Slaying the Dragon (Deception Duet #2) (2 page)

“So you’re working with Tyler, too, aren’t you?!” I asked with ice in my voice.

He scrunched his eyebrows, clearly taken aback. “Tyler? Tyler who? What are you talking about, Mackenzie?”

“I don’t know who the hell you are or what you’re doing here, but if this is another one of his mind games, you can tell him I’m not amused. Better yet,” I said, pushing into the foyer, “I’ll tell him myself. Where is he?”

“Where is who?” he asked, his voice soft, almost concerned.

“Tyler!” I exclaimed, becoming irritated. I strode down the hallway, peeking my head into each room for any sign of him. His large waterfront house was exactly as I remembered – the furniture modern, the art lacking personality. I should have known something was amiss when I first saw his décor. It was frigid, cold, and heartless, just like Tyler.

“There is no one named Tyler here,” the man insisted, following me as I tore through the house.

Refusing to believe his words, I ignored him. “Tyler!” I shouted, throwing open door after door, only to be met with emptiness. “Eli?” I choked out, my voice strained. There was no sign of either of them. Worse, there was no indication they had ever been here.

Feeling my world spin out of control, desperation took over and I ran toward the back door. “He must be on his boat,” I muttered to myself, feeling a pair of confused eyes on me as I bolted down the stairs toward the back gate leading to the dock. I pulled on it, but it was locked.

“Mackenzie, I know things have been hectic for you, what with the opening of the restaurant and the eighty-hour work weeks…”

I reeled around and met his sympathetic eyes. “How do you know who I am?”

“It’s me,” he said, urging me to recognize him. I prayed this was all a dream and I would wake up, open my eyes, and see Tyler standing in front of me. “Jeremiah. I own a club on the island. You reached out to me for advice about opening up your own place several months ago.”

“But how do I remember this house? And I
know
I’ve been on that yacht.” I gestured toward the beautiful vessel anchored behind me, certain I had spent one of the best nights of my life on it just a few weeks ago.

“You’ve been here,” he said. “Hell, last fall, you were here at least once a week to pick my brain.”

“I was?” I asked, my breathing growing more ragged. I searched my brain for a memory of this man, but it just wouldn’t come. The last six months seemed to be a puzzle. Nothing of significance stood out in my mind…except meeting Tyler Burnham. And I was certain I had met him and that he lived here.

All the blood rushed from my face and I couldn’t help but feel as if the world was giving out from beneath me.

“Hey, hey,” he soothed, rushing toward me as I struggled to maintain my balance. “Let me call someone for you.” He placed his arm around my waist in an attempt to usher me back into the house.

The feel of his flesh on mine scalded me, setting me off. “Don’t touch me!” I bellowed, pushing him away. “And stop with the games! It’s not funny! Tell me where he is!”

“I’m not playing any games,” he insisted. “This is my house. I’ve lived here for years with my partner. There’s no one named Tyler here.”

Frantic, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and flipped through it, searching for proof I wasn’t crazy. “We met a few weeks ago! I just got back from Boston, where he’s from!”

“Then why are you
here
?” he asked, his gaze narrowed as he studied me with concern.

“Because he lives here!” I exclaimed. “Don’t you see?!” I continued searching my phone, my chin quivering as I scanned through photo after photo of me in Boston, on the waterfront, in the Commons, in the North End, eating oysters… But where Tyler was once in those photos, there was nothing. It was as if he had been erased.

The air was thick as I tried to make sense of it all. I was living in some sort of alternate reality. I prayed I would wake up and everything would turn out to have simply been a nightmare, that Tyler didn’t just date me to gather information about my father. I had always relied on what I knew to be real and true, and I thought Tyler was. Now, I felt as if I couldn’t trust any of my senses. Not sight, not sound, not touch…and I certainly couldn’t trust my heart.

Staring at the yacht on which I thought Tyler and I had spent our “one night”, I slowly turned around, my head fuzzy.

“Are you sure there’s no one I can call for you?” the man asked once more.

I raised my head and stared into his blue eyes, wishing I could see proof this was all part of some fucked up plan to mess with my memory, but they were stone cold, impenetrable.

Sighing, I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry,” I apologized flatly, my voice barely audible. “You’re right. I’ve been working too much. I must have…” I fought back the lump in my throat. “My mistake.”

My expression void of any emotion, I climbed the steps and walked back down the hallway, a lone tear falling down my cheek. I didn’t think I could ever feel any more pain than I did after learning the truth of who Tyler was and what he wanted from me, but I was wrong.
This
was the worst pain imaginable.

In a daze, I couldn’t remember getting in my car and driving back to my condo. All I could remember was questioning what was real and what wasn’t. Things I thought I touched and saw were now being presented to me as fake. It made me begin to question everything else in my life, too.

Pulling my Mercedes into its usual spot, I ran into the building, ignoring Paul’s attempt to introduce me to the new security guard as I dashed into an open elevator. When it finally stopped at my floor, I couldn’t get to my condo fast enough, holding out one last ounce of hope that there would be some proof of Tyler’s existence within the four walls of my home…a home I was certain he had invaded so fully for a short time.

I ran to my kitchen, pulling open drawer after drawer, hoping to come across some lasting remnant of our time together, but I came up empty. Everything was how it was before I had met him. My silverware was just as I liked it. All my cooking utensils were in their precise location. There was barely a particle of dust on the counter, let alone a piece of Tyler’s hair. The vases containing the flowers he had sent me after opening night of my restaurant had mysteriously disappeared, if they had been there at all.

