Chapter 25
twenty-five
ISABELLE
The scream of the coffee machine was like an ice pick to my brain as I watched the barista at The Grind expertly make the biggest, blackest brew known to man.
“Don’t you want some milk with that rocket fuel?” Eve asked.
“No. After last night, I need this.” I gripped the coffee possessively before the barista even had a chance to fully set it down.
“Ok, ok, I won’t take it from you today, but you need to get back on your treatment plan tomorrow. Black coffee is your ruin.”
I sighed as I took a long sip of the dark, bitter, caramelly liquid. It soothed my ragged nerves.
“After last night, I don’t know how you can drink anything stimulating… it sounded terrifying.” I’d caved as soon as Eve had looked at my puffy, red eyes this morning, courtesy of a sleepless, tearful night, and told her everything. She wouldn’t tell anyone, except Beckett.
I nodded. “It was. Don’t get me wrong. It was absolutely terrifying. I don’t think I’ve fully processed that yet. Maybe I can stick it somewhere deep down inside where I keep all my other trauma. Keep it cozy and in good company, you know?”
Eve shook her head, setting down her coffee and pulling her legs up on the chair so she could hug them.
“Sounds healthy. You know what’s weird, though?” Eve tapped her lip, looking thoughtful.
“What?”
“Cole. He’s not an easy guy to get to know. I don’t think he worries about random strangers lightly.”
“Meaning?” I asked, my heart beating faster when I did so.
“Meaning, he seems like he was really worried about you getting hurt.”
“Yeah, I guess doing shady deals where college students get shot wouldn’t do his reputation any favors.”
Eve just shrugged. “Sounds like he was madder than that. You’re not just some random college student to him. You’ve hooked up. Something has happened between you two. It’s not crazy if he’s caught feelings for you. You’re pretty lovable.”
I smacked her arm. “I’m a hard-hitting journalist who takes no prisoners, remember?
” I let out a bitter laugh. “Until I freaked out about writing an actual exposé on someone engaged in criminal activity. It sounds like I’m the one who caught feelings, not him.
If I hadn’t crossed those lines, I could have been writing the article of my life on the Harbor Hounds right now, and getting the hell out of this town. ”
“Yeah, except Cole isn’t just some bad guy villain who you could out and not care about… he’s not a bad person.”
I looked out the window, blinking furiously to keep my tears at bay. No, he wasn’t, and he deserved so much better than the life he had.
My phone beeped on the table, and I glanced at it.
Mom: Don’t forget dinner at The Dunes for your father’s birthday tonight.
My mother’s timing was impeccable. I’d swear she had some kind of spyware on me, her timing was so good.
Eve shook her head. “Marcus says his brother never gets involved with anyone. Something happened there. I think he’s really serious about you.”
“Sure, ok, whatever you think. You didn’t see how he looked at me after.
” I looked out the window, barely seeing the campus beyond the windows.
Instead, I saw Cole’s face last night. The way he’d shut down.
Shut me out. Slammed a door. Bang. I was just a spoiled little rich girl to him, playing at journalism, and I’d embarrassed myself.
He’d been pretty clear, and it hurt.
“We’ll see,” Eve said.
After a shitty day of classes I couldn’t concentrate through, I dressed up like a good little doll for dinner at The Dunes.
Part country club, part identification tag for who was who in Hade Harbor, I hated the stuffy atmosphere.
I hated the clothes my mother insisted that I wear to fit in there.
Most of all, tonight when I walked in, I hated the fact that I’d been tricked into coming to dinner with Grant Elwick.
He was sitting talking to my father, while my mother mainlined white wine spritzers like her life depended on it.
“Isabelle!” my father boomed, getting to his feet with a lurch.
Grant stood up next to him. He didn’t have the same sway to his stance that my father did. Someone was laying off the booze to make a good impression. Gross.
“Isabelle, you look stunning, if I may say so.”
I gave him a tight smile as he shook my hand a second too long.
God, it was going to be a long night. I sat down at the only available seat, opposite Grant. My mother pointed to my glass to get it filled and I gulped it down. Tonight, a drink was just what I needed.
Half an hour later, the business talk had become so boring that drinking was the only way to lighten the leaden feeling in my belly.
This was it. This was going to be my life. Left behind in Hade Harbor, married to one of my father’s business partners, popping out kids and coming to The Dunes every day to order staff around and try to feel important.
I drank a little more, taking the sting off the sharp edges I felt inside me, like a piece of jagged glass was stuck in my heart.
“Isabelle, did you hear me?” my father’s voice broke through my foggy mind.
I looked up at him. He was standing beside me, my mother on his arm.
