Josie’s mouth fell open. Bethany laughed.
“You may as well give in gracefully, Josie,” Bethany said, laughter still in her voice. “Mia is very determined and she’s kind of scary when she sets her mind to something. I’m sure Gabe will attest to that fact.”
Mia elbowed Bethany and scowled. Despite herself, Josie smiled, relief settling over her shoulders.
“Can you give me just a minute to clean up? I’ve, uh, been working,” she finished lamely.
“Sure,” Mia chirped.
“Come in,” Josie said hastily. “Have a seat. It’s kind of a mess. I haven’t unpacked or anything and as I said, I’ve been working.”
“Is this your new stuff?” Bethany asked softly when they entered the living room.
Mia and Bethany were staring at the two paintings she’d just finished. Josie rubbed her hands down her pants legs and nodded.
“They’re really good,” Mia said. “So much emotion in them.” She turned sympathetic eyes toward Josie. “And it’s obvious you’re very upset.”
Josie didn’t know how to respond to that.
“I’ll, uh, just be a minute, okay?”
Mia and Bethany nodded and Josie hurried into her bathroom to make herself more presentable. When she got a look at herself in the mirror she winced. No wonder they’d told her she looked awful. She
did
.
She splashed water on her face and hastily applied foundation and powder. She brushed her lashes with light mascara and then swiped on lip gloss. She wouldn’t win any beauty pageants but at least she didn’t look quite so washed-out and hollow. No amount of makeup in the world was going to fix the dark shadows under her eyes.
When she returned to the living room, Mia and Bethany were waiting and quickly hustled her outside and toward the car parked just down the street.
The two guys Josie had noticed earlier caught her attention once more and she frowned. No doubt, they were Ash’s men. Watching her. Even though he’d sworn to give her at least last night. She shook her head. Trust Ash to do things his own way. Just as he’d always done. In the back of her mind she supposed it was good that he was still protecting her, but her trust in him had been shattered. Now what should seem like protection was just one more sign of how controlling Ash was.
“We would have invited Brittany too but we worried it might be a little awkward since she’s Ash’s sister,” Mia said in a low voice once they were inside the car.
Josie winced. Okay, obviously they did know about her breakup with Ash and they weren’t just inviting her to lunch as if everything was normal.
Bethany slid her hand over Josie’s and squeezed. “Don’t look like that, Josie. Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”
Tears burned her eyelids and she battled fiercely to keep from breaking down. “I’m not sure anything will ever be okay again.”
“It will,” Mia said fiercely. “You can tell us all about it at lunch. Then we’ll figure out how to kick Ash’s ass.”
Bethany laughed and Josie just looked at her in bewilderment.
“But Ash is your friend,” Josie said. “Aren’t you mad at
me
for breaking up with him?”
“You’re
our
friend,” Mia said. “Ash isn’t our only connection to you, Josie. And women have to close ranks and stick together! I’m sure whatever the problem is that it’s Ash’s fault.”
“Absolutely,” Bethany said loyally. “Gabe and Jace messed up plenty of times so it’s certainly par for the course that Ash would too. He is a man after all.”
Josie laughed even as tears welled in her eyes.” Oh God, I love you guys.”
“We love you too,” Mia said. “Now let’s get something yummy and fattening to eat and bitch about men.”
Ten minutes later, they were seated at a small pub not far from Josie’s apartment. They placed their orders and then Mia all but pounced on Josie.
“Okay, give us the dirt. All Gabe and Jace have said was that you broke up with Ash and moved out and that Ash got shitfaced drunk last night.”
Josie winced and put her face in her hands. “Oh God. I don’t know what to do. On one hand I’m pissed and hurt and a whole host of things. And on the other, I wonder if I’ve overreacted.”
“What happened?” Bethany asked softly.
Josie sighed and then recounted the entire story from beginning to end, leaving nothing out. Not the fact that Ash had her followed, him buying her mother’s jewelry and him insisting on her moving in with him after what happened with Michael, and then her discovery that he was the one who bought all her paintings.
“Wow,” Mia said, sitting back in her seat. “I would say I was surprised but that so sounds like something Ash would do.”
