Chapter Thirteen
Terrance
Tuesday
My head pounded. I felt sick and distressed, the sort of sensation that could only come from a terrible night of sleep. I kept tossing and turning all night long, nightmares filtering into my subconscious.
This whole situation was screwing with my brain. To be honest, the waiting for something else to happen was the worst part of it all. The anticipation made me want to vomit.
No matter what happened now, however much I needed milk, I would not leave the apartment by myself again. I was staying put until Braxton was with me.
I grabbed my cell phone and made my way into the kitchen. I needed Braxton by my side right now to stop me from freaking the hell out all the time, which unfortunately meant I was going to have to be way more honest than I wanted to be. He would worry, but it was preferable be being left by myself.
‘Braxton, will you come over? T.’ I fired off a text quickly.
‘Sure thing, be right over,’ came the very rapid reply.
The wait for him to come over was agonizing. I sat on my kitchen stool, tapping loudly on the table just to distract myself from the silence. The truth of it was I no longer felt safe in my own apartment, and that was something I needed to resolve.
“Hey, boss, are you in?” Braxton finally called through the door sometime later. “You alright? Anything I can do for you?”
I raced to the door and tugged it open, so grateful to see his face. Relief flooded me as I began to feel safe again. “Come in, I need to talk with you about an idea I’ve had spinning around in my brain. I think you’re gonna like it.”
“Okay, sure... Is everything alright?” I indicated for him to sit down, which he did. “You’re freaking me out a bit here.”
“Yeah, I know. I have something to tell you, but I need you to promise me that you won’t get mad.” I gave him a serious look, which he nodded at. He wouldn’t listen, but I had to at least try. “After you left yesterday, I realized that I needed milk, so I headed to the store. On the way, I saw a guy.” I sucked in a deep panicked breath. “One of the guys from that night in the club.”
“You what?” Just as I expected, Braxton took it way too hard. “Did anything happen? Did he do anything to you?”
“No, no nothing like that. He just gave me a look, which brings me to my plan.” The quicker I got off the subject of the man in question, the easier this would be. “There is an apartment on the floor below which has been on sale for a while. I want to buy it for you, so you can be near me.”
“Are you serious?” Luckily, Braxton was so excited by the idea of having one of these homes that he forgot to panic any longer. “But aren’t they expensive?”
“Don’t you worry about that! I need you here. You’ll be doing me a huge favor. If you’re up for it, then we can go and speak to the building manager now?”
Please say yes, please say yes
“For sure!” He jumped upright and grinned. “Let’s go, I can’t believe this. I expected you to fire me, and here you are getting me a new home.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Braxton, if you haven’t realised yet that I’m never going to fire you, then you’re a dumbass. Honestly, I love you, but you’re an idiot.”
Braxton slung his hand around my shoulder as we made our way out into the elevator. There was a giddiness surrounding us, which was much better than feeling sorry for myself. Now I could have Braxton at my beck and call, which would help me to relax. There was no way in hell that I could continue on without sleeping.
“Okay...” The building manager looked a little bewildered as I made my demands. “So you want to buy it today?”
“Right now, actually. I can pay.” I pulled my credit card out of my pocket and dropped it on the table. The manager watched it fall with shock in his eyes.
“Well, this isn’t typical, usually we usually have an application process and...”
“But I already live here – it’s me buying it.” I felt exasperated. No one was buying the place, he didn’t have any offers on the table, so what was the hold up? I needed this now – there was no hanging around. I didn’t want to tell this asshole that my life was on the line, but I would if it came to it. “You know me, so what’s the point?”
“Well, it won’t be you living there, will it?” His diplomatic tone pissed me off even further. I needed to do something drastic, to shut this crap down.
“I will pay double the asking price.” Braxton touched my arm to stop me, but cash didn’t matter to me. I needed this. I had to have this protection. “Just give me the keys. You know it makes sense. It has been for sale for a while now, and you won’t get a better offer than this.” He knew I was right; I could see it in his eyes.
It was reluctantly, but the manager eventually pulled out the papers for me to sign and handed me the keys. I gave him a look as I slipped my card into his machine. I was doing him a damn favor here. He needed to be a bit more grateful for it. But he wasn’t going to back down, and I didn’t really care now that I had what I wanted.
“Come on, Braxton. Let’s go.”
