Chapter 28 Sex Tape
Sex Tape
“Stay up here, Jakey,” I ordered. “He doesn’t know where I live, and I don’t want him anywhere near Auntie Anita’s place.”
He grabbed onto my hand. “Where are you going?”
I pulled myself up to my full five-foot two-inch height. “He’s at Susie Q’s. I’ll speak to him outside.”
“You’re not going by yourself,” he declared.
I hesitated, then remembered who and where I was. “This is my town, Jake. These are my friends, my people. You showing your face right now is only going to add fuel to his fire. I’ll deal with him and send him on his way. Then we can move forward together. Okay?”
“Your friends will be there?”
I nodded. “They will.”
Walking to Susie Q’s, I wrapped my sweater more tightly around me. This far north, the tease of autumn came early. But whether it was the drop in temperature as the sun traveled toward the horizon or a surge of adrenaline, I only knew how badly I was shaking.
Opening my cell phone, I called Shae and asked her if Gabe could run over to help me.
“He’s on his way,” she assured me.
Relief billowed through me like a fresh breeze, but it did little to temper the shaking. Seeing Gary for the first time in over a year didn’t help.
I watched him from the other side of the glass as he chatted with Susie under the warm lights of the diner.
She laughed in her usual joyful fashion, waving her hands around animatedly as she spoke to him, listening carefully when he replied.
It had been a long time since I’d seen this version of Gary.
I always blamed myself for not being able to read him. Studying him through the window to Susie’s diner, I realized just how much of a consummate actor he was.
I was never the problem.
My instincts and ability to read people weren’t the problem.
He was the problem.
After talking to him, Susie probably thought I was nuts.
Squaring my shoulders, I swung the door to Susie Q’s open.
Susie’s face brightened, but her eyes were watchful. “There she is now. I’ll leave you in her very capable hands to find a table.”
Gary’s face froze, the soft lines of his smile deepening into harsh lines of disapproval.
Susie took a step back and held up her hands. “Whoa, what’s this all about?”
I faced her. “I’ll speak to Gary outside.”
“Why don’t you sit here,” Susie began. “I’ll bring you a coffee. I need to pack up Daire and Harley’s order and I’ll be right with you.”
I smiled tightly. “This is a conversation for outside, Susie. Don’t worry.”
Without another word, I turned and left, not stopping until we would no longer be a spectacle outside Susie Q’s window.
He stalked toward me.
I held up my hand. “That is more than close enough, Gary. What do you want?”
“My son,” he snarled, his face turning red. “Where is he?”
How did I ever find him good-looking? I mean objectively speaking, he was handsome enough in that nondescript sliced white bread man kind of way. It was his mannerisms, the way he had of making you feel like you were his everything, that fed the addiction.
But at fifty, the poison inside him was beginning to show on his face.
I pulled my shoulders back. Though he was a big man, his pettiness made him small.
Smaller than I’d ever be.
He stepped closer. “I know he’s been talking to you, now, where the fuck is he?”
I lifted my chin.
Perhaps it was a false bravado, but I knew Gabe was on his way.
I also knew there were enough people on the street that he wouldn’t try anything too crazy.
“Step back, friend.”
I startled as Daire, Harley’s husband, looking deceptively relaxed, eased his tall, lean, muscular frame alongside me.
“Who are you?” Gary sneered.
Daire smiled, seemingly showing all his teeth. “I’m a friend of Bridge’s here.”
Gary looked him up and down. Obviously, he didn’t see what every woman on the planet saw because he dismissed him. “She’s my wife.”
“Ex-wife,” Gabe growled from my other side.
Gary’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Another bodyguard?”
Gabe jerked his chin up, his eyes hard. “Sure, I can be her bodyguard.”
“Guys,” I began, feeling supremely uncomfortable being the center of such attention, even snug as I was in their testosterone sandwich.
Daire gave me an easy smile and a small shake of his head. “Better we deal with him, Bridge. We don’t need Hawkley showing up.”
Max sighed. “He’s on his way.”
I turned around in surprise to find Max right behind me.
Glancing down at me, he smirked, “Kian called in the cavalry to keep an eye out for him coming into town. Don’t be surprised if Susie throws down her oven mitts.”
I laughed. Despite the mountain of shit in which fate planted my flag, I laughed.
Daire knocked me with his elbow and grinned down at me while Gabe angled himself slightly in front of me.
