Bound By You (Sunset Ridge #2)

Prologue

“Are you sitting down, Meredith?”

Meredith Banks looked at her phone to make sure it was Cassidy calling. A friend and colleague at Lake George Elementary where they were both teachers. It wasn’t like Cassidy to be this rude. Her friend didn’t even say hi when she answered.

“No,” she said. “I’m cutting out paper hearts.”

“Seriously? School doesn’t start for another month,” Cassidy said.

Meredith shrugged. She couldn’t help that she loved her job and enjoyed arts and crafts. She had an entire room dedicated to her projects.

Nothing wrong with planning out activities for the five-year-olds she’d be teaching.

It wasn’t as if she had much more to do on a Sunday afternoon.

“I’m having fun. Don’t pop my balloon.”

Cassidy snorted. “Sorry, but I’m about to crash your air balloon to the ground and I’m really sorry about that.”

She put the scissors down on the kitchen counter where she’d been standing while she worked.

“What’s going on?”

“Go sit, Meredith. I mean it. I don’t need you tripping or hitting your head, swinging your arms and breaking a finger on a wall. None of that.”

She laughed. Pretty sad that her reputation as a klutz preceded her.

She marched over to the couch and flopped down. “There. I’m sitting.”

“Where is Fredrick this weekend?”

“He’s at a conference. He should be home soon. I think it was ending this morning.”

Her boyfriend of two years had moved into her two-story townhouse in Lake George last year.

“A work conference?” Cassidy asked.

“Yes,” she said. She didn’t lose her patience often, but it was quickly diminishing. “What’s going on?”

“I’m sending you a picture,” Cassidy said. “I don’t want to say until I know more.”

“Okaaaay,” she said, drawing the word out. Her phone went off and a picture of Fredrick popped up with a coworker. “That’s Lana. They work together. Who took that?”

“My brother,” Cassidy said. “He saw Fredrick and this woman out last night.”

Her eyebrows rose. “That’s odd that your brother was in Syracuse and noticed my boyfriend.” Fredrick might have only met Cassidy’s brother three times total. If that.

“It was his stupid laugh,” Cassidy said. “He heard it and looked around. And it wasn’t in Syracuse, but Albany.”

Meredith focused her mind on Fredrick’s laugh that always got under her skin, her nerves stretching taut when he let it out in his enthusiasm. The high-pitched squeal was more irritating than her classroom full of kids the day before Christmas break.

“Maybe I messed up where he was going,” she said. “I thought he said Syracuse, but that could have been last month.”

Though it wouldn’t make sense for him to have to stay the night if it was only an hour away.

“I doubt it,” Cassidy said. “You never mess up those things.”

She didn’t. “I don’t understand what is going on.”

“Bryan was at a couple’s retreat this weekend with his wife,” Cassidy said. “That’s where he saw Fredrick and that woman.”

Her shoulders slumped, her stomach lurched, and her eyes filled. “You’re mistaken.”

“No,” Cassidy said. “Brace yourself, another picture is coming. When Bryan texted me that first one last night, I told him to take as many as he could because I knew you wouldn’t believe me. You trust too easily and never think anyone has an evil side.”

“That’s not true,” she argued.

“You know it is,” Cassidy said.

Her phone beeped in her hand and she dropped it down to look at the pictures that had just popped up.

There was her boyfriend leaning into Lana. Their arms around each other, kissing in some practiced pose they must have had to put themselves in to reconnect with each other.

Damn it. She wanted to do one of those retreats with him! And he took the woman he was cheating on her with.

Her blood was simmering, the top ready to pop with a loud whistle filling the room.

“I think I’m going to lose my breakfast.” She jumped up fast, stubbed her toe, hopped around and reached for it. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“What happened?” Cassidy asked.

“I hit my foot on the end table.” Tears ran down her cheeks. She wasn’t so sure if it was the ache from her toe or the pain of a broken heart.

“Sit down again,” Meredith said. “I don’t want to rush over there and take you to the ER.”

She moved to the couch, her body sliding down as if her bones liquefied, like the snot running out of her nose. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. “How could he do this to me?”

“Because he’s a douche,” Cassidy said firmly.

“You never liked him.”

“Nope. I said you could do so much better. Do you need an accomplice to spray paint his car when he gets home tonight? I’m your lady.”

She forced out a laugh through her sobs. “I enjoy painting but not that.”

“I’m sorry, Meredith. I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, but it’s better you know, right?”

She nodded her head, but no one could see her sitting alone, which was a good thing since she was a mess right now. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Do you want me to come over so I can be there when you confront him?”

“No. I need to figure this out first.”

“You’re not going to listen to him and, like, forgive him, are you?”

Cassidy’s appalled voice made her laugh. “Never.”

“Do you want to keep talking?”

