The Game Has Changed (23 page)

He stared into her eyes with interest. “How
come?”

“Because,” she breathed, hoping that he
understood what she was about to say to him. “I love you.” Her
voice trembled with emotion as she said it. She held her breath and
waited for his reaction as she continued to brush his hair
back.

“How do you know that you love me?” he asked
inquisitively.

She took a deep breath to steady herself and
said, “I feel it inside of me.”

“I don't mean to give you the third degree, my
sweet, but how do you know it's not just infatuation? You've never
been in love before. I'm the first man you've ever been with and
I’ve also protected you from an assault. What you feel might not be
real love.”

Tears welled up within her eyes. Perhaps he
didn't love her, after all. These were the words of a man pulling
back in order to avoid hurting her feelings. Was he just using her?
Was she just a piece of luggage that he carried along and used
until he got to his final destination? Once his fate was sealed at
the end of this journey, was she really that expendable?

Yet she couldn't challenge him or argue with
him anymore. She didn't have the strength to say what she was
feeling. Nor did she have the courage to ask him what she really
wanted to know. Yet she couldn’t help but to wonder as to what he
truly felt about her.

“We probably have three or four more days until
we get to Los Angeles,” Evan said softly. “If you still feel this
strongly, then we'll see.”

“And then you'll leave me!” she
cried.

He reached to wipe away the tears that were
rolling down her cheeks. “Hey, don't cry, Luv. I'll take care of
you before I do, I promise.”

“I don't want to be taken care of!”

“I have to take care of you, Sweetheart.” The
affection she heard within his voice made her heart flutter with
expectation. He gently rubbed his finger across her bottom lip.
That action alone made her shiver. “What kind of gentleman would I
be if I didn't?”

“So since you're rich, you'll just load me down
with money and put me on a plane to Philly?” she prodded. “That's
not what I want from you!”

“I may have already given you more,” he
whispered as he stared down at her intently.

She stared up at him with confusion and rubbed
at her runny nose with the back of her hand. A knowing smile played
about his lips and he refused to say more. Sadness overwhelmed her.
The fact that he felt so warm and strong against her did nothing to
quell her worries. She couldn't help the intense misery she was
experiencing.

After a moment, he lay his head down against
her chest. She slipped her fingers within his hair, absent-mindedly
caressing it. He could feel her warmth and hear her delicate
heartbeat as he lay there pressed against her. He could also sense
her gentle tears. He gently curled his fingers about her beautiful,
baby soft breast and wished that things could have been different.
He desired, more than anything, to keep her as his lover,
forever.

CHAPTER 30

“Didn't you promise me last night that you
would tell me?” Jaime reminded Evan the next morning as she sat at
the table in her underclothes watching him get dressed.

He smoothed his white tee shirt over his chest
and sighed deeply. He smiled and nodded as he threaded his fingers
through his shaggy mop of hair. “I did, I guess.”

“You killed someone, didn't you? With that
gun.” She pointed to the gun lying on the table in front of her as
it sat within its leather holster.

He eyed the weapon wearily. “No. I told you,
I'm not a killer.”

“You can tell me the truth. You know that now.
You can trust me till the end of time.”

“Of our time?” he asked softly. “Or time in
general?”

“I hope they will someday be one and the same,”
she said, her voice barely a whisper.

He was a little stunned by her yearning. “The
person I was with killed someone,” he admitted. “A shop owner, but
I was there so . . .”

“But you didn't pull the trigger?”

“No, I didn't.”

“Why did he kill the person?”

“He thought he was being screwed over by this
person.”

“Was he?”

He shrugged. “I don't know.”

She grew quiet as she contemplated his words.
“Why do you have the gun, then?”

He looked about, a tad nervous because of her
inquiry. He ran his fingers through his hair reflexively. He
cleared his throat and said, “It
is
the murder weapon.”

She frowned. “But you didn't do it. Why do you
have it?”

“That's the part I'm having trouble with as
well. I don't know why.”

“But how did you get it?”

“I don't remember,” he insisted. “That whole
night is a little fuzzy to me. That was the same night I totaled my
car and . . .” He began to pace back and forth across the room. He
felt apprehensive and restless. “My friend must have stashed it on
me without my knowing. He must have made me take it, but I really
can't remember anything!”

“Evan?” Jaime inquired, worry filling her as
she noted the wild-eyed look upon his face. “Evan, are you all
right?”

“I didn't do it!” He sounded irrational and it
frightened her. “I didn't kill him!”

She jumped up from the table and strode over to
him, carefully grasping his arms in order to stop his frantic
pacing. “I know you didn't! I believe you!” she cried with
compassion. “I believe you!”

His look of distress did not lessen and she
wasn't sure if he could even comprehend her words. She rubbed his
arms in a soothing motion in hopes of helping him calm
down.

“Since you didn't shoot him, then why are you
running?”

Evan released a shaky sigh. “Because I was
scared.”

“Of what?”

He broke away from her and walked over to the
chair with his jacket draped over it. He reached inside to dig
within its hidden pocket and pulled out a small bag. She knew
immediately what it was, cocaine.

“It was a drug deal that went really wrong,” he
admitted in a trembling whisper.

She was stunned into silence. Yet she felt an
odd mixture of both relief and extreme worry at the same time.
Relief because she really believed that he would never hurt her. He
really wasn't a killer. Worry because his troubles were not only
serious, they were grave.

She refused to pass judgment on him, though. He
needed a friend right now and she intended to be there for him in
every way possible. She caught herself before she impulsively asked
if he was a drug dealer. A whimper escaped her instead.

