Storm (Georgia Smoke #4)

• Twenty-Three •

“How was your trip to the grocery store?”

Briar

The nerves, fear, and hurt were all warring inside me as I trembled uncontrollably, standing in the living room. I’d stood, looking out the window in the foyer until I saw Storm’s Jeep come down the drive. Needing to move with all the anxious energy, I turned and went to the living room to wait on him.

Everything I knew and all that I didn’t—it was too much. I wished with all my heart that I could accept it and keep what we had, but I no longer knew what to believe that had been. It was too twisted with lies and deceit. If he loved me, how could he have done those things? Did he even know what love was?

I heard the chime of the door opening, and I forced myself to take a deep breath and try and calm down. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to start. I’d tried so many different things in my head, but all over, it made me want to crumple to the floor and sob. Loving someone this much and realizing you didn’t really know them at all was an unbearable pain.

Storm stepped into the living room. His black hat still on his head. A gray-and-black pearl-snap shirt was tucked into his jeans. Seeing him only intensified my agony. He stopped at the doorway and studied me, saying nothing. There was no smile on his face.

Did he know? Had Maeme told him after all? When I had taken Dovie to her and explained all I had found out, she’d promised me she’d let me talk to him, and she wouldn’t say a word.

“How was your trip to the grocery store?” he asked.

A chill ran down my spine, and I stiffened. There was no happy-to-see-me sparkle in his eyes. They were locked on me with an intensity that made me break out into a cold sweat. I was not scared of this man, and I was tougher than this. I held his steady gaze. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me.

“Did you manage to stalk me there too?” I shot back, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.

A calculating curl of his lips, a smile that did not meet his eyes, made me shiver, but I fisted my hands, refusing to show him any weakness.

“I reckon that answers the question about your call with Pepper,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning a shoulder against the doorframe.

He was not going to throw Pepper into this. None of this was her fault. She was my friend. I’d realized today how true of a friend she was. She didn’t lie to me. But him … I loved him. With all my heart. And he’d lied to me over and over again. Making me believe it was real. This was real. All the misery I’d suffered in the four hours since my world had been ripped apart exploded in my chest.

“YOU TOOK MY MONEY!” I shouted. “You held me while I cried, stood there, and let me believe it was gone. And”—I waved a hand around the room—“cameras everywhere. Do you watch me on the toilet too? How sick does it go, Storm?! Do you listen to every call I have? Read my texts and decide which ones I get to have and which ones I don’t? That’s not a relationship, and it sure as hell isn’t love. It’s.. it’s …” I threw my hands in the air and let out a sob. “I don’t even have a word for it. You had a man shoot at us. SHOOT at us. Just to, what? Get me here? Dovie was in that Jeep, Storm. He shot a gun at US. Do you see how messed up that is?”

Tears were rolling down my face now, and I let out another sob. Just saying all this to him made it sound even worse. Warped. Sick.

“So, Pepper called and told you all this because some drunk ass was rambling at her bar?”

I shook my head and pointed a finger at him. “DO NOT bring Pepper into this. She is my friend. She heard something I needed to hear. What? Are you going to deny it?”

He straightened back up and shook his head as he started toward me. “No, Briar, I’m not going to deny it.”

I wanted to pound my fists against his chest and scream at him. I’d thought he loved me. He’d made it all seem so perfect. I had allowed myself to believe I could have it. That I was one of the lucky ones to find real love. The kind that lasted forever. The heart-pounding, stomach-fluttering kind that made all the bad in your past worth it because it had brought you here. To this man.

But he was going to be just one more of the heartbreaks in my life. Not the happily ever after. I should have never thought I had one. Even for the brief time I did. Because I’d been right. It had made me weak. I was already feeling lost, and I hadn’t left yet.

When he reached me, he cupped my face with one hand. “Does it matter? If I did it all because I love you? I had to find a way to keep you.”

I shook my head. “No. No! Storm, that is not love.” Didn’t he see that? “That kind of manipulation and lying isn’t love.”

He shoved his fingers into my hair. “I told you at the very beginning that you had no idea how fucking twisted you made me. If what I feel for you isn’t love, then it’s the next step up. Because I swear to God that what this is surpasses any fucking definition there is to the word love.”