“Gabe and Jace too,” Bethany pointed out. “They’re very determined when they want something.”
“True,” Mia admitted. “They’re persistent if nothing else.”
Bethany nodded her agreement.
“Did I overreact?” Josie asked. “Part of me says yes while the other part of me is hurt. I mean I’m pissed too, but more than that I’m devastated.”
“You didn’t overreact, Josie,” Bethany said.
Mia sat forward again, her gaze earnest as she stared at Josie. “I understand why you’re upset. But listen to me, Josie, and I don’t say this to hurt you. I’m saying it to make a point. Ash could have any woman he wanted. There are literally thousands of women who’d line up to have a chance with him. But he wants
you
.”
Bethany nodded rapidly.
“I absolutely get what you’re saying about taking away your independence and how what he did negated a lot of what you’d worked very hard to achieve. But here’s the thing. Men are thick. Thick as a brick! Ash wanted to help you. Men like Ash only know one way. Their way. But, Josie, he was so proud of you. He bragged to Jace and Gabe and even to me and Bethany about how talented you are. I don’t think he ever in a million years meant to hurt you the way he has. He saw a way to help you, to provide for you and to give you a sense of accomplishment. He may not have done it in the best way, but his intentions were good. I absolutely believe that. Ash is just so intense. But he has a huge heart, evidenced by the fact that he helped his sister who was a bitch to him for years. And despite the fact that his family are huge assholes, he still can’t quite turn his back on them.”
“I had a lot of issues with the fact that Jace wanted me,” Bethany said quietly. “It baffled me that he turned the city over looking for me after that first night and that he went to such lengths to help me, to provide for me. He, like Ash, could have any woman he wanted. But he wanted me. Just like Ash wants you. We can sit here and analyze it and try to understand it, but at the end of the day, they want who they want and that happens to be us. And Jace made plenty of mistakes along the way, but we worked past those issues and I’m so glad we did because he makes me so happy. I’d never have this with another man. I wouldn’t want to.”
“So you think I’m making too big of a deal out of this,” Josie said ruefully.
Mia shook her head. “No, honey, I don’t. I think it’s obviously important to you and I absolutely think Ash should know that and recognize what he did was wrong. But at the same time, is it something you can’t forgive him for? Because really, what did he do that was so bad? His heart was in the right place even if he went about it all wrong.”
And there it was. In a nutshell. Was it really so unforgivable? Sure, she had a right to be angry, but moving out? Breaking up? That was so . . . permanent.
She dropped her face into her hands. “Oh God. I did overreact.”
Bethany slid her hand over Josie’s back.
“I should have confronted him, absolutely, but I completely overreacted. I shouldn’t have done what I did. Now he’s going to be so pissed at me, and I don’t blame him!”
“He won’t be pissed, Josie,” Mia said softly. “He’ll just be glad to have you back.”
She shook her head miserably. “It’s worse than what you think. He said . . .” She sighed. “He said he loved me and I threw it back at him. I said some pretty horrible things. Like that I couldn’t trust that he wasn’t saying it to manipulate me.”
“Was it the first time he told you?” Bethany asked gently.
Josie nodded.
“Then it’s understandable that you would have reacted the way you did,” Mia said. “Do you love him?”
“Oh yeah,” Josie breathed. “Completely and utterly in love with him.”
Bethany beamed. “There. You love each other. You can work this out. He’ll forgive you and you’ll forgive him.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Josie muttered. “I was such a hysterical twit. I can’t believe I marched into his office and said the things I said. I wish there was a Rewind button and I had it to do all over again.”
“Love isn’t perfect,” Mia said. “We’ve all made mistakes. Gabe, Jace, me, Bethany. And now you and Ash. It’s not supposed to be perfect. It’s what you make it. And you can make it really special, Josie. Go and talk to him. Or call him. Make things right and give him the chance to make things right.”
Some of the heavy weight lifted off Josie’s shoulders. Hope crept in and with it the realization that this wasn’t the end. Nothing Ash had done was unforgiveable. She’d make mistakes. There was no doubt she would. But she absolutely believed that Ash would be a lot more forgiving of her mistakes than she’d been of his.
