Lexi, Baby (18 page)

As he placed me in the passenger seat I
wiped frantically at the tears I finally let escape. It was a
miracle I actually made it this long without crying. Once Adam got
in and started the vehicle, my phone rang at the same time banging
started on my window and someone tried opening the door. Thank God
it was locked because there could only be one person who wouldn’t
care about breaking into a cop car.

“Lexi, baby, get your ass out his car and
let me explain!” he shouted. I ignored him completely and sobbed
into the phone. “Hello.”

“Lex, what the hell is going on?” Trish
asked, freaked.

“Baby, I didn’t sleep with her!” Landyn
shouted again. I turned to face him through the glass with my phone
still pressed against my ear, and shouted back. “Of course you
didn’t sleep with her! You just fucked her right? Next thing you’ll
tell me is that you
don’t remember any of it
!” I threw his
words back in his face.

All the muscles in his face grew tight and
somehow he looked like he grew another foot. His eyes moved to look
deliberately at Adam. Adam’s narrowed eyes were on Landyn. I
glanced back and forth between them as they seemed to be holding
some kind of scary, silent conversation.

Finally, Landyn’s eyes came back to me.
“I’ll give you tonight, but tomorrow we’re sorting this shit out,”
he said angrily and his eyes moved, once again, back to Adam. “You
better make sure she’s safe, and I’ll fuck you up if you touch her,
pretty boy.” With that he turned and stormed off.

Shit!

Adam put the vehicle in gear and took off
down the road. I concentrated on the phone. “Trish, have you left
yet? Is Layla with you?”

“Lex, you’re freaking me out. Yes, I just
left and Layla’s asleep in the back.
What the hell is going
on
?”

“I just caught Landyn and Destiny together
again,” I hiccupped into the phone. I waited, but my revelation was
met with silence on the other end of the phone.

“Trish, you there?”

“Ummm... yeah, I’m here. You actually saw
them having sex?” She asked in an extremely soft, extremely
concerned, extremely odd voice that, under normal circumstances,
would have been alarming if I was thinking straight. “Hang on T,” I
told her and turned my attention to Adam.

“Can you take me to a hotel, please? A cheap
one, but one that’s safe?” He glanced at me quickly before
returning his eyes to the road. He shook his head. “I’ll take you
to my house. Ryan’s still out there somewhere and I wouldn’t feel
right leaving you alone. I’ll give you the directions so you can
tell your friend where to go. You can figure out the rest
later.”

I didn’t want to stay at his house. I didn’t
even know this guy, but I had to admit that I didn’t want Trish and
Layla to stay at a hotel alone either.

He was a cop right
?
He had to be
safe
. So I gave Trish the directions and we disconnected.

“So what’s your deal Detective Adam? Did you
grow up around here? Divorced? Girlfriend? Kids?” I was trying to
fill the awkward silence with conversation.

“I did grow up around here, not too far.
I’ve never been married, no girlfriend or kids.”

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” I asked
gently.

He was quiet for so long that I didn’t think
he was going to answer me. Then, finally, he started talking. “I
didn’t have the best childhood growing up and let’s just say that
it also overflowed into my adult life. I’ve had one real girlfriend
and it didn’t work out. I have women, not girlfriends, and frankly,
I’m not too sure they’re worth it.”

That was such a depressing thing to say. He
even sounded depressed, like even he didn’t believe what he was
saying. “Don’t you want to be married with little baby detectives
running around?” I asked him.

He turned and gave me a pathetically fake
smile. “If it happens, it happens, but I won’t be holding my
breath.”

I knew right away that our conversation
would be weighing heavily on my mind until I could do something
about it. There was something very vulnerable about this man.

I didn’t question him any further. The rest
of the ride was quiet.

About twenty minutes later, we pulled up to
a two-story, white colonial house. It was nowhere near the size of
Landyn’s, but it was still large and extremely nice. “Here we are,”
Adam said as he opened his door. I got out of the Tahoe and met him
at the front steps. I was nervous being around a man I didn’t
know.

