Cousins In Love: An Alpha Bad Boy Romance (Book 3) (26 page)

Now I was starting to feel weird. Like Blake thought I was keeping some sort of deep, dark secret.
 

"He wants to see me," I blurt out. "My ex asked if he could see me."

"Does he want to get back together with you or something?" Blake asks with interest.

"I doubt it, but I didn't really give him the chance to tell me why."

"Well there's probably a good reason why you didn't give him the time of day. I say go with your gut."

"My gut is actually telling me to do the opposite. It's saying that I should find out what he wants. It's my head that's saying hell no. I'm pretty good at holding grudges."

Blake raises an eyebrow at that.

"Is it possible that you still care about this dude?"

"Absolutely not. He's never had my best interest at heart."

"Well why do you think your gut is telling you that the two of you should meet? That seems a little strange if he's a total jerk."

Blake has no idea about the drama I went through last year. I've told so many versions of the story I can't keep track of the lies anymore. I don't want to have to tell another.

"Because I don't think after everything we've been through together, that he would just contact me for no reason."

He's up to something. Plus he mentioned Roman's name.

"Then maybe you should meet with him. It probably can't hurt if you don't have feelings for him."

"It's just not a good idea."

"Is it because of what Roman would think? Is that why you're scared?"

Well sort of, but I think Blake has the wrong idea. He sounds as if he thinks I'm in some sort of abusive relationship. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I hate that he thinks so ill of him. Sometimes I just wish one person in my life could see Roman the way that I do. The way that he actually is. Imperfect but amazing.

"I'm not afraid of Roman at all, Blake. This is about my ex boyfriend. He and I don't have a good history."

Blake pauses for a moment, takes a sip of his energy drink, then speaks again.

"Well I see things like this. You're totally distracted by this situation. It's affecting your work and probably your personal life. So you should probably just handle it, and get it out of the way. What if I go with you to the meet?"

"Um, that would be above and beyond your call of duty, not to mention a total snoozefest for you."

Blake smiles.
 

"Would you say that we're friends, Beth?"
 

"Yes, I'd definitely say that we're friends."

"Then what's so above and beyond the call of duty for a friend to help you out? Especially a friend who works for you? We can make it a working lunch. We meet your ex at a public place. We work. When he comes, I'll continue to work while you two talk. I can even step away to give you two a little privacy, but I won't leave you there alone. I'll just be two steps away. He'd be a fool to try anything shady knowing that I'm there."

Blake is a sweetie. That's all there is to it. Just an all around nice guy. I'm not so sure that I want to pull him into my world of crazy, or if I should go back into it myself. Meeting Ethan would be like a suicide mission. If Roman even got a whiff of it, he'd probably blow up the place to get at Ethan. That's even if I'm still high on his priority list these days.
 

We've been playing phone tag ever since he decided to go to Miami on his lame work excursion. Something about "getting his head together." I'm not convinced. The only things in Miami are beaches, beautiful girls and Kat. So that's why I may have pressured my aunt to tell me a little more about the woman who practically committed statutory rape when Roman was a kid.
 

I know that her father is Donald Dixon Jr. and he's a self-made real estate mogul who's been friends with Uncle Joseph since they were around my age. He lived with a woman who is Kat's mother for several years until she left him and moved to Florida. Kat went to live with her mother after graduation, and hasn't left Florida since. She's newly divorced, in the film business, and runs some sort of production company in Miami. Supposedly she's hired Roman to do some work for said company.
 

Puh-lease.
 

She's newly single. She's a blast from his past. And she's totally manipulating him. Playing the
friend of the family
card.

"You're doing an awful lot of overthinking on this. Maybe you should tell your guy about it and ask his opinion. If I were your man, I'd definitely want to know what was going on. Especially if there's some risk involved."

"I can't tell him."

"He'd be angry?"

"Yes."

"And would he have a right to be angry?"

"Probably."

"But you're still considering doing it?"

"Yes."

"Do you love both of them or neither of them?"

"I only love Roman."

"Well why don't you text your ex back, and try asking him again for a phone conversation. Maybe he'll agree to it, and you don't have to physically meet him."

Silence falls between us for a moment. I'm thinking about what I've just admitted out loud to Blake, and God only knows what Blake is thinking about me right now. Probably that I am the worst girlfriend that ever lived.

"I want you to understand that my decision about this has nothing to do with Roman. I'm my own woman, and I make my own decisions. It's just that there's a lot that went down with my ex that makes Roman a bit overprotective. And rightly so. But you're right about one thing; I'm totally distracted by all of this. I need to do something."

 
I'm assuming Ethan won't be open to just a phone call, because he's already asked to meet with me twice, but I figure it can't hurt to ask. I never actually asked. So I pull out my phone and shoot him a quick text.

Me: I can't meet, but I can talk over the phone. Why don't we set up a call.

A few moments later and I receive a response.

Ethan: No texts. No email. No phone. I have my reasons. I can meet you at our diner on Thursday at 3:00. That time good?

