Toxic Bad Boy (27 page)

Bent over, I closed my
eyes and concentrated on breathing like my therapist had taught me.
Over and over, I reminded myself it couldn’t hurt me. It’d been
awhile since my last panic attack and the unexpectedness of it had
left me unprepared. The last few time it’d happened, I’d been in
public. My home had become a safe haven, or so I’d
thought.

It took what felt like
forever, but was probably only several minutes, to calm down. My
chest hurting and arms tingling, the moment it was possible, I
screamed for my dad. Grabbing several tissues from a Kleenex box, I
wiped my face and nose.

His footsteps stomped up
the stairs and he burst through my door. “Gianna?”

Instead of answering, I
pointed to the laptop screen I’d avoided looking at during my freak
out.

He drew near, his eyes
focusing on the screen. “What the hell?” In a fast move, he slammed
the laptop shut. At my flinch, he pulled me out of the chair and
guided me to my bed. “Do you know who sent those?”

My whole body shook and my
dad squeezed me to him. “It had to be Josh,” I said on a deep
shudder.

“
The police assured us his
access to any form of communication was heavily
restricted.”

The youth correction
facility Josh had been sent to north of Denver for really bad teen
offenders had sent a letter to our lawyer listing the precautions
they’d taken so he couldn’t contact me. His stay there was
specifically tailored for his violent and obsessive tendencies.
“Dad, I don’t know who else it could be.”

“
Gianna, two other people
were there that night before the police and paramedics
arrived.”

“
Caleb wouldn’t do this,”
I protested.

“
What about that other
kid, Ian?”

I was pretty sure Ian
wouldn’t either. “He’s my friend and he’s still locked up until
school starts in August.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Dad, he got arrested for
beating up Josh. Do you really think he’d send pictures of me from
the night of the attack?”

The pictures were
horrible. The real life version of what Caleb had painted. I
understood what Caleb had found in that cafeteria. Me, a broken
mess. The image had been burned into his mind, causing him to
transfer it onto canvas.

My dad still held me
against him, his strength comforting. “Then Josh must have taken
the pictures with his cell while you were unconscious before he
left the cafeteria and someone got a hold of the phone. If the
police had submitted the phone as evidence, those pictures would’ve
never come to light. Josh’s cell phone must have been lost in the
shuffle that night.”

“
What if whoever sent them
posts them online?” I asked in horror.

“
Listen, Gianna, we need
to take this to Officer Novak tomorrow morning. I’ll call him
tonight and ask him to meet us at the station or come to the
house.”

“
Okay,” I whispered,
wishing none of this was happening. Wishing I didn’t want Caleb’s
arms around me right now. “Dad, I’m scared to sleep alone
tonight.”

“
Do you want to invite
Cece over?” he asked. “Or I can drive you to your mom’s house.
She’s worried about you.”

“
You told her about the
letters?”

“
Of course I did. She’s
your mother and she has the right to know.”

“
I’ll call Cece,” I rushed
to say as I imagined my mom insisting I move back in with
her.

*****

I awoke to the sound of
Cece throwing up in my bathroom. It sounded painful and I felt sick
myself at the thought of her puking back up the pizza we’d ordered
late last night.

Hovering in the doorway, I
took in the sight of her kneeling over the toilet. “Are you okay?
Can I get you anything?”

Cece flushed, pulling some
tissue out of the box on the counter. “A time machine.”

“
I thought you were happy
about the baby.”

She got to her feet and
began brushing her teeth with the toothbrush she kept here. “I
haven’t spoken to Dante in almost two weeks and my parents still
don’t know. Pretty soon I’ll start showing so I won’t be able to
hide it anymore.”

“
I’m sorry you’re having
such a hard time, but I’ll always be there for you.”

She smiled pathetically
around the toothbrush in her mouth. “Both our lives are a mess. You
broke up with Caleb again because he was a dick
and
you have a stalker.”

“
I’m thinking of getting
my GED and moving to live with my grandparents in
Arizona.”

“
Can I go with you?” she
joked and spit into the sink. “I might as well start looking into
getting my GED. Who the heck is going to take care of my baby while
I go to school? My parents are busy with the
restaurant.”

“
Dante’s mom would help
out, even if he’s being a dumbass.”

“
I hate him,” she said,
her eyes watering.

“
Is he still
calling?”

She sniffed. “Not since
Friday night. What if he met another girl?”

“
He has enough problems,
Cece. I doubt he’d be stupid enough to add another girl to the mix.
Besides, he loves you and he’s just scared.”

“
I’m scared! You don’t see
me running to a clinic for an abortion.”

“
Well, I think you made
the right decision. I can’t wait to meet him or her.” I clapped my
hands together. “Now that you’re stomach is empty, how about we go
downstairs and fill it back up?”

“
I
am
hungry,” Cece said, rubbing her
still flat belly.

“
How about leftover
pizza?” I teased.

She groaned dramatically.
“Anything but that.”

Cece left after breakfast,
having told her parents she’d help with the Sunday lunch rush.
Knowing I was freaked out, she promised she’d spend the night again
tonight. She’d quit ballet altogether now that she was pregnant and
I’d missed class yesterday because of Friday night’s
drama.

Officer Novak arrived just
after eleven o’clock. He’d asked that we forward the email to him
last night and my dad took care of it for me after I gave him the
password to my laptop.

When I answered the door
to the police officer, I spotted Caleb’s red Camaro parked outside
the house. Without acknowledging Caleb, who stepped out of his car
at seeing me, I closed the front door.

