No Going Back (12 page)

Chapter Fifteen

*MALLORY*

After I get up in the morning, I drive down to the police department where Jesika was waiting outside for me. She gives me an encouraging hug before we walk in. I don’t know why I’m so flipping nervous, but damn it, I am. I guess the idea of them not believing me so long after the incident took place really bothers me. Either way, it can’t hurt anything by trying. Maybe they can get their own Sherlock Holms to investigate the situation to prove I’m not going crazy.

We walk to the first window we see where a middle-aged black lady with shoulder length curly hair sits. “Can I help you hun?” she asks without bothering to look up. Her name tag reads Paula.

“Umm, yes I need to file a report, or report a crime. Shit, I don’t know what I need to do exactly,” I nervously reply.

She finally stops her typing to look up. “Well, what exactly happened that you need to report sugar?” I’m not going to lie, her sweet little nicknames brings me some comfort. It’s something I used to love about my grandma. She was always coming up with different names to call me.

I tell her what happened. How I had forgotten until last night and I knew it sounded crazy, but it hit me in a dream. She looked very sympathetic of the situation and I could tell when I mention the part about Allison she got the gleam of
bitch is going down
in her eyes. She was pissed and saddened and I knew she wanted to help me. She placed her hand over mine that I didn’t even realize was shaking, “Honey, we will get this all straightened out. It’s a terrible thing you’ve been through.” She was trying to comfort me. Well, as much as she could in the position she was in. But I have a good feeling she’s more than willing to stay on their asses until she gets her way. She has that momma bear vibe that I’ve only ever felt from my grandma.

I’m taken to a small room with a table and left to fill out a police report, writing down every single detail of what I remember. I have the paper flipped over and almost down with my second page before the officer walks in.

“Hello Ms. Prentice, I’m Officer Daniels.” I shake his extended hand.

“Paula from up front gave me a jest of the situation. First off, I want to offer you my sincere condolences for what you have gone through.” I just nod my head in thanks. “Second, it’s rather strange that you’re here.” I look at him with what I’m sure is complete confusion across my face. Honestly, it doesn’t take much to confuse me, but I have no clue what the hell he just meant by that.

She pulls the chair out and takes a seat. “Well, you see, we had a video dropped of here at the station this morning. The only thing written on the outside of it said, ‘
To be watched immediately
,’ which I did. It has two different things that are of importance on it. First it shows a female taping up a closed sign on the elevator. Then there’s a view that shows you walking towards the elevator, seeing the sign and then turning around. The next camera angel catches you walking in the stair entrance and then the same female who placed the sign on the elevator follows you.” She shakes her head, “I can see how it wasn’t caught the first time the tapes were checked because unless you know what you’re looking for, it doesn’t look all that suspicious. Shortly after she follows you in, she comes out telling someone to get help. That’s how she covered it all up.” She grabs my statement and scans through it. “I’m going to need you to do me a favor and watch this for me and tell me if it’s this Allison woman. Do you happen to know her last name?”

“No, I never really knew the chick.” I think of the best way to explain the situation, “I was having her ex’s baby, the baby that I was pregnant with at the time. They had got back together before I could even tell him I was pregnant.” I’m trying real hard not to get all choked up.

The tape is playing, and I can’t believe my eyes. Watching how she carefully set the whole damn thing up. As soon as she comes back out of the stairwell, she finds someone playing like she’s some sort of innocent bystander helping me out, and then books it. I can’t wait until her ass is behind bars. I pray they find her soon. If she’s capable of that, she’s capable of anything. Fucking nutty bitch.

“Yeah, that’s definitely her.”

The next couple days that pass are a bit of a haze. I needed time to myself to adjust to everything that has happened during the previous two weeks. It was so much to take in. I cried a lot. I even started the infamous Sons of Anarchy on Netflix because everyone keeps talking about the hot main character. And
day-um
, he is fine. But I also started reading the books I had bought from the airport in Vegas. It started to consume me. I never realized how wrapped up you could become in a story. I welcomed the distraction. It took me out of my shell I was in and placed me into someone else’s life. It was my own personal adventure that I never wanted to end.

Nick had been texting me the past couple days and even called once, which I ignored. It’s nothing personal, because honestly I enjoy his company. The fact of the matter is I just want to come out of this slump on my own. I want to flip my own damn light switch and choose for myself that it’s time to start living again. Taking a time out should be perfectly acceptable instead of frowned upon. It’s like damn, we’re all humans. We have feelings and react to shit differently. We all have our own personal ways of dealing with the hand that life so graciously tosses us. I have to say, life is a fucking horrible pitcher by the way.

