Cheaters Anonymous (31 page)

“Really. I’m in this for the long run, Jules. You and me, and possibly a little Wagner one day. If it’s in a year or five years from now, there’s no one else in the world I’d rather be the mother of my child than you.”

With Scar at my side, I felt like I could conquer the world. Nothing could ruin this day.

Feeling a lump form in my throat, I cleared it, saying. “Breakfast is on the patio. You need energy for this afternoon.”

“What’s happening this afternoon?”

“It’s your nephew’s birthday, Scar. And your mom invited us over. Why didn’t you tell me that Axel had a son?” We sat at the table and I leaned back in my chair, picking at the cantaloupe and strawberries I cut up this morning.

“It never came up.” He shrugged and I rolled my eyes.

Scar took a sip of his coffee and reached for his jeans over the spare chair. He pulled out a folded envelope from his back pocket, which he set in the middle of the table. I stared at it, my hands sweating and knees wobbling.

“After tomorrow we’ll be able to forget about Brad forever. Before I met with the judge, I saw his lawyer. He asked me to pass this to you.”

I furrowed my brows. “What’s it say?” I asked.

“I didn’t read it. But I know the bastard well enough to know this cannot be good.” He reached for my hand, gently touching it. “You don’t need to read it. Whatever he has to say will not change the outcome. He has it coming for him, and he doesn’t even know it.”

I sighed and picked up the envelope, breaking the seal with a spare knife.

And there it was: his request spelled out in black ink and signed by Brad. He wanted me to spend twenty-four hours with him the first week he was out, and then he would leave. I guessed he hadn’t gotten the news from his lawyer yet. Hopefully Scar’s team would find the tapes and pictures Brad claimed to have before he realized he’d lost. Brad didn’t know he’d be spending a good few years behind bars.

The empty line beneath his scribble stared back at me, and all I could think about was the disgust I’d felt each time Brad was near me. It didn’t matter that I used to sleep with countless men – I’d been sick. Now that I had everything I had ever searched for, my life had changed. And there was nothing more that I wanted than a normal life with one man – Scar.

I leaned back in my chair, passed him the paper, and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see the anger on Scar’s face as he read the letter. After a few huffs and puffs, I opened my eyes. He was looking at me from across the table with intent. He tore through the middle of the paper once, then again, and placed the pieces into an empty fruit bowl. I watched him reach for the barbeque lighter and set the scraps on fire. We both stared as black ashes drifted upward, and when the last of the glow faded, I let out a breath of relief.

“It’s done,” I said.

“It is. I should probably go get a gift for Trevor.” Scar stood up and pulled the t-shirt over his head. “Come with me.”

“They should be here with the furniture in an hour.”

He took my face into his hands and pressed his lips to mine with such ferocity I thought they’d permanently attach to his. I never thought my heart could swell with so much happiness. As Scar pulled away, kissing the tip of my nose, I whispered, “Trevor likes dinosaurs.”

“Then a dinosaur he shall have. Today will be a good day, Jules. And tomorrow, it will be all over. We’ll never have to think about Brad Watson again.”

I wished Scar’s words were true, but wishes were only fulfilled in fairy tales.

CHAPTER 32

After Scar left, I cleaned up the dishes and waited for the delivery. Two hours later, four men were carrying in cushions and seats, along with a coffee table and a dining table with six chairs. The place was beginning to look more like home each minute. I brought in a few of Scar’s paintings from the garage to hang on the walls when he returned. When I opened the garage door, there was a new car inside with a red bow on its hood.

Had he bought me a car?

I peeked on the license plate that spelled out JULES.

Holy crap!

I guessed it was for the better. My beat up Honda, even with four new tires, should have been retired long ago. Once the delivery guys were done bringing the bookshelves, two loungers, and a desk for the library and the office upstairs over the kitchen, I started opening the boxes full of medical books I’d brought from my house, shelving them onto the first unit. Minutes later my cell phone rang, and Scar’s name appeared on its front.

“Jules? Where are you?” Scar’s worried voice sent goosebumps along my skin.

I wiped the dust off a box and sneezed. “Home. Is everything okay?”

