Growing and Kissing (23 page)

My back hit the wall. I was at one end of the house, looking down the long rows of tables. “Please!” I begged, my voice cracking.

The other man laughed. “Nice of him to leave us a mattress,” he said, nodding at it. “Maybe he knew we were coming.”

My insides turned to water.
Oh, Jesus, no….

I bolted between two of the rows of tables, trying to put something, anything, between me and them. The one with the knife strolled down the row towards me. I turned around, but the other one was waiting for me at the opposite end.

I jumped across a table and made a run for the front door, but they darted that way as well. I dropped to my knees and crawled under a table, thinking I could maybe make it to the back door, but they just flipped the table over, exposing me and sending the plants crashing to the floor. I was screaming, hysterical, and they wouldn’t stop laughing—

And then I heard the crunch of the fallen plants as the man with the knife walked over them, stems crunching sickeningly. I tried to scramble away but, before I could move, he’d whipped his arm around my waist and hauled me to him, the denim of his jeans rasping against my bare legs. I kicked and yelled and clawed at his arm...and then the knife was at my throat and I went deathly still.

The other man stepped up in front of me, sandwiching me between them. “When your boyfriend gets back,” he told me, “he’s not going to want you anymore. We’re going to fucking
ruin
you.”

Tears were streaming down my face as he reached out to tear off my top. This was my punishment. This is what I got for leaving my nice, safe world and teaming up with criminals. I shouldn’t have tried to change Kayley’s fate, should have just accepted it and wept at her funeral like a good little girl.

No.
The thought of that made the anger well up inside like lava rising in a volcano.
Fuck that.

I spat in his face.

Sean opened the door just in time to see him slap me.

Sean

I’d arrived at the grow house all ready to storm in and yell at Louise for being there alone. Then I’d seen the unfamiliar car outside and it was like my stomach dropped through the ground. I’d never felt that sudden, sickening lurch before. I’d never cared about anyone enough.

I ran, not even stopping to close the car door. I burst into the house to see the two Serbians holding Louise. There was a loud
crack
as the one in front slapped her across the face.

The rage slammed into me, a moving wall of heat that soaked into every cell.

I was moving before I was even aware of it, long strides eating up the distance between us. The guy who’d slapped Louise looked up and saw me and I saw his vengeful grin collapse. He ran out from behind the table, fists raised—

I was dimly aware that I’d left my hammer in the car.

I didn’t need it.

I swung back and punched him under the jaw, leaning in and giving it everything I had. He went soaring backwards like a car that’s just met a semi-truck coming the other way. Before he’d even landed, I’d turned towards the other guy.

He was still holding Louise, keeping her between us, the knife to her throat. Tears were streaming down Louise’s cheeks and her eyes were huge and locked on me. She was terrified.

Dear God, I was going to kill these men.

The guy was yelling at me to stay back—he was barely less scared than Louise, now. When he’d backed up enough to reach the wall and I still kept coming, he finally realized threats weren’t going to work. He pushed Louise in one direction and ran in the other, towards the door.

I caught him just as he reached it and slammed his head into the metal. He crumpled to the floor.

The room was suddenly still. Louise and I stared at each other, both of us panting. Then she was running towards me.

I folded her into my arms and she pressed her wet, sobbing face against my chest.  I thought the pain inside me would ease, knowing she was safe, but it got worse. This was my fault.

“I thought they were here for the weed,” she managed between tearful gulps of air. “But they said they knew you. They were getting revenge….”

I hugged her even tighter. Rocked her, too. Inside, I was planning all the things I was going to do to the two Serbians when they woke up...
if
they woke up. But most of my anger was reserved for myself. I’d brought this down on her. Me.

“It’ll be okay,” I promised her. And I swore inside that it would. I’d never go near her again. Never get close enough that her soft skin and copper hair and those lush green eyes could draw me in. Because I’d woken up to something. The way I’d felt when I’d realized she was in danger….

Somewhere along the way, I’d fallen for her. It wasn’t just me lusting after her, anymore. Maybe it never had been. I knew I wouldn’t be happy unless I could
be
with her. And that was impossible: tonight was evidence of that.

“Come on,” I told her. “I’ll take you home.”

