Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Jack paled and all I wanted was for the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I was angry by Mark’s unexpected presence but the embarrassment of what we had just been discussing hung in the air and my cheeks burned. How could I face him if he had overheard any of what Jack had just accused me of?
“You have one minute to decide if you’re going to give her back what you took or I’ll call the cops. You decide,” Mark threatened, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him holding his phone in his hand.
Just what I needed, to blow up the whole situation with police and everything. It was bad enough Mark knew anything about it. Would there be any way to stop it from getting back to my brother and family?
I would have to figure that out later. First I had to get myself out of the situation I had gotten myself into. I should have known Mark wouldn’t have been that easily appeased. It was my own fault for underestimating him.
“Forty seconds.”
Jack held up his hands in defeat. “This was never meant to escalate. I just wanted to be able to talk to Tracy. ”
“Like she said before, she doesn’t want to talk to you.”
His words confirmed that he had heard a lot of what we’d been talking about. How was I going to explain what had been said?
“Thirty seconds.”
“I never took you for a lying slut,” Jack viciously spat at me, and in a second Mark had him pushed up against the wall inside his apartment.
“You ever talk to her like that again and I’ll rearrange your face.” Mark tightened his hand around Jack’s neck.
“Stop it.” I tried to yank Mark’s hold from Jack but it was like tugging at granite. Mark’s glare moved from my ex-boyfriend to me. His eyes were glazed over with the intensity of his anger.
“Apologize to her,” Mark commanded, tightening his hold.
“I’m…sor…ry,” Jack managed to splutter.
“Let him go, Mark,” I soothed, trying to get him to calm down.
Mark released him and Jack slid down the wall, breathing deeply.
“Let’s get your stuff and get out of here.” In a split second, the controlled Mark was back and I was left adjusting to the change.
All my stuff was still standing in Jack’s living room. Mark took some of the boxes and disappeared while I collected some of the smaller bags with the more expensive equipment.
Jack never said another word. He glared at me from where he now stood at the entrance to his apartment. I couldn’t sympathize. He had tried to manipulate me by taking my things, and it had backfired spectacularly on him.
There was no doubt Mark was going to have it out with me as well.
He was probably waiting until we got out of here before he would unleash his temper on me.
I had never seen him so angry before. There had been a deadly glint in his eye that had made me tremble in fear.
I had seen a glimpse of the guy who had seen the worst things and had dealt with them head on.
There was something different in a person whose instinctual reaction was to run to danger instead of away. I couldn’t imagine endangering my life to save someone else’s.
Mark returned minutes later to help me with the last load and he walked me out.
Jack slammed the door behind us and Mark put his free hand to my back protectively.
I was hyperaware of the small touch that sent tingles up my spine.
I walked to my car and opened the trunk to put my stuff away.
Mark loaded the boxes he carried into his car beside mine.
“I’ll meet you back at your place,” he ordered without giving me a chance to say anything.
I was anxious as to what he was going to say to me. He followed behind me all the way back to my apartment. I got out and was about to get the boxes out of my trunk to carry them up to my apartment, but Mark stopped me.
“Let me get that,” he said. I expected him to head in the direction of my building but he surprised me by going to his car and depositing it all in the trunk of his car.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but he ignored me.
He took hold of my elbow and steered me into my building and to the elevator without uttering a word.
“Mark,” I started to say, but he shook his head.
“Not now.” His jaw tightened, like he was barely containing his temper, so instead of rocking the boat I kept quiet.
Even when he closed the door after we entered my apartment, he remained ominously quiet.
“Mark—”
He cut me off with the wave of his hand. “How did he get inside your apartment, Tracy?”
I shifted from one foot to the other, not wanting to answer him as I knew he was probably going to yell at me. I didn’t like confrontation, it made me apprehensive. Bickering was one thing, shouting was a whole different situation.
“Tracy, how did he get your equipment from your spare room?” he repeated, watching me intently.
I chewed my lip, refusing to look at him.
“How did you know?” I mumbled, changing the subject slightly.
“You’re an awful liar, you always have been.”
My shoulders slumped. I had tried to keep him from finding out but there didn’t seem to be much point in trying to continue to.
