A Broken Beautiful Beginning (17 page)

“Well let’s go, take me to her.” I start walking for the door when he gently grabs my elbow.

“It’s already three in the morning? You sure you want to wake her up looking like that?” He gestures to my face where the bruises are.

“I need to see her Hunter.” Yes I’m worried about her reaction, I don’t ever want to scare her but I need to have my little girl in my arms.

Chapter 9

Anna holds me tight and starts spouting off about how terrible I look. To get her out of my hair I ask her to make me something to eat. She eagerly rushes off to make me something, not caring that it’s nearly four in the morning.

I fucking love that woman.

I smile to myself as I tip toe up the dark stairs towards Willow’s room. She isn’t there though and I start panicking when I don’t find her in any of the spare rooms.

I let out a huff of breath, when I find her snuggled in the middle of my bed under the covers holding her teddy tight to her chest, her black hair splayed over the white pillow cases. I bend over and give her a kiss on her forehead. I hear her little breaths and watch her chest rise and fall in her deep sleep. I don’t close the door fully as I leave the room. I want to cuddle up to her and hold her but I don’t want to wake her up right now. She’s sleeping too peacefully so I’ll climb in with her in a little while.

Anna won’t stop asking me questions and I try to answer them as best I can without telling her all the gritty parts. I don’t want her to worry about me more than she already is. She forces me to eat, but I can only manage to get a little food in without feeling sick.

Anna returns to the guestroom after yawning and nearly falling asleep next to me on the kitchen counter. I walk past Hunter, finding him passed out on the couch in the lounge with episodes of South Park playing on the television.

I quietly sneak out the sliding doors toward the back porch and head down to the beach.

My toes curl into the sand as I gently sit down. The bun in my hair is giving me a headache so I pull it out leaving my hair to swish around in the breeze. I close my eyes and lean my head back listening to the crashing sound of the waves and water as it soothes me.

Through the sound of the waves and the silence of the night I hear the sound of footsteps on the wood of the stairs behind me that lead to the beach. I turn around in a panic and find Caleb walking in my direction. When his eyes meet mine he pauses.

I move to stand, taking in my surroundings.

I love Caleb, no doubt about it but after what’s happened this past week my feelings are all fucked up. He’s never hurt me physically before, but then again I didn’t think Jace would hurt me and he did. I remember the way Caleb tried to catch me, I remember Dex and the way he had his hands on me and then I think about his father.

My heart beats faster, my breathing deepens, my fists curl up and I look to the side towards the bank that leads to the neighbour’s house. It’s quite a run but I can make it if I tried hard enough.

“Don’t even think about it.” Caleb says in a calm steady voice. I turn my attention back to him and he’s already taking his shoes off.

I don’t think about it... I just do it.

I sprint as fast as my legs will take me on the soft sand. “Fuck!” I hear Caleb say, as he takes off after me. I don’t get far before he tackles me to the ground.

“Get off me!” I yell pushing at his chest as he straddles me. Panic creeps in at the familiar feeling of being restrained.

“Calm down and hear me out!” He makes a move to get off and I use the opportunity to push him off of me, I crawl away but just as I get one of my feet flat on the sand to stand he grabs my ankle and tugs me back.

I scream and kick as the tears fall; I’m losing my strength to fight back. I beg him to get off me and he finally does but only to pull me onto his lap, holding me tightly and wrapping his arms around me. My attempts at getting away fail as he continues to hold me in his arms rocking back and forth whispering in my ear.

“Not going to hurt you baby. Calm down. I love you.” His attempts to calm me only make me cry harder and I push at his chest.

“No! Don’t say that! You don’t love me. Look at all that you’ve kept from me, you allowed them to...to... you allowed him to lock me down there. If it wasn’t for Dex’s chocolate bars I probably would’ve starved!” His rocking stops, I know I’m being dramatic but I don’t care. His hands that are wrapped around me tighten and he moves his head from where it rested on my hair to look at me.

