500 Days (57 page)

I took a step closer, raising my chin. “Why
don’t you ask him and find out?” He didn’t know Casper already
knew.

“
Are you willing to take
that risk?” I raised my brow at him, challenging him. “Regardless,
if your past doesn’t send him running, boredom will. It will only
be a matter of time before he’s had enough and sends you on your
way.” He rested an elbow on the shelf. “You see Miss Radcliff, my
son never commits to anything, let alone women.”

“
Unfortunately Mr.
Covington, you don’t know any more about your son than you do me.
It just so happens that Casper already knows about my past, the
truth of what really happened.” His elbow dropped and I took a step
forward. “And yes Casper was known for treating his bedroom like a
revolving door but that is no longer the case. You see, people can
change. All it takes is a little encouragement from someone who
cares about them. And I care deeply for your son. I would walk to
the ends of the earth with him and back if he asked me to. Why?
Because I look for the good in people instead of tearing someone
down until there is nothing left but an empty shell of a
preconceived notion. And last but not least, you do not scare me
Mr. Covington. I am not someone who can be easily
intimidated.”

“
So I’ve noticed,” he
mused. “Maybe I have misjudged you, but it was only out of the
kindness of my heart. I have seen my son break more hearts than I
can count and was only worried that someone of your fragile nature
would not be able to handle it. I thought fair warning would be a
considerate gesture.”

“
It would require you to
have a heart to care.”

“
Perhaps our past has
clouded our judgment of each other.”

“
No, you’re the same
arrogant asshole I remember from the courthouse,” I smiled, happy
to stick it to this prick.

Casper happened to pick that moment to walk
back in. “Everyone getting along?” he asked. The expression on his
face said he couldn’t have picked a better time to intervene and I
wondered how long he was listening.

“
Casper, may talk to you
for a minute?” Casper turned to me to see if I was okay.

“
It’s fine. Katalina
wanted to show me her princess dresses.”

“
We might never get out of
here,” he teased. I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a quick peck,
watching his dad carefully. “I won’t be long.” I smiled and walked
over to Katalina who was practically pulling my arm out of the
socket.

After the twentieth pink, glittery dress,
and me successfully naming all the Disney Princesses, Casper had
come to my rescue. “How’s it going in here?”

Leaning down to wrap his arms around me, he
rested his chin on my shoulder. “Everything okay?” I asked.

“
You’ve made quite the
impression on my dad.”

“
I can only
imagine.”

“
No worries, I never
listen to anything my father says.” I patted his hands. “You ready
to go?”

“
More than ready,” I said,
wanting to put this night behind me.

“
No you can’t leave,”
Katalina cried.

“
Sorry Kat, but it’s late.
I promise we’ll come back.” She pouted, not happy, but eventually
allowed us to leave when Casper promised the next time we came back
he would have a tea party with her.

On the car ride home I asked, “What happened
to you?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Don’t play coy with me.
You went to the bathroom but you were like gone for a half
hour.”

“
I was…looking for
something.” He eyed me warily from the corner of his
eye.

“
Did you find what you
were looking for?” He nodded. “Are you going to tell me what it
is?”

His grip tightened slightly on the wheel,
placing his chin in his hand. “I snuck into my dad’s office and
stole some of his case files.”

I sucked in breath and Casper cringed,
waiting for me to yell. “My mother’s case files?” he nodded,
flinching like I was about to hit him, but instead I kissed him on
the cheek and he relaxed. “Where are they? Can I see them?”

“
They’re in the
trunk.”

Of all the things Casper could have done for
me this was probably one of the best gifts ever. I had access to my
mom’s files and I could finally figure out what the hell went
wrong. When we got to my place I was practically jumping out of the
car so I could take a look at the files. Casper handed me a box
while he stacked one on top of another to carry up the steps. I
didn’t even wait for Casper. I walked straight back to my room,
receiving funny looks from Declan as I shuffled past with a large
box in my hands. Placing the box on my bed, I ripped off the lid
and instantly got to work. Casper dropped the other boxes on the
floor next to me.

I spent the next two hours going through my
mom’s files. “Did I tell you how hot I thought it was when you were
standing up to my dad?” Casper unzipped the back of my dress,
pressing soft kisses from one shoulder to the next. “I so badly
wanted to take you upstairs and have my way with you.” I was too
distracted by the papers in front of me to pay attention to him.
“My favorite part of the night was when you declared your love for
me.”

That caught my attention. “What?”

Casper laughed, running a finger along the
back of my neck. “When you were talking to my dad.”

So he was listening. “I wouldn’t call it a
declaration of love. I was just stating that I tolerated you.”

He chuckled, dragging his finger lower down
my back, sending shivers up and down my spine. I tried to focus on
the papers in front of me, but Casper knew exactly what to do to
make my skin flush hot and my insides melt. “Why don’t you put
those away so I can show you just how much you turn me on?”

“
We can get to that
later,” I said, shoving his hands away so I could
concentrate.

“
Alex, you have plenty of
time to look at these files later. I want to celebrate.”

“
Celebrate what?” I looked
at him over my shoulder.

“
Celebrate the fact that I
have an extremely hot girlfriend who’s not afraid of anyone and
knows how to stick it to my father while still having the rest of
my family fall in love with her.”

“
Hmm, she sounds
interesting. I’d like to meet her…after I finish going through this
paper work.”

Casper wasn’t having it. He took the papers
from my hand and tossed them in the box. “Hey,” I whined. Then he
took the rest of the papers and put them on the floor. I frowned,
jutting out my bottom lip at him.

