Chapter 14 #3
His head lifted as he added with a grimace, “Not like that. Just get him to take you for a drive or some shit like that. A bogus meeting with the wedding planner? Lunch? Anything.” The words left his mouth like a bullet.
I searched his features, feeling confused about what he was asking. “Why?”
Reed released a snort of frustration. “I just need you to keep him busy for a couple of hours, tops.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ve left you a voicemail. It explains some stuff.”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish. “But he’ll be going into the office today.”
A cloud of darkness fell over his features. “But it’s Sunday?”
My curiosity doubled as I explained. “I know it is, but Jasper and Theo have been working on something together. They’ve been putting in extra hours.”
“Fuck. Then manipulate the fucker. Be needy. Say you're stressed with work.”
“I’m not that Storm anymore, Reed.”
“Bullshit. One flutter from your eyelashes and any man would be on their knees.” Of course, Reed didn’t know my fiancé was immune to those types of charms. I was the wrong gender. He’d probably have a better chance of doing that himself.
I flicked my gaze to Jasper, who was now trotting down the path towards us with a not-so-impressed look on his face. He was wearing a pale pink shirt. God only knew how people didn’t guess the guy was gay. With that outfit, he had pretty much stamped his sexuality onto his chest.
“Please do it.”
Running nervous hands over the Lycra encasing my thighs, I nodded. “OK. I’ll think of something.”
“Good girl. Just make sure you keep him away from your father’s office.” His instructions were clear, but they still told me nothing. Nothing apart from the fact that Reed also thought Jasper was up to something. I wondered if that meant that Phoenix did too.
I was heading towards becoming an emotional wreck, Jasper’s gaze drilling through my cheek. The man truly was now the bane of my existence. He had made my life an endless ocean of nothingness.
“OK. You need to go now,” I hissed back as Jasper appeared by my side. I went perfectly still.
He patted my head like a fucking dog. “There you are, darling. You’re late back from yoga,” he said, before pecking me on the cheek. I was surprised he even knew where I’d been that morning.
Jasper then slid his arm over my shoulders, and I only just managed to stop myself from shrugging him off.
Being tucked against his side made me uncomfortable, but I needed to remember what Reed had just asked.
Keep Jasper away from the office.
Suddenly, the clarity of that request slapped me across the face. What were they looking for? Then I remembered Reed’s text about the green folder that was usually glued to Jasper’s hand.
“Stormy,” Jasper prompted, not addressing Reed on purpose and trying his best to make the other man feel small.
I leaned against his side and blinked myself out of my daze. “Sorry, yes. The traffic was shocking. I was catching up with Reed about the game last night.”
“Yes, I could see that,” his voice was clipped.
My saying Reed’s name forced Jasper to acknowledge him.
“Daddy was watching the highlights last night,” I added, thinking that by bringing my father into the discussion, it might water down Jasper’s angst.
My husband-to-be had his golden boy smile smeared across his face. The one that didn’t reach his eyes and was as fake as fuck. I managed not to shrink away as Reed glared at Jasper’s arm around me.
My eyes batted between them, taking in the two men who were both tightly wound.
Reed was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome: Jasper was average height, pale, and generically good-looking, like Malibu Ken to Reed’s G. I. Joe.
Before I could get my anxiety in check, Jasper addressed Reed. “Yes, I heard. Destined to be the Super Bowl's MPV. Let’s hope you continue to get lucky, Mr. Prescott.”
“My skill on the field has nothing to do with luck, I assure you,” Reed hissed through gritted teeth. My stomach clenched.
After shooting me a brief look, Jasper threatened Reed right in front of me: whether the younger man took it like that was unclear, as his stern expression never faltered.
The man I was coming to hate’s lips thinned as he delivered the blow. “Well, let’s hope not, as luck isn’t forever, is it. Eventually, it runs out. Just like a gambler with an addiction who thinks he can never lose. We all know how that ends?”
Reed opened his mouth to reply, but Jasper cut him off, motioning towards his bruises. “Dang it, what did you do to your face? That looks messy.” Jasper observed with a pantomime flinch. “Let me guess, rough tackle on the field?” He purposefully loaded his tone with sympathy.
