Hotbox (70 page)

“Is he okay?”
             
She nodded.
“Yeah,
thankfully
he didn’t get hurt or anything.” She stood there for a few seconds, seeming to debate what to do. She looked at the table and then looked at me.

“Go ahead and see your dad,” I told her. “Or at the very least, just give him a call.”

“No, that’s okay. I’d rather we keep talking. My dad’s fine; this is more important.” She seemed a little rattled and her voice was shaky.

I r
eached out and pulled her close, and
I felt her relax against me. “Jayden, one thing at a time, okay? I know you’re not going to unwind until you see he’s fine. Just go see him. We can talk later. I promise.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. You’re right. Uh… Why don’t you just sit and eat?” she asked, pulling away from me and stepping to the table. “I’ll just be a few minutes and—”

“Jayden, don’t worry about me. How about you just drop me off at home? Go see your dad, take all the time you want, and just give me a call later, okay?”

I assumed she would protest but instead she r
eplied, “Can
you come with me
?”

My pulse quickened. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the police department.

“Oh, never mind,” she quickly said. “My dad will be mad enough that
I’m
there. Chris doesn’t even want him to know he told me,” she smiled
uneasily
.

She grabbed her jacket and purse and I met her at the door.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Ty, I love you,” she told me when the car stopped in my driveway.

“I love you, too,” I replied, feeling about a hundred pounds crushing my chest. She leaned across the car and kissed me.

She was still worried about her father, and although he was okay, she mostly fretted about why som
eone would take a shot at him.
She was kin
d of rambling on the drive over
.
Whenever she was worried or nervous she tended to talk more than usual. It was actually a relief because I was afraid to speak.

When we were done kissing she held her hand against my face and looked into my eyes.
“I won’t be long, okay? There’s something I really need to talk to you about.”

It made me swallow and I nodded my head. She kissed me once more before I got out of the car. She rolled her window down as I came around the car toward the house.

“
I’ll
give you a call
in
a little while,” she told me.

I nodded
as s
he backed out of the driveway and sped off.

Well, I tried to have the conversation, and it didn’t happen. I was sure that everything was just working against me
,
and no matter how ha
rd I tried to make things turn
out the best way they possibly could, it wasn’t meant to happen.
I wondered if I should take it as a sign. Maybe I needed to rethink my decision to tell her, or maybe something good was going to happen instead and I wouldn’t have to do anything at all.

I stepped into my house and flipped
a
light on; what I saw
made me jump
. My blood ran cold when I saw Dean sitting on my couch,
with
Dax
and
Roy
standing a few feet from him.

“Sorry to scare you,” Dean smiled. “You can never be sure who’s lurking in the dark, can you?”

“What are you doing in my house?”

He shrugged. “Just stopping by. Thought I’d offer some
moral
support in case you were distraught about your could-have-been father-in-law almost being off-
ed
today.”

Both
Dax
and
Roy
snickered.

“You had something to do with that?”

“What?”
he replied, faking his innocenc
e. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I clenched my jaw together to refrain from speaking my mind.

“So, Ty,” he continued. “You’re still kissy
kissy
with your
lady
, I see,” he nodded to outside. “I
wish
you had taken my earlier threat seriously.”

“I did,” I said firmly. “And I was about to do it,
but
then she found out about her father.”

“Oh, I see. Sorry to have ruined the moment for you,” he smiled.
Dax
and
Roy
both laughed again, but Dean seemed to nod his head my direction and
Dax
came toward me. “So Ty… I think we’ll make things easier on you.
I’m a little worried about how you’re going to end things with her. You see
,
I can’t have you telling her things that are going to complicate
my
life. I can’t risk you tipping her off that you’re doing this, well, because of me,” he smiled. “I really don’t need her to be suspicious of any outside influences.”

“Sounds like it might be safer for me to just stay with her then, don’t you think?”

He stared at me for a few seconds, seeming to assess the situation. Finally he leaned forward and said,
“
Do you understand what I’ve just done for you, Ty?” He paused for a moment, for effect. “See, I know you. I know you, whether you want to believe that or not. I know how you think. I know that you believe your girlfriend will be understanding of some vague explanation you decide
to give her. I know you plan
on telling her
something
,
to cover your ass so you’d have a chance to get her back. But
I’m not exactly sure if
you were
going to
be
stupid enough to tell her
all of it.
If you thought you were going to get away with
that, you’re dead wrong. So,
i
nstead of Jayden having to listen to your pitiful excuses as to
why
you’re such a tool when you break up with her,
we’ll just
create a reason that’s gonna stick.
Things’ll
be much easier for us all if she never wants to speak to you again,
”
he smiled
nefariously
.