“Listen to me carefully, Jules. Lock the door and stay put. I’ll be home in half an hour.”

“Scar, what happened?”

“Brad’s out. He escaped this morning.”

“What?” And that’s when I felt the tip of a cold barrel against the back of my neck.

“I’ll be there soon, Jules.”

“I love you.” I could only hope Scar heard my last words to him as my phone was torn out of my hand and thrown to the floor.

“Hello, Dr. Blakely.”

I despised that voice. Brad grabbed me by my ponytail and yanked my head back, bringing my face close to his. His breath had that hungry stench. His stubble scraped over my cheeks and I squirmed, trying to twist out of his grasp.

“Let’s fulfill that agreement of ours, shall we?” He turned my face toward his, torquing my body in an uncomfortable way. Brad’s eyes were rimmed with red.

“There was nothing in there about me being forced,” I said, as Brad dragged me down stairs. I could barely keep up with his pace and lost my footing on one of the last steps, almost falling. Unfortunately his tight grip on my hair held me up, though I wasn’t sure how long my scalp would last under the weight. Brad pushed me onto our new couch.

“And just how are you going to prove what you agreed to if the paper’s burnt?” he asked, waving the gun in front of my face.

Had he been watching us this morning? And how much exactly had he seen? Disgust overwhelmed me. But even if he had seen me and Scar together, at that moment it was the least of my worries.

“Now as far as I know, we don’t have much time, but it’s enough for what I need, Julia. So get your fucking clothes off. All of them.”

“If you want to be free, you better run. They know you escaped, and they’re onto you. Scar’s on his way home.”

“Do you think I care? Now stop stalling and lower those fucking shorts.”

“You can’t do this, Brad. You were about to get your freedom. Why would you do this?”

“Don’t fucking patronize me. I know what Scar did. The verdict will not be in my favor, and I need to take what’s mine. Don’t you remember, Julia? I always get what I want. And this time, nothing’s going to stop me.”

He yanked on my shirt, ripping it through the middle. All the buttons popped off, and they bounced and rolled across the floor. I grasped its sides and pulled them together, trying to cover my exposed breasts… and that was when I heard Beth’s voice.

“Get your hands off her!”

He stopped for a moment, pointed the gun at me, and turned around, shielding himself with my body, poking the gun into my ribcage.

“Beth, don’t,” I gasped and looked to the fridge where Axel had left Scar’s gun this morning. That gun was now in Beth’s hands. On the kitchen counter was our first greenhouse plant, which I assumed Beth had brought with her. “I’ll be fine.”

My voice shook and felt weaker by the minute.

“Julia, he’s holding a gun to your ribs and telling you to undress. I don’t think you’re fine.”

She was right. I wasn’t fine at all, but I couldn’t live with the alternatives of either Brad hurting her, or Beth hurting him. She was his mother. There was no way she’d shoot him if she knew who he was. Could she shoot him at all?

“Make her leave, Julia,” Brad’s jaw was so tight, right beside my cheek, I could hear his teeth grind.

“Beth, please. You need to leave.”

I’d just let Brad take what he came for, get it over with, and then somehow, one day maybe I’d be able to move past today. Or would I? If Brad escaped, even if he raped me, I’d still live in fear for the rest of my life. All those thoughts that ran through my mind seemed to take forever, though it must have been only a few seconds. There was no way out of this, was there?

“Better put that gun down, Beth.” I heard the nasty smirk in Brad’s voice, and I knew he wouldn’t give up. He would never let me go. Even if he got what he wanted after all these years, he’d find a way to come back into my life.

“You’re going to have to shoot me to do that, Bradley.” Beth kept her arms steady on her target – which honestly from my point of view, given how close he was to me, could be either me or Brad.

“As you wish.”

And as Brad turned the gun toward Beth, which seemed to be in slow motion, a shot was fired. I didn’t even know whether it was me who’d been hit, or Brad, or Beth, but I fell to the floor. My ears rang with the ricocheting sound. I stayed down, trying to feel whether any part of my body had been shot. The reverberation in my ears ebbed and flowed in a pattern. I touched the floor and my hand skimmed over the pool of red liquid beside me. Our brand new white couches were splattered with red dots. And then I felt someone’s arms around me. It was Beth. She was lifting me up and holding me. Her lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear her – at least not for the first few minutes.