Reed’s entire frame was rigid, and I knew at that point that Jasper had something to do with those injuries. Could feel it in my gut. And everything I had been going to confess to Reed that morning was blown out of the water.
So, Jasper wasn’t bluffing about physically injuring Reed.
I glanced at his hand as it trailed down my arm; his knuckles were uninjured.
That meant he’d paid someone to beat up the man I loved.
He must have spent a fortune to encourage anyone to attack Reed with Phoenix there. I wondered how it had happened.
I shifted awkwardly on my sneakers as Reed’s hand raised to touch his face, and he replied.
“Something like that.” His tone was like steel as he eyed the other man with disdain.
There was no pretense between them like there had been a Daddy’s club.
It was now a gloves-off scenario. The two men were way beyond civility.
Part of me wanted to scream at Jasper, tell him to leave us both alone. I took a deep breath, inhaling the roses and the fresh air, trying to look like I wasn’t shitting myself.
Suddenly, the horn went off from Reed’s car, and we all turned to see Nix pointing at his watch.
Several thoughts swirled around my head; my face contorted with confusion. What were the Sawyer boys up to?
“You should probably put some ice on that,” Jasper cut in, nodding towards Reed’s eye.
I watched the brief exchange between the two men in silence.
Reed suddenly looked like he was going to lose his shit. His posturing became more aggressive as he maintained eye contact with Jasper. “I couldn’t give two fucks about what you think. In all truth, there are a few things I should probably do right now. But that’s not one of them.”
Reed loomed on the path with a wide-legged stance. Ready for action. Their different aftershaves intermingled sourly, not complementing each other, just like their personalities.
“Is that supposed to be some type of threat?” Jasper questioned, pushing his hands into his cream chinos.
Reed made a guttural sound at the back of his throat. “Take it however you want to, you entitled little prick,” he seethed, stepping into Jasper’s space, frustration and annoyance written across his face. They were now chest to chest.
“Easy? There are cameras all over the estate,” Jasper warned, pulling his hands from his slacks and glancing around the grounds. “Surely another case of assault wouldn’t look too good on your NFL file.”
“It would be worth it,” Reed seethed under his breath.
“Do you have something you want to say to me?” Jasper blasted back.
“Pretty sure I just did jackass.”
A countdown began in my brain as to how long I had before Reed punched Jasper. “Guys, knock it off,” I demanded, pushing in between the two men and casting a help me look at Nix.
From my sandwiched position, I could feel Jasper’s heartbeat fluttering in his chest like a caged bird.
He wasn’t as calm as he appeared. The man must have been slightly afraid of Reed; the aggression bouncing off him would have made most men take a step back.
But Jasper didn’t like to lose face. That’s one important thing I learned over the years: he didn’t cope well with embarrassment of any kind.
His life was all about keeping up appearances.
And jilting him at the altar would be a huge slap on the face.
One he wouldn’t take well, hence his threats.
“Why don’t you go inside, Jasper?”
“And leave you here with this animal? Not likely,” he replied, puffing out his chest so it pressed against my back.
“What did you say to me, dick?” Reed growled, going to move around me. I followed him, butting Jasper back with my shoulder and flattening my hands against the aggressor's chest.
The slam of a car door and the noise of squeaky sneakers hit my ears. Thankfully, Nix had read the situation.
“OK, timeout. Both of you. It’s fucking painful to watch, bickering like a couple of bitches. You guys hate each other, we get it. Reed, get in the car,” Phoenix barked, moving me to one side and placing his hand on Reed’s shoulder.
“Why don’t you go and get ready, Storm? Didn’t you say Jasper is taking you to lunch?” We all turned to look at Nix, surprised by his comment.
I jumped on the back of that loaded intervention. “Er, yes. Remember darling. You promised you’d take me to that Italian on Bay Street?”
“Did I?” Jasper’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he cast a look around the group. Testosterone crackled in the air. The entire sense of that chemical was clearly oozing through Reed’s pores. I wasn’t sure what Jasper was omitting, bullshit perhaps?
Jasper’s face relaxed as his smile reappeared and he held out a hand. I placed my palm in it as he tugged me to his side again.
My body stiffened as he leaned down and nuzzled his nose against my cheek, totally ignoring the two men who were standing there staring.
