Chapter Nineteen
Terrance
Wednesday
“What is wrong with you?” I laughed at Braxton as he wiped some more sweat from his forehead. “You’re acting like you’ve never been here before. This is the damn gym we come to all the time, you fool.”
I expected him to join in with my mirth, but if anything, my comments only seemed to make him worse. “Come on, you’re gonna have to tell me what’s going on now. I’m unbearably intrigued,” I urged.
“If I tell you, you’ll be cool about it, right?” He was practically shaking as he spoke, this was something huge. Even bigger than I’d been expecting. I furrowed my eyebrows and glared at him, willing him to continue, but it seemed that he needed confirmation from me first.
“Okay, what’s going on? I’ll be cool, just spill the beans.” My overactive imagination started concocting wild, awful thoughts that I didn’t particularly want to deal with. Braxton is dying, he’s betraying you, he’s on something...
“My girlfriend works in there.”
My heart fell out my ass at that statement. He had me all worked up for that? Was he insane? “Your girlfriend?”
“Come on, boss, you promised you’d be cool.” There was a real edge to his tone, this mean that he was serious.
“Braxton, I’m happy for you,” I tried to sound kinder now. “I’ll be good, I promise you. I want to meet the lucky lady. When did you meet? How did you meet her?”
“Actually, she lives in our building.” His whole face flamed as he spoke, which made my heart go out to him a little. “We met in the lobby, and well, I really like her.”
I clapped him on the back and gave him my brightest smile. “Let me see her, I want to know if she’s good enough for you.”
“Trust me, she’s too good. You’ll see.”
He shook his head, took in a deep breath, and pushed the door open. I chuckled once more, pulled my bag further over my shoulder, and followed him inside. I had no idea what I was expecting when we got in, but it certainly wasn’t the girl standing before me with Braxton’s arm slung over her shoulder.
“Boss, this is Emily.”
“Emily, a pleasure to meet you.” I took her tiny hand in mine and shook it, my mind doing mental calculations, trying to work out how it must work. She was tiny, about 5 foot 3 by my estimation, and stick thin. She had a sweet body, but compared to Braxton’s tall and wide frame, well...it was a mystery. “I hope you’re being good to my friend.”
“Oh, I am, I adore him.” She actually gushed as she spoke, and the way she looked up at my friend was incredible. Even if it didn’t make any sense to me, it seemed to work for them. “He’s wonderful. I think I’m falling for him.”
I gave Braxton and thumbs up and moved away to leave them alone. They took the moment and ran with it, kissing as if they weren’t in the middle of a very public place. It was sweet really, if not a little bit sickly. They were in the first flush of love, the time when everything felt amazing. I sort of experienced that all the time, but it was more of a lust thing, rather than love.
Although maybe it seemed like I was finally grown up enough to be ready to move on. There was definitely something different about me since I’d met Morgan. I’d even checked my phone a couple of times to see if she’d responded to my message apologizing for not being awake on time to drive her to work, but there hadn’t been anything yet. She would though, I was sure of it. We’d had such a great time, there was no way I could be the only one who wanted more of that.
“Sorry about that.” Braxton finally joined me at the weights, grinning brighter than he ever had before. “She’s incredible, right?”
“She’s absolutely gorgeous.” I watched him watching her for a second, jealousy spiking through my system. I wanted some of that look of pure love. “You’re one lucky man.”
“Well, you’re lucky, too.” Braxton finally managed to drag his eyes back to me for a moment. “You have your thing with Morgan, right?”
I hoped I still did. I hoped I hadn’t pushed things by initiating sex. She seemed really into it, but maybe I was just projecting my own feelings onto her. Maybe I would’ve been better taking things a bit slower...even if the chemistry was damn near impossible to resist. I’d spent so much of the date wanting to kiss her, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time.
God, look at me, freaking out over a text gone unanswered. What had I become, this was insane!
“Yeah, I mean, I think so.” I shrugged, trying to appear like I wasn’t too bothered. “We had a good date the other night, so I assume we’re still on.”
“What’s going on with you, boss?” He eyed me curiously. “It’s not like you to be so unsure about things.” He didn’t need to say it because I could see it in his eyes. He was wondering how our roles managed to get reversed. I was, too.
“No, I know, she just...keeps me on my toes.” Morgan certainly did that.
“Well, I think that might be a good thing. That’ll stop you from getting bored. Are you going out again? Because I really think you should.”
“We talked about it.” I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about that sleepy conversation after we’d had after our incredible night of fun. “But I haven’t arranged anything yet.”