“It’s okay, Julia. You’re safe now.”

She rocked me in her arms. Beside us, Brad’s body lay on the floor. I couldn’t see his head as it was obscured by the side of the couch.

“You shot him. You shot your son.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know.”

“Wait… you know?”

But Beth didn’t answer my question. We held each other until Scar broke through the door with what looked like an army of officers, paramedics, and agents with guns. The scene was like one from a movie, one where everyone arrives right after the bad guys are taken care of.

E
PILOGUE

The Wagner residence was booming with laughter. I swirled the wine in my glass, watching Axel and Trevor admire the kid-sized T-Rex slide. The little guy hadn’t yet had the courage to climb up the side steps so that he could swoosh all the way down the dino’s back. Scar finally took him by the hand and guided him up. Trevor sat in front, and Scar right behind him. They looked adorable as they slid down.

It had been three weeks since Beth shot Brad. The Wagners had understandably postponed the birthday party, and Scar had somehow found the time to order the best gift for his nephew: a pre-historic playground, which he installed next to Beth’s garden. When he first told me about the idea, I thought he wanted to get back at Beth for meddling with his back yard. Watching him now, as he showed Trevor over and over how easy it was to slide down, I knew it was because he loved the little guy.

“How are you doing, Julia?” Beth’s voice startled me.

“I’m okay. It will take a while to forget it all, but family moments like these help. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am okay.” She smiled, but the sadness in her eyes couldn’t be hidden.

Zoey was sitting in Ace’s lap, whispering something in his ear, and I wondered when Ace would finally pop the question. She seemed happy. The light in her eyes was brighter, and I was glad that life was finally showing my sister some well deserved joy. I owed her my life. Come to think of it, there were so many people here I owed a debt to that I’d be paying it forward for a while. Trish and Axel were having an intense conversation with Mr. Wagner. Grace, the youngest of the Wagner siblings, was raking her fingers through her husband’s hair. Hunter sat as far away from Mr. Wagner as he could, and I wondered what bad blood had flowed between those two.

“I’m hoping one day to have more than one grandchild playing in my back yard.” Beth brought my attention back to the playground. She eyed me knowingly, and I wondered whether she knew, and if so, then how?

My mouth fell open as she said, “You have a glow about you only a mother would recognize.”

“I just found out a couple of days ago. I haven’t even told Scar yet.”

“He’ll be ecstatic.”

There was a pause between us. I knew what she was thinking. We hadn’t broached the subject of Brad since his death – at least, not to the extent that I knew we should have. Beth wasn’t at all surprised when I told her she’d shot her son. And she didn’t even hesitate to pull the trigger. That day she saved not only my life, but also her future grandchild’s.

“He wasn’t my child, Julia,” she finally said. “Scar is.”

“You knew the whole time, didn’t you?”

“I did. And so did Brad’s parents. There were too many physical features to ignore when the boys were young. They had Brad tested, and we agreed it was for the best to leave things as they were.”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“There was never a right time… and then after a while, there was no point.”

“Why was he like that? So...”

“Awful, despicable, full of hatred?”

I nodded.

“I don’t know, sweetheart. Social influence, perhaps? No parent ever wants to find out that their child was a convict or hurt others. Brad grew up in the wrong circle of friends. Secretly, I hoped things would change when he and Scar got the Club, maybe even bring them closer together.” She shook her head. “I will never regret my choice that day and will have to live with it for the rest of my life.”

“Does everyone in this family know how to use a gun?”

“It comes with the territory. There was a time in my life I had to carry one on me.”

“Will you tell Scar?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He’s so happy now. Look at him. I’ve never seen my son this... free. I don’t want to ruin it.”

“Grandma, you do it!” Trevor screamed, running toward us. Beth took his little hand to join him.

“You’ve been holding onto that glass all afternoon, Jules.” Scar came up from behind me, wrapping me in his arms. “You actually need to drink my mother’s wine to know how good it tastes.”