Melissa
My heart thumps angrily as the knock on the door is too light to be Kyle on the other side. “Yes?”
“I want a word.”
For someone who not long ago said he wouldn’t talk to me, he hasn’t lasted long. I sit up and pull the plug and watch for a moment as the water begins to lower around me. Hoisting myself out, I wrap a large towel around me and unlock the door.
I wasn’t expecting him to be standing so close so I step around him and keep my distance from him. My feelings are mixed when I look at him. I hate myself because I want him. Actually, it’s more than that. I have a need for him, I have since he told me he’d keep me safe when Cas had me tied up in his room.
“Speak then,” I mutter.
He doesn’t though, he leads me into the room I’ve been staying in and like a fool, I let him.
“Everything that’s happened between us has been based on lies, and it’s all on me,” he says.
His presence envelopes me in this small room and I open the window, hoping the fresh air will keep my head clear.
Back in the club, I was petrified of what Cas would do to me and then my brother, no matter how much of a front I put on, I couldn’t make myself believe I was going to be okay. But, when Dex was around, I felt safe, like I knew some how he could keep the danger away. I shouldn’t have been so stupid to believe he could, or that he would. Even now, I want to trust what he tells me, but I don’t. I’m turning into my mother and that’s what I hate the most about him. He makes me feel like I’m chasing him and lapping up any scraps he gives me, just like she did with every man who came into our lives.
“Are you listening?”
I nod and sit on the bed, while he stays by the door.
“I am, say what you have to say then leave.”
He walks over and sits beside me.
“I propose the truth, no more lies. I don’t like how I’ve treated you, but I would’ve done anything to get the patch.”
“I’ve learned a lot about your club in such a short time, I understand,” I say, knowing it could’ve been worse.
“Don’t let me off that easy, I’ve been a cunt to you…”
“You certainly have,” I agree with him, “What’s the point of this conversation?” I ask.
“I want you to know I did use you, but I also do like you and I shouldn’t and it doesn’t matter because we can’t let anything happen.”
I could laugh.
I want to laugh.
“I’m not usually a stupid woman, but with you I have been very stupid. Soon you will be gone and Kyle and I will go on as we did before. We started with lies, at least we’re ending on the truth, as weak as it is.”
This may be a form of closure for him but it isn’t for me. A strong sense of me pampering him hits me and it doesn’t make me mad, only sad.
“Please don’t hate yourself, hate me, it’s me whose wronged you.”
This time, I let the laugh bubble out of me and it feels strangely good. For him to talk about me hating myself, he’s been talking to Kyle.
“Danny ruins everything for Kyle and me. I know you’re here until they kill him and make sure we don’t say anything. As we’re all about the truth now, I won’t ever say anything and nor will Kyle. Besides, I have nothing to gain apart from the club’s anger and that, I can do without.”
“Smart as well as beautiful.”
“You shouldn’t say stuff like that,” I whisper.
“I know, they’re still true though.”
I dare to make eye contact with him and I internally kick myself. I need to end this infatuation I have with him, but hell if I don’t want him to lean in and kiss me.
He must sense my desperation, he stands and puts the entire room between us while my humiliation spikes when I realise I was the one who was leaning in.
“Goodnight, Melissa.”
He can’t leave the room fast enough, the stench of desperation must make him run. Hell, if I could run from it, I would.
Sighing, I get up and dry myself off. I go to put on my usual night shirt and opt for a pair of old leggings and a long tee at the last minute. I want to go downstairs, make a coffee and grab my phone charger. I decide staying up here is for the best, away from Dex and his dark eyes and his chiselled jaw line.
I look around the room for a spare charger and I’m about to look under the bed when the door bursts open and Dex is filling the doorway.
“What do you want now?”
“Your brother is gone,” he tells me, strutting over to the window at the same time I hear the car start up.
I jump up from the floor and rush to the window to look for myself. Dex’s car is backing out of the drive and the tires screech as he pulls away.
“Where would he go?” Dex demands.
“I don’t know.”
He pulls out his phone from his pocket, presses a couple of buttons and presses it to his ear.
“Who are you calling?” I ask.
“Cas,” he says, hanging up and redialling.
I slap the phone out of his hand and it falls to the floor. He looks up at me and frowns.
“He’s not going to say anything,” I say.
If Cas thinks Kyle is a threat to his club, he will silence him.
“Don’t call him, please,” I beg.
“I have to, fuck knows what everyone is going to think when they find out he left because I was with you in your bedroom.”
“Always thinking about yourself, you’re such a selfish prick, I don’t know what I ever saw in you,” I scream at him.
My brother could end up in danger tonight and all he think of is how he will look in front of his club.
“We’re not fighting about us anymore, think where he would’ve gone. I’ll give you one hour and then I’m calling it in to Cas.”
He leaves the room and I listen to his boots stomp down the stairs. I shove a pair of socks on and my old knee-high boots and run downstairs. I don’t put it past Dex to call Cas before my hour is up. I’ll keep him in my sight for the next fifty-nine minutes. I grab my charger and wait for the phone to power up.
Dex paces behind me and I do my best to ignore him. The screen lights up and I find Kyle’s number. It rings and rings, and the armchair begins to buzz.
Dex retrieves his phone from down beside the cushion and holds it up for me to see. I hang up and think fast of who else I can call.
Danny and Cayden are obviously not able to take calls and he’s only just left, he wouldn’t have had time to drive back to his dorm.
I put the phone down and clench my shaking hands. There’s no one who wants to find him more than I do but I don’t have the first idea who to call or where to look.
“Apart from college, I don’t know where to look. He has a friend there but they don’t share a dorm…” I’m panicking, fifty-four minutes left.
“Okay, calm down. What about family? Cousins? Your moms?”
“He wouldn’t go to our moms and our cousins don’t live around here.”
He’s thinking the worst, he’s thinking Kyle is on his way to the cop station. I can see it in his eyes, but I know he wouldn’t. If that was his plan, he would’ve told me.
“You better think of something, you have fifty minutes.”