“Your mother has a migraine. I’m taking her home.”
“I will see Isabelle home,” Grant said, standing up to say goodbye and shake my father’s hand. Then, they were going, moving out of the dining room and leaving me alone.
Grant sat down and gave me an awkward smile.
“Alone at last.”
I nodded, swaying slightly in my seat. Crap, I’d drunk way too much, too quickly.
“So, tell me, Isabelle, since your parents are gone and we can just be ourselves. I know this setup isn’t something you’d probably have considered if it wasn’t for your father’s agenda.”
I shook my head.
Grant smiled. “I thought as much. Girls your age aren’t usually falling over themselves to get set up with an accountant.”
Plus, he was twice my age, something he didn’t seem to factor in at all. I just shrugged.
“But you see, I can be more than that to you. What is it you really want in life, Isabelle?”
I blinked at him. This wasn’t how I’d imagined a solo conversation with Grant would go.
“Tell me your wildest dreams. What is it you really want?”
“I just don’t want to be my parents.” I rambled. “I-I want someone who is real. A real live boy.” The words made me laugh.
Grant raised an eyebrow at me.
“I can’t explain it. I can only… feel it,” I added, my head spinning. I needed to go home. I needed to go now. I had a very bad feeling that I was going to spend the rest of the night hanging my head in the toilet.
“You need to feel it,” Grant replied, and there was something slow and soft in his tone that I didn’t like. Time to go.
I pushed to my feet and the restaurant rushed around me. I felt so dizzy, like I could fall right over, but I couldn’t. That would be a major mistake. I needed to keep it together.
“I need to go home now,” I announced. Grant was already on his feet.
“Of course, I’ll take you. Your dad wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t see you to your door.”
I thought about protesting, but I knew it would be pointless.
I just nodded, hoping I could walk in a straight line, as I made for the door.
Outside the night was cool. I walked unsteadily toward the parking lot. Grant took my elbow to guide me over a group of puddles and then didn’t let go.
“I don’t feel good,” I gasped out.
“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”
“What?”
While The Dunes was surrounded by a lush golf course on three sides, the parking lot was close to the highway that passed through Hade Harbor. We got to Grant’s shiny red sports car. A real pocket rocket.
I was concentrating on not falling right over, slumping between Grant and the car at this point, when I heard the long, rumbling growl of powerful engines echoing across the lot. I was feeling even more out of it now, and Grant was practically holding me up at this point.
“Get used to what?” I asked again.
“A little downer. Your mother’s been on them for years. Helps to steady the nerves.”
I blinked at him in disbelief. “You gave me something?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing your mother doesn’t take on the regular.”
What the fuck?
Headlights appeared on the road running along the outer perimeter of the lot. Motorcycles, lots of them. A whole gang, it looked like.
“You wouldn’t think you’d get that kind of element in a nice place like Hade Harbor.”
“What kind of element?”
Grant wrinkled his nose, watching the bikes stream past. One of the bikes at the front of the group seemed to have slowed down. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it. My brain was so muddled I couldn’t tell.
The bikes passed by, and silence surged back in.
“People like Cole Bailey. I understand that there needs to be that type of bottom-feeder filth to carry out the grunt work in this town, but they really should be seen and not heard. I didn’t like seeing you wearing his vest at the hockey game.”
I was barely registering his words anymore.
My hands were numb. My tongue felt a little numb, too.
I swayed away from him, but he just chuckled as he opened the passenger door of his car and let me fall inside.
I banged my knees hard, and scraped my arm over the asphalt.
I was nearly immobile at this point, and I practically had to crawl into the car after falling.
Grant got in and started the car.
“So, mine or yours?” He smiled in an effort not to look like a creep but failed.
“Take me home, please.”
“I will. After.”
We drove away from the country club and pulled onto the main road. As we turned, my eyes caught a solitary headlight, parked up the road a little ways in the opposite direction.
A lone biker.
My heart clenched hard in my chest. I could barely keep my eyes open at this point.
Everything was blurry. Motherfucker had drugged me.
Drugged me? I felt sick. My stomach roiled.
I’d never been good with too much alcohol or anything stronger.
It wouldn’t be long before my stomach rebelled completely.
I watched in the side mirror as the bike turned onto the dark, deserted road and started after us.
Grant was talking about something to do with summer travel plans.
I was concentrating on not throwing up, but otherwise, all my attention was on the dark biker figure.
He didn’t overtake us. He just rode right behind us.
He didn’t have his headlight on anymore, but I could still make out the shape of his bike.
Was it him? Was he following us?
I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I let them close for a long moment. God, that felt good.
Maybe I’d just rest my eyes a little longer.
Just a little longer.