Read Hide: Part One (The Black Letters Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Brooke Page
That familiar chill ran up my spine. My breath hitched, afraid to turn around. It was Rod. This was how he was punishing me for going against his will, by hurting the ones I loved, again. Tears sprung from my eyes as the 911 operator answered. I refused to lose Nathan as I’d lost Landon. “I’m not leaving you,” I said, staring into Nathan’s blue eyes. But the blue was fading; he needed the bleeding to stop or else I was going to lose him. “Don’t you dare give up.”
“Ma’am, how can I help you?” the 911 operated asked sternly.
“Yes, I need an ambulance at the Tower Plaza. I have a thirty-two year old male with a bad wound. It’s bleeding, a lot,” I choked, trying to stay strong.
“I’ll send someone right away. What happened to him?” she asked calmly, the sound of rapid typing in the background.
“I’m not sure.” I fought back tears, watching the blood soak through the rag. “It won’t stop bleeding!”
Nathan’s eyelids were heavy. The phone fell from my ear as I took Nathan’s face in my hands. “Don’t you dare close your eyes,” I threatened, gently shaking his face, his blue eyes staring up at me. His face was cold, along with his hand that moved to touch my forearm.
“Jamie… Go… I’ll be…” He coughed again, and a trickle of blood fell from his nose.
No, no, no, no, no, no!
Images of Landon’s head laying lifeless in my lap slapped me in my face. How the light drained from his eyes as Nathan’s blue eyes were fading now. “Nathan, please,” I begged, holding his head in my lap as I’d held Landon’s, my own flesh and blood.
Nathan coughed again, but this time blood landed on my dress, matching the deadly red color.
Anger filled me. Fuck, Rod! He was taking another man from my life that I loved. He wasn’t going to get away with it this time.
I leaned down to Nathan’s cold lips. “You’re going to be fine.” The ambulance would be here soon, and I needed to take care of my past. “I love you,” I whispered, fighting the thick emotion that was feuding with my rage.
“Jay… no…” he rasped again, his eyes finally closing. I held his head close to my lap, kissing his cheeks and lips, sorry for ever getting close to anyone, dragging them into my tortured life to be slain like a helpless pig at the butchering farm.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered past my tears.
With one last goodbye kiss to my best friend, I laid him down in his own puddle of blood, thunder blasting in the background with the loud thumping of rain on the windows.
I was done hiding from this asshole. He needed to be gone from my life and the rest of the world so he couldn’t hurt anyone again. I picked up a metal rod from the floor that I’d tripped on earlier, prepared to take the life from the asshole who stole mine.
Lightning flashed through the condo, masking the shadows that lurked. “I’m right here you asshole, come and get me,” I growled, gripping the rod tightly in both hands.
Then the voice that caused so much terror appeared through the darkness. “Oh, Jamie Rae, I thought I told you red wasn’t your color.”
Thud.
My head took a heavy blow out of nowhere, blurring my vision in the darkness. Dizziness set in as my body crashed to the ground, forcefully slamming the life out of me. I saw stars, just as I’d seen them lying in the safety of Mitch’s arms on top of his condo, lost in the sky with the Greek gods.
Curious about Tyler and Becca?
Fall in love with their story in:
Conklin’s Blueprints (Book One)
Conklin’s Foundation (Book Two)
Conklin’s Corruption (Book Three)
Excerpt From Conklin’s Blueprints
I rolled up the plans and put them in my travel tube. Quickly throwing on jeans and a sweatshirt, I headed out the door to go into my office at Conklin. The lighting and supplies were better there, and Will did say the building was open 24/7. I doubted they would care if I worked on something personal at 8:00pm on a Friday. Is this what my new life would be? Friday nights at the office? I’d turn into my father, a working machine. No. This doesn’t count. I’m doing something for fun, not work. If I had a family it’d be different. I’d be at home with them.
I walked quickly in the crisp fall air. It was starting to get colder. Soon I’d have to bust out my winter jacket and boots. The thought made me wince. I really didn’t like snow, and hopefully they plowed the sidewalks.
My phone rang during my walk, and I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. It was Ashlynn
. Click
. Not in the mood to hear her rant about her perfect life.
I showed my ID to the security guard who looked less than thrilled to be on duty. He sighed and handed me my ID back.
“Enjoy your evening,” he said gloomily.
When I got to my department floor, it was dark and silent on either side of the elevator. I walked past the reception desk and the lights slowly popped on. I brought the plans and set them to the side. I might as well start afresh; I wasn’t going to need kids’ rooms, or at least I wasn’t going to title them as kids’ rooms. I put my ear buds in and plugged them into my phone and buried myself into making a new dream home while listening to Panic! At the Disco.
Listening to Panic was a stupid idea. One of their songs reminded me of my “first time.” It wasn’t with Connor, which is I’m sure what everyone assumed. It was my senior year, after prom, and not with my prom date. We had a mutual understanding the rest of the summer. But he, Gage Stark, sure knew how to make my blood swell. I had way more sparks with him than with Connor; I’d never admit it though. He had even called me after he heard I had broken up with Connor, offering his sympathy. Ok, so I had a fling with him when I came back home a few times within the year I took off. The thought of calling him crossed my mind, but I swiftly pushed it out. I couldn’t start my new life by calling a former classmate for casual sex, no matter how good it was with him. I tried to not let the song take me back to Gage and shook my head as if that would take me out of the sudden urges I was beginning to feel. Just as I took a deep breath and put my hand on my head, I noticed Tyler Conklin resting his elbow on the side of my cubicle with an amused look on his face.
