Ashley's Bend (36 page)

“We were concerned for your safety, so we chose to keep it from you. We didn’t want you to worry, Ashley. We’ve had Drake following you for a few weeks now to make sure that you stayed safe.”

I thought about what Knox said. They’ve been having Drake follow me for weeks now? Well then where the fuck was he when
he
came into the Laundromat and turned my whole world upside down?

“We haven’t been able to locate Carter to find out if he was the one behind all of it,” Knox admitted.

That’s because he was in rehab.

“I don’t appreciate information being kept from me like that, Knox. Especially since it directly concerns me.”

“I’m sorry, Ashley. We thought it was for the best.”

I took Knox’s words to heart. He and Dominic did what they thought was best for me, just like I was going to have to do for them. I couldn’t be mad at them for keeping information from me when I, myself, had a dark secret that would be revealed in only a matter of days.

I walked over and wrapped my arms around the big muscular teddy bear. He may be a dominant in the bedroom, but he was sweet, kind and very protective of his friends outside of it. My heart was aching so badly with the misery that I was going to cause him.

“Just don’t keep anything from me anymore, and I won’t tell Dominic that I know, saving you from getting your ass kicked.”

He laughed and I felt it vibrate through his whole body. I pulled back and joined him to the point that my side was in stitches. I laughed so hard I had tears coming from my eyes.

“Come on, let’s get back downstairs before they lose it without us down there.” I nodded and followed Knox back out of the office so that he couldn’t see that the tears of laughter I had only moments ago, were tears of pain now.

Knox walked me out to the Aston Martin after we closed the club to make sure that I made it out safely. He offered to follow me back to the apartment, but I told him that I would be ok with Drake following me. I thought he was using it as an excuse to see Kelly, but he just said ok and left once I pulled out of the parking lot.

The whole drive home, all I thought about was how Officer Russell was involved in this now and how I despised him because when he became a police officer, he vowed to protect and serve, not cheat and blackmail. The nerve of the man coming into the club to threaten me.
He
must have thought that I was a threat if he was constantly calling me and sending people to put me in my place. I knew the consequences of what would happen if I didn’t comply, but I also knew the consequences of what would happen when I did.

I parked the car in front of our apartment and made sure it was locked up. Not that Dominic would get much use out of his car when he got home, but I still didn’t want to take the chance of someone stealing it. With my head down looking into my purse for the keys to my apartment, I wasn’t expecting to collide into a solid mass of muscle. I looked up and my eyes met Drake’s.

“Oh God, Drake. You scared the shit out of me,” I confessed as my hand clutched my chest, only he didn’t smile or be friendly with me like he normally did. Instead, he produced a small revolver from behind his back and aimed it at me nonchalantly. I froze out of both fear and shock that he was pulling a gun on me. What the fuck was it with me and bad guys? Did I have some fucking criminal radar attractant or something?

“Mr. Walker just wanted to make sure you were still following orders. He thinks that you have confided in Knox and now you have some type of a plan.”

“Oh my God! Drake you can’t seriously be in on this too? Why? Why would you betray Dominic and Knox like this?”

His sadistic grin made me want to punch him in the face and my hands clenched so tightly, I could feel my fingernails digging into the skin of my palms.

“Money talks, Ashley.”

“Is that money worth betraying your friends?”

“They were never my friends, Ashley. Mr. Walker has given me security for the rest of my life. I like you. You are a sweet girl, but that doesn’t mean that I will let you get in the way of this. Do what you were told to do, because if you don’t, if Mr. Walker doesn’t kill them, I will. Mark my words.”

He holstered his gun behind his back and his shoulder hit against mine violently as he walked past me nearly causing me to stumble backwards on my ass. I finished searching for my keys with shaky fingers and finally entered the safety of my apartment. Kelly was most certainly asleep seeing as how it was nearly four in the morning. I tiptoed down the hall and into my room not even bothering to turn on the light. I threw my purse on the bed and I crashed onto it myself. I stared up at the ceiling for what seemed like hours before I stood up to remove my clothes.

A blue flashing light broke through the darkness from inside my purse, so I reached inside to pull out my cell phone. I swiped my finger across the screen to find a text message waiting for me from Dominic.

Dominic: One more day. I cannot wait to be buried inside of you when I get home.

A strangled sob broke out and I had to cover my mouth to keep from waking up Kelly. One more day. Dominic would be home on Sunday afternoon just as the club opened. That would also be the day that his world, and mine would come crashing down. I crawled into bed and cried so long it gave me a headache. I finally fell asleep with the ache in my head, nothing compared to the ache in my heart.

Saturday was uneventful. Kelly spent the morning with Knox, and I spent the morning in bed curled up in my own misery. My body ached and my eyes were swollen from crying. I was glad that I didn’t have to face Kelly that morning, because my forced mission was likely to crush her just as much as it would me.

I had never felt darkness and despair like I was feeling then. Where my heart should have been now sat a vacant pit of sorrow, so strong that I felt it pulling me down, until the only pieces of me that were left were also broken.

Sunday came too quickly. Kelly was already awake when I got up to get ready for the worst day of my life. I robotically went about making coffee. It was the only thing that I could seem to stomach at the moment. I felt like I could lose the contents of my stomach at any time as anguish flooded my body.

“Ashley, are you ok? You look white as a ghost,” Kelly said with concern written all over her face. I couldn’t tell her that my present state of paleness was due to the impending misery that I was going to cause everyone today.

“I’m feeling a little sick, nothing to worry about. Probably just a bug or something.”

“Well, sweetheart you better perk up. Your man will be home in a few hours.” She smiled. For a few more hours, he would be my man. Even though I couldn’t wait to see him, a big part of me wished he would just call and say he wasn’t coming home today.

Deciding that I needed to change the subject, I took a large sip of my coffee welcoming the burn on my tongue.

“You and Knox seem to be getting close.”

She smiled a wide, full toothed, cheeky grin.

“We have. God, Ashley that man makes me lose all coherent thought when I am around him. He makes me feel things I never have before. I find myself wanting to be with him, instead of trying to get away from him like I do other men I have dated before. I have never been happier.”

She seemed so completely fucking happy.
So much for me getting my mind off of today
. Talking to Kelly about Knox only made things worse because unbeknownst to her, her happiness was going to come to a screeching halt along with mine.

Rising up from the table, I told Kelly that I was going to take a shower. I turned the water on to a scorching temperature welcoming the stab of pain that the scalding water brought to my skin. I tried to erase the internal pain of my heart with the physical pain of my body, but it was no use, I was going to end up shattered anyway.

I couldn’t wait for the plane to land so that I could get to the club to see Ashley. I had plans of bypassing everyone and grabbing my girl to head straight to the Rapture Room. It had been nearly seven days since I had indulged in her sultry body and I planned on staying there for a long time.

New Orleans was a clusterfuck. They were allowing all kinds of shit to go down at the club and I ended up having to fire a majority of the staff. It kept me busy, and I didn’t get to talk to Ashley as much as I wanted to. I found myself wanting to hear about her day, how her classes were going and if work at the club was going ok.