CHAPTER 19
LANA
Finally. I reached the exit and the motel Joe texted me to meet him at. A motel. I wasn’t sure how I felt about meeting at a motel. I wasn’t even sure what this was about. Sex? Something more? There had been an urgency in his voice that I felt I had to respond to. So I dropped everything and drove straight to him.
I parked and stepped out of my car, leaning against it, waiting. My car was one of the only cars in the whole lot. I guess I’d beaten him here.
A minute later another car pulled up next to mine. His car. My heart picked up speed as my heels crunched on the gravel. I walked around to meet him at his driver-side door, not sure what to expect. A dramatic embrace?
Joe was slow to get out of his car, carefully opening his door. His eyes were wide, and he had his index finger pressed to his lips, telling me to be quiet.
I looked around.
We were completely alone. Nothing but the trees, the wind, and the hot summer sun.
He started to immediately unbutton his shirt with one hand, while still holding a finger in place against his lips. I guess I wasn’t opposed to having another repeat of the garage sex, but I was still a little hurt by the way things went down last Friday.
I was about to tell him to stop, when, as he exposed his chest, he exposed something else—a wire was taped in place. There was a small microphone on the top and the bottom went down into his pants.
Okay?
Now I was confused. And more than a little freaked out.
He winced slightly as he pulled the wire and the tape off his chest. He then took the battery box out of his pants. A small red light was on, telling me it was recording. He took it and set it on the seat of his car. Then he gently closed the car door.
After, he grabbed my hand and tugged me along, leading me quickly away from the recording device as if it were a bomb that might explode. He only spoke once we were several yards away on the opposite side of the motel parking lot.
“Let me explain.”
“You’re an FBI agent!” I guessed. “Oh my God. Undercover. On some secret mission. What does that have to do with me?”
“I wish. No, I don’t work for any sort of law enforcement. Lana,” he held my face in his hands, staring at me with those intense eyes of his, “Doug Maddox hired me to spy on you.”
“What?” I sucked in a breath, stepping backward out of his grasp. “Doug Maddox? What!”
“I’ve been in his debt a really long time, and—”
“What!”
“And he’s been blackmailing me—”
“That psycho! I knew when I saw him the other day it wasn’t just a coincidence.” I couldn’t even look Joe in the eyes anymore. I pulled my hands through my hair turning in a full circle, feeling sick to my stomach. I bent over, trying to catch my breath because I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Black spots clouded my vision. I felt like everything was swirling in circles around me. That was the last thing I remembered before my face hit gravel.
* * *
Blinking my eyes open, I found myself in Joe’s arms. We were still in the same parking lot, but on the sidewalk. Right away, I knew I’d fainted. Everything he’d told me came back in a rush. “No,” I said, fighting him off, standing up, brushing off my skirt. “No, you don’t get to touch me. You, with your stories of ADHD, alcoholism, and sex issues. Telling me all these crazy lies to get me to feel something for you, to get me to care, to get me to sleep with you. Is your name even Joe Coffee?”
“Yes. My name is Joe Coffee. I have ADHD. I’m an alcoholic. I’m two years sober. My issues with sex are very real. Ninety-nine percent of everything I told you was the truth. I’m trying to tell you the other one-percent. I didn’t sleep with you because Doug told me to or used sex to manipulate you. I slept with you because I wanted to be with you. I still want to be with you. Come sit beside me. Please, Lana. You need to sit, you just fainted.”
He looked so innocent staring up at me from the ground. But he’d seemed innocent enough before, too, and look how that turned out. “I won’t sit.”
“Can you at least let me share my side of the story?”
Oh, this was going to be good. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s hear it.” I threw my hands into the air.
He took a breath. “It started a long time ago, in high school, when I first met Doug through his cousin Leo . . ..”
I had a hard time concentrating as he talked about Doug. As he told me about a night he was attested for public intoxication and Doug bailed him out. Then as he went on about some sex tapes Kitty’s ex-boyfriend made and sold, and how Doug now had them. Meanwhile, this gritty, nasty feeling settled deep into my stomach.
I trusted him wholeheartedly, and he betrayed me. The worst part was that some part of me wanted to forgive him because I still cared for him. And I knew first-hand how manipulative Doug Maddox could be when he wanted something. What if Joe was simply a victim of Doug’s as well?
“I have to go,” I said cutting Joe off before he could go into any more detail about Kitty’s sex tapes. None of what he said was an excuse for what he’d done to me. I needed to think. And I couldn’t do that right next to him.
He stood to his feet, dusting off his hands. “Lana—”
“I have to go.”
His eyes were begging me to stay. “I need to know what to do next. I need to know you don’t hate me for this.”
I shook my head. “But I do hate you, Joe. All of this sounds like your fucking problem, not mine. Doug can kiss my ass. You can kiss my ass. And you can tell him I said that the next time you see him.”
“He doesn’t know I’m telling you anything. I want to keep him in the dark while we figure out how to get Kitty’s tapes back and how to keep your business safe. Because I think that’s what he really wants from you—he thinks you stole his idea for Java Beans.”
I laughed, and then I started to walk toward my car. I was heated. That girl that cried over a boy last Friday—who the hell was she? I only saw red now. My blood boiled and burned. Of course, Joe turned out to be too good to be true. Some sexy, handsome, smart, funny guy with a cock like a Viking—and who happened to like me for me? Ha-freaking-ha. What a joke. My whole love-life was a joke. And this was just the latest stand-up comic.
I yanked open my car door and jumped inside just as Joe came up beside my car. He stood there, watching me . . . letting me go.