Gary puffed up like a peacock. “I can buy and sell all of you. Step back. You don’t know what kind of trouble you’re inviting.”
Every hair on my body stood on end at the intense hostile energy wafting off the men flanking me.
I yelped in surprise when hard hands grasped my shoulders and unceremoniously moved me behind Daire, but my jaw dropped entirely when Kian brushed past me, wrapped his fist in Gary’s shirt, and kept walking until he held him up against the brick wall, growling, “What do you want?”
Gary rolled his eyes, a brave move considering the fury of the man pressing him into the wall. “Who the fuck are you now?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is who she is,” Kian stated firmly.
“She’s nothing but a—”
Kian’s other hand clamped around his throat. “Quiet, asshole. She is mine.” Kian yanked him forward only to slam him back once more, his head meeting the wall with a sickening thud. “And you don’t want to fuck with what’s mine.”
“Nice night,” Daire commented. “Really starting to cool off.”
Max snorted while Gabe laughed outright.
Gary’s eyes bugged out of his head as he scrambled to pull Kian’s wrist away from his throat.
“Do we have an understanding?” Kian demanded, his jaw tight. “Or do we need to involve the police?”
Gary shuddered at the thought, shaking his head mutely.
Kian smiled, and it was shockingly cruel. “See, I don’t give a shit about my reputation, but I’m thinking you do. I’m more than happy to take this to the police.”
Gary’s eyes slid in my direction.
Easing around Daire, I placed a soft hand on Kian’s back. “Let him go, Kian. He’s not worth the trouble.”
Kian slowly loosened his grip as I continued, no longer willing to allow Gary free rein over my life. Or Jake’s. “I’ll file a restraining order and make sure everyone in his circle knows. Jake can do the same if he wishes.”
“You can’t!” Gary rasped.
Facing him, I held his furious gaze. “I can. And I will. Unless we have an understanding?”
From fear to fury, his switch flipped so fast I didn’t see it until he lunged at me.
I screamed and covered my head, but Kian stepped between us. Gary bounced off him like a furious rubber ball.
Hawkley, his big hand at the small of my back, steered me to stand behind him, Daire, and Max while Gabe stood grinning next to Kian.
Knowing he was no match for Kian and that he had no hope of penetrating the wall protecting me, he faced me and sneered, “Maybe I’ll file a restraining order against you.” He smiled coldly. “Who are they going to believe? The devoted father? Or the stepmother who abandoned her sons?”
Jake, his face stark white against his mop of dark, unruly hair, pushed his way through the wall of testosterone to stand just slightly behind Kian. Holding up his hand, he showed his father a USB drive pinched between his fingers.
Voice shaking, he challenged, “You sure you want to do that?”
Gary’s eyes widened. “What the fuck is that?”
Jake’s entire body trembled like a leaf in the wind, but he stood his ground.
“You banging on Bridget’s door every day for two weeks before she moved.
” Stepping minutely closer, he continued.
“Every single message you sent her from my phone. And yours.” His voice got louder, his breath coming faster.
“The emails you sent her last year, the ones you mistakenly copied me in on, and if that’s not enough, there’s video proof of what you’ve been doing with your ex-wife when you’re already engaged to your next wife, you dumb fuck. ”
I screamed as Gary lunged toward Jakey, but Kian got there first. Stepping in front of Jake, he took the punch Gary meant for his son.
Smiling darkly, Kian cracked his knuckles then closed the distance between himself and Gary before delivering a brutal, triple jab to his face.
Gary’s head jerked back once, twice, and a third time exactly like one of those pop-up inflatable boxers before righting itself.
Blood spewed from his nose as he screamed and covered his face with his hands. “Argh! You know what? She’s not fucking worth it.” Pointing a bloody finger at his son, he sneered, “You’re not fucking worth it.”
Kian leaned closer and raised his eyebrows as Gary stumbled back.
“Fucking, go,” Kian demanded.
Spinning on his heel, a now red-faced, humiliated, but uncharacteristically quiet Gary, scuttled off in the direction of his car.
Kian spun around to face me. Stalking toward me, he cupped my face in his hands. “Are you okay? Did he touch you?”
“No, I mean, yes.” I shook my head sharply. “Yes, I’m okay. No, he didn’t touch me.”
He pressed his forehead to mine, his chest heaving with every breath.
Then his gaze slid to a wild-eyed and breathless Jake.
Jake stared back at him. “I’ve never seen anyone stand up to him before.”