Feeling the walls closing in around me, I grabbed my cell phone and searched the contacts. I pressed the entry for Tyler, my heart racing as I waited for it to begin ringing. But it never did. All I received on the other end was a message that the phone number was no longer in service. My chin began to quiver as I hung up and tried Eli’s number, only to get the same message.

Screaming in frustration, I threw my phone on the ground, the screen shattering from the impact, and ran down the hallway into the master bedroom. I flung open the chest where I kept my father’s Victoria Cross, along with all the other keepsakes, recalling that I had placed the card Tyler sent with the extravagant flowers in it. As I rummaged through, the card was nowhere.

I let out a loud sob, starting to believe I had imagined it all. It was the only explanation that made sense. The realization was overwhelming and I darted into the master bathroom, heaving into the toilet, wishing Tyler was there to trace a pattern across my back and chase away my demons, just as I thought he had done for a short but remarkable time.

~~~~~~~~~~

A
S
THE
WEEKS
WORE
on, I continued searching everywhere for some sort of proof that Tyler Burnham was real, but I found nothing. Not one piece of tangible proof he had entered my life in a whirlwind and flipped it upside down. There was nothing left, other than my memories…which I couldn’t help but question.

It was as if every trace of his time on South Padre had been erased.

All but one…

Mackenzie

T
HE
SOUND
OF
SEAGULLS
and laughter surrounded me as I sat on the sandy beach, trying to make sense of everything. I raised my eyes and stared at a seemingly peaceful ocean, a few boats bobbing up and down in the distance. This island was supposed to feel like paradise, like an escape, but it didn’t. Not anymore. All I felt when I looked at the calm water, the sun shining and warming everything on that Memorial Day at the end of May, was a raging storm, a ship about to sink. My surroundings were mocking me, reminding me that my life would never be the same again. The truth was, it hadn’t been the same since I met Tyler.

I should have been crying, but tears refused to fall. I should have felt
something
.
Anything
. Anger. Hatred. Resentment. Fear. Confusion. But I felt nothing. Ever since the day I had gone over to what I thought to be Tyler’s house to see someone else living there, I shut down even more than I already had. I was a shell, a ghost of a woman going through the motions of living when I was really dead inside.

I closed my eyes, trying to remind myself of a happier time, hoping that would bring forward some sort of emotion. It was like trying to jump-start a battery that was long dead. Nothing worked. I was empty, my heart no longer able to feel.
 

I wanted to scream, but no noise ever came from my throat. I now knew why Catholics feared purgatory. I was there. I was a lifeless soul forced to walk among the land of the living. I wanted to make it all go away, to forget the beautiful, touching moments I shared with Tyler. The thrill of his kisses. The passion in his eyes. The fire in his touch. I was still tortured by all those things, sentenced to live the past two months in a constant nightmare because I was foolish enough to love him.

A small child, who couldn’t have been more than two years old, ran in front of me, his parents trying to catch up. The glee in his laughter struck me as I watched the happy family enjoying their vacation. The mother playfully grabbed the little boy, swinging him around and around, his squeals echoing and calling to a side of me I didn’t know existed. A tear escaped my eye and trickled down my cheek, cooling the fire that had been burning inside me. Then another tear fell. And another. And another.

The dam broke and, for the first time in months, I felt something. I lowered the iron fortress I had erected around my heart and stopped pretending I was okay, pretending what Tyler did hadn’t destroyed me. It wasn’t his deception that shattered me. It was my love for him, then and now. In my heart, I knew he was real, that we experienced a love so perfect, which made everything so much harder. My heart ached for him. My skin craved his touch. My body longed to be held in his arms. The arms that would always remind me of dancing, full metal jackets, and
Truth or Dare
.

He had tainted something so beautiful, so pure, so fucking perfect. His love was toxic and I needed to purge it from my system through my cleansing sobs. I had bottled it all up for months and it felt therapeutic to finally let it out. With each tear, I was letting go of another piece of him. His smile. His green eyes. His husky voice that swore he loved me. His words begging me to spend the rest of my life with him. They were all leaving me and, once my tears stopped, I vowed to never cry because of him again.
 

I had no idea how long I sat there with my head buried in my knees, my cries ravaging my short and slender body, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter that people could have been laughing and pointing at the poor pathetic girl who gave everything to a man who used her, then tried to cover his tracks and make her think she imagined him. I needed this. Maybe then I could finally be over him.

I
needed
to be over him.

I wouldn’t let him ruin my life anymore.

A warm presence approached from behind and two arms enveloped me. I sighed, molding my body into Brayden’s. He was exactly what I needed right now. I needed his smile, his laugh, his compassion. I needed his reassurance that I was strong enough to get through this. That this wouldn’t break me. That I could rewind the clock and forget all about Tyler Burnham.

Pulling at the crisp gray shirt underneath his black suit, I drenched him with my tears, and he simply continued to comfort me, not saying a word. He knew me well enough to know I didn’t want to talk. Not yet. He was the only man in my life who always gave me exactly what I needed when I needed it. He had always been true and honest. He never had an ulterior motive. His love was pure and untainted.

“It’s about time you started acting like a human again,” he soothed, breaking the silence between us. He rocked me gently, running his fingers up and down my back. “You can’t keep pretending what’s been going on didn’t affect you, baby girl. It’s obvious it did. It’s okay to show your emotions once in a while. It’s okay to show you’re not impenetrable.”

I nodded slightly and clung to him as if holding him was the only way to keep my world together. He and Jenna had prodded me for an explanation about why I ran out on Tyler, but I didn’t know what to tell them. I couldn’t tell them the truth. Instead, I maintained that I wasn’t ready to talk about it, but that I found out he wasn’t the man I thought he was, which had a sliver of truth.