Page 107 of Heartless

Sienna

Jake eased the door closed behind him, and a scream boiled from the bottom of my stomach.When tears threatened to drown me, I remembered those freaking cameras.So, I flipped the light off and lumbered to my bedroom.This asshole would not see me cry again.

My back slumped against the bedroom door.My legs gave out and I slid to my butt on the floor.Only then, the first tear rolled down my cheek.I hugged my knees and cried.

The light rain swelled into a heavy downpour, and as thunder crashed through the night sky, I sobbed.I sobbed until sleep took me under.

****

The flash of lightningpierced through my closed lids.I opened my eyes to the dark room.My shoulder ached, and my muscles whined.When I tried to roll onto my back, I bumped into the door.Shoot.I’d fallen asleep on the floor.Placing my palm flat on the cool wooden floor, I pushed on my hand to sit up.

What time was it?The room was cradled in the cocoon of the heavy rain pounding against the windows.I squinted, searching for the red display of the alarm clock.It was quarter to two.

A little sluggish, I slowly unfolded to my feet and ambled to the bathroom where I splashed icy cold water on my face.My eyes were swollen again, but I somehow felt better.Jake had reopened the wound of his initial betrayal, but if I was honest, it’d also started cleansing it, so perhaps now, it would begin to heal.Far, far away from the Jakes Rhodes of the world.

While I applied face moisturizer on my tired skin, the sensual ache of my body was a bittersweet reminder of my day of sex with Jake.His attraction to me was real.I’d witnessed it, tasted it, and enjoyed it tremendously.Three days, he’d said.Three days before I could return to my life that now included Nigel, the mafia...No.I wasn’t going to think about that now.I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.Food.I needed food.

On my way toward the door, the moonlight hit something on the coffee table that caught my eye.Jake had returned my cell and my laptop.This was a tomorrow problem.Or at least an after-I’d-eaten problem.

I opened the door, and my steps faltered.

The glow of the fireplace was bathing the dark family room.Then, I spotted Jake’s head peeking on top of the armchair backrest, and my breath stammered.The only thing I could see was his elbow lying on the armrest and his hand holding a glass full of a dark amber liquid.

I stared at the back of his head for a few seconds.When his arm flexed, I held my breath, but his hand lowered to its previous position, and I crept toward the kitchen.There were two plated sandwiches covered in cling film in the fridge, and I nearly groaned in relief.After I’d poured myself a glass of water, I sat at the kitchen table and bit a large chunk of my roast beef and cheese sandwich.

Expecting him to walk past the kitchen at any moment, I made quick work of my past-midnight meal.

The next three days were going to be busy, so it was time to get some sleep.After cleaning the kitchen, I paused at the archway and took a deep breath.I was an idiot.I had to be, because knowing he’d been sitting all alone pulled at my heartstrings.Hard.

I rolled my shoulders back.It would be only two seconds of seeing Jake brooding in front of the fire then I’d be in bed.On my way back to my room, I couldn’t help but glance at his fingers clutched around the empty tumbler.

As I reached for the doorknob, the low rumble of his voice echoed in the spacious room.“He destroyed my family.”

****

Jake

After she’d landed blow after blow, I’d gone straight to the basement and took my fists to the punching bag while the rainstorm had pounded over the house.

If the rain was indeed a sign of her mother, Caitlin Winslow was raging at the asshole who’d hurt her daughter.After a shower, I’d gone straight to the monitors, but she’d stayed in her bedroom.Tagging her devices from the drawer, I’d knocked on her door, and let myself in.Then, I’d heard a muted sniffle.I’d made her cry again.I’d left them on the coffee table.

Sienna gasped.“What?”

I poured more bourbon into my glass and kept my eyes on the fire.

“My parents got married right out of high school.I wasn’t planned, but they made it work.My father worked as a lumberjack, and my mother was a supervisor in a hotel.When his father died, he left him his cabin, and we moved there when I was eight.When I was twelve, they opened an outpost for hikers, a one stop point with a convenience store.Business was good, so my mother wanted to build a diner at the back of the store.Morrison wanted the land.He posed as an investor, and screwed my father out of the business, but my father refused to sell the land.At that time, my mother fell pregnant.I was seventeen, and they’d stopped trying for a second child.The miracle baby they called it.A girl.Hiking was becoming popular, and Morrison kept pushing for the sale.My mother wanted to sell, my father didn’t.They fought about it.

Morrison found out the deed hadn’t been properly recorded, and he tried every legal trick to acquire the land.None worked, but it created tension between my parents.One night, after they’d had another fight, she went for a drive to clear her head.She was seven months pregnant.The roads were slippery, and she lost control of the car.We were told she and the baby died on impact.”

I unclenched my jaw and swigged more bourbon.“A month after the accident, the deed disappeared, and we knew Morrison had managed to get his hand on it.Without the original document, my father couldn’t prove ownership, not without a fleet of lawyers he couldn’t afford.He lost everything, and it fucking destroyed him.He moved into a small cabin in the mountains.Six years ago, on a clear day, on a road he knew like the back of his hand, his truck ended up at the bottom of a ravine.He hasn’t woken up since.”

I loosened my fist around the glass.“This land...It’s all I have left of them.”

At the sound of her soft footfalls, my gut burned.She was walking away from my fucking darkness.I lurched forward, locking my body into place to refrain from begging for a little more of her light and warmth.

A gentle hand touched the back of my neck.“Jake.”

She was bent over me, and her eyes were full of tears.I grabbed her and hauled her astride my lap, uncaring of the thump of the glass rolling on the rug.Her arms circled tight around my neck, and I planted my face in the nook of her shoulder to breathe her in.Her fingers glided through my hair in a touch that washed off the putrid ugliness anchored inside me.