He sat upon the edge of the bed and stared at
the floor with morose. “I can't imagine what you think of me
now.”

“All I'm thinking is how I can possibly help
you,” she said with sincerity.

He shook his head, biting his lower lip in
order to prevent the sob that rose to the surface from spilling
past his lips. “You can't help me. No one can help me
now.”

Jaime sat down upon the chair, a pensive look
crossing her lovely features. He could see the wheels inside of her
pretty head working to make sense of the situation. Despite his
melancholy, it made him smile.

“Nope,” he whispered. “There’s nothing you can
do.”

“There is something I can do to make things a
little better for you,” she spoke up softly. “I will tell them that
you didn't kidnap me. I'll tell them you never laid a hand on
me.”

He smiled with thanks. It had been one of his
objectives, to make her become a willing and sympathetic victim. He
had succeeded in one thing, at least.

“Do they even know who they're looking for?”
she wondered.

“I'm sure they do by now. My so-called friend
was injured, so he wasn't able to get away. I'm sure he's told them
all about me,” Evan said with resentment.

She shuddered with fear. Unable to help
herself, she asked, “Is this why you're so rich? Are you a drug
dealer?”

He chuckled lightly as sadness filled him. “No,
Sweetheart. I was buying, not selling. I was helping him. I don't
even . . . I don't even use it.”

To Jaime's incredulity, Evan covered his face
with his hands and burst into tears. She had never seen a man do so
before. They were helpless, uninhibited tears and they were
completely heart-wrenching.

She jumped to her feet and rushed over to him,
pulling him into her arms and holding him tightly to her. She
cradled his head against her chest and offered him the comfort he
needed. Tears overwhelmed her as she listened to him
cry.

She stared at the bag of cocaine that lay upon
the bed beside him. Anger filled her as she thought about the fact
that the little bag was the root of all their troubles. Granted,
she wasn’t angry at him. It irked her that the nasty white powder
was the reason he would be taken away from her once everything was
said and done.

Never-the-less, she also realized the
incredible irony of the entire situation. Because of what had
happened, it was also the reason she’d met the love of her life in
the first place. If it hadn't been for that horrendous drug, that
failed deal, and that brutal murder, she would have never felt the
way she felt now. She would have never fallen so deeply and
passionately in love. Yet she could not deny that life was so
agonizingly cruel and heartless, at times.

“I'm sorry, Jaime,” he sobbed as she pulled
away to gaze down at him. He was wiping his tears away with his
fists like a sweet little boy. “I didn't mean to lose it like
this.”

“It's alright,” she whispered, tenderly
caressing his hair. She kissed the top of his head several times.
“It's alright.”

Soon, it became apparent that he felt
embarrassed about his moment of weakness. He rubbed at his runny
nose and stood up, forcing her to let go of him. He sniffed back
the last of his tears. “We should hit the road. Get
dressed.”

As she hurried into the bathroom to do just
that, Evan walked inside without knocking. She watched as he poured
the contents of the little bag into the toilet and flushed it away.
Thousands of dollars worth of that white powder was gone within the
blink of an eye. They exchanged sad glances without saying a word,
knowing just how much things had changed between them.

CHAPTER 31

Breakfast was a silent affair. She sensed that
he wasn’t completely 'with' her that morning. His earlier
confession had made him begin to question his fate again, so she
kept her thoughts and questions to herself. She made sure that he
was aware of the fact that she was available if he needed to talk
whenever possible.

She found herself wanting to hear his voice,
however. She wanted him to feel at peace and happy again like he’d
been at the park the day before. Deep inside, she realized that she
would do anything for him now if it meant that it would make his
life any easier. That included leaving him if it meant that it
would make things better for him in the long run. If it meant that
she’d end up dying for him, if it ever really came to that, she’d
do that, too.

“Talk to me, Evan,” she said a tad anxiously as
they finished their breakfast, noting the fact that he’d barely
eaten a thing.

“What about?”

She shrugged. “Anything.”

“I'm sorry. I'm not very good company for you
today, Jaim,” he apologized.

“You don't have to do it for me, my love.” A
frisson of awareness coursed through her as she realized that it
was her first time using a pet name for him.

Their eyes met as he heard her sweet words for
him. She wasn’t sure as to how the endearment made him feel, but
she didn't care. She watched as he sipped at his coffee, the air of
melancholy surrounding him seeming greater than she'd ever seen
before. She couldn't help feeling guilty about it. She had made him
tell her the truth about his fugitive flight, something he hadn’t
wanted to divulge in the first place.

She reached out and squeezed his hand. “We'll
work this out,” she whispered. “Somehow, we'll make this all go
away.”

“I don't see how, Sweetheart. But I don't want
you worrying about it anymore. It's not your problem.”

She released a pent-up breath. “But it is my
problem.”

“It's not, Jaime! Just get it out of your head
right now!” Evan spat, his voice ringing loudly with irritation.
“We have no future together. I'm going to prison and you're going
home. That's it! End of story! There’s no happily ever after this
time!”

She was stung by his hurtful words. She knew he
was upset and unpredictably moody all the time, yet she knew that
he was trying to do the right thing for her. Never-the-less, it
hurt more than she’d ever thought it would. What he said next
shoved the nail deeper into her coffin.

“
Happy endings don't happen in real
life, Jaime. That only happens in those fuckin' chick flicks. In
real life, a bloke would never do the things they do in those
films. We're not romantics at heart. We're not knights-in-shining
armor either, so don't expect me to be one for you. Just forget
about me once we've parted. Live your life! It will be better for
you in the long run, trust me.”