“I need some time to think before he gets here,” she said and hung up without saying bye. Rude of her, she knew, but there was too much going through her mind.

Two hours later, she was still in that spot on the couch, her paper hearts on the counter a distant memory.

Desire for revenge was coursing through her veins like it never had before.

She was surprised, appalled and pleased at the thoughts she’d come up with.

“Hi, Meredith,” Fredrick said when he walked in the front door with his bag over his shoulder. “Did you miss me?” He let out one of those stupid laughs of his, annoying shivers slithering under her skin.

She plastered a fake smile on her face. “Always,” she lied.

He moved over to give her a hug and kiss on the lips. She felt repulsed and wanted to yank back. Even slap his face.

But what she had planned was much more satisfying in her mind.

“I’m going to take a shower and then maybe, you know, you and I can have a little fun in the bedroom,” Fredrick said, wiggling his eyebrows, his hand landing on her ass.

She barely kept the gag in place. “Maybe another day. I’m not feeling so well.”

“Your face is red,” Fredrick said, his hand going to her temple. “I hope you’re not coming down with something.”

“Me too,” she said, walking to the kitchen. She needed water to cool her scorching throat that wanted to scream at him.

The minute he was in the bathroom, she picked his phone up from the counter. Two guesses and she got his password right. Idiot used his own birthday.

She went through his texts and almost hurled. He couldn’t even delete the nasty things he was sending Lana. Ugh, it was a dick pic! What the hell? She turned the phone sideways. He was using a filter for size. Asshole.

She shook her head and started typing.

He’d learn to mess with her!

The next day

“Hi, Meredith. Do you need help?”

His neighbor’s head snapped up, her ponytail swinging as she wrestled with a massive box on the porch. The irritation etched across her face wasn’t meant for him, it couldn’t be. He shoved that thought away.

“Hi, Karl. I’m good.”

But she wasn’t good. Not even close. Her movements were too jerky, her muttered growl too raw as she shoved the box aside with her foot, then kicked it again for good measure.

The Meredith he knew didn’t lose her patience. Didn’t snap. Didn’t unravel. So no, she wasn’t good.

“I can see you’re upset,” he said, his voice soft and coaxing. “Let me help.”

She sniffled, the sound splintering something deep inside his chest, and before he could stop himself he was crossing the distance and folding her into his arms. She stiffened briefly, sharp like a flinch, but he ignored it. She was surprised, that was all.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice thick. “I’m so upset. So angry.”

“What happened?”

His gaze slid past her shoulder into the open door where more boxes waited by the stairs. He strode in uninvited and lifted them easily. She didn’t argue. She never did with him.

“That’s Fredrick’s stuff. He’s leaving.”

A rush of heat flooded him. “Did he break up with you?”

Her answer hit like a spark to dry kindling. “No. A friend told me last night he’s cheating. I’m kicking him out. Tonight he’ll find out.”

Karl’s fingers flexed around the box, his knuckles whitening. Good. It would be finished. Erased. Removed from her life like all the other poor choices she’d been making.

“I never liked him,” he said tightly. “You’re too trusting, Meredith. Too… na?ve.”

She only sighed and dragged her arm across her damp face before grabbing another box. “I know. I’m done with men for a while. Thanks for helping, Karl. I can always count on you.”

“My pleasure,” he murmured. “Anytime. Call me anytime.”

She nodded, retreating inside and shutting the door between them. Not the ending he wanted. But emotions made her clumsy. He’d help her learn to control them just like he’d mastered it.

He slipped back into his house and dialed his mother.

“Hi, Karl,” his mother answered, her tone clipped.

“Mother,” he said. Always Mother. Never Mom. Never Mommy. God forbid she relax and show any emotional happiness, loving gestures or words.

“Should you be calling during work hours?”

“I’m on break. I wanted to tell you that things are going well with Meredith. I helped her move boxes today.”

“She’s moving in with you?” A pause. “To your new house?”

“Eventually.”

Silence stretched slow and heavy.

“Karl, are you taking your medication?”

His teeth ground together, his fists clenching until his nails bit flesh. He forced a breath, then another before smoothing the edges of his movements. Always remain in control. His mother taught him that.

“You never trust me,” he said softly.

“You’ve given me reasons not to. You talk about Meredith constantly, yet I’ve never talked to her. Never seen a photo. I need to know she’s real. That this isn’t…like before.”

His lips curved as he reached for the keyboard and pulled up the feed of the camera he’d secretly planted. Meredith’s kitchen filled his monitor. There she was, pacing, throwing down a towel in frustration, her face flushed and wet with tears as her arms swung around her head in a tantrum.

He zoomed in, studying every line, every twitch of her mouth. She’d learn to temper those ugly outbursts in time. He’d make sure of it.

“Oh, she’s real,” he whispered, his lips curling in a smile. “And soon, she’ll be mine. Completely.”