Delusive (14 page)

I sucked down the last of my chocolate malt milkshake, pushing my stomach to the limit of what it could hold. “She wanted to come, and she wasn’t as bad as you said she was outside of work. Of all the things she could’ve called me on the carpet about, she only warned me about wearing a lipstick that was too nude for her liking one day.”

“She couldn’t complain about shit else. You’ve been putting more than five minutes into your look lately and it shows. I like it a lot. You look like a seasoned La Dentelle employee. You’ve done good, kid.” She glanced over my hair, styled in voluminous curls and reached over to finger a strand.
 

She was right about the changes. I’d also managed to wear every single product of makeup that was required of all employees on my face as of late. “It means a lot coming from you.”

“Well…you had a good teacher,” she said with a laugh.

“I definitely did.”

“So are you”—she flipped her hair over her shoulder and peered at me through rapidly moving eyelashes—“dating him?”

“Yes,” I replied nonchalantly, “we’re dating.”

She sank back in the red leather booth with a force that rattled the table. “Keep being stupid, he’s going to turn you into a thot, Hanley, and you’re going to regret it.”

I pushed my plate away, no longer in the mood to finish my monster-sized burger. “Sky? Take it easy on the name-calling.”

“I'm sorry,” she offered, her apology genuine. “It’s hard to be happy about it. I’ve met a lot of the girls he’s dated through mutual friends, and you’re the only one I’ve ever cared about—or really liked.” She looked out at the car parked in front of the lot. “I haven’t seen him do that a million times, but you did say you bought it, so I don’t know. I probably need a good cock so I can stop focusing on you.” She sighed heavily. “Or, maybe I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I contemplated whether or not it was the perfect time to dig into the nature of their relationship. In the end, it didn’t matter. She seemed to be more of a nuisance than an issue in Elias’s life.
 

“I like him…a lot.” I startled myself with the admission.
 

Skylar’s boisterous laugh called the stares of the other diners. “He must think you’re naïve. I think you’re naïve.”

“If he thinks I am”—I rolled my shoulders up and dramatically released them—“let him.”

Suddenly interested, she leaned forward. “I was so wrong about you. You bitch, you’re playing the player.” She nudged me under the table with her knee. “Why didn’t you just say that from the beginning?”

“How do I introduce that into the getting to know each other conversation?”

“I don’t know. ‘My name is Hanley and I’m going to fuck up Elias Cari’s world,’ would’ve been a good start. I think I would’ve instantly fallen in love with you.”
 

My eyes lifted with interest, but my reaction went unnoticed. She was too busy staring at my car parked outside.

She sat back, her mood appearing to level out. “Brent is still interested in you. Come out with us tonight. Even if you don’t like Brent, do it to make Elias jealous.”

She affirmed my assumption—and Elias’s statement—that he had spies everywhere without knowing she did. “At this point, I think being with Brent would be dangerous for Brent. I think instead of Elias’s mildly cute temper tantrums, he’d take his anger out on Brent’s face. You’ve been in this town longer than I have, I think you know how intense Elias can be more than I do.”

“Yeah,” she said, frowning.

“I’m sorry if you thought I abandoned you.” I reached across the table to hold her hand and fiddled with the stack of gold rings on her thumb. “I like being with you, you remind me of a different time in my life. Let me make it up to you. Let’s do something tonight.”

“You sure your asshole boyfriend won’t pitch a bitch fit?”

I grinned at her, a sign of false assurance. “He won’t.”

SKYLAR’S DIRECTIONS TOOK us hours east until we wound up on the outskirts of Bakersfield. I parallel parked in front of a white house with gray shutters and loud music emanating from inside.

Skylar removed her seatbelt and pointed at me. “What’s with the judgment face?”

“I’m not judging.” I removed my seatbelt and got out with her, making sure to turn on the alarm system for my car.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me along the cracked concrete path leading to the front door of the home.
 

In the still air, I could hear the busy sounds coming from the house in front of us and the other houses in the neighborhood. Music, dogs barking, an argument between a couple, and the sound of a screaming toddler, who should’ve been in bed at that time of the night, flooded the air.

“When you said we’d do something together, I didn’t expect this.” I pulled my arm from hers, stopping short of the front door.
 

She pouted, pulling at my need to make things up to her. “You owe me for forgetting about me.” She opened the screen door and tugged me inside the house.

Inside, slow-blinking strobe lights illuminated the otherwise dark house. Very little furniture was inside, and what was, looked to be on its last legs. Men and women crowded the fraying couches in the living room.
 

The dining room table was full of men and half-dressed women indulging in the powder that lined the entire table. In the darker corners, couples canoodled. The house smelled of stale beer, sex, and weed.
 

Skylar was approached by two men who immediately ushered her toward the hallway at the back of the house. As she entered the narrow corridor, I spotted her slipping a pill into her mouth.

Disappointed that a woman with so much potential would squander it this way, I shook my head in disapproval. “Skylar, are we going back in time at least a decade? We’re not in high school, and I’m not comfortable here. I think you knew I wouldn’t be, so what’s going on? Why are we here?”

Swiveling around, she shoved my hands away from her and rolled her eyes at me. “Don’t be such a baby. We’re partying like rock stars.”

I hoped she was kidding with her statement. Unfortunately, I knew better. “A baby? You’re behaving like a teenager.”

She snatched my keys from my hands and proceeded to walk backward. “How’s that for a teenager?” She giggled, playing a game with me featuring my keys. When they were almost within my reach, she threw them at one of her male friends.
 

“This isn’t funny,” I retorted. “Give me back my keys, we’re leaving.”

“We’re not leaving and you’re not leaving me here.” She grabbed my shoulders and grinned.
 