“They didn’t feed you? You had nothing, other than what Dex gave you?” He asks quietly.

“No! Dex snuck in candy bars and a little water but it didn’t do much. I was locked in that fucking cage, it was so dark...” I drop my forehead to his shoulder letting my tears soak his shirt. I whisper, “It was so dark Caleb... I was so scared.”

“Fuck!” I feel his body shaking as he gently takes the hair from my shoulder and moves it away. I feel his lips on my ear as he moves them to my cheek, kissing me gently, his entire demeanour changing from angry to pained and worried.

“I should have spoken to you sooner, should have told you my plans. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew what your reaction would be. I didn’t want you to worry and I needed to prove myself to the club. Grimm said I had to earn a place in his club and what better way than to sneak into the rival club and get all the information Grimm needed to take them down. I should have told you and for that I’m truly sorry Harley.” He says so softly.

“You lied to me Caleb, you kept things from me. No more lies Caleb! You said no more lies, and
keeping shit from me
is in the lying category.” He wipes my tears away as I rest my hands on his shoulders and sit up straight. I’m so relieved that he’s okay.

“I know baby, it is all the same but I couldn’t get you involved. I didn’t think they were going to take you. When I saw you there and what they did to you.” He brushes his hand across the bruise on my cheek bone, over to my nose th
en down to where my lip is split.

“I nearly blew that place to shit. Was going to ruin the whole operation but I had to follow through with what I
went there to do. I tried sneaking down there a couple times to see you but a few guys kept stopping me. When I caught him…” he shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut.

“When I saw where they were keeping you, I didn’t care about the plans I had to follow. I was going to get you out and no one was going to stop me. I just had to make sure the guards were preoccupied. When I came down to get you out and caught that fucker on top of you. I lost it. Hit him so hard I was sure I killed him but when the others found out you were gone they said he was okay…” My body tenses at his words. He’s still alive. He can still find me, get to me and hurt me.

“No!” Caleb says, as if reading my thoughts. He places his warm hands on either side of my cheeks forcing me to look at those pretty green eyes of his. I lift my hand slowly and run my index finger above his left eyebrow where a lump has formed and a little red cut with dried blood lies. I know I was the one to cause the mark when I kicked him with that car door.

Caleb shakes his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “He won’t ever come after you. I won’t ever let him hurt you again. Jace has gone after him and Hunter is good when it comes to tracking people when they don’t want to be found and the old man is hiding.” Caleb rests his forehead against mine and I take in a deep breath taking in his smell, his familiar smell. I close my eyes and pull away from him
as he reaches out for me.

“No…this is so hard for me Caleb. So fucking hard…I have so much shit going on in my head right now. All the lies and things you
have kept from me? I love you so much Caleb but I need to start thinking about my wellbeing and Willow’s happiness. No matter how much I love you, I won’t stay in a relationship where the Club comes before Willow and I. You should have seen Willow when you were gone Caleb, she couldn’t understand why her daddy wasn’t there when she went to bed at night or when she woke up in the morning. It was horrible and I never want to experience that again Caleb.” I stand up and look down at him sadly. “Just give me a little time to think….”

CALEB POV

I sit there and watch her walking away further down the beach. I know I messed things up but I don’t think I realised just how far I went. I should have been honest with her from the beginning… but it’s too late for what ifs. I’ve missed spending time with both Willow and Harley since I’ve been helping Grimm at the club. I don’t know what I was thinking… after sneaking out of the compound, I headed directly to Grimm. I told him that my family comes first, that they will always be ahead of the club on my list of priorities. Grimm agreed, said he wished that he had put his family first too. Harley must have giving him one hell of a lecture when she got back because I’ve never seen the man look so upset before.

Fuck this…I didn’t fight hard enough for her the first time we split up. I’m sure as hell not
gonna let her slip through my fingers again. I’m going to make sure she knows how much I’m willing to work on this relationship…how I’m willing to let everything else go if that’s what she wants, if that’s what will make her stay and not leave me.

