Breaking the Rules (10 page)

“Dude, you sound like a girl,” Micah laughed. “I don't think Julia will freak out. I think the only way there will be an issue is if you hurt Carly and put your sister in a place where she has to choose one o
ver the other. So do yourself a favor...don't fuck this up.”

“Don't plan to. But she might
very well put me in the asylum before this is all done. You know how much it sucks to not be able to touch the girl you're fucking crazy about.” Adam emptied his cup and tossed it into the nearby barrel. “Actually, if you're screwing my sister again, I don't want an answer to that.”

Micah laughed. “
I’ll spare you the details, but yeah, I guess I can understand a little of what you're feeling. Come on; let's see if we can get these girls out of here. I'm assuming you and Carly are taking off to your place?”

“She's gonna head out there. I'm going to help you make sure
that Julia's cool, then I'll head home.” Adam grabbed Micah, giving him a brotherly hug. “Thanks, man. And I'm warning you now; if you hurt Jules again, I will find you, and it’s not going to be pleasant. I’ll put you through as much physical pain as you put her through emotionally.”

Micah thumped Adam's back. “
No plans on doing that twice. No worries.”

When the girls had their fill of dancing, the trio made their way back to the table where the guys were waiting for them. Before they could get fully off the dance floor,
Your Man
started blaring through the speakers and Micah pulled Julia back into the crowd.

Adam walked Carly to her rental car, not feeling one hundred percent comfortable with her walking alone.
Granted, the only threat they knew of seemed to be isolated to Julia, but it wasn't a risk he was willing to take. He stood on the sidewalk until the taillights on her car were out of sight and made his way back to the dance. He needed to get his sister home so he could get back to enjoying an evening with his girl.

The night had gone off without a single hitch, other than Julia getting upset about feeling suffocated by all the attention. Normally, that would have been a
good thing, but Adam couldn't shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong as he followed Micah's truck through town.

Light shone through a
single window on the top floor of the Victorian home Julia rented on the edge of town. As he pulled his Chevelle SS up to the curb, Adam tried to remember if they'd made sure all the lights were off when they left the house earlier. He got all the answer he needed as he saw Micah barreling across the lawn, his cell phone pressed against his ear. Adam threw the car into park and followed close behind Micah. Whatever was going on in the house, there was no way anyone should be going in alone.

The two men ran up the stairs, Micah yelling at Adam to check the rest of the house. Until they knew who was in Julia's bedroom, Adam had no plans of leaving Micah alone. “What the fuck do you think you're doing?” Micah screamed as he moved towards his ex-wife, attempting to restrain her. Although Karen had never been a particularly attractive woman, the ghastly figure wielding a
pocketknife in front of her was shocking. The drugs had obviously taken a toll on Karen, making her look much older than her thirty years.

“I know you've been staying with that whore,” Karen screeched, lifting the knife to chest level. “That bitch ruined my life! Now, I'm going to ruin hers!” At the first sign of movement, Adam lunged towards Karen, sending the knife sliding under the bed as he pinned her to the floor.

“Stop!” Adam yelled, placing a knee against her chest. “Julia didn't do a damn thing to you. If anything, you're the one who ruined her life. And now,
you
are the one ruining your life.” Adam heard the sirens getting closer as he struggled to keep her pinned to the floor.

Karen writhed violently under him. “No, she did this to me. I would have had a
decent life if it weren't for her.”

“You're wrong,” Micah said sternly. “As I've told you many times before, you were the biggest mistake I ever made. Even if it
weren't for Julia, you and I would have never ridden off into the sunset. We would never have had the fairy tale life you wanted.” He crouched down next to her, turning his face as she spat at him. “If you were any type of woman, you'd get your shit together for the sake of our son. Even though you and I will never be together, that doesn't mean he doesn't need you.”

Karen started sobbing at the mention of Caleb. “Why should I bother when you can just have her take over as Caleb's mom too?” She turned her head away from both men, the shift in her attitude more than a bit frightening.

Adam craned his neck to look out the window when he heard the sirens abruptly stop. “Think you can keep her there?” He asked Micah, using one hand on the windowsill to pull himself up from the floor.

“Yeah, but hurry,” Micah replied. His eyes were filled with anger and loathing as she glared at the mother of his son. “If she lips off again, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep from doing something stupid.”

