Losing Pieces of Me (4 page)

   I start to step around him, when his voice stops me.

   “Mireya, please allow me to take you to change and buy you something else to eat,” he says.

I squeeze my eyes shut when he speaks to me.  In the club it was really loud and his voice wasn’t clear to me.  Now that we’re alone on the street corner, his voice is that of an angel.  I could listen to the man speak to me all day if he always sounds like this.  Especially when he says my name.

   “You don’t have to do that, it was completely my fault, Jayden,” I tell him as I turn back to face him.  He’s looking down at me in awe.  “What?  Do I have something stuck in my teeth or something?  That would complete my humiliation since this is the second time you’ve seen me with a drink all over my shirt.”

   “You remember my name?”

   What?  “Of course I remember your name, couldn’t forget the name of the man who saw me at my lowest point.”

   “It wasn’t that bad, although I wish Colleen and Violet hadn’t done that to you.  That was a low blow, even for them.  Please, allow me to take you to get changed and something to eat, you look like you could use a free lunch,” he says, gesturing towards his car which is now sitting right next to us at the curb.  Does this guy have a magic button or something?  His car just keeps showing up wherever he is, I highly doubt the driver just follows behind him as he walks, he’d get honked at every five seconds if he did that.

   “Nonsense, you looked beautiful then and you still do now,” I can see him fighting a smile and I almost push him and walk past him, but a voice in the back of my head stops me.  If I walk away from him I might lose my only chance to find out what I can about where Hayden stashed my sister.  I’ve already decided not to tell him she’s missing, but as I allow him to take my hand and lead me over to the car, I realize that I have to do whatever it takes to get into this man’s life.  That might be what it takes to save my sister.  This might be my last option to save her, and if I don’t at least try, I might regret that decision for the rest of my life.

Chapter Five

   “So what have you been up to?” I ask him trying to make small talk.  There’s been this silence stretching between us ever since he dropped me off to change and then we started heading out to get something eat.  I don’t think he has any intention of actually going back to work today, the workday is almost over.

   “Just working, owning my own business is not as easy as everyone thinks it is,” he says running a hand over his blonde hair.  He looks frustrated, but I don’t know him well enough to pry into that part of his life.

   “Hopefully not too busy.  I’m sure you still make time to go and hang out at the club with your brother.  You were a big hit with the ladies that night,” I tell him raising my eyebrows at him.  I’m trying to keep the subject off of me, I don’t want him to start asking questions about Katrina.  I might accidently let it slip that she’s been missing for the last several months.

   He clears his throat and shifts nervously in his seat.  That’s not something I would’ve expected him to do.  He seemed so confident up until this moment.  “I actually don’t like clubbing,” would you look at that, something we have in common.  “I just went that night because Hayden said there was someone I absolutely had to meet.  I’m really glad I went that night.”  He has this dreamy look on his face and I want to gag.  I brought it up only because I was curious if he ended up leaving with Colleen that night or if he left.  I have to know if he fell for her obvious advances.

   “So I take it then that you had fun with Colleen that night?”  When he gets a funny look on his face, I try again, “or perhaps Violet was more to your liking?”

   He makes another sour face at me and now I’m more confused than ever.  Perhaps he was looking forward to meeting Katrina?  Maybe he fantasized about having a threesome.

   “I’m glad I went that night, because I got to meet you.  Granted, our night was cut short because of those two, but I’m glad we met again.  I wanted to ask you if you wanted to get out of there and go somewhere quieter to talk, I hate that club and I figured you did too.  You looked like you wanted to get out of there.”

   So that’s why he was talking to wanted to talk to me, he felt sorry for me and wanted to give me an out without making it too obvious that I didn’t want to be there.

   “Well, Colleen was awfully jealous of the fact that you were talking to me.  I hope you at least had a good time with them after I left,” I say with a shrug.  I pray the answer to that is no because I might just die if he tells me he went home with Colleen and they are dating-or worse in love.  I don’t know why that thought upsets me, after all, I am sitting with the enemy.

   “I actually went home after you left.  I went looking for you after you stormed out of the club, but I couldn’t find you.  Do you have any idea what Colleen said to me when she came over to talk to me?”

   I simply shake my head no, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he went looking for me after I left.

   “She asked me if I’d be interested in having her strip down right then and there and licking whipped cream off of her entire body.”

   I can’t help it, I start laughing at the idea of her stripping down in the middle of a crowded club and asking a billionaire to lick whipped cream off of her entire body.  Just imagine the scandal that would cause in the paper.