It was obsession. He had some driving need to have me. But I wanted him to love me. Not this sadistic, warped thing that he felt for me. His actions had been selfish and all for his gain. He wouldn’t even let me work because he didn’t want to share me. As much as I loved him, in time, that would eventually be what destroyed us … destroyed me. How did I know he didn’t go to topless parties with live sex when he wasn’t here with me? I couldn’t believe him. He was capable of dark shit.

“I need some space. Time to think about things. I’m going to go to Maeme’s. Dovie is already there.”

His hand fisted in my hair, holding it tight enough that it stung. “No. You’re not leaving me, Briar. I will handcuff you to the fucking bed. I won’t let you walk away.”

“Storm, I can’t stay here.”

He leaned down closer to my face with a wild, frantic look in his eyes. “No. You’re mine. You love me. And I worship you. You know the truth now. You know my twisted side. We have to work through it. Just try and understand why I did it.”

This was killing me slowly. Seeing him like this. I hated it all. Nothing he said was going to be enough to make me stay. There was too much. He’d crossed too many lines. He’d crossed lines I never imagined existed. I wanted his love. But I wanted his respect. I wanted him to see me as a partner, not a possession. I had to be able to trust him.

The chime of the door came just in time. I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t handcuff me to the bed like he’d threatened. Right now, nothing would surprise me with him. Storm grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him, spinning around to face the door.

Thatcher walked in the room first, followed by King.

Storm’s hand moved fast, and I jerked against his other hand wrapped around my arm as he pointed his gun at them.

“We came to take her to Maeme’s,” King told him.

“You called them?” Storm’s tone was a mix of disbelief and fury.

“Put the damn gun away before I have to shoot you in the leg, which just sounds tedious as fuck,” Thatcher drawled.

“Maeme sent us,” King told him.

Storm’s grip on me tightened, and I let out a small cry. He looked back at me, and his tortured gaze ripped a part of my soul out. His gun lowered, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. The silent pleading was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

“Let me go,” I said, my voice raspy and thick with the emotion threatening to break my will.

We stood there like that for several moments. Each second that I looked at him intensified the pure agony. Knowing I had to go before I broke down right here, I stepped back and turned to look at the door, walking toward it. Not able to see anything else. Just focusing on the exit. I had to go. For me. I had to do this for me.

I heard Thatcher’s voice, but there was a humming in my ears, making everything else fade away. Just before I reached the door, there was a loud crash, the sound of glass breaking, as if the house were coming down, followed by a roar. King stepped around me as I stood, frozen in my spot.

He opened the door and motioned for me to go outside. Another crash, and I winced. He was going to destroy the place.

“NOOO!” Storm’s shout filled the house.

“Let’s go before he brings that crazy shit this way and I have to hurt him,” Thatcher said, nudging my shoulder to move.

I forced one foot in front of the other.

I sat in the back of the Escalade, staring at the house with my hands clasped tightly in my lap. I’d walked out. Left. Yet I had never felt more raw and vulnerable in my life. The fear I’d struggled with when this all began with Storm was that I would lose my edge. It had gotten me through this life so far.

I had been right to worry. It was no longer there.

King closed the driver’s door and glanced back at me. “I’ll come back later and check on him,” he told me.

I could only nod. The one time I’d had a conversation with King, it was with us pointing guns at each other. This man had tracked me for months, making sure I hadn’t lied about Roger. It was odd, having him be the one who had come to get me.

He started the engine, and we pulled out of the driveway.

“I believe you killed Roger,” King said.

I turned to look at the back of his head, but I didn’t respond. It was about time, but that really wasn’t one of my concerns anymore. Whatever the man wanted to believe, he could believe.

“Only because Maeme told Rumor what he had done to you and she railed his ass,” Thatcher said, throwing what looked like a sneer in King’s direction. But Thatcher’s expressions were never easy to read.

“Rumor wants to meet you—that is, if you’re sticking around long enough,” King said.

I stared out the window. If I were staying. If Storm truly loved me. If this perfect world I’d foolishly believed in hadn’t just been a house of mirrors, then I would want to meet her too. Possibly have a new friend.

I knew we’d be leaving soon. We couldn’t stay here now. Taking Dovie from the life she’d started to make here was just more misery to add to all this ugliness. We had both gotten a taste of having a family and security. This was all my fault. I hadn’t listened to my gut. I had let my heart call the shots.