He
stood up from the couch as
Dax
grabbed my arm and pushed me forward.

“Don’t touch me,” I told him.

“I suggest you not put up a fight, Ty,” Dean smirked at me. “This won’t hurt…
too
much.”

I felt something poke into my skin, but before I realized what was happening, my whole body seemed to lose feeling within seconds.
Dax
grabbed me
and dropped me onto the couch, and
I sat slumped against the back of it with absolutely no ability to move.

Dean was still smiling at me. “
We’re just going to do things my way, Ty. Okay
?”

Dax
knelt down in front of me and stuck something into my
arm
. He tossed the syringe onto the coffee table just as the back door opened. I had no idea who else entered the house and I didn’t even care. My mind was soaring all sorts of places and the last thing I remember was Dean’s evil face
sneering
down
at me.

When I came to, my body felt about twice as heavy as it normally did. I think I was
still
in orbit, but maybe I was just dreaming. I dreamt about Jayden. And then there she was, standing in front of me. I glanced around, trying to understand where I was. I was
lying on the couch.
I tried to sit up, and after some difficulty, managed to do so. It really was Jayden, standing there at the end of the couch. The look on her face… I had to be in a nightmare. I had never seen her look like that before. Was she crying?

I followed her gaze to the coffee table beside me
. I just
stared at it
, not understanding what I was
even
looking at.

“Are you ready to talk now?” she asked quietly, brushing away a tear.

I turned my face to her. “Talk about what?” My voice didn’t even sound like my own.

She stared at me again with her mouth open, and then her expression changed even more when she looked at something
else
toward the hallway
.

“
Baby
, where’d you go?” an
unfamiliar voice said. I slowly turned my head toward the hall to find a
girl standing there, with barely anything on. “Oh,” she smiled, “I didn’t know you had company. Hurry back,” she
smiled
as she left down the hall.

Completely confused, I turned back to Jayden, who was still standing there, but tears were pouring down her face.
             
“Is- is this…” She took a breath. “Is this what you meant by…
mistakes
? You made some
mistakes
? I don’t even…” She took a couple of steps toward me and looked at the coffee table again. “How long?” she whispe
red. “How long have you been…” S
he waved at the table but left it unfinished.

I was still stuck on the word “mistake.” Why did that ring a bell? Suddenly I remembered sitting at her kitchen table, and then everything kind of hit me at once. I came home… Dean was here… This was really happening, wasn’t it? He set me up. This was the reason that was going to “stick.”

I also pictured what almost happened to her earlier, and her father… This was never going to end. This was it. Jayden and I were through
, and I was never going to get her back
. My mind was slowly beginning to think straight. This was not how I wanted things to end, but now it had, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was just as we
ll
if it meant keeping
her
safe. She was going to hate me, but I hoped that she could someday understand.

Her movement caught my attention and she sat on the arm of the couch just a few feet from me.

“Ty,” she said quietly. “I love you. I know you’re lit on something right now, and you probably can’t even have a conversation with me, but I do love you.”

No, she
wasn’t going to do this to me, w
as she?
I had just decided to le
t everything play out as it had. She had to hate me; she had to just break off our engagement and be done with me.
I didn’t deserve her. It would be better if I were out of her life. But now s
he was going to look beyond all of this? She was going to excuse everything that she just saw?
What was I supposed to do? I really wanted
to tell her the truth—t
o let her know that this was
n’t me, this wasn’t who I was—b
ut my fear seemed to get the better of me. I loved her more than anything, and I couldn’t risk anything happening to her because of my own messed up life.

I rubbed my face with my hands. “Jayden,
you need to
leave.”

“What?”

“Just…get out of here. I’m no good for you. We can’t be together anymore.”

She was silent for a moment. I couldn’t even look at her.

“Ty, I can get you some help, okay? I don’t… I don’t want you
to be doing this to yourself.”

I glanced at the items on the coffee table and understood what she was referring to.
As hard as it was to just go along with it, I knew I had to. I didn’t want there to be any reason for her to stay with me anymore.

“I’ll do whatever I want to myself. That’s why you shouldn’t be around me. Just…leave and never come back.”

“You don’t even know what you’re saying,” she
sniffled
, sliding onto the couch and sitting by me. She took my face into her hands. “Look at me, Ty.”

I wouldn’t do it.

“Look at me!”

I still couldn’t do it and I pulled my face away from her
hold
and looked the other way.
I heard her sob again and if my heart could break anymore than it already had, there wouldn’t be anything left of it.

“Just leave,” I told her again.

“
No
!
” she cried. “Not unt
il I understand what’s going on!
This isn’t you. This isn’t who you are.” She sat on the coffee table right in front of me and grabbed my face again. “Look at me!” she said angrily.