One more month
, I thought.
One more month. I’ll see her as little as possible, we’ll finish the crop and save Kayley. And then I’m out of her life forever.

Louise

Sean drove me home in my car and saw me to my door. When I asked what he was going to do with the two guys, he said he’d take care of it, and that I never had to worry about them again.

I didn’t have to ask what that meant. And however much my stomach turned at the thought of it, I’d be lying if I said a little part of me didn’t light up with the dark glow of vengeance.

Stacey’s face fell when she saw me. I couldn’t tell her anything, which only made her worry more, and Kayley had woken up and was pale-faced with concern, too. Eventually, Stacey and I managed to get her back to sleep and I dozed fitfully on the couch, leaning against Stacey’s side.

In the morning, I made up a story about a bust pipe at the garden store causing a flood, and all of us being summoned in to help clear it up, and a guy at work saying something that had upset me. I wasn’t sure either of them bought it and I hated having to lie to them. It seemed like I was lying more, every day, just to keep the grow house covered up.

When I returned to the grow house the next day, the two guys were gone and Sean had put the plants back on the tables. I taped up the ones with damaged stems—with proper care, I hoped they’d survive.

A week went by and I didn’t see Sean at all: I was there in the day and him at night. I told myself it was better, this way. I’d seen the darkness that surrounded his life. I’d been right all along about the danger that came with being close to him.

But none of that stopped me from wanting him. It was more than just lust, now. I needed him in my life.

Then, one day, the alarm on my phone went off, triggered by the sensors at the house. I checked what the numbers were telling me, my jaw going slack in disbelief. Then I ran for the elevator and tapped out a text message to Sean on the way down.

PLANTS ARE DYING.

Sean

I screeched to a stop outside the grow house and ran for the door. Louise’s text had been short on detail so I burst in ready for anything...except what I found.

Louise was stretched out on the floor, naked.

Almost
naked. She was in bra and panties except—

She was wet with sweat and they’d gone almost translucent.

“Close the door!” Louise yelled. Her voice was muffled because her head and shoulders were inside a large metal box screwed to the wall. I slammed the door behind me.

That’s when I noticed the heat. It was scorching outside, one of the last really hot days of the summer. But inside, it was like an oven.

“It’s the air conditioning,” said Louise. “It broke, probably some time this morning. The place has been getting hotter and hotter all day, until it got hot enough to set off the alarm. The plants are dying.” I could hear from her voice that she was on the verge of tears, and she was venting it as frustration. “What took you so long?”

“I was on the other side of town,” I lied. “On a job.” I didn’t want to tell her the real reason. It had been maybe an hour since she’d sent me the message—had she been inside the grow house ever since, with the temperature like this? No wonder she’d stripped off. I didn’t think I’d be able to bear it more than a few minutes in here.

I hunkered down beside her. Every little movement was an effort: the heat was
ferocious
. It made it difficult to think, and the fact I was staring at her nearly-naked body made it even harder. Jesus, her breasts were
right there,
a foot from my face,
the dark shadow of her nipples visible through the soaked fabric of her bra—

I dug my nails into my palms and forced my eyes away. “Can’t we—”

“Call an engineer?” she snapped. “Look around you.”

“Shit. I could open the doors.”

I still couldn’t see her face, but I saw the tips of her hair toss as she shook her head. “The smell.”

She was right. The charcoal filters worked for the air vented through the air conditioning system, but if we opened the doors then big clouds of marijuana-scented air were going to waft right down the street. And I wasn’t even sure it would do much good—there was barely any breeze outside to move the air. We needed air conditioning.

“Do you...know what you’re doing?” I asked.

“No!” she snapped. But I heard that edge in her voice again, the fracture that was seconds away from cracking open and spilling tears. “I’m figuring it out as I go along, but at least I’m
doing
something, not just standing there—”

I heard her take two big gulps of air, almost sobs. Everything we’d worked for was about to be wiped out. I laid a gentle hand on her ankle and her body tensed....and then relaxed a little.

“It’s okay,” I said. “We’ll fix this.”

Another two long gulps of air. Then I saw her hair move as she nodded.

“I’m going to come in there with you,” I said.

“There’s not a lot of room.”