"Gimme one too, bro," Carter said, rubbing his hands together. His head turned to Bren to get his attention away from me in case I screwed up our little illusion, "Damn, this place is full of sweet pussy.Hooo-leee-shit."
As he had Bren and the others’ attention, I lifted the cap off the bottle and pretended to pour out two in my hand and put the cap back on. But what was left in my hand were the placebo pills that looked exactly like the Oxycontin. Thank fuck they had no special markings on them or we would have been busted. Handing one to Carter, he smiled at me and we both popped them into our mouths and washed them down with our beer.
"Fuck yeah!" Bren yelled. "Hey, you think there's nice pussy here? Wait 'til you see the girls I have with me. Fucking golden." Then he was off. Carter and I stared at each other in dismay, and the next thing I saw was my perp with his arm around the shoulders of the only girl I ever loved. He pushed her forward, tucked tight into his side, and she looked mad as hell at him. She looked exactly the same. Her hair was longer than I remembered, but her face? Her beautiful face stole my breath away.
Bren pulled her closer, leaned over her, and placed an open-mouthed kiss against her temple. It was almost physically painful to watch it happen. I wanted to look away. Hell, I wanted to storm out of this club and take a shower to wash away the filth that suddenly felt two inches thick all over my skin.
Her green gaze snapped up and collided with mine. She flinched back as if something slammed her hard in the chest.Good, I hope it hurt like hell.I hope her fucking heart was racing—just as fast as mine. I hoped it was squeezing in her chest, throbbing, choking, and gasping for all that it's been missing.Just like mine. I tried like hell to drag my eyes off of hers, but I couldn't; they were locked on her like a vise grip.
Bren was talking to Carter about something and I was struck deaf and dumb. The only thing I saw was tunnel vision right to her. We both stared at each other.Did she know it was me?I stepped closer and searched her face. Her lips quivered the smallest bit, and she was sort of wobbling at the knees. She knew it was me. She knew she was caught. I knew her well enough to know exactly what she was thinking, and she knew—she definitely knew.
Suddenly, Charlie was a woman. Where did she learn how to sway when she walked? Who taught that little girl to bite down on her lower lip when she looked at a man? Where did my sweet girl go? God, did she always have such plump lips? Did her cheeks always blush such a beautiful pale red? Did she always look at me with those emerald eyes, like I was the freaking messiah...?
"Yeah...yeah, and this is my girl, Sage," I heard the words falling from the perp's lips. That scumbag just introduced her as his girlfriend, and she was supposed to be married with children and living almost three thousand miles away from me in sunny California. As an artist. Everything that she was supposed to grow up to be. But she was standing right in front of me, next to a piece of shit criminal that I’d been buying drugs off of for months.
I forgot how to breathe.
Her eyes got larger, rounder, and I swore, greener. A tinge of red splashed over her cheeks. I clenched my fists to my side so I didn't go yanking her away from him.
Bren was talking smack with Carter, who obviously saw I was floundering, and I cut them all off by asking her, "Do I know you?"
"No. I don’t believe so," she whispered in a low, hoarse voice.
"Yeah, I think we’ve met before," I urged, stepping closer to her.
"Um, no. I’m certain I would remember you," she said, stepping back.
"Sage? Let me guess, is that a stripper’s name," I taunted.
Her eyes narrowed and her beautiful face tilted up toward Bren. "Why is it every time I meet an asshole, the same shit comes out of its mouth?"
Yeah, that's Charlie.
"Well. Hello…Bren’s girlfriend, Sage," I said. Leaning in, I whispered against her ear, "Sorry, I guess I was mistaken. You look sort of like the only girl who had ever gotten close enough to me to break my fucking heart."
I stepped away and watched her. She ignored me, looking at a girl with strange violet streaks in her hair standing next to her. "Hey, JD. We're getting outta here. Come party with us."
This was usually where we left the perps and went back to base to sit behind our desks writing reports about everything that was said and done. But I was standing in front of Charlie for the first time in years, and I wanted answers.
"Yeah, bro," I said, downing the last of my beer and wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. "I'm up for it,”
Bren smiled and led us through the crowd of dancing bodies; his entourage flanking the sides of him like he was a king. Her whole body cringed, and her eyes squeezed tight as she got pulled in with the tide. Scratch anything nice I’d ever felt or said about myself before.I was a dick. Looking at her walking away from me, looking at her, at those green eyes that looked flat and lifeless, I realized that something or someone hurt her. Something big. She was like a cardboard replica of the girl I once loved; stiff, hard, and empty. I messed up. Should I have looked harder for her? I should have fought harder against my father. Nah, maybe she just left. She never gave me the answer in her texts.
Carter pounded me in the arm when they all walked in front of us. "What the fuck? Are you crazy?" He clawed at my shirt, pulling me back.
I shoved my face into his. "That's Charlie."
Carter gave me a confused look. His mind was only on the case—then his eyes widened as it sunk in and his body stiffened next to me. "My Charlie," I repeated. It was all I needed to say.
"Ah, man. Seriously?" He stood there raking a hand through his hair. "We're going to get in a shitload of trouble, Jase. Let's just go."
"To hell with trouble."
"J, you need to walk away."
"Hey, I have a prescription forGrowacet, testicular fortitude capsules, you could take one and then maybe you won’t be such a pussy," I snapped in his face and walked after Bren. After a few feet, I stopped and glanced back at Carter over my shoulder. "That'smy girl."
"Yeah. Okay. I'll meet you outside. Let me go give Brooke the heads up and have her tail us to be safe, yeah?"