I reread his email several times in an effort to process everything he said. Red flags are flying sky high. No texts, no email, no phone? He sounds like he's in trouble. And what does he mean by
our
diner. He's in lala land. It's
my
diner. It was always mine. Not ours.

"What did he say?" Blake asks.

"He said no email or phone and that he'd meet me at a diner we used to go to in college on Thursday. I think I'm going to go. It's a public place and the people know me well there. I should be fine."

"I still think I should go if you're not going to tell anyone."

"Even if I were to tell him, Roman's out of town," I say.
 

"All the more reason for you to take me up on my offer then."

I'm digging myself an even deeper hole than I was already in. The list of little small truths that I'm keeping from Roman continues to grow.
 

1. Shrek sighting

2. Ethan email

3. Ethan text

4. Getting Blake involved

Plus Jade is still a wild card out there. I haven't heard anything from her in weeks and it's clearly past her forty-eight hour deadline, so I have no idea when she is going to strike.
 

On top of everything else, now I've got to deal with this additional problem. Kat. I keep imagining all the things a horny teenaged Roman must have done with the very buxom blond.
 

I know down in my gut that he'd never be unfaithful to me, even while we're going through a difference of opinion, but I can't help but become emotional over it.

Roman doesn't have a lot of friends. I thought I knew them all. Yet this is the first time I've even heard about him having any sort of long-term friendship with any woman other than Jade. He's
never
mentioned Kat to me, and maybe he hasn't for a reason.

"Sure, let's do it," I say to Blake. I need to get my mind off of this Kat person. "We'll have a working lunch like you said. I'll hear him out for ten minutes, and then we'll eat a really yummy turkey burger and start planning what we want to include in the next update for the app."

"Excellent plan."

"All right, now that that's out of the way, can you pass me a can of Red Bull and show me what this line of code actually does?"

Blake grins triumphantly. "You got it, boss lady."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

ELIZABETH

I am freezing.
 

My eyelids feel dense and heavy like two cast iron skillets.

I want to open them, but I'm not sure that I can. I hear random voices but can't really discern any one in particular. None of them sound familiar to me at all. They're all babbling in some sort of strange foreign language. Using words I've never heard before.

That's when I start to panic.

Where am I?

What's the last thing I remember?

The obvious thing to do would be to start with a visual cue. I work really hard to crack one eye open and regret it immediately, once I notice how bright it is in the room. A room with cream walls, and bright fluorescent lighting across the entire ceiling.
 

I turn my head gingerly to my left, it feels heavy and very sore, and I notice a stainless steel guardrail. The type of rails you would see attached to a hospital bed. Okay, so I guess I'm in the hospital. Shivering under the thinnest blanket known to man. I know germs multiply in warm environments, but at this rate I'll die from frost exposure. Yet there seems to be something about the frigid temperature which seems to be triggering my memory. I remember being ... cold.

It was raining.
 

No, I think it was storming.

I was in a car. It's not clear if I was driving or riding along, but I know it was moving fast. I hear voices. At first they sound as if they're trying to speak inside of a long tunnel, their voices distorted and distant, but they seem closer now.
 

Clearer.
 

Louder.

One of the voices belongs to a man who I think belongs to me, and it grows in intensity after a series of loud booming thuds and clanks.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ELIZABETH

My head is throbbing.
 

This must be what a migraine feels like, because I want to throw my shoe at the lights in this room. It's way too bright in here, and I feel nauseous.

I try to turn my head to take a look around. From the little that I can see, I notice that this room looks different then the one I was in before. I notice a mini white board on the wall with my first name written on it and some random numbers under it. One of the numbers written is 142.
 

Oh my God, is that my weight up there?

I pretend that I don't see that.

I can't see much else, because my head and neck hurt like hell, and I seem to be in some sort of hard plastic contraption that is affixed around my neck.

I can't hear anything, which seems weird.
 

No machines.
 

No television.
 

No people.
 

I could hear voices the last time I was awake. I thought I heard familiar ones. So now I'm starting to wonder if I really am awake or am I dreaming?

Why is there no one here to offer me an explanation?

My eyes feel extremely heavy now.

I wish I could stay awake, but it's just too difficult.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ELIZABETH

It's still so frackin' cold in here, but I think I'm finally starting to remember more. That's the only good thing about the cold. It's triggering more memories.

I was spinning in a three hundred sixty-degree circle.
 

Round and round and round.
 

The rain was falling hard.
 

Freezing rain.
 

My foot was on the brake.
 

I was concentrating really hard not to slam on the brakes, but to pump them like my father taught me to do in case my car ever started slipping and sliding in wet weather.
 

But the car kept spinning.
 

The brakes wouldn't cooperate.
 

Not even the emergency brake was working that ... that Blake pulled.

Blake was with me.

Wait a minute. Maybe Blake was driving. I'm not sure. I'm still confused. Oh my God, is he okay? Holy crap, I hope I didn't hurt Blake.
 

I try desperately to mouth the word Blake. I want to know his condition. Maybe someone will see me moving my lips. Is there anyone in here?