Today I wake up knowing I was going to get out of this house no matter what. I call Jesika , taking her up on the offer to start going to the gym. The doctor had said to wait six weeks before returning to regular exercise or any type of strenuous activities. I hear working out is an incredible stress reliever and honestly I need to start taking better care of my body. That’s exactly why I don’t drink as much anymore. I’m more of a sit at home and enjoy a cup of Cupcake wine, drinking was something else I had to wait six weeks to partake in. Not sure if wine is fattening or not, but I’m not willing to give it up, so therefore starting this gym membership will be beneficial in many ways.

I scan the inside surroundings of the gym. I never realized how many hot guys would be here. Duh, I should have joined a gym a long damn time ago instead of picking my prey out at the local bars. Like you can find a decent man at a bar anyways. It’s true that the men you do find are only looking for a one-time ticket to a one-night stand. I used to be all about those myself, but now I value myself more and will not venture into giving out the goods so easily. Well, unless it’s to one of these hunks. I could gladly pull a quickie with one of them in the back. Wouldn’t that be considered a work out…and therefore part of the membership? Wishful thinking on my part.

The guy working shows Jes and I around to all the different machines and then to the free weights and even to the back for all the different classes. I wouldn’t mind trying the dance class sometime, it actually sounds fun…a word I haven’t ever associated with working out.

“I’m gonna go do the elliptical,” Jes says while walking off in that direction. “Do you want to go with me?” She looks back as she asks.

“No, I think I’m going to start easy. Easy meaning walking…on that treadmill over there.” I point to the one that’s farthest away from everyone else who is here getting their exercise on. I may not be a shy person, but damn if I want to be front and center while I get all sweaty and short of breath…and not in the good way. She just smiles and shakes her head at me.

Why do they have to make these fucking machines so complicated? It should just have an off and on switch. I shouldn’t have to type all this nonsense in that I don’t even know how to do in the first place. I’m getting really frustrated and I’m about to just throw the damn towel in. Literally. I’m really about to throw my damn towel at this stupid ass treadmill.

“You need some help?” a familiar voice asks from behind me, instantly sending chills up my arms.

I turn around to be face to face with a sweaty, shirtless Nick. Boy oh boy does he look delicious. Shit, last thing I need to be having are thoughts of licking the sweat right off of his body. I quickly shake my head of that thought and smile at him. “Yeah, this damn machine is broke.”

His deep laugh does something to me. It somehow puts me at ease, even though he’s laughing at me. “Mal, you can’t say something is broken just because you can’t figure it out.”

“Yes, I can.” I place my hands on my waist.

The look in his eyes quickly changes from humor to something else as he scans my body in the stance I’ve just taken. “I guess you can do whatever the hell you want looking like that.”

Oh shit. He’s flirting now. Not what I was going for. I quickly move my arms and cross them. His smile just gets bigger. “That didn’t help any.” He winks. Damn, he’s right. I just puckered up my tits to him instead.

“Fine, can you get this non-broken machine working for me, so I at least do something while we are here besides make a fool of myself?”

He walks over to the machine and pushes some buttons and then looks at me. “All set,” he says, motioning for me to get on. “Here’s the stop button. Push it when you’re done. This button controls your speed and the one over here controls the elevation. That should be it,” he says with a nod.

“Thank you Nick.”

“Oh, and Mallory?” I turn to see him walking away backwards. “You could never make a fool of yourself.”

After a few more movie nights at my house, Nick and I make it official and start dating. Hell, we slept together the first night we met after that masquerade ball. I was drunk, but I didn’t need that as an excuse to willingly go to bed with him. Nick is pretty high up in the hottie department. A good six foot tall man with a medium build. Everything about him is clean cut…for the most part. The times I’ve seen him go a few days without shaving has made me want to lick his jawline clean. I’m not sure why he doesn’t keep the look, because he can pull off the whole scruffy look like no other. Now his hair, on the other hand, I love that he keeps it perfectly trimmed so he can manage it into that hot style guys pull off with shorter hair. I don’t think he’d look as good if he started letting it get shaggy.

Being around Nick is easy. Maybe it’s the fact that we slept together the moment we met, and then a ways down the road built a friendship. I guess we pretty much did this whole damn thing backwards. Pretty much the same way Seth and I did. Yet, I ditched Nick the moment Seth showed me any damn attention and he still wants to be with me for some reason.

Chapter Sixteen

*SETH*

It’s taken a little longer than me or anyone else ever would have expected, but I’m finally getting back into my old ways. I’m not going to fucking lie, but when you have every hot piece of ass throwing themselves at you, wanting to be your little sex slave for the night…it starts getting hard to pass up. The getting hard part was exactly what clued me into the fact that my good ole self had returned. I hadn’t been able to fucking get my dick up without being drunk in months. It was because I’d constantly think about Mallory and the fucking fact that she was the only woman I wanted to be with. Yeah, I was a bit of a pansy after all the bullshit dealing with Allison and Mallory finally came crashing down. I definitely wasn’t playing the typical
I don’t give a shit
rocker who would take pussy no matter how it came at him.