“Thanks, you guys,” she said, smiling with relief. “I’m going to go home, take a shower and call Ash and hope he’s not too pissed to listen to me apologize.”
Mia smiled back. “Oh, he’ll listen. Come on. Let’s go. We’ll drop you back by your apartment.”
Josie shook her head. “Thanks, but I’ll walk. I need some time to get my thoughts together. I want to get this just right.”
“You sure?” Bethany asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s not that far and it will give me the chance to work up my nerve to call him.”
“Okay, but you have to swear to text me and Bethany and let us know how it goes!” Mia demanded.
“I will. Promise! And thanks again. This means a lot to me. That you’d be willing to kick his ass when we’ve only known each other a short time.”
Mia grinned. “What are friends for?”
Josie rose, hugged both of the women fiercely and promised again to text them the minute she got things worked out with Ash. Then she walked out with them and waited while they got into the car and waved as they pulled away.
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she started walking in the direction of her apartment. Her thoughts were a whirlwind, but excitement and relief replaced her earlier gloom.
Now she just had to hope that Ash would forgive her and that he really did love her.
The walk took longer than she’d thought and by the time she reached her apartment she was tired from not having slept the night before and she was impatient to get inside, take a shower and call Ash.
She cursed the fact that she’d left her cell phone in her living room. She could have already read her texts and listened to her voice mails. They would give her a good idea of Ash’s mood and whether it would be a simple matter of apologizing to him.
She put her key in the lock, frowning when she realized she must have forgotten to lock it on her way out. But then the last thing on her mind hadn’t been whether she locked up or not. She really needed to be more careful. Of course if she and Ash reconciled, she wouldn’t have to worry about that because he always made certain she was protected. For that matter he had still made sure she was protected, even though she’d left him. But then she hadn’t noticed her two shadows when she returned to her apartment. Had they given up? Had Ash given up?
A frown tugged at her lips as she pushed inside, closing and locking the door behind her. The minute she stepped inside her living room she realized she wasn’t alone.
Her breath caught when she saw three men standing, waiting, grim expressions on their faces. She recognized two of them from before. What she’d assumed were Ash’s men. For her protection. In that instant, she knew she was terribly wrong. These men weren’t here to protect her at all.
Before she could react, one moved in quickly behind her, barring her pathway to the door. Not that she would have had time to escape anyway since she’d locked her door on the way in.
“Miss Carlysle,” one of the men said in a tone that sent shivers down her skin. “There’s a message I want you to deliver to Gabe Hamilton, Jace Crestwell and Ash McIntyre.”
Before she could demand to know what he was talking about and that they get the hell out of her apartment, pain exploded through her body. She lay sprawled on the floor, utterly bewildered.
And then pain. More pain, agonizing, splintering through her body as they meted out violence. Blood smeared her nose. She could taste it in her mouth. She couldn’t breathe right. It hurt too much. She couldn’t even scream.
She was going to die.
That thought hit her and, oddly, she didn’t fight it because it meant escape from the horrific agony she was enduring.
Then it went silent. A hand dug into her hair and yanked her head painfully upward. A man leaned into her face, his nose just inches from her own.
“You tell them that nothing they hold dear is safe from me. I’m coming after them. They will regret the day they ever fucked with me. They ruined me. And by God, I’ll ruin them before I’m done.”
He shoved something into her hand and then dropped her head back onto the floor. Pain shot down her spine. She heard footsteps and then her door opening. And then it closing.
A low whimper stuttered past stiff, swollen lips. Ash. She had to get to her cell phone and call him. Had to warn him. He’d come for her. Everything would be all right if she could just get to her phone.
She tried to push herself up and shrieked in agony when she put weight on her right hand. She stared down at it, her vision fuzzy, one eye nearly swollen shut. What was wrong with her hand?
Using her elbow to prop herself up, she dragged herself toward the coffee table where she’d left her phone. She reached up for it, knocking it onto the floor and then praying she hadn’t broken it.
With her left hand she fumbled to push the right button to bring up her contacts. Then she changed her mind and hit recent calls because his would have been the last. She hit his name and with a whispered prayer as she waited for him to answer.