   “I take it you told her no then?”

   “I was on the phone so I couldn’t exactly tell her what I wanted to say, but the short version is I told her to get the hell away from me and not come back,” he says laughing right along with me.  I bet he only told her no because he was on the phone and we were in the middle of a packed club.  If we weren’t in one, I bet he would’ve taken her up on her offer or at least considered it.

   “She’s not good for my image,” he says and that has some of my laughter dying away.  So if he was alone with her, he probably would’ve done it.  That’s what that translates into for me, and here I thought this one was different.  I’ll have to remember to be careful around this man. I’ve got too much at stake right now and I’m about to be homeless so I need to watch every move I make.  “She’s too much like my ex, and I don’t associate with those types of women.  They only want the same things that every woman like that wants, sex and money.  That’s it, they wouldn’t care if I had two heads, as long as it came with money, they’d take it.”

   I didn’t see that one coming and now I feel bad for suggesting he went home with Colleen, he looks like women who act that way really hurt him.  He’s so different from the impression I got off of his brother.  Hayden would’ve been throwing money at them, but not Jayden.

Keep your eye on the prize Mireya, this man is the enemy
.

    I can see I’m in danger of becoming friends with this man, so I’ll have to watch every move I make to make sure he doesn’t get too close to me.

   We sit for hours in a small café talking about simple things like books and movies we enjoy, all the while avoiding subjects such as his ex-girlfriend and his brother.  It’s a nice break from all the worries I have in my life right now. But too soon we are done eating and he’s dropping me back off at my car.  Or at least where my car used to be.

   “Shit,” I say to myself as I look around for my car.  Jayden let me out of the car with a good night and I never thought to make sure my car was still going to be here when I came back.

   “What’s wrong?” Jayden asks coming up behind me and scaring the crap out of me.

   I give him a defeated look, “My car is gone.  I got a parking ticket earlier, they must have towed it.”

   “That’s strange.  Usually they don’t tow a car unless it has multiple unpaid parking tickets,” he says, pulling out his phone and looking down at it.  “It’s late, I’ll have your car taken out of impound on Monday morning and returned to you.”

   My eyes widen as I think about what that means.  If he asks about where my tickets were issued he’s going to find out that I’ve been hanging out around his office for weeks now and that’s going to make me look desperate in his eyes.

   “Come on, let me take you home,” he says, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders.  I didn’t even realize how hard I’m shaking until now.  More than the fact that I’m cold, I’m scared that I’m watching my life fall apart around me.  First my sister, then the rent, and now my car is gone too.  Tears spring to my eyes and I have to swallow the large lump that’s formed in my throat so I can hold my tears at bay until I get home.

   He drops me off that night outside of my apartment with a promise to return my car on Monday.

   “I won’t be back for a week or two, I’d like to see you again when I get back,” he suddenly announces as he’s getting back into the car.  He turns to face me and I can see the hope in his eyes.  I have to say yes, even though normally I would say no, he’s my one chance to find my sister and I’d be stupid to say no.

   “Sure, sounds great,” I tell him turning back towards the door to my apartment.

   “Take care, Mireya,” he says, giving me one last look as he gets into the car and shuts the door.

   I watch him drive off before I turn back to my apartment and head inside.  When I get inside and turn the light on, it’s then that I realize that I have his jacket and no way to contact him to give it back.  Not that I really want to.  His jacket is warm and smells just like him.  I might as well keep it as a souvenir because the closest I am ever going to get to the man is smelling his jacket.

   I spend the entire weekend thinking about him.  As much as I don’t want to think about him, being near him gives me hope that someday I can find my sister.  He’s my one ticket to his brother, and as much as I want to stay away and forget I ever met Hayden, I can’t do that.

   I don’t want to use Jayden to get to his brother.  He really seems like a genuinely nice person and I feel kind of bad using him to my advantage.  But as I look around the small apartment that I’m slowly starting to empty out, I realize that this is the last strand of hope I have left to hang on to.  My sister is gone and now I’ll have to do whatever it takes to get her back.  Consequences be damned.  If Jayden finds out I’ve been following him just to find my sister, he’ll probably turn me over to Hayden to kill or he might just decide to do it himself.

Chapter Six

   I don’t see Jayden for more than a week after that day.  My car showed up along with a card with his phone number on it.  A fancy ass card that probably cost him a lot of money to have made.  I didn’t ever use it to call him though.  I don’t even know what I would say to him.  Sure, when we’re in the same room together, it’s easy to find something to talk about, but now that I’m not near him, I wouldn’t even know what to begin to say.