“And, why not? Go and call her right now. I guarantee she’ll be waiting for that call.”
His confidence made me grin – maybe that was exactly what I needed to do. If I really thought about it, the message I sent didn’t really require a reply, anyway. Maybe Morgan was growing frustrated with me, waiting for me to take action, which was exactly what I’d normally do. “Yeah, I think you might be right.”
I dropped the weight back on the rack and went to grab my phone from my bag. Just before I made my move, Braxton grabbed my arm and gave me an intense look. “You deserve someone nice, boss, and I really think that Morgan might be the right one for you. I just want you to be happy because you’ve given me the confidence I need to find someone.”
“I know,” I patted his hand gently. “But you deserve it, too. I’m really happy for you.”
His words touched me in a way that he didn’t even realize, so as I made my way outside for some fresh air while I made my call, I thought about them. I liked that he called me a good person. After all, the Canton name didn’t carry all good qualities with it. Money, yes, but niceness, not always.
But it didn’t matter, that wasn’t me. I was different and Braxton had just confirmed that.
As the cool air filled my lungs, my heart started to pound just that little bit faster. Any minute now, I would be speaking to Morgan again, making plans to see her and I just couldn’t wait. I got her number up on the screen and paused just staring at her name for a moment.
“Get out the way, idiot!” As some guy on a bike yelled at me, dragging me out of my daydream, I jumped back quickly. I wanted to shout something back, but I really couldn’t be bothered.
And then my phone blasted out anyway, dragging my attention back to the screen. It said Private Number, but I couldn’t stop myself from picturing it being Morgan, thinking of me at the exact same moment that I thought about her.
“Hello?” I answered happily, but I didn’t get a reply. “Hello, anyone there?” I could hear breathing, so I knew it wasn’t no one, but why weren’t they talking? “What’s going on here? I’m about to hang up. I have an important phone call to make right now.”
“Not one that’s more important than this.” The gruff voice shocked me a little, I wasn’t expecting that. “I suggest you listen up, sunshine.”
Sunshine... The words struck ice cold fear into my heart. This was a part of the thing I’d been waiting to happen, finally coming true. “W...what are you talking about?” Playing dumb seemed like the best choice.
“Oh, I think you know. Don’t play dumb with me, it wont get you anywhere.” I didn’t answer that. It didn’t seem worth it. “It’s time for you to pay up now, don’t you think?”
I gulped loudly, hating the way this man had me exactly where he wanted me: shivering and afraid. The only problem was I felt pretty certain what he was capable of. “I... I...”
“Did you not get the message a few weeks back? I’d assume that you’d be willing to act smart now.”
“I don’t owe you any money,” I finally spit out. “You know that just as well as I do.”
“Ah, I see, you want to play games.” He clicked his tongue loudly down the phone. The sound came through so vividly that I had to hold the handset away from my head until he stopped. “You don’t want to end up like your brother, do you?”
“My... My brother?” This was too much, it felt too intense. I needed to know more. If this man knew what had gone down with Mason, then I needed to keep him on the line, even if he scared the shit out of me.
But I couldn’t; he laughed loudly then all I could hear was the dial tone buzzing in my ear.
Fuck.
Fucking hell. What a fucking mess!
I glanced around everywhere to see if I was being watched, but there wasn’t anyone around. Nothing looked out of the ordinary; Somehow, I was totally alone. I looked back towards the gym, but despite the fact that my friend and bodyguard was in there, I didn’t want to return. I just wanted to go home, to be alone.
Braxton was in there with Emily; he wouldn’t miss me too much.
‘Braxton, I feel sick. I’m going home. I’ll see you later, okay?’
With that, I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and kept my head down while I practically ran back to my apartment. I felt hundreds of eyes on me, as if every single person was watching me, trying to work out what I was going to do next. I probably looked like a crazy man, I didn’t fucking know anymore. I just couldn’t stop running until I was by myself.
Then I could think, and boy, did I have a lot to think about.
By the time I finally managed to slam the door behind me, I found myself panting breathlessly, terror coursing through me. Somehow, all the bad stuff that had happened in my life was all linked. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t spotted that before. Now, I needed to grab all the jigsaw pieces and put them together methodically, rather than trying to ram them together in ways they didn’t fit. I had to do it rapidly, too, before I got another unwelcome phone call from that threatening asshole.
I didn’t want to end up like Mason.
I wasn’t prepared to end up six foot under – it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right.
But the question was, how would I go about stopping it?