Landon's Obsession: An Endless Series: Book 3 (Series 3) (30 page)

     I spun around in fury. “It wouldn’t matter who it was
claiming this because now that I think back it makes total sense. Recently I
ran into Maya and she stared at me like I was fucking Jack the Ripper, and when
I told Kris I ran into her he looked like he was about to shit his pants.”

     Her face looked pained. “Landon, please, watch your
language.”

     I snorted derisively and nearly shouted at her lack of
comprehension. “Mother, I’d worry less about my language and more about where
your other son is sticking his dick.”

     She gasped and my father’s hand landed on my shoulder.
“Landon, calm down.”

      I pulled from his grasp and spun to face him. “I won’t
be able to calm down until I’m face to face with that son of a bitch and kill
him for…hurting her.” I choked on the last two words and tears burned my eyes.  

     His face twisted in sympathy at seeing my distress, but
under that was a firm disbelief. “Landon, I don’t know what this girl thinks
she might have heard or if she’s spouting lies, but I don’t believe your
brother raped any girl. As brother’s I would think you would have more loyalty
to Kristopher. I think your mother’s right. I think you might be twisting what
you heard in hopes of making sense of something that wounded you emotionally.”  

     My face hardened. “No I’m not. If you saw how each of
them reacted you would understand why I believe Kris raped her. I’m confronting
Kris about this and Maya as well. If she confirms what I’ve heard he won’t be
safe from me.”

     Both of them looked at me with varying degrees of
distress and disbelief.

     “Landon, I want the name of this girl who is saying
these things about your brother. We need to give the lawyers a heads up.” Dad
asserted.

     I shook my head. “No, I’m not going to let you dig up
all her secrets and then threaten her. I believe her. And anyway she’s not
someone who will go gossip to everyone who will listen.” I gave them that
little piece of reassurance.

     He gave me a look of censure. “Landon…”

     I sliced my hand through the air. “No! I suggest you
get a hold of Kris. He’s the one who’s abruptly disappeared. He basically ran
from me when confronted and now he’s not answering my calls. He knows he fucked
up last night and he’s scared shitless.” I turned and walked away. Even through
my anger I understood their skepticism. Kris was their son, they weren’t going
to believe some random girls word.

     But when I confirmed it with Maya, I would make sure
they believed it.

     Fuck! Would she even talk to me? I wouldn’t blame her
if she didn’t.  

∞                   
∞                    ∞

     After a long night, of barely any sleep, in a hotel
because I didn’t want to deal with questions from the guys, I made the call to
the real-estate company five minutes past nine Monday morning. I was only
calling to confirm that she was working today; I didn’t plan on talking to her
over the phone. Our conversation needed to take place face to face.

     Just the phone call was making my stomach feel like a
mass of ulcers had just erupted.

     The line was picked up. “Davison and Davison Reality.
How may I help you?” 

     “May I speak with Maya?” I only used her first name
because I wasn’t certain she had the same last name…and the thought of that was
like acid on my ulcers.

     “I’m afraid Ms. Cornett will be out of town for a few
months, but may I hand you over to Mr. Lewis, he’s handling all of her houses
while she’s gone?”

     My stomach clenched and bottomed out. She was gone…out
of town for a few months. How far out of town? Why? What for? Did she leave
because she’d run into me?

     “Hello…?”

     I collected myself. “Well that’s a bummer…”
Bummer
?
What was I, twelve? “What did she go out of town for…if I can ask?” I don’t
know who I was trying to impersonate, but I sounded like a fucking idiot.

     “She’s managing some out of state properties. I’m
afraid that is all I can divulge.”

     Well shit. She wasn’t just out of town, she was out of
state.

     “I…” I stumbled with my response. “I’ll just call
back.” I disconnected quickly.

     This was unexpected, and disappointing. While I was in
knots at the thought of seeing and talking to Maya, I
did
want to see
her. But now I was going to have to wait months?! I needed to contact someone
who might be able to find out where she’d gone, and where she lived, and maybe some
other things.

     It was going to be a long few months if I couldn’t find
her. The last two days had already felt like an eternity.

∞                   
∞                    ∞

     A day later I had an address. The address wasn’t in
Maya’s name, it was in the company’s name. It appeared she was residing in one
of there model homes. She was paying the utilities though and that’s how my guy
had found where she was living.

     I drove to the house to establish if she really was out
of state. I parked across the street from the two story three-thousand square
foot home, four bedrooms, three baths, full basement—I looked it up online—for
the entire day and no one came or left. I did the same thing for the next
couple days, but no one ever showed. I ended up missing a whole week of
classes; however I did get my course work on line because I needed something to
do while I spent all that time staking out the house. 

     My guy was unable to find out where she’d gone out of
state. He said the company wasn’t leaking any information on that end, and
there were no credit charges in her name popping up anywhere.

     I decided not to dig any further into her privacy
because I knew I hadn’t the right. I’d already done sufficient harm in her life
I wasn’t going to make it worse. Stalking her was bad enough, but there was no
way I could just walk away.

     I’d spent nearly two months with her and been too proud…chicken
shit…to fully admit my feelings for her during that time. For four years I’d
pretended she was erased from my memories, but she’d always been there coloring
every aspect of my life.

     I needed closure, and from the way she’d reacted to
seeing me I think maybe she did too.

     But again, I think I was hiding from what I really
wanted.

     Kris still hadn’t shown his face. He wasn’t showing up
to work for our father and he wasn’t returning mine, mothers, or dad’s calls. I
was beginning to hear some doubt in dad’s voice whenever I spoke to him, but he
still stressed vocally his assurance of Kris’s innocence. I wasn’t hearing much
from mother. She seemed to be avoiding my calls and when I did talk to her she
was strong in her belief that Kris didn’t rape anyone.