   I’m surprised when two weeks after the last time I saw him, there’s a knock at my front door.  I’m not expecting any visitors, so I’m a little worried about who could be on the other side of the door.  What if Hayden came here to finish me off for asking questions about where my sister went?

   “Coming!” I shout as I climb over the pile of boxes I have stacked all over the living room.  I’m sad to say that not only do I still have a shitload of stuff that needs to get packed, I have no desire to do any of this.  I just want to hide in the corner and pretend that my life isn’t pretty much over.

   The knocking becomes more insistent the longer it takes me to get to the door.  I put my hand over the knob and turn it in a huff, “I said I was coming, there’s no need to knock like that.”

   I stand there with my mouth hanging open when I find Jayden on the other side of the door with his hand halfway to the door again ready to knock.

   “I’m sorry, Mireya, did I catch you at a bad time?”

   I feel my face turning red in embarrassment; I can’t believe Jayden was on the other side of the door.  I thought maybe it was the landlord coming to demand the rent again, or perhaps the sheriff coming to put me out on the street.  The last person I ever expected to find on the other side of the door was Jayden.

   “I’m sorry, please come in,” I tell him, standing to the side so he can come in.

   I close the door behind him when he walks past me and into the room, I take a few moments to calm my breathing before I turn to face him.  Only he’s not looking at me, he’s looking around the room with wide eyes.  He’s probably wondering what the heck happened in here, or worse, why my apartment is so small.  I never expected him to be in here with me.

   “You going somewhere, Mireya?  Were you just going to pack up and leave without at least calling me first?  I’ve been waiting for you to call me, you didn’t leave your number.  A real shame too, I wanted to get to know you better,” he says fixing me with a look full of disappointment.

   What do I do?  I lose it and start to cry.  He doesn’t notice I’m crying because I turn away and walk over to the kitchen sink to grab a paper towel and turn the water on.  That’s the easiest way for me to cover I’m crying and a trick I learned long ago when I used to get upset.  Times have never been easy for me and everything is finally starting to catch up to me.  It was easier when I had to face everything alone, but now that someone else is here to witness my life in shambles, I don’t know what to do.  Problem is, I can’t seem to control the shake in my shoulders and contain the sob that wants to escape, I have to shove my other fist into my mouth as I wipe furiously at my face.

   “Mireya?”

I ignore the voice behind me by shaking my head no.  Doesn’t stop him though from placing a hand gently on my shoulder to turning me to face him.  I turn my face to the side so he can’t see how upset I am right now.  I don’t want anyone, especially this man, to see how upset I am.

   “Come here,” he says softly.

I don’t bother to fight against him as he pulls me into his arms and hugs me against him.  As much as I want to stay as far away from this man as possible, his arms around me feel good and he smells incredible.  I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let him comfort me.  After all, his brother is part of the reason why I am so upset right now.

   I sniffle a few times and gently push away from him so I can turn to clean my face.  I still feel like crying, but I at least have a better handle on my emotions for right now.

I turn to look at the boxes I was working on and instead of facing Jayden, I walk back over to them and resume what I was doing.  Most of the things I’m boxing up are my clothes and the few things I pulled out of my room so I take my time folding my clothes before placing each article inside the box.

   “Talk to me, Mireya, tell me what’s wrong,” he pleads as he sits himself on the arm of the sofa so he’s right next to me.

   “I have to move, I can’t afford to live here any longer.  Katrina left, and I can’t afford to stay here anymore,” I reply with a shrug, there’s no way I’m going to tell him that Katrina has been missing for three months now.  That ever since the night we met, she’s been gone.

   “She left you here all alone?”

   I nod my head, twisting the shirt I’m holding in my hands.  I’m stretching the hell out of it, but it doesn’t seem that important right now as I look around me and realize I’m losing what little I had left in my life after Katrina left.

   “Where are you going to go?”

   I shrug again, I can’t bear to look at him as I throw the shirt I’m holding down into the box and pick up the next one choosing to do the same thing and before I even realize what I’ve done, I’ve thrown an entire pile of shirts into the box and I’m laughing hysterically.

   “Why didn’t you tell me you needed help?  I could’ve done something to help you, I don’t want you to be living out of your car,” he says as he comes to stand before me.

   “And how would that conversation have gone, Jayden?  Hey Jayden, I know you are super rich and have lots of money, care to bail me out?”

   He laughs softly as he smiles down at me, “Yeah, that does sound pretty ridiculous when you put it like that.  But, at least if you had told me, I could’ve done something to help you sooner.  How much longer before they kick you out of here?”

