Finally Heaven (Room 103 Book 4) (23 page)

Tapping my glass on the chipped wooden counter, the barman nodded, acknowledging me. “Same again?”

I answered him with a nod then turned to the woman sat on the stool beside me and squinted at her crotch, tipping my head to get a better angle.

“Can I help you, love?”

Pursing my lips, I lifted my eyes to her face. “Mmm, maybe. Do you have tits
and
a dick?”

I blinked at her when she slapped me, my ears ringing with the force of her wallop. “What the hell?”

The guy who had been staring at me barked out a laugh, shaking his head in amusement.

“I didn’t mean no offense, I’ve just been wondering for the last hour.”

“Fuck you!” She snatched up her bag and stormed from the room, her dog trotting after her obediently.

The barman gave me a smile as he shook his head in amusement. “For your information, no she doesn’t have a dick. She’s all girl.”

“Oh. Well I’m disappointed now. I’ve never met one of those trans…transfer… yeah, one of them.”

He chuckled, sliding my glass across the bar as the other guy slid onto the now empty stool. “I’ll get that.” He didn’t give me chance to refuse when he thrust money at the barman.

“Thank you.” I smiled at him then turned to the stage when the karaoke fired up and a middle aged man tapped the mic to check it was working. I scrunched up my face when he started slaughtering a
Train
song.

“Whoa, dude. STOP!” I shouted, shaking my head at him when he looked my way. “Seriously, that’s not good!”

His eyes widened on me but he carried on. “Jerk!” I huffed as I spun back round and necked my drink. “I need to get drunk!”

“I think you may have already achieved that goal.”

I pouted at the man, realising he was still sat beside me. “What?”

“Daniel.” Bloody hell, another Daniel! He held his hand out to me, smiling at me as he introduced himself. “Daniel Shepherd.”

“Am I to be your lamb?” I asked, giggling at his silly name and narrowing my eyes dramatically at him.

His eyebrows lifted but a small smile curved his mouth. “Would you like to be my lamb?”

I pondered that thought then shook my head. “I’m too old to be a lamb, maybe a sheep… definitely not mutton though,” I decided with a firm nod. “Although maybe I could be your faithful dog and trap all your little lambs in the pen.” I liked that, and I smiled widely.

“What’s your name?” he asked as he placed another drink in front of me. I hadn’t even seen him order another.

“Zoe.”

The karaoke quietened down and I clapped when the man stepped down. “‘Bout time, you killed it!”

“Are you always this rude to everyone?” Daniel asked with an amused expression.

“I’m not rude,” I defended with a stunned lift of my brow. “I just don’t appreciate lying. Lying hurts and it’s about time this world grew to be more honest.”

He nodded slowly, taking a sip of his liquor and eyeing me suspiciously. “Sounds like a subject you are passionate about, darling.”

I snorted but didn’t answer him. Music started filtering through the speakers, an update slow rock song. I smiled at an old couple when the man led his wife to the dance floor, taking one of her hands in his and resting his other on her waist as she held onto his shoulder. They moved gracefully for their age but their love for each other was displayed brightly in their gazes to one another.

I sighed, appreciating real romance, how pure it could be for some. My lip quivered when the old man drew forward and placed a soft but lingering kiss on her lips, her hand coming up to his face to caress the man she had loved for many years.

Sensing my mood change, Daniel took my hand and guided me off the stool and onto the dance floor. He didn’t speak as he slipped his arms around me and placed them gently at my lower back. His gaze was fixed firmly on mine, his eyes intense and questioning.

I blinked when he ran his thumb across my cheekbone. “Why are you crying?”

I shook my head, allowing the tears but not explaining them. They flowed fluently as the music died and a new song started. Shocking Heaven. How ironic.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered. He placed his hand behind my head and directed my forehead to his chest until I was sobbing into him. I should have been embarrassed but I didn’t care. There was so much pain that my whole body felt raw and agonised.

No wonder he had never committed. He was married, with a teenage son. It didn’t make sense. Why ask me to marry him if he was already married? After everything he had hurt me with when he found out I was pregnant with Jakob. My heart felt as though it was ripping away from my insides. I was struggling to breathe, my lungs not coping with the strength of my cries.

“Sshhh,” Daniel breathed in my ear as he pulled me closer, his arms tightening around me as I clung to him even harder. “It’s alright, darling. Don’t cry.”

I fisted his shirt, using the material to outweigh the need to break something. “I don’t understand,” I sobbed. “I don’t under…”

I was suddenly dragged backwards, arms tightening around my waist and my eyes widening when Daniel appeared to shrink back from me. What the hell?

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I spun my head round, looking over my shoulder, angry and shocked at his appearance. “Go away, Daniel.”

He glared at me, his eyes firing between me and the other Daniel. “Who’s he?”

I squirmed against him, my back pressed tightly to his front as he tightened his grip. Nick appeared at the side of me, his fuming glower making me squirm. “Do you know him?” he asked angrily.

“Yes, his name is Daniel.”

Nick nodded slowly. “Why were you all over him?”

“What?” I scoffed. “I wasn’t!”

“Yes you were Zoe,” Daniel growled in my ear. “He could be anyone, a serial killer or a rapist for all you know!”

I laughed, rolling my eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“Are you okay, Zoe?” the new Daniel asked as he looked from Daniel to Nick suspiciously.

“She’s fine, you can go now,” Nick answered him coldly, the ice in his tone making me shiver.

“Stop being so rude!” I berated them both. “He was being nice.”