His voice had switched to a tone I had never heard before: sensual, like a lover's voice. “Of course, my sweet. Let’s go and change. The white Chanel skirt suit I bought you last week should do nicely.”
I didn’t pull my head away; that would have been too obvious. Reed’s jaw ticked at Jasper’s comment. I hated how he tried to treat me like a dress-up doll. My shoulders slumped, and I gnawed my lip and turned away.
“Reed?” Nix’s voice bled through that aura of violence.
“Come on, Stormy, I’ll zip you up,” Jasper added with a playful nudge, giving me one of his smarmy smiles as he tapped me on the ass. I felt sick in my mouth. He got the reaction he wanted as Reed surged towards him and grabbed Jasper's shirt in his fist.
I watched as Reed cocked a menacing brow. “You touch her. You die,” he boomed, a primal response for a man guarding his territory. It caused Jasper to smirk further and raise his hands in surrender again.
“Cameras remember?”
“That’s it, hotshot, time to go,” Phoenix cut in, grabbing the hand that held Jasper’s clothing and twisting it away. Reed drew back, spitting on the floor next to the other man’s feet with a sullen expression. The gesture was simple enough, but it spoke volumes about what Reed thought of Jasper.
As Phoenix pretty much wrestled Reed towards his car, I twisted and watched them go, slowly dying inside as Jasper loomed by my side. There was a hideous silence that lasted over a minute.
“Disgusting. That’s the ape you're in love with? He has no finesse or manners. Does he always behave like an animal?” I allowed despair to slip back into the cracks of my heart. A sullen thought slithered into my brain as I watched him leave.
Don’t go.
As the car backed away down the driveway, my eyes caught Reed's. They were full of determination, and I just hoped what he was about to do wasn’t illegal. There was now too much at stake. That ache in my chest, which never faded, intensified.
Turning on my heel, I looked up into Jasper’s cruel, smug face. What a fucking idiot I’d been to think that he would ever do the right thing and let me go.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I glared daggers at him. “He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be.”
He didn’t bite back; Jasper just continued to stare down the driveway with a vacant look. “It’s an odd bromance that one, I’ve always thought so.”
“They’re brothers, you asshole,” I shot back, shooting him a look of annoyance which he returned tenfold.
“I know. And if anything were to happen to Reed, I imagine Phoenix would be affected. It would be like killing two birds with one stone.” I had known that Jasper didn’t like Nix.
Saw him as a bastard, that horrible old-fashioned name when your parents weren’t married.
Phoenix had also intervened a couple of times when Jasper criticized my appearance.
I turned with a warning. “Believe me, you don’t want to get into the ring with Phoenix. He acts first and thinks later. They’d never find your body.”
Jasper skimmed his perfectly smooth fingers down my face. “It’s just an observation, Stormy. No need to get upset.” I turned my head away. I’d never flinched from his touch, but enough was enough.
Straightening my spine, I walked back to my car with my head held high and retrieved my gym bag. As I slammed the boot and moved back past Jasper, my parting words were.
“I'll be ready in thirty minutes. Please ask Jacob to bring the limo around. I want to talk about my future.” I didn’t say our future on purpose. “You clearly want something from me, and so I suggest you don’t piss me off by keeping me waiting, Jasper.”
“Whatever you say, my sweet.”
“And please, change your shirt. You look like a fool.”
And she was back. I wasn’t sure for how long, but Queen Bee Storm had been reborn.
I would no longer go down in silence when I saw the marks on Reed’s face and Jasper’s satisfied reaction to them. I knew the game was on.
But there would only be one winner. I refused to let the man ruin every good thing in my life.
They say that your heart can only break once, but that’s bullshit; mine shattered several times over the day Reed left.
I used to think that my insides were too scarred ever to be whole again.
I was wrong. Over the last four years, I had been broken, and I knew I needed to fight for the person who could fix me.
I decided at that moment to make a vow not to waste any more time.
I was never going to get over Reed, and I didn’t want to.
Fight for your man, repeated on a loop in my head as I made my way up to my room.
I felt tears welling up, but I blinked them away. The motivational canvas on my wall, which my mom bought me, reminded me of that message.
She remembered who she was
And the game changed.
My earlier anxiety started to dissipate: I was so done with feeling powerless. The bitch was back.