     Nothing was getting resolved for me; not Maya, not
Kris. All I was able to do was wait…and reminisce…and think.

     It was a torturous few months.

Chapter Two

MAYA

     “Oh, I’m so happy you’re back. It seemed like you were
gone forever.”

     “Mama, you’ve been hugging the stuffing out of me for
hours.” I laughed as she again embraced me. I’d been in North Carolina for
three months helping Gregory with some new property the company had acquired to
build a new subdivision. I’d gotten back two hours ago and my mother hadn’t
stopped with the hugs.

     Mama pulled back to stare at me joyfully. “We’ve never
been apart for so long. I hated not being able to see and talk to you.”

     I pulled away with another laugh and returned to
unpacking. “Mama, we talked almost every day, and Skyped.”

     She frowned. “Talking over the phone and on a computer
is not the same as talking person to person.”

     I moved to the closet to hang several blouses. “You did
visit, and I was surprised Brian let you out of his sight for so long each
month.” I teased.

     Mama blushed. Brian was her new husband, and Gregory’s
father. They’d been married a year but still acted like newlyweds. I loved
Brian; I loved how he loved my mother. They’d met in his real-estate office
we’d begun cleaning a couple years ago and he’d hounded her for months to go
out with him, but she’d continually declined. My mama hadn’t dated anyone since
Tony, putting all her efforts into me. I’d finally told her to go out with him
because I’d seen how she’d looked at him. It almost hadn’t worked out when
she’d found that instead of being a common agent he’d instead been the owner,
and a very wealthy man. She’d ignored him for weeks thinking he’d lied to her,
and because of her prejudice of people with money, but again he’d hounded her
convincing her of his feelings. 

     “Seeing you four days a month was not enough. It seemed
like as soon as I got there I was leaving.” She sighed with remembered
despondency.

     I sighed as well, but kept it internal. Mama had
thought I’d left to help Gregory, and while I had, it had mostly come about
because of my run in with Landon. However, I hadn’t informed her about seeing
Landon. I had already caused enough upheaval in her life because of my
association with him; I wasn’t going to bring more.

     It had been four years and I had mostly come to grips with
what Landon and his brother had done to me, but seeing him had brought it all
back. I’d frozen at first in shock, but then a barrage of emotions had swept
over me making me nearly sick. I’d been able to get out of the room, tried to manage
my emotions, but he had followed me. 

     The anger he’d hurled my way, and the things he had
said…he knew about me and his brother. Only he thought I had been a willing
participant. Finding out that he’d walked in on it…or after it…had piled more agony
on my already overwhelmed nerves. I hadn’t been able to handle it. After he
left Gregory had held me as I’d had a mini breakdown. I say mini because I’d
had bigger ones that first year after everything had happened.  

     It wasn’t the breakdown that had me leaving with
Gregory though; it was what Landon and his family could still do to me, or what
they could take from me. I would like to say that they couldn’t do anything
worse to me, but that wasn’t true. They could completely destroy me.

     Greg and I had become close over the last two years but
he knew nothing of my past. I’d given him some brief synapses during my breakdown,
and when I’d calmed down some Greg had told me to come to North Carolina with
him to put some space between me and Landon.

     I’d jumped at the prospect of getting away, but the new
piece of information Landon had divulged hadn’t been as easy to leave behind.
I’d mulled over it for three months, and once my emotions had started to settle
I started to see things from his perspective.

     I hadn’t wanted to because of how much he’d hurt me,
and it didn’t really change anything between us, but his behavior now made a
little more sense. Seeing his brother and me naked together on a bed would have
been enormously incriminating.

     However, understanding and forgiving…forgetting…were
two different things.

     “I’m just glad you’re back, Nadia.” Mama exclaimed
happily.

     “I am too, mama.”

     “Sooo, how was this time away with Gregory?” My mama
grinned impishly.

     I rolled my eyes. “Mama…” I warned.

     Her eyes widened innocently. “What! I’m just wondering
if this time away moved your relationship along any?”

     Sighing, I gave her a pointed glare. “You need to stop meddling.”

     “I know, I know…I just want you to be happy.” She gave
me a beseeching look.

     My lip tugged up. “Says the delirious happy woman who
wants everyone else to be equally deliriously happy.”

     Her face turned somber. “No matter what I’d want you to
be deliriously happy.”

     I gave another sigh. “I know you do.”

     Mama blamed herself for what happened to me even though
I’d gone behind her back with Landon. She thought if she hadn’t brought me into
the house in the first place the entire sequence of events wouldn’t have
occurred. I on the other hand knew the blame lay solely with me.

     But I couldn’t regret what had happened. As the saying
goes, ‘
Everything happens for a reason
’, and I’d been awarded my reason.

     Noise from the other room had us freezing.

     My mother jumped up with a huge smile and I gave
another sigh, along with a grin. “Looks like your time here paid off. You go do
that while I finish up here. If you go outside you need to watch Nola around
the flower garden, you know how she likes to dig in the dirt.” I cautioned.

     She gave me an affronted look as she walked from the
room. “You do know who you’re talking to, don’t you?”

     I grinned at her back.

     Ten minutes later as I was putting away my suitcases
the doorbell rang. I dashed down the hall and when I reached the living area I
gave a quick glance toward the backyard to see Mama had indeed gone outside.
Another buzz of the doorbell had me calling out, “Coming.”

     Two seconds later I opened the door with a smile…that
instantly switched to shock. I stumbled back, hanging onto the door knob so I
wouldn’t fall. “Landon.” I gasped.

    
Oh my, God
! What was he doing here? I’d left a
few days after seeing him and now I had only been back a few hours and I was
seeing him again.