*****

CALEB

Officer Novak was inside
Gianna’s house and I didn’t know why. Had something happened over
the weekend? Did another letter come in the mail
yesterday?

Her dad had told me not to
come back until Gianna was ready to talk to me. Despite the
warning, I rang the doorbell one minute after she shut the front
door.

Chris answered the door,
rolling his eyes before stepping out of the way for me to enter.
“I’m sure you’re dying from curiosity. Come inside, but if Gianna
wants you to leave when Novak does, you’re out of here.”

“
Thanks,” I muttered,
wondering if her dad was secretly pissed about the paintings or if
he even knew about them.

Advancing straight for
Gianna, I took a seat on the couch next to her and grabbed onto her
hand for support, lacing our fingers for a better grip. She gaped
as if I were a stranger on the street. She had to have known I’d
eventually push my way back into her life.

Officer Novak had stopped
speaking at my appearance, but continued, “If the pictures do show
up online, let us know and we’ll order that they be taken down
immediately. As a minor, the laws are stricter.”

“
What pictures?” I
interrupted.

“
Someone emailed Gianna
pictures of herself from the night Josh Larsen attacked her,” Chris
answered, taking a seat on the other side of Gianna.

I moved my arm around her
shoulders and faced Novak. “Where the hell did those come
from?”

With a wry look, he said,
“Only three people could’ve taken them.”

“
It wasn’t me,” I rushed
to say. It wasn’t hard to figure out which three people he meant.
“And it definitely wasn’t Ian because I was with him the whole
time.”

“
I’ll be visiting Ian
Crenshaw where he currently resides,” Novak explained. “And Josh
Larsen. However, there’s only so much we can do. I’ve checked the
police report from last October and a cell phone belonging to Mr.
Larsen was never catalogued.”

I could not believe
pictures existed of that night. “So he must have stashed it
somewhere.”

A shudder ran through
Gianna. “I thought this was over.”

“
Thank you for coming,
Officer Novak,” Chris said, standing up to shake the man’s hand.
“I’ll walk you out.”

I knew Chris was getting
the cop away from Gianna to ask questions which would upset her.
I’d drill her dad later about the answers Novak gave
him.

Gianna laid her head
against me, contradictorily saying, “You need to leave, Caleb. I’m
mad at you.”

“
Okay, be mad, but I’m not
going anywhere.”

She raised her head and a
teary gaze. “Do you want to see them, Caleb?”

“
See what, the pictures?
No, Gianna.”

“
I thought maybe you’d
want to use them as inspiration for your next painting,” she said
sarcastically. “Whoever took them was obviously an artist like
you.”

“
I’m sorry. I should have
never painted them.” Or at least destroyed them the moment they
were completed. Definitely never should have handed them over to
Jim. “They weren’t supposed to be in the show.”

“
Then why did you give
them to the gallery?”

A pang of remorse shot
through me. “We were broken up at the time.”

She jumped to her feet,
crossing the room before spinning to face me. “So, it was payback
for dumping you? Did you enjoy remembering me like
that?”

“
Of course not, but you
weren’t supposed to ever see them.”

“
Oh, but anyone at the
show who wanted a sick look at me like that could?”

I leaned forward on the
couch, clasping my hands together. “I told Jim not to include them.
I didn’t know he’d make a peepshow out of them!”

“
Gianna, everything okay?”
Chris asked from where he lingered in the doorway.

“
Fine,” she said, pacing
over to him. “Can you give us a few minutes alone?”

Chris’s eyes darted to me
before returning to his daughter. “I promised Chance I’d pick him
up to see a movie. Is Caleb going to stay with you, or do you want
to come along?”

“
Cece is coming over later
and she can stay with me when Caleb leaves,” she told her
dad.

I laughed at the same time
her dad grinned. “What’s Cece going to do to an
intruder?”

Gianna didn’t think it was
funny. “Intruder?”

Chris sighed, grasping her
upper arms. “Gianna, you didn’t tell me or your mother about the
problems you were having with Josh and it escalated to him really
hurting you. We’re not going to make that mistake again. If you
don’t want to come with me, I’d feel better if Caleb were here to
keep you safe.”

With her back to me, I
couldn’t see her expression but I doubted it was thrilled. “If it
makes you feel better, then Caleb can stay,” she told
him.

Mimicking Chris’s earlier
words to Novak, I said, “I’ll walk you out.”

“
To the garage?” Chris
asked in amusement.

“
Yep.”

Out in the garage, Chris
waited next to his car for me to talk. “What did Novak say to
you?”

Chris glanced over my
shoulder, probably to make sure the door was closed. “Basically
that they weren’t going to do jack shit unless there was a physical
threat to Gianna. But I’m hiring a private detective who’ll have
monetary incentive to find out who’s sending the letters and
email.”

“
Have you told
Gianna?”

He shook his head. “Not
yet. I plan to talk to her about it when I get home
tonight.”

“
I’ll take good care of
her. I can be here whenever you’re not home.”

He opened the door to his
SUV and rolled down the window after getting in. “Fine, but you’re
not allowed upstairs.”

Suppressing a smirk, I
said stoically, “Of course, sir.”

Blue eyes like Gianna’s
narrowed. “And quit touching her in my presence.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Not fucking likely,
sir.

He backed out of the
driveway and the large garage door lowered. Gianna stood in the
mudroom as I went inside. “Miss me?”

“
You understand that I
broke up with you Friday night?”

“
Not that again,” I said
in a harassed tone as I picked her up around the waist and carried
her into the kitchen. “Now, I’m hungry. Feed me, woman.”