He turned toward me and smiled as I stood
looking up at the front door. “Come on Alexis. I swear you’ll be
safe here. You have nothing to worry about. I might give you a hard
time, but you’re safe, especially from me. I’ll give you a tour and
show you to the guest room.” He was being very sweet.

I started up the steps. “I’m sorry I put you
through all that drama tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it. I haven’t had that
much fun in a very long time. I should be thanking you.”

He opened the front door, turned on the
front lights and gestured for me to enter first. “After you.” I
smiled and walked in. Then he gave me a tour of his house.

“Alexis,” he called just before we were
about to head back downstairs, his worried tone stopping me in my
tracks. I faced him.

“In more ways than you’ll ever know, your
life and what happens to you, has become my business. As much as I
wish it weren’t true, I can’t deny that after seeing the way Landyn
acted toward you tonight, I’m positive that what you saw tonight
wasn’t what you think.”

I was staggered.
Was he saying what I
think he was saying
? “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” I
whispered. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Honestly,
honey, I’m fairly certain he wasn’t having sex with the woman he
was with. You know I’m a detective. I make my living by reading
people and I’m pretty damn good at it. Something was going on, that
much is obvious or she wouldn’t have been there, but it wasn’t
sex.”

That was blunt. I really didn’t know how to
respond and I told him that. “I’m not sure what to say. Didn’t you
hear me earlier? This wasn’t the first time and the last time it
was with the same woman too.” My voice was barely audible.

“I understand that Alexis, and I’m somewhat
aware of the previous circumstances, but I don’t think that’s what
was going on this time.”

What the hell did “somewhat aware of the
previous circumstances” mean
?

Luckily, I was saved from responding
straight away because the doorbell rang. I studied the hottie
detective quickly and determined that he wasn’t trying to be
malicious; in his own way, he was actually trying to make me feel
better. I smiled at him. He smiled back.

“Thank you for everything,” I told him
softly.

“Anytime honey.”

The minute Adam opened the front door, Trish
walked in with a sleeping Layla in her arms. Her sad eyes met mine
and quietly we got my princess tucked into bed, and then we went
down to the living room.

Trish was still acting weird. She was
strangely silent and wouldn’t look at me. Adam walked into the room
and sat down in the chair across from us. He must have noticed her
behavior. “Trish, are you alright?” he asked her.

She finally looked up and to my horror, she
was crying. She rarely cried. I’d only seen her cry a few
times.

“Trish, what’s wrong with you?” My tone was
panicked.

“I have a feeling this is all my fault,” she
cried.

I had no idea what she was talking about.
“What’s all your fault?” I asked frantically. I was so confused. I
watched as she took several deep breaths.

“This thing with Destiny is all my fault,”
she whispered.

“What? Trish, you’ve lost me.”

She glanced to Adam and then back to me.
“Did Landyn tell you what I did?” Her voice was cracking now and I
was getting frustrated with her talking in circles. “Trish, just
spit it out.”

She sighed loudly. “Did you actually see
Landyn having sex with Destiny?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter, it was obvious,”
I stated firmly. She stared at me a brief moment before speaking
again. “Lex, I’m not sure what you saw, but I’ll bet everything I
own that Destiny went there looking for me.”

That still didn’t make sense, so I waited
for her to continue.

She cleared her throat. “Okay. Do you
remember the night you caught Landyn in the bathroom with
Destiny...” I cut her off with a glare and, “How could I
forget?!”

“Lex, I wasn’t finished. Do you remember
when we left that party, how I swore up and down that I would pay
her back?” She had one raised eyebrow at me. I had a really bad
feeling in the pit of my stomach and I felt my throat closing
up.

“I remember,” I whispered

“Well, I never forgot about it, and two days
ago, the opportunity to pay her back was handed to me on a silver
platter.” She paused.

“I went with Tony to a party at the Hotel
Derek, only to realize when we got there that it was a
family
party, more specifically, Destiny’s engagement
party.”

I gasped. “Oh God, Trish, I’m shaking. What
did you do?” I asked her.