Kian offered him a tight-lipped smile. “Sorry, bud. I would’ve let it go if I could have.”
Jake shook his head, looked down at the ground, then faced Kian dead-on with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “Thank you.”
Kian grinned. “Anytime.”
Jake’s mouth quirked, and Kian laughed. “Yeah, I do mean, anytime.”
“Jakey?” I ventured softly.
“Jake,” he panted, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“Jake.” I asserted. “Please tell me that’s not a sex tape.”
Shock gave way to horror as he stumbled back. “What? Mom! Ew!”
Kian laughed and covered my mouth with his palm. Smiling into my eyes, he teased, “You never know when to stop talking.”
Hawkley’s deep chuckle surprised me as Daire and Max joined in, drawing Jake into their fold to commiserate with him while Gabe slapped a hand down on Kian’s shoulder before turning to go. “Okay, man?”
“I’m good. Now. Thank you.”
Dipping his chin, Gabe twinkled. “Bridge.”
Wrapping his arms around me like he’d never let me go, Kian tucked my head under his chin as he shook hands with Max, Daire, and Hawkley, thanking them as one-by-one they left.
Finally, he grasped my shoulders and set me back from himself. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, so relieved to see him, I had no words.
His hazel eyes darted to Jake. “You?”
Jake nodded, tight-lipped. “I’m good.”
Dragging my hands along Kian’s sides, I stepped back. “Uh, Jake, this is Kian.”
I took a deep breath. “Kian, this is my son.”
Kian stretched his hand out to shake Jake’s. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, put a face to the name Bridget loves so much.”
I was going to cry.
Like, lie down in the middle of the street, no shame, ugly cry for all and sundry if I didn’t get a handle on my emotions.
“Where’s Isaiah?” I blurted.
“He’s with Aaron and Nadine, a couple of hours behind me. I ran out of the house like my ass was on fire.”
I blinked. Kian left Isaiah with his parents, with Aaron and Nadine, to come to me.
“Kian…” I shook my head, then stepped back. “I’m going to take Jake home. I think we just need to decompress.”
Lifting my hand to his mouth, Kian held my gaze. “I’m going to walk you home, but I’ll be back in the morning.”
At the door, Jake thanked Kian once more and went inside.
As soon as the door closed on his back, Kian drew me into his arms, tipped back my chin, and pressed his lips firmly against mine.
Fisting his hand in my hair, he tilted my head to the side and deepened the kiss, almost bruising in its intensity.
Pulling away just long enough to tuck me under his chin, he sighed. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“I’m okay,” I breathed.
And I was. Here? In his embrace? This was home.
Moving his hands to cup either side of my face, he dipped his chin and pressed his forehead to mine. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
I covered his hands with mine and closed my eyes. “I’m glad you were here.”
“So am I.”
Pulling me close once more, he dropped a sweet kiss to the top of my head and let me go. “Go up. I’ll be back in the morning.”
It took hours for Jake to relax enough to even think about going to bed, but once his head hit the pillow, he immediately passed out.
I wandered around the living room, dimming the lights and turning off the television before making myself a cup of vanilla Earl Grey tea.
Curling up on the couch, I closed my eyes and inhaled the steamy fragrance.
My town.
My people.
My friends.
My man.
My home. And home was no longer a place.
Even in those moments I doubted Kian, it was because of my history with Gary. Seeing them side-by-side, there was no comparison between them.
There never had been.
I’d spent the better part of two years running from Gary, but I had shut down long before I ever left him. I hid from myself, burying my heart in hopes of resurrecting a broken dream.
Looking back over the past two years, the truth became clear. This whole time I thought I’d been running away from Gary, but it turned out I was running toward myself.
Moving to Sage Ridge, slowly defusing the bombs littering the landscape of my heart, I leaned in to every bit of me.
Making my heart, my home.
A heart that was whole.
And willing to take a chance.
I divorced a man who stole my dreams and found a man who encapsulated them. A man who accepted every piece of me I gave him.
It was never a choice between family and career, I just needed to choose the right partner. One who supported me and knew how to love. One who was a best friend as well as a lover.
I looked at my boxes stacked up against the wall.
With Gary gone, for good, I no longer had any desire to move.
I would make our place here.
In Sage Ridge.
Where I could give Jake a proper home. A community.
In my bedroom, I shoved the suitcases aside with my foot and fell into bed in my clothes.
I’d save the world tomorrow.
Tonight, I needed sleep.