Aligned: Volume 4 (9 page)

I get to the coffee shop five minutes late. I walk in and get a coffee, but I don’t spot Nick anywhere. I take a seat at a table near the back and wait.
 

I wait for over an hour, but he never shows. I’m tempted to call him, but I’m afraid if he didn’t show it’s for a reason. Someone contacted and told him not to show. Ethan.
 

It just proves Ethan is tracking me or my phone or both. God, what the hell am I doing? I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I don’t have any skills. One day at a gun range doesn’t suddenly make me a sharpshooter. I don’t know how to protect myself. I don’t know how to find the evidence. At this rate, he’ll kill me before I even spot him, and then knowing him, he will blame my death on Landon or some other innocent person.
 

I can’t do this. Not alone. I need to tell Landon. I need help. I need protection.
 

I look up deciding I’ve stayed here long enough when I see him walking straight to me. A frown on his face. Ethan.
 

I try to glance around the coffee shop for an exit, but the only exit is in front of me. Past Ethan. I’m fucked. I can’t leave. I’m going to have to talk to him. I reach inside my purse and feel the gun there. I don’t pull it out, but I leave my hand on the trigger all the same ready to use it if I have to.
 

When he reaches me, his frown turns to a smile as he takes a seat in front of me.
 

“I’m glad you haven’t left yet.”
 

“How did you know I would be here at all?”
 

“Nick told me.”
 

Fucking asshole
, I think. “What exactly did Nick tell you?”
 

“He said you were worried that James wasn’t the only one after you. That you needed his help. You needed protection.”
 

I take a deep breath, trying to remain calm. I didn’t tell Nick anything. I didn’t tell him that Ethan is the monster not James. I just told him I was scared. And I am.
 

“I’m scared,” I say my voice shaky adding credibility to the lie. Except it isn’t a lie. I am scared.
 

Ethan reaches his hand across the table and touches my hand. My gut reaction is to pull my hand away, but I don’t. I let him touch me. I can’t let him know he is the person I’m afraid of.
 

“I’m afraid James isn’t the only one out there who wants me dead. So many people have targeted us. I must be missing some bigger picture. What if someone has been hiring all of these people to hurt me? To hurt us? What if he is still out there? What if he is hiring someone else right now to kill us?”
 

Ethan squeezes my hand harder. “That’s why I want you home. So I can protect you. I can hire all sorts of protection to protect you.”
 

“I can hire my own protection,” I say. “But that’s why I went to Nick. I want to know if you are keeping something from me that I should know. Do you know who is behind all of these attacks?”
 

“No. I don’t. I’ve told you everything I know. I still wish you would come home. I miss you. And I really don’t want to have to force you to come home.”

I glare at him and remove my hand from his. “You can’t force me.”
 

He looks at me as if I’m a child. “I already told you I can. I can destroy Landon’s career. I can send him to jail. I have evidence that will put him away for twenty years to life.”
 

My eyes grow wider with fear. He framed Landon. The evidence is on the flash drive. I just don’t know what evidence he claims to have. I add Landon to my mental list of the people I have to save.
 

“You have one week,” he says getting up. “One week to come home or I turn the evidence over to the police.”
 

I glare at him as I watch him leave, keeping my hand on the gun the whole time. I should just shoot the bastard in the back. It would be quick and easy, and then I would never have to worry about him again, but then I couldn’t save any of us. We would all end up in jail.
 

As soon as I watch him walk out the door, I dig my phone out my purse to call Landon. I’m not going to be able to manage driving back by myself. I need him to come get me. And I need to tell him everything. All of my secrets.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. Please let me explain,” Landon says as soon as he answers the phone. “I was going to tell you tonight, but it just broke first. I’m so, so sorry. Just let me come get you. Then I can explain.”
 

“Slow down. What are you talking about?”
 

“You don’t know.”
 

“Know what?”
 

“Just let me come get you then I’ll explain everything. Where are you?”
 

“Coffee shop on Fifth Street.”
 

“Be there in twenty,” he says hanging up the phone.
 

Twenty minutes is a long time to go without searching for answers, but I wait. I would want him to wait if it were me. So I wait.
 

***

“Hey, baby,” Landon says sweetly as I climb in the front seat of his car.
 

I notice a bead of sweat dripping down his head and his hands grip the steering wheel much too hard.
 

I lean over and kiss him softly on the lips, but he doesn’t let me get away with just a peck on the lips. He grabs my neck and sweeps his tongue in my mouth claiming me. Reminding me I’m his. He doesn’t need to remind me, though. I know.
 

I lean back with a smile on my face feeling more relaxed than I have felt all day. When I glance at Landon, though, he looks more worried instead of relaxed after the kiss.
 

“Just tell me. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. We will get through it.”
 

He nods and begins driving us home.
 

“You know I love you,” he starts.
 

“Yes, Landon. Just tell me.”
 

“I didn’t think I could fall in love again. I’d been so hurt in my past, and I was so focused on my career I didn’t think it would ever happen for me.”
 

I sigh. This isn’t going to be good. Whatever it is, if he is this nervous and stalling this much, it isn’t good.
 

“And then I met you. And I fell. I fell for your beauty, your strength, your drive to move on after so much tragedy. I fell for it all.
 

“And you helped heal me. You helped me learn that my past doesn’t have to define me. That I can be a better person than I was in the past.”

I nod hoping he will hurry and get to his point while also hoping he will never get there so I don’t have to be disappointed in him.
 

“I was so lost before I met you. I didn’t even know what I wanted.”
 

