Rebelonging (Unbelonging, Book 2) (8 page)

I stared at her. That had to be the dumbest
story I'd ever heard. "And the cops actually bought that story?" I
said.

She squinted at me. "Why wouldn't they? You
can't make that shit up, right?"

Time to change the subject.

I stopped to give her a serious look. "Can I
ask you something? You
did
hear Keith say he was clocking me
out, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because according to him, he was just
sending me on break. Wanna hear what he did? He tracked me down in
the parking lot and practically dragged me back inside."

Josie grinned. "Ohhh, that. I know why."

"Why?'

"Because remember Sonya, how she wasn't
looking so good?"

I nodded.

"Well, maybe ten minutes after you left, she
threw up in Keith's office."

I leaned forward. "On Keith?"

"No." Josie frowned. "In his wastebasket.
Unfortunately. Still, she had to be sent home. We won't be seeing
her for a week or two."

"So that explains it," I said.

"Yeah, good news for you, huh?"

"How so?"

"Two words," she said. "Job security."

I felt my shoulders slump. It was a sad day
when you had to wish the flu on your co-workers just to make ends
meet.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I summoned up a smile. "Nothing. Just a long
night, that's all."

"Alright, here's something that'll crack you
up. Want to know what else happened in the parking lot?"

I felt my body tense. "What?"

"You know who Lawton Rastor is, right?
Remember, you let me wait on him a few weeks ago?"

Mutely, I nodded.

"Well, some guy I waited on claims he spotted
him in our parking lot, beating the crap out of his own car." She
laughed. "Crazy, huh?"

"Well, he does have that reputation," I
mumbled.

"Know what?" Josie said. "I don't even care.
I'd totally do him, anyway." She leaned her head back and closed
her eyes. "Oh my God, those abs. Want to know what I want? To cover
him with chocolate sauce and lick it off." Her voice got husky.
"Drop by drop."

I tried to laugh, but it came out wrong. More
like a whimper.

Josie opened her eyes to study my face. "You
feeling okay? You're not coming down with the flu, are you?"

I shook my head. "Not me. I can't afford
to."

I also couldn't afford to think about any
other girl, including Josie, licking Lawton anywhere. He and I were
done. But if I were honest, the idea of him with anyone else was
making me more than a little sick.

Or maybe, if I was lucky, it
was
just
the flu.

The tall, iron fence was as daunting as ever,
but the gate was open. Cast in the shadows of thick overhanging
branches, I stood on the darkened sidewalk, gripping a cold fence
spire in each hand.

My stomach churning, I stared at the massive
brick and stone mansion that I'd come to know all too well. The
house was utterly dark, except for the barest glimmer of light
coming from a single room on the lower level.

I knew that room. Lawton's study.

I glanced at the circular drive. No cars. Not
even the one he'd practically destroyed. But that didn't mean he
wasn't home. He did have a huge garage after all.

He was definitely inside. He had to be. It
was nearly dawn, and the grounds were wide open. Was he asleep? My
gaze narrowed. Did I care?

No. In fact, if I dragged him out of a sound
sleep, all the better. This meeting was his idea. Besides, I didn't
walk here in the darkest part of the night just to turn around and
scuttle back to safety without finishing this once and for all.

I pushed away from the fence and made my way
along the sidewalk and through the open gate. Too soon, I stood at
his front door. But before I could even ring the doorbell, the
massive front door swung wide open, revealing Lawton in all his
tattooed glory.

He was a dark silhouette against the dim
interior. He wore black jeans, a dark gray T-shirt, and an
expression filled with such longing that I felt myself swallow.

I took an involuntary step back and looked up
at him. He stood absolutely still, framed in the doorway, with his
hands loose at his sides and his eyes on me. Slowly, his lips
parted. "Chloe."

There was a reason I'd come here, and it
wasn't only because he'd cornered me into it. If I played my cards
right, I'd be putting all this behind me. No more drama. No more
temptation. No more Lawton.

I summoned up the meanest smile I could
muster. "Lawton."

When he spoke, his voice was so low, it was
barely audible. "You came."