“
That’s not helping your
case,” he said, sucking lightly on my bottom lip. A small
shuddering gasp escaped my lips. “I want to take advantage of you
any way I can.” He slowly pushed me back as he climbed on top of
me. “I’m going to make you beg for mercy,” he growled, pouncing. I
was no longer laughing when he tore my dress off of me. His eyes
were hungry and he wasted no time taking off his clothes. Every
touch and kiss was heightened at his need to be with me. His hands
were everywhere, touching every inch of my skin, leaving goose
bumps in his wake. There was no denying how much Casper loved me.
He proved it every time we were together. And tonight was one those
nights that he showed me just how much he appreciated
me.

***************************************************************************

As soon as I was done with my classes I
headed straight home to go through the files again. Casper told me
he would come over after practice and help me. “I brought dinner.
Are you hungry?” I shook my head no. “Have you eaten yet?” Again,
no. “You need to eat Alex,” he insisted, pulling me off the bed. I
ate the burger and fries he brought me in record time and headed to
my room. Casper took his time eating and when he finished he came
back and joined me. “Find anything helpful yet?”

“
This one file here says
his doctor claims he was misdiagnosed, but it’s not his regular
doctor.”

“
Can I see that?” Casper
asked. I handed him the paper. He scrunched his brow while he read.
“According to this he was seeing a new doctor, a few months before.
Did you know anything about this?”

I shook my head no. “I could ask my mom
about it, but I don’t know why he would switch doctors when there
was nothing wrong with his original.”

“
It says here she was a
key witness for the defense.” His brows furrowed as he read
on.

“
What?” I asked studying
him. The look on his face said he didn’t want to tell me. He let
out a deep sigh. “According to this, it says that he was having an
affair with his new psychiatrist.”

“
Give me that.” I ripped
the paper from his hand, not believing it. Maybe he read it wrong.
I thought my eyes were deceiving me that maybe everything was just
blurring together. But no, Casper was telling the truth.

“
I’m sorry, Alex.” Casper
placed his hand over mine. I ripped my hand away and stood up. I
looked at all the papers on the bed. Angry, I threw the papers to
the floor and screamed. This had to be a lie. This so-called doctor
was lying. I knew it. “Alex,” Casper reached for me again but I
pulled away.

“
My father would never do
this. This lady is lying.”

“
Alex,” he said
softly.

“
No! It’s not true. I need
to talk to my brothers. They need to see this. They need to know.”
I started gathering all the papers off the floor but Casper stopped
me.

“
Alex, you
can’t.”

“
What do you mean I
can’t?”

“
For starters, this is
stolen property. My father doesn’t know I have these and I can get
in a lot of trouble. No one can know you saw this. I’m
sorry.”

I lost it then. “So you’re telling me that
there’s nothing I can do about this woman spreading lies about my
family?”

“
No, what I’m telling you
is that you can’t go running out of here on a whim. You need to
find out the whole truth before you start breaking down
doors.”

I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “Okay,
so what do you suppose I do?” I tried to take a calming breath.

“
Let’s start with putting
all this stuff away.” I opened my mouth to protest. “You’re not
going to be able to focus if you’re upset.” He was right. I hated
when he was right. He helped me clean up the mess and then pulled
me down onto the bed with him. I nestled closely to his chest,
pressing my palm over his heart tattoo and allowed the steady
rhythm of his heart lull me to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning I noticed all
the boxes were gone and so was Casper. In a panic I rushed out into
the living room. He wasn’t there nor was he in the bathroom. I
called him on his cell. When he didn’t pick up, I was ready to go
to his house and bang down the door when I received a text.

In class

WHERE R THE
FILES!

They’re w/me

I need them
back

No u need a break. U need
to concentrate on school. And worrying about what may or may not
have happened is going 2 drive u nuts. I’m doing this 4 ur benefit.
I will take a look at the files when I have time.

Angry as all hell, I took my phone and threw
it across the room, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Not the
smartest thing but I was beyond pissed. I had the answers in my
hand. The key to getting my mom released and now it was all
gone.

I didn’t even care what I looked like when I
stormed out of the house. I ran into Jaxson on my way to school.
“Whoa, what the hell happened to you? You look like shit run over
twice.” I punched him in the arm. He rubbed his shoulder grumbling
something about PMS. I raised my arm again. “Okay, chill.”

“
Have you seen
Casper?”

“
No, why? Are you guys
fighting again,” he rolled his eyes.

“
Not yet.”

“
Keep me out of it this
time.”

“
When were you ever
involved before?”

He looked ready to take off in a sprint.
“Uh, I gotta go.” I didn’t have time to argue with him about
something stupid but there was something I did need to know. I
grabbed his arm to stop him.

“
Jax, did you know
anything about dad having a different psychiatrist?”

He took a step back, surprised by my
question. “Alex, what is this all about?”

“
I just…” I couldn’t tell
Jaxson what I found out. As pissed as I was at Casper I didn’t want
him to get in trouble. “Just answer the question,” I
snapped.

“
How the hell do I know?
We were eight Alex. I try to forget pretty much anything that
happened before then,” he clipped, tightening his hands on his
backpack before he walked away. Great, I just pissed off one of my
greatest allies. My insides burned like hot lava when I spotted
Casper across the way. I marched straight for him. Not caring about
being rude, I pushed him away from his friends, backing him into a
corner.

“
I take it this is not a
social call,” he smirked.

“
You have a lot of nerve.
I want those files and I want them back now.”

His face turned real serious as he stood up
straight. “No.”

“
What do you mean no?
Casper I need them!”

“
No. I should have never
told you about them in the first place. Look at you Alex. You can’t
handle this. It’s eating you up inside. I’m doing you a
favor.”