“I know nothing, man.” Both of the men knew better than to hit a woman, which was the only reason neither of them had knocked Karen unconscious to this point. If she started insulting Julia again, Adam wouldn't feel guilty for anything that came to her.

He ran down the stairs, swinging the door wide as the cops reached the front porch. “Sanders, what's going on?
” The first officer up the stairs was Eric Andrews, a classmate of Micah, Julia and the rest of the gang. The second, Officer Flood, was a veteran cop whom Adam was fairly certain had been on the force since the town’s incorporation in the late 1800s. Adam led them to the bedroom where Officer Andrews excused Micah and began reading Karen her rights.

“Adam, Micah, can you gentlemen come with me?” Officer Flood asked, motioning for them to leave Julia's bedroom. He cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder before continuing. “Can either of you tell me what happened here?”

Adam narrowed his eyes on Micah, expecting him to take control of the conversation. After all, it was his crazy ex causing all the trouble; he'd be the best one to explain what might be going on in her head. Micah nodded and then walked Officer Flood through the evening, about his coming home to see the light on in Julia's bedroom, finding Karen upstairs slashing the bedding after ransacking the room, Karen’s accusations that Julia destroyed her life, and finally, it appearing as if she was going to try to stab Micah.

Once they'd both talked to Officer Flood, Adam followed the two cops and Karen out of the house. Micah had run outside as soon as he was dismissed, needing to get to Julia. Adam was thankful to have the distance between them because he
honestly wanted to pound the piss out of Micah. He wasn’t to blame for Karen going off the deep end, but
his
stupidity was what had set off this domino effect of pain for Adam's only sibling. And if he couldn't hit Karen, Micah seemed to be the logical second choice.

He leaned against the pillar on the front porch, listening to Karen screech a laundry list of transgressions she felt justified her actions. He shook his head as he looked over to Micah leading Julia across the front lawn. Micah jerked his head in her direction and Adam bounded down the stairs to help her. He knew Micah wanted to find out what was going to happen to Karen.

“W-wh-what hap-happened?” Julia stuttered, huddling close to her brother as though she was trying to crawl inside his skin for protection. The fear he felt in her shaking body caused his anger to rise to a boil. He wanted to hit someone, and he was quickly losing the ability to care whom that was. They'd reduced his strong, assertive, independent sister to a stuttering, quivering mess. It was unlikely she'd ever feel safe in this house again, maybe not even in this town. The thought of her running again was something Adam didn't want to think about.

“It's okay, sweetie,” he whispered leading her into her home office. The living room would have been more comfortable
, but Adam didn't want her to see the disaster Karen had created in there. “They've got her. She won't hurt you again.”

“I just... I...
wh-why would she do this?” Julia wailed, burying her face in her hands. “I've never done anything to her.” Adam crouched in front of the futon in one corner of the room, pulling his sister tightly against his chest.

“I don't know, sweetie.” He gently stroked her hair, trying in vain to calm her. When he heard the front door close, he tried to remain calm as he stood to confront Micah.

“What the fuck man? Two nights in a row, that bitch goes after Jules?” Adam was pacing the living room trying to keep from losing his temper and creating even more of a mess.

“Where's Jules?” Micah asked, his voice nearly as shaky as his body. He pushed past Adam, spinning around when he realized Julia wasn't on the couch.

“She's locked in her office with a glass of wine,” Adam stated, pointing to the closed door across the hall. “Now, you'd better start talking and talk fast. How does Karen know who Julia is? And how in the hell does she know where my sister lives?” Adam balled his fist at his hips so tightly his knuckles hurt. “I knew shit wasn't right when Julia asked me about you. That's why I told you to stay away. Now look--”

“Calm down, Adam.” There was zero emotion in Julia's words. She wasn't asking
him to rein in his temper; she was issuing a command. She stomped through the foyer until she was standing toe-to-toe with her brother who stood at least six inches taller. “Micah didn't do this. Micah didn't
ask
for that vile bitch to attack me in a bathroom. Micah didn't call her and give her my address so she could destroy my house while we were gone.”

She stepped back from Adam, finding her way into Micah's arms. Adam hated the way she was sticking up for him. How could she have forgiven him so easily? Sure, Adam had moved past what happened
, but he also hadn't been the one cheated on. He wasn't the one Micah had lied to. And it wasn't his ex that got Julia beaten up and her home broken into on consecutive nights. Couldn't she see that being with Micah was nothing but trouble?