I made a sound of disgust. Like I'd had a
choice. "You wanted to talk? " I said. "Well, here I am."

Something in his face eased. His muscles
uncoiled, and he took a step toward me.

I held up a hand, palm out. "Not that kind of
talk."

He stopped. Behind him, the door remained
open, apparently forgotten as he stood between me and the
breathtaking place he called home.

His voice was thick when he asked, "Wanna
come inside?"

"Uh, no." I gave him a look. "That didn't
work out so well for me last time, now did it?"

Funny how getting handcuffed in a guy's
basement made you rethink his notion of hospitality.

If I were smart, I probably wouldn’t be here
in the first place, especially at this hour. But foolish or not, I
still believed he'd never hurt me, at least not physically.
Mentally, well, that was another story.

If I gave him half the chance, the damage
could be infinite. It was my job to make sure that didn't happen,
not tonight, and not ever.

He glanced down at the thin hoodie I'd thrown
on over an even thinner long-sleeved T-shirt. "But it's freezing
out." He flicked his head toward the inside of his house. "C'mon.
Please?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Afraid of a little
cold, are you?"

Slowly, he shook his head. "It wasn't me I'm
thinking about. Cold, hot –" He shrugged. "I don't care." His voice
softened. "I'm just glad you're here."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please. Save it for
someone who believes that sort of thing, okay?"

"Baby –"

"Stop." I gave him a hard look. "Listen,
whatever reason you seem to think I'm here, that's not it." I
steeled my resolve. "I'm here because you didn't give me any other
choice, remember?"

He glanced toward the driveway. His eyebrows
furrowed. "Where's your car?"

"At work."

"Why?"

"Because," I said, "the stupid thing wouldn't
start. And I had to beg the busboy for a ride home." Technically,
it wasn't
my
home, but that was beside the point.

The whole thing had totally sucked. Josie had
been long-gone, and no else lived remotely near this neighborhood.
I knew exactly why. They couldn’t afford it.

Then again, neither could I.

I wasn't a surgeon, a CEO, or even a
billionaire bad-ass like the guy standing in front of me. I was
just the house-sitter. Not that Lawton knew that.

Maybe he'd never know that. And that was fine
with me. Because if I were truly honest with myself, I didn't want
him to be missing some temporary house-sitter with barely a penny
to her name. I wanted him to miss the girl he
thought
I
was.

I didn't want his pity, and I sure as hell
didn't want his charity. I wanted him to eat his heart out.

It was totally messed up. I knew that. With
our relationship ending, it shouldn't matter, but somehow, it did.
It mattered a lot.

Standing at his front entryway, the silence
stretched out. He glanced again at the empty driveway. His mouth
tightened. "You should've called me."

"Yeah?" I said. "Well, maybe I didn't want to
owe you a favor."

"You wouldn't have
owed
me
anything."

"Yeah, right."

I knew exactly how these things went. He'd
rescue me with a ride, and I'd feel obligated to be nice to him. I
didn't want to be nice to him.

He looked toward the street. "So you walked
here? Alone?"

"Why not?" I said. "I've done it before.
Besides, I'm just on the other side of your fence."

He gave me a dubious look. "So you climbed
it. That's what you're saying?" From the tone of his voice, it was
pretty obvious he knew the answer to that.

"No. Of course not."

His so-called fence was twice my height and
made of iron. It practically had spikes all along the top. I'd be
stupid to go
that
way. Besides, I'd already tried that once.
It didn't work out so well.

In front of me, he was still giving me that
look. "So you took the long way. By sidewalk."

"Well, I didn't fly here," I said, "if that's
what you're wondering."

"It's a fifteen-minute walk," he said.

"So?"

"So it's the middle of the night."

"No. It's early morning."

His jaw tightened. "So you
want
something bad to happen to you? Is that it?"

I forced out a laugh. "What do you consider
bad? Because it seems to me that something bad can happen just
about anywhere, anytime." I shrugged. "Driveways, parking lots—" I
gave him a look. "Basements."

