The Love Triangle (BWWM Romance) (22 page)

Shonda’s house was on the other side of town. When I got there, the front door was open. I hammered on the door and stormed inside without waiting for an invitation. Shonda jumped up from the couch when she saw me.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“What?”

“Grace, where the fuck is she?”

“Woah, calm down, Elijah. She’s not here. Is something wrong?” Her calming voice just annoyed me. I wasn’t here to sit down and cry on someone’s shoulder. I was here to find Grace, and stop her from doing something she was going to regret.

“You’re hiding her,” I said, the thought suddenly dawning on me. “You’ve always been on her side. You’ve been playing me, haven’t you? Made me think you’re all for her relationship with me?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted at her. She cowered back from me, tripping against the couch and going down so that she was sitting again. She scrambled back.

“She’s not here, I swear!” she cried. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“If I find out you’re lying…” I turned around and stormed out without completing the threat. But I would find her, and I would make her sorry that she ever tried to swindle me. I didn’t have time for two-faced people that only had their best interest in mind. If I found Grace I was going to teach her what love should be like, what loyalty means. She can’t stick to one man to save her life. And we were going to change all that.

My hands were trembling again. I held one hand in front of my face and watched my fingers dance without me doing anything. But I felt fine. I felt more than fine. A little angry, but I was on the ball. On the damn ball.

I found my phone and found Kyle’s number in the phone book.

“You’re a man of favors, aren’t you, Kyle?” I said into the phone when he answered.

“I do them from time to time. But they’re not cheap.”

“Money means nothing,” I said. “I need you to get here and help me track someone down. If she gets away there will be hell to pay. I want to stop that before it happens.”

“Are you talking about a hit?” he asked.

“No, you idiot. I don’t want her dead. I just want her back. She’s given me the slip.”

“I’ll be there in one hour,” Kyle said and hung up. He was coming from Dayton. If I hadn’t found her by the time he was meeting me at the Inn, he would find her for me. If there was one thing Kyle was good at, it was tracking people down. What he did with them after he found them depended on how much he got paid.

I dialed another number and Margaret picked up.

“Did Grace come into the office today?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.

“No, sir. I was under the impression that she would be off work for a while still. Was she supposed to come in?”

“No, I was just asking. She’s been itching to go back.”

There was a moment of silence before Margaret spoke again.

“Will we be seeing you in the office today, sir?”

“No, I don’t think so. Just postpone what you can, cancel the rest. I have some personal business to take care of.”

I hung up before she could ask any more questions.

I had no idea where I could find Justin. That little son of a bitch had been running around with my girlfriend for long enough. If I found him, and I found that she was with him, I swear I was going to kill them both.

I turned around and drove home. There was nothing else I was going to be able to do until Kyle came. He could help me find them. The extreme high I’d been running on for the half hour was starting to fade and there was a sudden pain in my chest that I didn’t like. I just wanted to lie down.

Maybe a half an hour nap wouldn’t be a bad idea.

When I got home, Rosa waited for me in the entrance hall.

“I quit,” she said to me when I walked in. I stopped and blinked at her.

“What?”

“I quit,” she said again. “I am not happy here. I must go now.”

I was suddenly angry again.

“After everything that I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?” I asked and judging by her reaction, my voice was raised although I didn’t remember screaming. She shrugged. I could see she had a lot to say, but she didn’t say it.

Clever woman.

“You will never work in this town, in this state again. Do you hear me? You know who I am. I’ll give you such a bad reference you will have nowhere else but here.”

She shrugged. Her eyes were big, a little scared, but she put on a brave face.

“My mama needs help in Mexico anyway,” she said. She picked up a suitcase I hadn’t noticed until now, and marched out of the front door.

I wanted to yank her back and tell her what was on my mind. I wanted to teach her a lesson for being so disloyal. Everyone was being disloyal today. But I was just suddenly so tired. So I let her go. I watched her round form march down the driveway and wondered if she had a family.

In the ten years she’d worked for me, I’d never asked.

I shrugged. I could find another housekeeper. When the money was right I could have anything I wanted.

Anything except Grace, apparently. I gave her everything she could ever wish for. All the money in the world was hers, and I kept making more. She could be so happy. But instead she’d chosen to run away from me, chose a different life.

Well, there were consequences to everything. When Kyle arrived we would see just what that was. I walked into the lounge and sat down on the couch. It was soft. I ran my hand over the smooth material, thinking that it was a good buy. This was a nice couch set.

I kicked off my shoes and lay down, using one throw pillow for my head.

Very nice, I thought to myself, and closed my eyes.

Chapter 21 - Justin

I had most of my stuff packed up. When it came down to it, my life fit into three boxes and a suitcase full of clothes. The rest of the things in the cottage, the furniture and paintings and appliances, belonged to the ranch.

I’d been making a home, a life, here in Fort Atkinson and I’d come to love things that were never mine. When I thought about that last fact, I realized it was true for a lot more than just my home on the ranch. It was true for my life as Evelyn’s brother. Her children looked up to me as their male role model but they weren’t mine.