“I'm sorry Jules, but this is crap. Last night, I have to pull you out of the bathroom after they 'talked' to you. And tonight, the crazy bitch broke into your house. I just don't understand how she knows
who you are, much less how she knows you're back in town. I don't even want to think about what their next move will be.” Adam leaned against the mantle, his blood pressure finally starting to come down a bit.

The three of them sat in the living room, talking about the entire bizarre situation until Julia started to fall asleep against Micah's shoulder. “Hey, take her up to bed. I'm going to lock up and then I'll be out of here.” Adam pulled his phone out, realizing Carly would probably be at his house by now, either worried or pissed off. He wasn't sure which would be worse.

Hey baby, more trouble with Jules. I'll call you on my way home.

***

Years of living in the city made Carly forget how much she hated driving on country roads. Of course, Adam wouldn't live in Brooklyn. He had to live along the bluffs, at the top of the windiest road in the state.

Rather than hurry inside, Carly followed the cobblestone path around to the back of Adam's house. It was beautiful. Seeing the
state capitol shining like a beacon in the distance made Carly homesick. The skyline in New York was impressive, much more picturesque than the modest display on the horizon from Adam's yard, but this skyline signified stability to Carly.

There were so many little things Carly took for granted for the first twenty years of her life that came flooding back to her as she settled into one of the lounge chairs on Adam's deck with a beer she found in the small fridge nestled into the corner. Near the top of that list, living in an area so isolated you could leave a refrigerator stocked and unlocked without worrying that someone
would empty it while you were gone.

She stared at the night sky, trying to remember the last time she saw so many stars. When was the last time she saw any stars at all? In the middle of nowhere, without the city lights flooding the night sky, there seemed to be so many stars it was hard to pick out individual constellations.

Peace. That's the word Carly would use to describe life as she sat on Adam's deck. There was no noise other than the rustling of leaves and creatures of the night in the distance. No horns, no music blaring, no shouting. Quiet. Still. As much as she swore she'd never leave the city, Carly could almost imagine her life surrounded by the peace she felt in that moment.

A nearly sleepless night followed by a day of travel and then partying with friends caught up with Carly
, and she drifted off to sleep under the stars.

***

Why wasn't Carly answering her phone? When she didn't respond to his text message, Adam figured she was upset that he was taking so long to get home and he tried calling instead. She'd never been so upset with him that she ignored his calls. Even the night they fought about whether or not to go public with their relationship, she still answered the phone.

He pressed harder on the accelerator, pushing his
Chevelle to its limits through the tight curves on the road to his house. No matter how much he told himself he was overreacting because of what happened to his sister, he couldn't calm down. He couldn't slow down. His mind wouldn't stop whirling out of control until he had Carly in his arms; until he knew she was safe.

As he pulled up the long gravel driveway leading to the home that was his pride and joy, his heart started pounding even faster. There were no lights breaking the black night. Adam felt the tension in his shoulders ease when he saw Carly's Ford Focus parked in front of the garage. Maybe she had gone to sleep without turning on the porch light for him. It's not
as if she was used to little things like that.

Any relief he felt for a moment vanished when the
doorknob wouldn't turn in his hand. He rang the doorbell, hoping she forgot that he'd given her the only key to his house. Even though she was raised a small town girl, she'd lived in the city long enough that her doors were always locked whether she was home or not. When she didn't answer, he started pounding on the door, yelling her name.

“What's going on out here?” Carly asked sleepily as she padded through the yard along the side of the house.

Adam raced to her side, scooping her into his arms as soon as she was within reach. “Baby, don't scare me like that,” he sighed, pressing his lips tightly to her temple. “Jesus Carly, I almost had a heart attack!”

Carly wrapped her arms tight around his neck. “Hey, what in the hell's going on? I fell asleep on your deck. Sorry.”

Even though he knew he needed to tell her what was going on, he didn't want to do it outside. It was selfish, but he wanted to have her curled against him, both of them a bit more comfortable. “Have you been in the house at all?” He asked, carrying her up the stairs to the front door. He flipped a switch just inside the door, lighting up the great room that took up most of the main floor of the home.

“Holy shit, Adam! This is amazing.” For just a minute, it was easy to forget everything outside the four walls of his house as Adam watched Carly try to take in the house he called home. He could understand how she
felt; it still shocked him how well everything turned out with the renovations. When he'd bought the house, it was a wreck, almost as if the previous owners knew they were going to lose their dream home. They started ripping out and selling anything they might be able to make them some money.