I watch as he turns onto our street that leads up to our home.
 

“But then Ethan came back into your life and you let me go. You wanted to do what was right by your past. You chose your past over your future.”

I nod. I know all of this. I know I chose wrong. I know with absolute certainty now that I chose wrong.
 

“So when you called me to accuse me of cheating on you, I did the same. I let you go. I chose my past over my future.”

I nod. It hurts, but I made him choose Caroline over me. If I hadn’t had chosen Ethan he wouldn’t have chosen Caroline.
 

I watch as Landon pulls into our driveway and turns the car off.
 

“Just tell me,” I say frustrated that he won’t just get to his point.
 

He takes a deep breath and turns to me when he speaks. “When you were with Ethan, I was with Caroline.”
 

I raise my eyebrows. “What do you mean with?”
 

“I slept with her.”
 

I exhale deeply the breath that I was holding in. I feel a stabbing sensation go into my chest. It hurts. It hurts to know that he slept with Caroline. I can’t be mad at him, though, when I slept with Ethan. We both messed up. I just wish he had told me sooner. I wish he had told me when I told him.
 

“Is that all?” I ask.
 

“No.”
 

I hold onto the door handle bracing myself for what he says next. If sleeping with Caroline wasn’t what is so bad, I’m not sure I can handle what he says next.
 

“She’s pregnant. And the baby is mine.”
 

“No.” My eyes grow wide with fear. “It can’t be. Caroline has slept with tons of men. I’m sure the media is speculating that it is yours right now, but the media does shit like this all the time. They report different celebs are pregnant all the time. It almost always turns out not to be true.
 

“And this is just the sort of thing Caroline would do it get attention. To try to steal you back from me. She probably isn’t even pregnant. She probably made all of that up.”
 

Landon places a hand on my shoulder.
 

“She is.”
 

“How do you know?”
 

“I’ve seen the pregnancy test. I went with her to the doctor. I saw the ultrasound. She’s pregnant.”
 

I push the door open, needing air. I tumble out of the car as I take a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. I begin pacing around the garden. Landon is right behind me.
 

“It’s not yours, though. It could be any number of people. It’s not yours,” I say as I cry and collapse to the dirt ground.
 

Landon squats next to me holding me closely as I sob. It’s not fair. It can’t be his. “It’s not yours,” I sob again.
 

I feel him take a deep breath as he pulls me out of his shoulder and holds my face so that I’m forced to look at him.
 

“It’s mine. I took a paternity test. The baby’s mine.”
 

“It can’t be,” I say again.

“It is,” he says more firmly trying to get me to accept it. But how can I accept that another woman is having his child? A woman I hate. A family I will destroy if I stay with him. A child who will grow up without a father that loves his mother. I can’t do that. I already know I can’t. I can’t hurt a child like that.
 

“You couldn’t have taken a paternity test and got the results back so soon, though. It just happened. You just found out. How is that possible?” I ask. The test must be flawed if he just took it today. There is no way the results can get back so fast.
 

He shakes his head though while I look at him curiously.
 

“I’ve known for a while. I took the paternity test earlier this week. I just found out for sure today, but I think I’ve known in my heart the whole time that it was mine.”
 

He looks so sad, so distraught, but it must be nothing compared to how I look. I’m going to lose him again.
 

“When?” I ask angrily. “How fucking long have you known and not said anything to me?”
 

“Since Chicago.”
 

I push Landon off me and storm into the house.
 

“Wait,” he says running after me.
 

“Why the fuck should I? You have been lying to me for weeks!”
 

“I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t want to worry you. Not until I knew for sure.”
 

“That’s bullshit, and you know it! You didn’t tell me because you knew I’d be mad as hell! You could have at least told me you slept with her. That would have been the right fucking thing to do. You didn’t have to lie to me!”
 

“Like you have been so honest these past couple of weeks! You didn’t tell me that you were fucking raped! You should have told me. I should have been there to help you go through that.”
 

I snap my head in his direction. “You did not just compare me keeping the fact that I was raped from you to you keeping that you knocked up your ex-girlfriend from me!”

“I ... I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant we have both kept secrets from each other. We both just need to stop. But it doesn’t mean we don’t still belong together. This can still work. I love you. I want to be with you.”

“And what about Caroline? What about your baby?”

“I’ll be there for them for everything, but my heart will always be here.”
 

I shake my head. “It’s not enough. It’s not enough for any of us.”
 

Landon drops his head. “I want you out,” I say calmly.
 

He shakes his head, begging me not to kick him out, but I have to. I can’t handle the fact that he lied to me. I can’t handle it right now, not when I was about to trust him with my secret.
 

I can’t trust him. I can’t love him. He let me go once when he knew it was what was best for me. He let me go to give me a chance to find love with Ethan. To find love with my family. I have to do the same for him now.
 

“Just go.”

With your tiny fingers and cute smile.
 

You shined a light into my world and you ...

You saved me.
 

I walk into my condo, but it doesn’t feel like home. It feels empty despite the fact that it looks exactly the same. Minus my clothes and my favorite guitar. I didn’t bother grabbing any of my stuff when I left. I figured it would at least give me an excuse to go back over and see Alex again.
 

I see Drew on the phone in the kitchen. “We have no comment at this time,” he says to another magazine before hanging up.
 

“You shouldn’t even bother answering if the only answer you are going to give them is no comment.”
 

He glares at me. “How many times are you going to fuck up your life? How many times are you going to put everything we have worked so hard to get on the line? Huh?”