“I had a few drinks. I wasn’t drunk; not
even close, just buzzed. Her asshole fiancé kept hitting on
anything in a skirt, so of course I caught his attention while Tony
was off mingling. The asshole kept begging me for a quickie, you
know, because he wasn’t ‘technically married yet’...”

I closed my eyes and begged her gently.
“Please tell me you didn’t sleep with him T.”

“I didn’t sleep with him, but it probably
looks that way. I actually did my best to ignore him, but when the
jerk got so drunk that he was slurring and stumbling, it just hit
me how easily I could get a little payback. I was also pissed that
Tony left me by myself the majority of the night when he knew
exactly
how I felt about his sister.” Her tone was growing
intense.

“So, I went with the guy to his room, or
their
room. He undressed completely and I undressed myself
down to my bra and panties; I was never fully naked. I grabbed his
cell phone and started snapping pictures. He was so out of it he
even posed for some of them. The pictures weren’t dirty, but they
also didn’t leave a lot to the imagination.”

She got pensive for a moment. “I never even
let the guy kiss me,” she whispered.

“There’s more you’re not telling me T. What
else happened?” I asked, glad that I spoke calmly when really I was
mess inside.

“I told the guy, I still don’t even know his
name that I needed to use the restroom and I locked myself in there
while I debated what to do next. When I got up the nerve to open
the door the guy was passed out on the bed. I got dressed, stole
his phone and left. I took a cab home.”

When she started crying again, I got up and
sat next to her so I could hug her. “Tony called me a few times,
but I was so mad at him for putting me in that position and so mad
at myself for what I’d just done, that I ignored him. I’m in love
with Tony. I really am, Lex. I’ve never been in love before. I’m
still a virgin,” she whispered.

“What?” I asked, completely thrown for a
loop. “What do you mean you’re a virgin? How did I not know this?
God
, have I always been so wrapped up in my own crap that I
didn’t even know my best friend was a
virgin
,” I whispered
angrily to myself. Trish just shook her head at me.

I made eye contact with Adam who was staring
at Trish with eyes bugging out.

“It wasn’t just you Lex,” Trish said. “I
could have told you, I should have told you, but... I don’t know...
I guess it was a little fun trying to live up to my so called
‘promiscuous’ reputation when in reality I’m just a prude in the
sex department.”

She gave me a sad smile before whispering,
“I was ready to give myself to Tony.”

I squeezed my eyes shut wanting to make this
all go away. I was still pissed at myself for being such a horrible
friend and I vowed to myself that I’d make it up to her. “It’s
okay, T. We’ll figure this out. I’ll help you make things right
with Tony. He probably doesn’t even know you went to that guy’s
hotel room.”

“No, it’s not okay. Nothing’s okay. I didn’t
do anything with the pictures right away or the guy’s phone; I
changed my mind at the last minute. But when Ryan attacked you last
night... I was desperate to do something. I couldn’t help but feel
that none of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for
Destiny. I was furious at Landyn too, but I’ve always known that
you loved him no matter how much you lied to yourself.”

She paused and while she took a moment for
herself, I tried to offer her some comfort. “I understand
completely Trish. I also blamed Destiny. If it makes you feel any
better, I think I broke her nose tonight. I’ll tell you the story
when you’re finished, but it felt great.”

She gave me a shaky smile. “You don’t
understand, Lex. The story gets worse. While I was sitting in the
hospital waiting room with Layla, I forwarded the pictures to
Destiny from her fiancés phone.”

I felt my eyes grow huge. “What?” I breathed
out.

“I’ve ruined everything. I’ve called Tony
over and over again since I woke up this morning, but he won’t talk
to me. While I was packing, he sent me a text message telling me
that he saw the pictures, and wants nothing to do with me. I assume
Destiny went to Landyn with the intention of finding me since
you’re my best friend.”

This was crazy! I was having a hard time
digesting all this information so I couldn’t decide which part was
worse; that my virgin best friend, who never told me she was still
a virgin, just lost the guy she was in love with by doing me a
favor she promised to make good on years ago, or the fact that I
didn’t trust Landyn enough to give him the opportunity to explain
himself.