“I bet he was,” Daniel huffed, then turned back to Daniel. “She’s okay now we’re here. You can leave.”

“I’ll leave when I know Zoe is alright.” He looked at me expectantly. I sighed and nodded.

“It’s okay.”

He studied me for a moment then nodded, giving me a tender smile. “Take care, darling.”

“Thank you,” I replied, mirroring his smile.

“Home!” Daniel grumbled in my ear, his arms squeezing me until he lifted my feet off the ground and carried me across the room.

“Did you have to be so rude?”

“Ink,” he bit out with a fury. “He could be anyone, especially out here. You’re an English woman out in the middle of a strange country on your own, men can work on that shit you know.”

“Pfft,” I grunted. “You don’t have to be in a strange country for men to hurt you.”

He huffed and placed my feet down but gripped my arm and guided me into a waiting car. I shuffled as close to the other door as I could when Daniel got in beside me and Nick climbed in the front.

“We need to talk.”

I pulled my hand back when he reached for it and grabbed me. “Don’t touch me. Don’t even look at me. We’re done.”

“Zoe…”

“No Daniel!” I shouted. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m leaving for Miami on Monday.”

The privacy screen came up, concealing us from the driver and Nick. I turned away, looking through the window and concentrating on the outside world, trying my best not to feel his presence, his need for me. I wanted to go home, go home and curl under the duvet until it stopped hurting so damn much.

“I’m not discussing this here, but we will talk, Zoe.”

“Whatever you say, Romeo.” I stated with detachment. “What the fuck ever.”

THE ATMOSPHERE ON the plane was thick. My head was banging and I was exhausted. The guy’s and all the girls were slumped in seats asleep, Boss’s snores becoming irritating. Zoe had remained frozen to her seat, her eyes fixed on the clouds outside for the whole of the flight as she nursed her hangover. She had completely ignored me, refusing to listen and talking over me to the others. So I had given up. For now. When we arrived home, that would be different, I would make her listen to me.

“I’ve prepared a statement for you,” Julie spoke softly as she sank into the seat beside me and handed me a piece of paper. I scanned it and handed it back.

“It’s bullshit.”

“I know that,” she sighed, “but the world is expecting something from you. I don’t know what is going on Romeo, so I have had to work with what I have.”

“I don’t care what the world wants, it’s shit, all of it, fucking shit, Julie.”

“Well give me something then!” she was growing angry with me. She might as well join the others. “I can’t help you if you won’t let me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.”

“Of course you care, you’re just coping with too much at the moment. When all this has blown over…”

“When all this has blown over,” I spat back angrily. “What the fuck will I have left? This will never
blow over
. Some bastard has it in for me. They have made it a mission to destroy me to save their own asses. But you know what?”

I shot out of my chair, angry with her, angry at everything. All eyes were now on me but fuck them all. “I – don’t – care! I’m done. I’m done with everything.”

I spun round to Brent who was watching me warily. “I quit. I don’t even want this fucking shit anymore.” I then turned to Zoe. “I wanted you. You were it for me, Zoe. The whole fucking world. I love you. Yeah, I’ve fucked up.”

She remained still, her mouth as tight as her gaze but her eyes were finally on me.

“I don’t want this.” I gestured around me to the plane, the band, my life. “It’s nothing compared to you. You hate me, and I get that, I do. But you know something. When you got pregnant, I never hurt as much in my whole life as I did when you told me it wasn’t mine. But it wasn’t you that hurt me, it was me. I hurt myself, my life hurt me. I knew right then that I had been a fool but it was too damn late to make it right. You’d moved on. I had lost you but I never blamed you, never.”

“Romeo,” Nick took my hand but I brushed him off.

“No. Just…” I flung up my hands, shaking my head at them all. “You’re my friends, my family. Yet none of you have even given me a chance. You’ve all decided that I’m the bad guy in all this. I know what you all think, that I dumped my wife and kid and moved on, pretending I don’t have a son.”

“Romeo, please…”

“Nick, this has nothing to do with you.”

He stared at me. “It has everything to do with me!”

“Look. I know how you feel about me…”

“It isn’t that…”

“But you should know, I care about you too.” His eyes widened on me. “But right now isn’t the time to discuss it. My life is in pieces because some fucking prick, someone who you probably used to work with dived too deep into my life.”

“Romeo… listen to me…”

“Well when I find out who did this…”

“IT WAS ME!” he screamed at me. “It’s my story.” He closed his eyes, pain and guilt glaring back at me when he reopened them. “I ran the story, Romeo.”

I WONDERED IF a hole had been blown in the plane when the air seemed to disintegrate from my lungs, leaving me breathless and wheezing. All eyes were on me. But I wasn’t concerned about any other than Romeo’s and Zoe’s.

“I gave them the story, Romeo. I did but I’m not sorry and you need to listen to me.”

I had expected him to lay me out. What I didn’t expect however was for Bulk to launch himself at me. My nose crunched under his knuckles, blood and agony exploding in my eyes when he threw another punch to my face.

“Shit Bulk!” Spirit screamed as she pulled him off me. Realising it was Spirit behind him, calmed him down but I could practically eat the tension emanating from all the others. They were like rabid greyhounds, waiting for the hare to burst free, or in this case waiting for Romeo to give them the go ahead to kill me. The only calm person was Romeo, and Zoe who still sat frozen and immune to everything around her.

“We need to talk.”

Romeo was still stood looking at me, stunned and confused. I didn’t blame him, I was the same after the email.