” I hiccupped out.

“Shh.”

I drank all the water and handed her the glass.

“Are you ready to eat?” she asked. I nodded, and she helped me up.

We walked through the bedroom and Jyme was sitting on the bed with his hands covering his face. Chelle pulled me past him and we headed downstairs. The first floor looked exactly the same as it did
before
. Nothing had been put out of place or bothered. We walked into the kitchen, and Mrs. JJ, Ayashe, and Patty sat at the table. Ayashe ran over to me and hugged me hard. I hugged her right back, and the tears started swelling in my eyes. Patty hugged me, and when she really saw my face she began to cry as she turned away. Mrs. JJ hugged me for a long moment.

“Thank you for saving my son and sending him back to me, but he’s been lost since you’ve been gone, and I’ve taken care of him for you. Now he’s ready to take care of you.”

I nodded at her, and she kissed me on my forehead and patted my back. We all sat there in silence for a long moment. Then, they all silently watched me eat.

“I’m a regional now, and I bought a four-bedroom house in Fife,” Chelle told me. I put my hand on hers while I swallowed another bite.

“I’m engaged,” Patty whispered.

“Congratulations,” I said in surprise. We smiled at each other.

“Well, Sheen and his woman broke up and we started dating for real. But we’ve been on and off for months now and we finally broke it off for good; we’re done forever this time,” Ayashe said.

Chelle laughed and told us that they had broken up last night. She looked at her watch and said it had not even been twenty-four hours yet. We all laughed, and it felt so good to laugh with them. Mrs. JJ kissed my forehead again as she picked up my plate and fork. The sun was setting beautifully against the water.

“Let’s light a fire and have some cocoa,” I said.

“That’s an excellent idea,” Mrs. JJ said. She made the cocoa on the stove, and Chelle lit the gas fireplace. We sat in the living room; the furniture still looked brand new.

“Cricket, the house is beautiful. You have such good taste,” Patty said.

“I just looked on the better Homes and Gardens website.”

They all burst out laughing and I joined in. “So when did Jyme finally let you guys start coming over?”

They all looked at one another and then Chelle whispered, “Cricket, Jyme has been all over the country looking for you. We haven’t seen him until today. He would call when he thought he had a lead, and then we didn’t hear a thing. I told him about every single place we used to go to, and he went to each and every one of them.”

“I only saw him because I travelled to him while he was in Tennessee and California,” Mrs. JJ added, “he lived in California for three months looking for you. I swear he walked every single street in Los Angeles twice.”

“He hired two detectives to help him, Cricket,” Ayashe said.

“He never gave up on finding you,” Chelle said.

We all sat there sipping on our cocoa and not saying a word. It was dark outside now, and Chelle said they should go; everyone stood and hugged me. We agreed to get together tomorrow. Patty and Mrs. JJ left first, and I walked Chelle and Ayashe out to their cars.

“Y’all didn’t tell him about the casino?” I asked.

“I knew they’d kill him; and then I knew you’d kill me. He had to stay busy, so I sent him on a wild goose chase,” Chelle told me.

“We weren’t really sure if you were there though,” Ayashe said.

“He did go there a couple of months ago, and you were nowhere in sight. I got scared then because I didn’t know where you were.”

She started to cry. I hugged her, and they left. I went back into the house and picked up our cocoa mugs from the living room. Then I washed the mugs and wiped down the table and counters. I swept and mopped the kitchen floor. I re-straightened the pillows in the living room, turned the fireplace off, and rechecked all the doors and locks. Then I shut off all the lights. Slowly, I walked back upstairs and opened the bedroom door. Jyme had showered and was on the bed asleep. I tiptoed to the closet and changed into one of my nightgowns. I stood at the window and watched the water rolling in the moonlight.

“Cricket?” Jyme whispered.

“I’m here.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Come to bed.”

I climbed into the bed and he pulled me close to him. I lay there not saying a word.

“Do you want me to go and sleep in another room?” he asked.

“NO!”

“Alright,” he said, pulling back from me.

“No, Jyme…hold me.” He pulled me back closer to him. “Tell me everything,” I said.

Jyme started at the beginning. He reminisced about the night I gave my life for his.

“I knew you were there, something deep down inside of me told me that, Cricket,” Jyme’s eyes were far away now. “I could smell you, I smelt your perfume; it was everywhere.”

Jyme could smell me because I had searched that whole entire house looking for him that night. My perfumed lingered in the air, and his sense of smell was on full blast.

“You ran into me, I felt that too.”

I was silent; I wanted Jyme to find his way through all of this. He needed to work this out in his head on his own.

“Your shoes, I heard your heels, Cricket.” I watched him and his face was contorted. “You couldn’t give me some sort of sign? I needed you.”

I placed my hands on top of his. He turned his hands over so we could intertwine them. He rubbed imaginary circles with fingers into my palm. “When I got back to the reservation, I looked for you everywhere. You were gone and I knew it the moment I climbed in the back of that truck. You would have been there with Chelle and Ayashe. No one would look at me in my eyes; everyone kept their distance from me. My Mom…she had this look of torment and I didn’t understand it then, but I know now…she knew you would break me.”

I pulled away from him, but he pulled me back.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that.”

He slid his fingers back through mine. “I meant that she knew all along that you would be the one that could. She knows how much I love you; she always has.”

He got quiet for a moment and then he started back up again.

“I left the reservation and came straight to the house. I was hoping…no, I was praying that you would be here waiting for me somehow. But you were gone; then I found the letter. I didn’t want to believe what you wrote in the letter. You said you were never coming back and that made no sense to me. You loved me, and you had paid the ultimate price—you had given your life for mine. That couldn’t have been the last of our love story; we weren’t finished. Chelle told me that’s your way of coping; you run. She told me that I made you
feel
and you did not like to
feel
.”

A few tears fell from my eyes and he wiped them away with his hands. He leaned in to me and kissed me so sweetly on the lips.