   I sigh as I close the now full box and start to tape it up, “Maybe a week or two at most.  The manager was here a few days ago yelling at me about how far behind I am on the rent.”

   “Just exactly how far behind are you?”

   “Two months,” I whisper softly as I push the box away from me.

   “Here, allow me,” he says, lifting the box and placing it in the corner of the room like it weighs nothing.  Watching him, it occurs to me that the thing probably does weigh nothing to him.  He’s that tall and in shape.  Sure, I’ve only ever seen him wearing a dress shirt, but he looks like he’s well built and takes good care of himself.

   “Come over here and sit down,” he says as he holds his hand out for mine so he can help me get over the pile of crap I have on the floor.

   I allow him to pull me over to the table and sit me down.  He sits there for a while tapping his finger against the table. Clearly he’s nervous, but why?  Shouldn’t I be the one that’s nervous?  I pretty much stalked this man and his brother, and yet for some reason sitting here with me he’s the one who looks extremely nervous.

   “Are you okay?” I finally ask him when he doesn’t move to start a conversation.  That’s why he’s called me to sit here, it has to be.  If he only just wanted to talk, he could’ve talked while I continued to pack.

   “Not really, no.  I was hoping I had more time before I had to bring up heavier subjects with you,” he says as he rests his elbows against the table and fixes his gaze on me.

   My eyes search his as he stares back at me. “I don’t understand what you mean,” I finally tell him.

   “LookMireya, I really like you.  I know we only just met, but I’m running out of options and you about to lose your home actually makes this all work out perfectly.”

   Seriously?  How can me losing my home make anything perfect?  This guy is off his rocker.

   I give him a look as I stand and start to walk away from the table.  His voice stops me and has me coming back to sit down at the table.

   “Now wait a minute, I’m not done yet.  I have a proposition for you.”

   “Out with it then,” I gesture at him when I sit back down at the table.  Maybe if I allow him to make his proposal, he’ll let me get back to what I was doing.

   “You know I own an investment firm, right?” I nod at him, I don’t see what that has to do with anything.  “Well, I’ve been receiving a lot of pressure from my mother and the board to find a suitable wife and they’ve told me if I don’t find one within the next two months, they are going to vote me out.  So I’m in quite a bit of a pickle.”

   “I’m sorry to hear that,” I tell him genuinely.  “But I don’t see what that has to do with me.”

   “See, that’s the thing, this is perfect.  You need a place to live and I need a wife who I can actually get along with.  So here’s the deal, I’ll give you twenty thousand dollars cash if you will stay married to me for three months.  You get the money, I get to keep my company.”

    I can see he’s thought a lot about this, what I don’t understand is why me?

   “Don’t you have someone else you can ask?  Surely you must have a friend or an admirer that would jump at the chance to marry you.”

   He sighs and stands from his chair so he can pace back and forth, “See that’s the thing, Mireya.  I can’t just pick up the phone and call someone up and tell them I want them to be my fake wife.  It has to be someone who can keep my secret and move in with me.  She’d have to be poised and understand that this is strictly a business arrangement.  If I asked anyone else they would probably think this would be their opportunity to gain some of my fortune or trap me into staying married to them.  I don’t think you would do that, you’re too nice of a girl.”

   “I don’t know,” I tell him.  I’ve already made my decision, that would be more than enough money to find my sister and perhaps being a member of their family would allow me to get closer to Hayden. Hopefully I can find my sister before the three months are up.  The thing is this though, I can’t seem to eager to marry him so I’m going to have to pretend that I need time to think about it.

   “Come on, Mireya, we need one another,” he begs, kneeling before me.

   He’s right, we do need one another, more than he will ever know.

   “Let me think about it for a few days,” I finally tell him.

   He smiles up at me like he knows he’s already won and in a way he has because little does he know I’m going to agree.

   “I’ll be back in a week, I have some business I need to attend to out in Seattle, I’ll come back to see you when I get home.  Can I at least have your number so we can continue to get to know one another?”

   I write it down and hand him the piece of paper.

   “I’ll see you in a few days,” he replies, kissing me on the cheek before he leaves the apartment and sending me back to packing up the remainder of my belongings.

   I already have my answer and if we do get married it would be a business arrangement, so why is he so concerned about getting to know me?

   “I’ll find you Katrina, even if I have to marry one of them to get to you,” I say to the empty apartment.

   I will find her one way or another.  I just hope when I do find her, it’s not already too late.