The atmosphere was different as we walked back up the stairs. I could sense that he was wondering why I’d paid such a huge fee for the apartment, why I needed the protection so much. He would address it eventually, but I still couldn’t be totally honest with him. Much as I hated to lie, it was for the best. It was safest for everyone.
“What’s going on, Terrance?” he eventually asked me curiously. “What am I missing here?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” I fixed my eyes on the floor beneath me, trying not to make eye contact with him. I needed him to just trust my words for once.
“Come on, boss. You spending all that money? What is with these guys? So you know why they’re after you?”
I sighed deeply, preparing myself for another round of lies. There was hardly any point in keeping it up when Braxton could see right through me, but I didn’t want him to panic. This was for his own good.
“I think they must just know who I am; you know what it’s like being rich, it comes with a lot of people wanting to take what you have.” What the hell was I even saying? I was just talking for the sake of it. “They are thugs, they want to rob me. But now that you’re here, I won’t have to worry about any of it.”
“Riiight, okay.” Braxton shook his head lightly at me, totally untrusting every single word I said. Luckily, since I’d just brought him a new home, he wasn’t about to challenge it. At some point this would all come back around, but this was supposed to be a nice moment.
“Come on, let’s go and see your new home.” I threw the keys at him and smirked, indicating for him to open the door. “Let’s go and see if we need to get any new furniture or anything.”
“They’re usually furnished, right? I remember when we got yours...” Braxton gasped loudly and happily as he saw the beauty of the place. It wasn’t quite as huge as mine and he didn’t have the terrace that I did, but it still looked good. “Oh my God, boss, this is too much. This is gorgeous. Nothing like where I currently live.”
“Why don’t you go and get your stuff?” I patted him on the back. “This is your house now.”
***
As Braxton returned to his current place to pack, which I knew he rented and shared with three other guys, I smiled to myself. This was something that I should’ve done much sooner. That was an oversight on my part. Maybe some good could come out of this messy situation, after all, even if it was just to make me do something good for my friend.
I wandered from room to room, trying to see if there was anything he would need to make this his home. I wanted it to be perfect for him, but it seemed that it was pretty well stocked in preparation.
I sat in a chair by the window and looked down at the streets below, wondering what the hell was going on down there. Were those guys waiting for me? Was I ever going to be able to feel safe on my own again? Maybe I was more paranoid than most because tragedy had struck my family, but still this was all very messy.
At least now I didn’t have to be alone anymore.
My eyelids started flickering, as if they finally wanted to close now that my safety was more guaranteed, and I was half tempted to just let it happen. This wasn’t even my house, so even if those assholes were trying to find me, they wouldn’t look in this apartment.
As always, when I wasn’t thinking about them, Morgan filled my mind. Her face was incredibly welcome as my mind pictured her biting down on her lip in that sexy way she did in the club that night.
“Is there anywhere private? Anywhere we can have some space...alone?”
Her words were permanently etched into my brain. I knew I would never forget the way she looked as she asked me that.
I shouldn’t have gone along with it, though. I should have insisted that we come back to mine. That way she wouldn’t have panicked, we could have got talking, and I would’ve got more out of her. I would’ve got to know her in a way that I wished I had. In a way that I hadn’t anyone else before.
The whole scene changed, and she was on top of me, riding me, sending me flying up to cloud nine. I stared into her eyes, drinking her in, loving every second of her gorgeous face. There was something in her face that drew me in deeper, that had me desperate to know more. I wanted to cling onto her, to hold her close to me, to never let her go....
“Huh? What?”
“Sorry, boss, I didn’t mean to wake you when you looked so peaceful, but you were talking in your sleep.” Braxton grinned at me with a guilty look on his face. “Are you alright?”
I wanted to ask what I was saying, but I also didn’t want to know. It would probably be terribly embarrassing. If he told me I said Morgan, I would die. “Right, yeah, sorry. I’m exhausted. Have you got all your stuff?”
“I’m all moved in!” He grinned and indicated around him. “I don’t have much stuff because I’ve never had much space before so it didn’t take long, but yeah... Now it’s all mine.”
It was done now. Braxton was in his new home, ready to protect me at all hours. This would be such a good thing for the pair of us. The tight metallic knot of coiled panic that had wrapped itself around my heart had dispersed. Everything was going to be alright.