He briefly closed his eyes, and when he
opened them again, there was a glassy quality that hadn't been
there before. "You should've called me," he said. "Chloe, I'm
serious. Don't do that again, alright?"

"Look," I said. "You were the one who forced
me to come here."

"Forced you?"

"Cornered me. Whatever." I crossed my arms.
"So here I am. How I got here isn't all that important."

"It is to me."

"Yeah? Well, from now on that's your problem,
not mine."

My words hung in the air. His lips parted,
but he said nothing. The look in his eyes made me feel about two
inches tall.

I was hateful. I knew that. But I
had
to be hateful. It's what he deserved, and not only as retribution
for what he'd done. He deserved to know where we stood. And
honestly, I was too mad, too tired, and too torn up to tell him
nicely.

I stiffened my spine and broke the silence.
"Listen," I said, "I've had a long night, so can we skip the part
where we debate why I wouldn't be calling you for favors?"

His expression froze somewhere between
wariness and fatigue. "Alright," he said. "But there's something
you deserve to hear. At least come inside, alright?"

"No. I don't think so." I glanced at his
front door, still open. Apparently, billionaires didn't worry about
little things like bloated utility bills or the furnace giving out.
I couldn’t even imagine.

I tried not to think about it. If he was too
stupid to close the thing, who was I to care? Besides, he had to be
colder than I was. His T-shirt looked even thinner than mine, and
he wasn't even wearing a hoodie.

I glanced at his arms, bare except for thick
athletic tape, wrapped around his wrists. I'd seen the tape before,
wrapped around his hands the few times I'd seen him beating the
crap out of his punching bag. Had he been lifting weights? In the
middle of the night?

I glanced again at his arms. Even relaxed,
the powerful lines of his biceps and forearms were a stark reminder
that he wasn't just some harmless neighbor guy. He was a brute,
even if he'd always been beyond gentle with me.

Well, except for that one time. And even
then, he hadn't hurt me. Not exactly.

Somewhere deep in the house, I heard the low
hum of the furnace.

"Aren't you gonna close the door?" I blurted
out.

Shit.

Pathetic. That's what I was. If I couldn't
resist warning the guy about inefficient heat usage, how the hell
would I resist the haunted look in his eyes? And how would I resist
telling him that the past few weeks had been the happiest of my
whole life? Or confessing that when he held me long into the night,
I'd felt safe and warm for the first time in forever?

Lawton's attention never wavered. "Screw the
door," he said. He leaned a fraction closer. Something about the
way he moved reminded me of our first almost-kiss. My heart ached
at the memory.

And then, I heard a sleepy female voice call
out, "Lawton, who's at the door?"

I froze, too stunned to move, and not just
for the obvious reasons.

I recognized that voice.

In front of me, Lawton froze, and any
remaining color drained from his face. He glanced behind him and
quickly back at me. "Chloe," he said, "it's not what you think. I
swear."

But then, just behind him, I saw the girl who
went with the voice.

Brittney. She was nearly naked, clad in
see-through panties and a matching bra.

Suddenly, it was hard to breathe. It was even
harder to think. I stood, rooted in shock, as my gaze darted from
Brittney to Lawton and back again.

She gave me a sly smile. "Oh. It's you."

Lawton looked ready to kill. "You were
supposed to wait upstairs," he told her.

She blinked at him. "Oh. Was I?"

"And where the hell are your clothes?"

She raised her arms in a slow, leisurely
stretch. "Mmm…I dunno. Upstairs?"

I wanted to slap him – her too while I was at
it. Or at the very least, I wanted to say something clever and
cutting. But when I opened my mouth, all that came out was an odd,
strangled sound. I clamped my mouth shut and whirled to go.

Lawton grabbed my elbow. "Chloe, wait!
Please?"

I whirled back to face him. "So
this
is why you invited me here? To throw
this
in my face?"

"There's no
this
." His expression was
anguished. He turned to Brittney. "Go on, tell her." He gritted his
teeth. "Right now."

Brittney smiled. "Tell her what?"

Lawton bared his teeth. "You tell her right
now why you're here, or the deal's off. Got it?"