Seven (27 page)

“No. That’s not terrible.” He starts to sob. “You know what’s terrible? Wanting nothing more than to find my girlfriend, the woman I am in love with, and have her comfort me during the worst fucking day of my life.”

I walk over to him, attempting to wrap my arms around him. “I’m right here, Casen. Let me do it.”

He pushes away. “Don’t fucking touch me, Embyr!” he yells.

I flinch, taking three steps back, and watch him unzip his bag and pull out a large white envelope that’s been ripped open. He looks at me with disgust. “Or should I call you Annie?”

My body comes alive and a panic attack immediately sets in. I can’t breathe. My hands shake so bad that when I run to the cabinet to grab a glass of water it falls to the ground and shatters. I jump out of the way and grab another, filling it and drinking as fast as I can. I’m hyperventilating and I can feel Casen’s stare on the back of my head. I’m not scared of him, I’ve never had any reason to be but I turn around anyways so I don’t have my back toward him. His eyes are cold, disconnected. He found out. I didn’t get a chance to tell him before found out on his own.

“Casen,” I cry, clutching the glass between my hands.

“Don’t you say a fucking word!” He points at me. “Not one word.”

“You have to let me explain,” I try to tell him calmly walking around the broken shards of glass to the other side of the table. I can’t let the situation get too out of hand. I need him to calm down so I can make this better. I have to make this better. I need him. For the first time in my life, since my parents, I feel truly loved. I don’t want that to go away.

“Explain what?” He throws the envelope towards me. “Explain all of that? I highly doubt you can dig yourself out of this hole.”

“I was going to tell you, I promise.”

“When?” he asks, and then gets louder. “WHEN? After I fell in love with you? Well, too fucking late. I did.” He starts to pace and then flips around quickly. “Was this all a game to you?”

“If we could just sit down and talk, I can tell you everything.” I motion towards the chairs. “From Patrick to Evan. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

His eyes grow wide. “Did you do that to them? Did you set them up?”

Panic rises within me. “Yes, but please. Let’s sit down.”

He steps into my personal space, lowering his head so we meet eye to eye. “Yes? Did you fuck over Thad and Wesley, too? Is that why Wesley is suspected in setting the fire here?”

I gasp. “Wesley?”

“Yeah, Wesley. My friend at the station told me he is a suspect. Care to tell me why?”

I fall back into a chair and stare at nothing in disbelief. “I was blackmailing him. He was seducing a student.”

“Un-fucking-believable!” he roars, rattling the pictures on the walls. “So, all that shit? It was all your doing? This is so much more fucked up than I thought.”

I start to full out sob. He is right. I’m fucked up. My whole life has been nothing but a fucked up mess and here I am, caught in the tangled web of lies I weaved. Where did it all go wrong? This was supposed to be revenge. Payback for what they did. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him, and now I see how much damage I’ve done. I’m a shitty person.

“I’m sorry.”

He picks up the duffle bag and dumps everything on the floor. It’s all my stuff that I’ve left at his house. “Here is your shit. I don’t want it tainting my house.”

“Casen.” I stand up, full out sobbing. “Let’s please talk.”

“Do you know how much of a mind fuck it is to get home and have a letter, from the best friend who just fucking died, in your mailbox? Then, to open it up and find that the girl who you wanted to contact for years, the one you wanted to make amends with for all the shitty things she went through in high school, was right under your fucking tongue the night before. To find out the woman you love, who has been underneath you and beside you, has been lying to you for weeks now? The first person I opened up to.”

“I was going to tell you,” I plead.

“When, Embyr?” He throws his hands up. “When were you going to tell me? When I told you about what our friends did to you in high school. When we got married? After our first child or our second because Lord fucking knows I could see myself marrying you.”

I walk over to him but he pushes me away. “We can still have that, Casen. We can get through the hurt of Ian and of what I did and move on. Move past it. I’ll do anything I can to make it up to you.”

His eyes widen. “Did you have something to do with Ian getting shot?”

I drop my hands to my side, shocked. “No! How could you even think I would do something like that?”

“Because I don’t fucking know you or what the fuck you are capable of!” he yells. “You set out on this revenge scheme and who the hell knows what you had on the agenda for Ian, Reece, and me. Though, I believe breaking my fucking heart into a million pieces would have done me in . . .
is
doing me in,” he quickly corrects himself.

I have no words for him. I’m ashamed, and I don’t know what to do. He is so emotional and mad at the moment, that I don’t think anything I say right now will do any good.

“Can we just start over, please? I beg.