“Are we still friends, Skylar? Because you have one more chance to piss me off before I think we aren’t.”

Her hands slipped from my shoulders to my waist. “I don’t know, Ley, are we?” She walked forward pressing her breasts against my chest. “I see you checking out my ass from time to time, so is it that you want to fuck me more than you want to be my friend? Maybe you’ll get a chance to do it.” She leaned in my ear to whisper, “I’m not that way, but I’ll make an exception for you tonight, you sexy bitch.”

I grabbed her hands, pushing her away from me. “This is your last chance to come with me before I leave you here.”

Frowning, she regarded the ground between us. “I won’t go with those guys if you stay.” She looked up at me, her expression holding to sadness. “I wanted you to be here to have fun with my friends, Hanley. Can you please just stay?”

“I’ll stay, but only for one hour,” I told her, bringing a smile to her face.

We kept our distance for the duration of the party. I watched her make a fool of herself, dancing and sucking face with every guy she encountered while taking hit after hit of everything offered to her. When I saw that she forgot what she promised me earlier and decided to follow three men toward the back hall, I stepped forward and blocked her path.

“Go away!” she protested.

“I can’t let you do this, Skylar.” I stretched my arms out on either side of me, halting her stride up the stairs. “You’re clearly too high to think about what you’re doing.”

One of the men accompanying her came forward. He shouldered me so hard, I fell backward. A small coffee table broke my fall and fell apart underneath me.

Skylar never moved to help me, she acted as though nothing out of the ordinary happened and disappeared into the darkness with the three gentlemen.
 

After waiting three hours for Skylar—it was a quarter to four in the morning—I decided it was time to get home.

Outside, while walking down the broken path toward my car, I texted Skylar to tell her that I was leaving and she had five minutes to come with me.
 

I received a response right away containing a picture of her holding a cock in her mouth. Disgusted, I turned off my phone and shoved it into my handbag. With my hand still searching around inside my bag, I remembered Skylar had my car keys.

I looked up and startled at the sight. Jerking upright, I clutched my racing heart. Elias was leaning up against the passenger side of my car. His arms hung tensely at his sides. He broadened his shoulders as tension took a hold of his facial muscles.
 

Jaco was with him, pacing the sidewalk a few feet away. He walked around, searching the area speculatively as though he was Elias’s personal bodyguard.

Elias's car was parked dead in front my Camaro, while another car had pulled up behind it, leaving only a few centimeters of space between the bumpers.
 

I scanned his appearance: his well-rested eyes, smoothly shaven skin, his pressed black shirt, open at the collar, and creaseless slacks. I began to wonder where he came from, how he knew I was here, and why he looked so refreshed at an ungodly hour.

“Hanley,” Elias began, his tone cold and low, “is there a very good reason as to why you’re in this type of neighborhood at almost four o’clock in the morning?”

Thinking I should’ve been the one asking the questions, I shot a suspicious look at Jaco and then to Elias. “How did you find me?"

He arched a brow. "You're very unbiddable, but not imperceptive. Take a wild guess.”

I studied the Camaro for answers, happening upon one that stunned me—the car was equipped with a GPS tracker. “Why are you tracking me?"

He pushed off of the car, walking toward me with so much purpose my nerves became more frazzled. His heat and scent pressed at me as he looked down at me. Not a hint of geniality was in his face. “Who were you with?"

"Skylar,” I offered up the answer a little too easily.

Exhaling slowly, he sank his teeth into his bottom lip while shaking his head at me. “Listen to me very carefully; Skylar is a work associate that you will not associate with outside of work. She will not be your friend or a woman you hang out with outside of work. In case you need clarification, that wasn’t a question or a suggestion, it was a demand.” Both hands grabbed either side of my face, forcing my head into a position that made looking away from him impossible.
 

“You don’t have the goddamn right to tell me who I can and cannot see,” I growled back, trying to push him away.

He grabbed my flailing arms, yanking them down to my sides with such a brutal force, my shoulders protested in pain. He pushed me toward the street and latched his hand on the back of my head, ensuring I faced the Camaro. “Jaco, it seems clear to me that I need to send a message to my very rebellious girlfriend.” His eyes narrowed as he began to smile in a smug manner. “Do you catch my meaning?”

“Understood.” Jaco sneered in kind and nodded. He rounded his car, parked behind mine, and reached into the retracted window on the passenger side to retrieve a metal bat. He walked up to us and tossed it to Elias who caught it in one hand.
 

With a terrifying look in his squinting eyes, Elias pinched my chin and hissed, “Watch.” He stalked over to my car with his grip strong and swung—brutally, swiftly, and strongly—shattering the window of the Camaro with one hit. The security alarm immediately enacted its loud defense, but was rendered as background noise to the crash and crunching sound of the windows being shattered. Never slowing down, he proceeded to walk around the car, shattering the other three side windows. Each hit and impact made me jolt as though I was the one being hit. When he was done, he handed off the bat to Jaco, and ambled up the walk to face me. A proud smile brightened up his face, making the moment hit me a little harder.

The resounding alarm was so deafening, I couldn't enact a defense when Elias pulled me down the path and ushered me to the passenger side of his car and made sure I stepped inside. The moment he settled into the driver’s seat, he promptly locked the doors. Thanks to his modernization of the interior of the car, the safety locks worked to make sure I couldn’t get out.

He glimpsed at the rearview with a humorless skewed grin. “It looks as though your car will be in the shop for a few days. Maybe more. I'm going to take you to and from work. When I'm not able, Jaco will. You have two destinations to visit after you're done with work. My place, or your home. Nowhere else, Hanley. I'm going to ask you to repeat what I asked you to do, or I'll have Jaco add a few weeks to the repair time."