I run down the dark beach in the direction she headed and I find her staring out at the ocean, sitting on the sand with her knees under her chin and her arms wrapped around them. She’s so deep in thought that she doesn’t even notice me coming.

I kneel in front of her; she shakes her head but finally looks into my eyes.

“I know you asked for space baby, but I don’t want you sitting here alone thinking up all the reasons why you should leave me. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, please… I just want to make us right again. No more secrets…”

HARLEY POV

“Before we start with what’s recently been going on, there’s something that has been playing on my mind ever since the day we met at the park. I know we said we weren’t going to go back and let shit from the past come between what we have now but the truth is, I don’t think I can move on from what happened between us back then… unless I know everything.” He wears a confused expression, I lift my hands up gesturing for him to hush.

“What exactly went down between you and Ashley? That day at the park, it looked as if you two were together?” I shake my head remembering that day.

“I've never brought it up before because I thought it was irrelevant, we were back together and I thought I could just put it to the back of my mind and just forget about it....but I can’t Caleb, I need to know.” I almost whisper the last words.

He kneels in front of me and moves his hands to pull me to him but I back away. I need space, I know if he holds me and I’m surrounded by his warmth and smell I’ll cave and nothing he says will matter. I need my space and I need a clear head. Truth is... at this point I don’t even care if he tells me that he was with her or that they were dating, I just need him to tell me the truth.

“Baby...” I can tell how much it hurts him that I don't want to feel his touch right now.

“I wasn’t with her. We were never together. In the weeks following the party, she wouldn't leave me alone. She was everywhere. I was sure she was following me and I even suspected that she broke into my apartment as well. It was little things and I could never quite be sure enough to pin anything on her, but it was enough to creep me the fuck out. I confronted her, told her we were never gonna happen and told her I would go to her parents and the police if she didn't stop harassing me. I think that scared her enough; Ashley wouldn't of wanted Daddy's bank account to run dry on her and she backed off after that. I kept my distance from her over the years, whenever she was around, I made sure I wasn’t. I can’t stand the girl. The week before you saw us she started calling me out of the blue. All of a sudden she wanted to talk to me and clear things between us, she said something about turning over a new leaf and that she planned on getting in touch with you too.” I rolled my eyes not believing that one little bit.

“I swear, Harley. That’s what she said; I didn’t believe it either but she wouldn’t stop calling and showing up wherever I was so I caved in and told her to meet me at the park music festival. I wanted to be in a public place surrounded by a ton of people in case she tried something stupid. We spoke for no more than five minutes and I knew I needed a drink. She told me that she was in love and dating this heavily Christian dude. He heard about her high school reputation and what she did to her best friend and had broken up with her. What she did apparently had haunted her, she missed you and wanted to know if I knew where you were
so she could make things right. That’s how far the conversation got when I saw you and Willow.” He says determinedly making sure I hear every single word.

“So you two weren't together or hooking up or anything like that?” I say.

“No baby, but shit you know Ashley; always playing games with people's lives. She knew about Willow and still stood there acting surprised, so who the fuck knows what her motives were. All I can tell you is, Ashley never has and never will have any part of me... only you have that baby.” He shakes his head. I let out a deep breath, one thing off my chest.

“Okay... best you start telling me exactly what’s going on between you and Avery then?” I whisper.

He sits down in front of me and spreads his legs pulling me between them so that I’m closer into his warmth, f
ace to face, I allow him to hold me this time... needing his touch.

“Nothing
’s happening between us baby. Avery’s father treats her like shit, he isn’t good for her and she wants him out of the picture. I know that she thought working with her on this would bring us closer again, but if anything it only made things worse. She knows you’re my girl, I love you so much Harley, no one would or could ever replace you. I know what I did with Avery was wrong, the way we acted in front of you must have messed up your head but you’ve gotta trust me on this. I didn’t ever touch her like that. You’re the only girl for me… you’re it!” He speaks with such honesty and determination.