“Go get my stuff out of your room. I need to go. Ian’s parents are waiting for us at his apartment,” He whispers, seemingly losing all energy to fight any longer.

I nod, walking to the bedroom and collecting his stuff. When I get to the bathroom to see if there is anything in there, I only find the reflection of the monster I have become. My body crumbles beneath me and my knees break my fall, landing with a thud and all of Casen’s items scatter around me.

My skin flinches at the cold tile of the bathroom floor. My neck, aching from the pull of it falling forward in disgust. My stomach is twisted in knots and my chest is constricted. Black tears fall to my bare legs and I lift my hands to wipe them away, but it’s no use. The flow of them will never stop.

What the hell have I done?

My panic starts to set in again, and I can hear him harshly calling my name from the living room. All I can do is sit here, helplessly, as I feel the life I started to love slip away.

I don’t move when Casen finds me in the bathroom. I don’t move when he stands over me and commands that I look him in the face. I don’t move a muscle when he leans down, pulls my chin up and says “Nevermind. I don’t want my stuff. It’s tainted. Don’t you ever come near me ever again.” Before he kisses my forehead and walks out of the front door.

To Be Continued…

To the Reader:
SEVEN was not supposed to end in a cliffhanger. It wasn’t. It was supposed to end with Casen flat out leaving Embyr on her ass, but I couldn’t do it. Casen grew on me and he means too much to let him just go out into the world devastated and heartbroken. I hope you can forgive me and I think I’ll make it up to you in CASEN, the next book. It will be in Casen’s POV with a few chapters from Embyr’s perspective. Look for it out this fall and add it to your TBR!

CASEN on Goodreads:
http://bit.ly/1TgmDwA

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More books from Amy Marie:

The Unexpected Series

Unexpected (Book 1):
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Undone (Book 2):
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Undeniable (Book 3):
http://amzn.to/1OcE7Gr

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First, I’d like to thank my hubby and kids, once again. Even though I wrote a lot of this book while they were are work and school, it still took up a lot of cleaning time and made for putting the laundry away six days after I finished it, and then starting the cycle all over again. Your constant love and support mean the absolute world to me. I love you!

Valerie: this book was born the day you and I sat down at my dining room table and named the members of the PITCREW! Your love, support, words of wisdom, and many thirteen minute voxer messages have seen me through the past year. I love you with all my ass . . . much bigger than my heart!

Jenn: there are no words adequate enough to thank you for giving me your no filtered opinion. I will never forget your “Cock or hand?” comment during your beta reading. Thank you for always being such a great friend. Even though I don’t see you very often, I still know that I can go to you with anything! Love you!

Venus: AHHH! You’re amazing. Thank you for taking on the rough task of reading SEVEN and snagging some teasers for me. I adore that you loved this book, and I am so grateful for your friendship! Thank you for always being there. I love you!

Aimee: Thank you for bringing me along to your hubby’s fire station and allowing me to take up his time, asking my questions. You were such a trooper helping me through the process and making sure what I wrote was accurate. I hope you are ready for the shitload of questions that are about to come up for CASEN! Love you!

“A Shift” at Fire Station 12 on Little Creek: To say I appreciate your time and my numerous questions answered would be an understatement. Thank you for allowing me to invade your day and let my kiddos run around. You truly sparked a lot of details in this book, and I am so thankful! I’ve never seen a fire pole that big! ;)

Lisa: Thank you for pushing me to write this and allowing me the time when I should have been helping you with SaSS! I think you and I make a great team. The Cherry Coke to my Malibu Black! Love you!

Support Group: I have nothing else to say except you really are the best jock straps a woman could ask for! Thank you for letting me vent and share with you!

Pimpettes: Most of you have been there since day one and never made me feel like I was forgotten, even though it took over a year to get SEVEN into your hands. Thank you for the love, support, craziness, sexy guy pics, pimping, and humbleness. I love you all as much as I love chocolate cake. And, I love chocolate cake.

Jacquelyn: Thank you for making it seem as though I MIGHT know what the hell I am doing. I love you, your friendship, and your absolutely crazy fucking mouth. My life would be so damn boring with you. I can’t wait to squeeze you again!

Angel: I’m sorry. You probably think I am nuts with my constant messaging, but I know the book looks beautiful because of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sara: My cover is amazing. You took a picture and an idea, and made it into something I could never dream of. It perfectly fits Embyr. Love you!

To my faithful readers: You all humble me each and every day with your beautiful messages and claiming of book boyfriends. Authors are only as successful as their readers make them and with all of you, I feel like a billionaire. Thank you for believing in me and my books!