“Eli, you know we love you, right?”
“Yeah. I know. I love you too. It’s just...I’ve got to figure some things out. It’ll get better. I promise.”
“Family dinner tonight, remember?”
“Yeah. I remember.” I’m not sure why they haven’t given up on me. As bad as I want to be the man I was, I’m just not. I never will be again. There’s no undoing the things I’ve done.
“Your phone is on the counter. You got some texts earlier.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
The phone screen shows what I expected. Vaughn texted hours ago. That water heater was a bigger job than I anticipated.
“Hey, do you know any Wilmington’s on this street?”
“Wilmingtons? No. Why?”
“A woman came to the door earlier, looking for a Mrs. Wilmington. I told her she had the wrong house, but I can’t think of anyone in the neighborhood with that name.”
“Oh. Hmmm. No. No one that I can think of.”
“Whoever they are, I feel sorry for Mrs. Wilmington if there’s a Mr. Wilmington. There’s no way that girl doesn’t stop him in his tracks. She’s gorgeous. When she smiled at me, I went a little weak in the knees.”
No. It can’t be. This has to be paranoia. There are tons of beautiful women in this city.
“You catch her name?”
“Uh, no. I guess she didn’t say. She recognized how handsome this little man is, though. She said his name is strong. That’s right, huh, Abel. Strong name like daddy.” She’s turned her attention to Abel, and she hasn’t noticed that my face is slack. “There were two men in the car she got into. I thought that was a bit weird, and she did kind of stumble to the car.”
“Huh. What did uh...what did she look like?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Hot. Great hair. She had this wild, thick, dark hair. Shorter than me. Brown eyes, maybe? She had this amazing tattoo on her shoulder and arm. A panther, flowers, and -”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“books starting at her shoulder and going down her arm. I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo, but-”
Her words fade out into a soft echo at the back of my mind as I feel the blood drain from my face. My knees feel weak, and I have to lean on the counter.She was here. Vaughn was here.She met my...I’m going to be sick.
I barely make it to the sink before relieving my stomach of its entire contents.
“Eli. Oh my gosh. Are you okay?”
Abbi is holding my hair and rubbing my back. Trying to soothe me.I don’t deserve it. I deserve everything else that’s coming to me, though.
As I pull up in front of Vaughn’s apartment, I’m still not sure what to say. I’m not even sure I’ll get to say anything to her face. Likely, I’ll have to scream everything I need her to hear through the locked door. At least she’s here. Jax and Marshall, too. All their vehicles are here, plus Vaughn’s bike. I guess it will be a spectator event when she kicks my ass.
Trudging up the steps to her door, the air feels off. Midway up the stairs, I stop and take in everything around me. There’s nothing out of the ordinary. Except...there is. Something isn’t right. My strides lengthen and my steps become more hurried the rest of the way to her door. The door that’s ajar. The frame is cracked, and the door won’t shut all the way because the latch is busted off the frame. Someone broke in.Was she here when this happened?
Terror grips me as I step across the threshold and grab the blade from my boot. The fear isn’t for myself, but that I’ve failed yet another person in my life.Placed them in danger.
It’s a mess. The coffee table is upended. The TV is on the floor, and there’s a shoe in the dining room. It’s Vaughn’s. My fists clench on their own, and I see red. This feeling is welcome. This is where I thrive. This is what I was built for.
Only a couple of Vaughn’s neighbors have doorbell cameras. The front office of the complex has a decent view of the primary entrance, though, and a broad view of the main parking lot. You have to drive through this area to get to most of the apartments here in Pine Crest.
No one bats an eye when I ask to view their camera history. The tattoos and the height aren’t enough to overcome the dimples. People trust me. They shouldn’t. Vaughn shouldn’t have trusted me either. I shouldn’t have worked so hard to deceive her and make her think she could.
It isn’t necessary to view more cameras after the first two, but I do anyway. Just to make sure that I miss nothing. There are so many of them that I need several angles to study each one. Their builds. The way they move. None of their faces are visible. That’s probably why he thought it was safe to come himself.Chase.There’s no mistaking the swagger of a man who thinks he’s owed the world. That night at the bar, I committed his build, the shape of his jaw, the way he moved, to memory. I shouldn’t have put this off so long. If I had taken care of things before, none of this would be happening now.