And it was true for Grace. I’d loved her with all my heart, and she wasn’t mine, either.

I taped the last box shut and wrote down the contents on it. At least it was going to be easy to move away. I’d been looking at advertisements on the internet for ranchers in Montana and there were a few places that needed someone. There were a few places I could go. And if none of them worked out by the time I got there, I had enough savings to keep going until I found somewhere.

I’d been a nomad before. I could do it again. I’d gotten used to living somewhere, having ties and people to love, but I could let go of it again. I knew I could.

I heard a car outside and I stacked the third box in the corner on top of the other two. The owner had told me that he would come round to check out the cabin. They were sad to see me leave, they’d told me how happy they’d been with me the years I’d worked for them. But business was business.

When I stepped out onto the porch, it wasn’t the banged up Jetta that belonged to the owner that was parked next to the house, but Evelyn’s silver BMW. The door opened and she got out. I smiled and walked down the steps to greet her, but her face wore an expression I couldn’t read, and I felt my own smile bleed away

“What is it?” I asked. The last time she wore an expression like that, one that wouldn’t tell me anything at all, Graham had died and she’d needed help.

“We need to talk,” she said. I was about to ask ‘about what’ when the passenger door opened. I hadn’t noticed that anyone was in the car with her, but when I looked, Grace climbed out of the car.

It was the last person I expected to see. Part of me was happy to see her, I wanted to run and take her into my arms. And part of me never wanted to see her again, because it was almost impossible that one person could cause me so much heartache. In the end I just stood there, gaping, not knowing what to do.

“What is this?” I finally asked when they both walked to me.

“Just hear me out, please,” Grace said, but I didn’t want to hear it. It was too sudden. I wasn’t ready for this. I’d just gotten myself to a point, emotionally, where I could actually walk away from all of this and survive. Not without wounds, but I would make it.

And now Evelyn arrived here, and she brought Grace. Of all the people in the world, I thought Evelyn was the one that really had my back.

“I don’t think so,” I said. I ignored Grace, who had fallen quiet. I looked at Evelyn.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked. She nodded slowly, but she had a look on her face that resembled guilt. The kind of looks dogs and children got when they knew they’d done something wrong but they really hadn’t wanted to stop doing it. Evelyn climbed the steps to the porch and walked into the house. I shot Grace a glare.

I wanted her to stay put. Outside. Where she couldn’t cause any more chaos in my life. Where she couldn’t hear me talking to Evelyn.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked her. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Just listen to what she has to say, Justin. She stayed at my place for most of the night.”

I threw my hands up in the air and turned my back on Evelyn, but I didn’t move so that she was trapped in the little kitchen. I was suddenly angry. Very angry. I turned around. Evelyn leaned against one of the counters with her hip, looking calm, almost casual. She had her arms crossed over her chest and her face was a blank mask, showing nothing. I was the only one that felt like I was about to reach boiling point. Evelyn opened her mouth to speak but I didn’t let her.

“This is a betrayal, do you know that?” I asked, and my voice was louder than I’d intended for it to be. But I kept going.

“You have told me for months and months that she wasn’t good for me, that I had to get over her and move on, because looking back was just going to cause heartbreak. You were the one that was against this match from the start. You’ve never liked her. Now I finally admit that you’re right. I take your advice and I make a plan to get away from all of this. And now you’re the one that brings her here to me?”

Evelyn shook her head halfway through my speech, ad kept shaking it until I was done talking.

“I know what I said, Justin. I know what I felt. And in a way I still feel that about her. I don’t think she’s the right girl for you. But you do, and that’s all that matters. I know what it’s like to be in love. I had that once.”

She sounded like she was about to start crying, and I prayed that she wouldn’t. But she kept going. “Just hear her out, Justin. She remembers. And she has a hell of a story to tell.”

I stilled. She remembered?

“What did she say to you?” I asked. Evelyn pushed away from the counter and walked up to me, put her arms around my neck and hugging me.

“You have to hear that for yourself. I can’t tell you who to love, but don’t throw away what you have just because you’re too stubborn to hear the full story. A lot of it I think you already know.”

I took a deep breath and blew it out in a shudder. It was all too much for me. Way too much. I didn’t know how to handle it. There was only so much drama that I could handle before I’d had enough, and I’d had enough the day before, when Grace had walked in on me and Alicia, and then Grace had told me to go to hell.

She leaned against the silver car and she hugged herself like she was cold, despite the sun beating down on the ranch.

“Just go talk to her. You can’t just run away from all of this,” Evelyn said. I snorted.

“And this from the woman that had told me to get away from it so many times.”

She nodded. “I know I’ve said that. But this was before I’d spoken to her. She loves you, Justin. She really does, and she’s made a lot of mistakes. But so have you. So have all of us.”

I took a deep breath.

“Fine,” I said. “But if this goes wrong, I’m blaming you. And you can pay for whatever I need to get over this. Including women and alcohol.”