“He was living with me.” Tension thickened the air.
I saw his boots come into my line of vision before I felt his finger tilt my chin, his eyes finding mine.
“He was living with you?” he asked, not quite believing what I had said.
I swallowed and nodded, knowing he was about to explode
“Damn it, Tracy, you barely knew him.” He turned away from me and walked to the opposite side of the room. He paced while I watched anxiously.
“How could you be so irresponsible?” he snapped. I straightened up, refusing to allow him to continue to have a go at me.
“I won’t explain my decisions to you.” I kept my voice controlled despite my shaking hands. He was intimidating like this. I wasn’t scared of him but it was difficult not to feel the waves of anger radiating from him.
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair before he approached me.
“I knew you were vulnerable but this is unbelievable,” he continued. “You allowed someone you barely knew to move in to your apartment with you. You’re lucky he only took your stuff, it could have been worse.”
I glared at him, hating that he was right .
“I won’t be spoken to like this,” I lashed out, refusing to allow him to go to town on me. “I want you to leave.”
He moved closer and I refused to take a step back. I held his gaze without flinching somehow.
“If you think for a second I’m going to leave you here, you don’t know me at all.”
“This is my apartment.” I wanted to stomp my foot but he took me by the elbow and led me to my room.
“Pack a bag,” he ordered when he let me go and blocked the doorway.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I refused to do as he said. I crossed my arms and glared at him defiantly.
“I can play dirty, Tracy, trust me,” he threatened, and I felt a shiver of apprehension.
When I still refused to budge, he came to stand in front of me.
“Does Matt know?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew full well that my brother didn’t. Had my brother known, he would have told him.
I hesitated. He was calling my bluff.
“Pack a bag or I call Matt and tell him that you had some stranger move in with you.”
I swallowed nervously. I had been outmaneuvered. Checkmate.
“I bet he would love to hear how Jack stole your stuff to try manipulate you into taking him back.”
My brother would be so mad. His reaction would probably be worse than Mark’s.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.” There was the threat. It was up to me what my next move was.
I had been giving Mark the silent treatment all the way to his apartment. I wouldn’t even look in his direction, I was still so mad he was making me do something against my will.
My phone rang and I saw it was my sister.
“Hi,” I answered.
“You’re okay.” She sounded relieved to hear my voice
“Yeah.”
“When you didn’t call, I was so worried,” she babbled on.
“You didn’t call Matt, did you?” I asked anxiously, realizing I hadn’t called her back like I said I would.
“No. I would have if I hadn’t been able to get a hold of you.” She sighed. “Besides I don’t want to be the one in the firing line when he finds out. Did you get your stuff?”
I was aware I was being observed by Mark so I lowered my voice although it was childish because he could hear everything I said anyway. “Yes.”
“Thank goodness. At least you’ve managed to sort everything out.”
“Kinda,” I mumbled under my breath, very aware of the extra pair of ears listening in on our conversation.
“What does that mean?” Her curiosity was piqued.
“It’s complicated.” I didn’t want to explain more with Mark around.
“Did you get the keys?” she persisted.
“I can’t really explain now. Can I call you tomorrow and we can talk?” I gave Mark a side-glance but his focus was on driving.
“You sure everything’s okay?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Ditto.”
I ended the call and shoved it in my purse before going back to the silent treatment. He could make me do what he wanted but I didn’t have to like it .
“Sophie?” he asked. I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer.
“She knew,” he stated when the silence continued.
I made a point of looking out the window as I crossed my arms. I wouldn’t allow him to draw my sister into this. If Matthew discovered she knew and hadn’t said anything, she be in as much trouble as I was.
Mark’s apartment block was sleek and modern, soulless—like a piece of steel.
I had never been to his apartment before. I had copied his address from my mother’s address book. There was no reason for me to have done so, but it had been something I hadn’t been able to resist doing.
I refused to get out of the car until he came around and opened the door. He waited expectantly. I reluctantly got out and he got some of my stuff out of the trunk, but I refused to help. I was here against my will and I wasn’t going to be nice about it.
“Stop sulking, Tracy, it isn’t a good look,” he murmured before greeting the doorman to his building.