I quickly sat up, startled by his presence. I yanked the ear buds from my ears and said, “You scared me!” My heart was racing. Not only from being startled, but because this man was way too attractive for anyone’s well being.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I was coming to grab some plans from the residential department and noticed the light was on in here. I thought I’d check it out. Isn’t it a little late for you to be working?”
“Yeah… I have been just… um…” I didn’t know what to say. I was in his building working on personal things using his supplies. I was suddenly aware that this might look bad. I tried to not look flustered.
His eyes lit up as he peered down at my drawing. “Working on a dream house? I think every architect has a few of these.” He came over to me and leaned over the desk to get a better look. I was trying not to seem embarrassed.
“Oh, it’s nothing, just a few ideas…” I blurted, starting to roll up the plans.
“Don’t worry, you are welcome to use your space for stuff like this, even if it’s,” he looked down at his watch, “11:00 at night.”
Holy crap, was it really that late? I guess I did dive right into what I was doing. I wasn’t even tired. I hadn’t stayed up this late since I moved back to Michigan.
My shoulders slouched, “Thanks. I just didn’t really have anything else to do, and well, I needed to make some big changes,” I said, my eyes drifting to the original plans. His eyes followed mine.
“Not in need for kids’ rooms?” He questioned with a raised brow.
I tried to hide my blush. What an inappropriate thing to ask! I barely knew him! He noticed my uncomfortable reaction. “I’m sorry; I probably just offended your boyfriend,” he laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
“Well, there’s no boyfriend to offend.”
Shoot, maybe I said that too fast
.
His eyes suddenly looked intense. They were blue today, probably because he was wearing a blue dress shirt, no tie, with the top button undone. He had more questions I could tell.
“You sound a bit bitter.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at him;
did he really just ask me that?
Again he noticed my reaction and tried to recover from his question, “I’m sorry, that was a bit harsh of me to say, but you clearly had someone?”
Why is he probing?
“Yes. I did, but that was a while ago. I don’t really like to talk about it.” I said, hoping that would be enough of an answer for him. Not that I needed to even give him an answer. This was all a bit deep for my liking.
He scratched his chin as if he were contemplating. “I was going to go grab something to eat, would you like to join me?”
Wow, quick change of subject! I guess that was what I wanted anyway, to talk about anything other than my awful love life.
“Sure,” I answered without thinking. I stood up to get my things together. Tyler stood patiently waiting, not taking his eyes off of me. As I felt his eyes boring into me I suddenly remembered what I looked like. I was wearing jeans and a zip-up hoodie, and I didn’t bother with makeup after my shower. I probably only had a hint of eyeliner left on my eyes. I became self-conscious; did I even make sure I didn’t have any eyeliner smudged under my eyes? I quickly wiped under my eyes while looking the opposite way of him. My hair was thrown up into a pony tail; thank God I blew my hair dry so at least my bangs looked decent. But it wasn’t like he was asking me out on a date or anything. He probably felt how I felt; we were put in a weird conversation and he was looking for an out. My brows furrowed at the thought.
“Everything ok? Do you need a hand with anything?” He said, gauging my reaction to my thoughts.
“I’m fine, let’s go,” I mumbled, avoiding looking at his beautiful eyes.
We walked to the elevator, which was still on our floor. Turns out we were the only ones who didn’t have lives outside of work, but then again, it was 11:00pm.
“So where were you thinking of going?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“There’s a coffee shop six blocks down by Rosa Parks Circle that has good sandwiches if you don’t mind the walk.”
“Sounds great,” I lied, not really hungry. I hadn’t eaten late at night for a long time. Not since Connor and I broke up. Jamie caught me with a pint of ice cream watching
The Notebook
one night shortly after the break up.
So why am I going out for food with him if I’m not hungry?
I thought to myself. He’s way out of my league, and I’m 99% positive he was not interested in me in that way. Maybe he was lonely too? We were the only ones left in the building besides the unfriendly security guard who quickly sat up straight when he noticed I was with Tyler.
“Have a good evening Mr. Conklin!” He said with an overly friendly smile.
Tyler gave him a stiff nod and opened the door for me. We walked in silence until we were three blocks away at a stop light.
“So… do you always work so late on a Friday?” I asked, trying to make the air a little more comfortable.
He smiled and looked at the ground, “Not always. I had some plans that needed to be reviewed by Monday, and I’m taking a flight to Chicago early tomorrow morning and won’t be back until Wednesday. What about you? There are quite a few clubs around here that seem popular.”
I shrugged. The light turned to walk, and we both started to move, “I’m not into the club scene anymore. And honestly, I don’t really know too many people yet. My roommate is on her way here from Florida.” She better be here by at least tomorrow.
“Not anymore?” He questioned. We stopped at the next stop light. I looked up at him, trying to gauge why he was so curious about me. I felt like he knew what my past was, but was trying to hear it come out of my mouth. Maybe it was just my weird way of always relating everything I used to be, to everything that was thrown in front of me.
“No,” I simply said. He didn’t need to know anything more. He looked at me as if waiting for me to keep explaining. “Everyone needs to grow up at some point, right?” I chuckled softly.
His serious gaze turned into a smile. “I suppose you’re right. I never was into the club scene myself,” he stated as we walked along the sidewalk.
My phone rang again. Ashlynn’s picture popped up on the screen. I really needed to change that. Tyler saw me look, but didn’t say anything as I put the phone back in my pocket after ignoring her call a second time.
We made it to the coffee shop that was surprisingly full for a Friday evening. I guess they had just finished with a poetry reading.
“What would you like?” Tyler asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
“I’m actually just going to have a peach iced tea.” I really wanted a hot chocolate, but I was afraid of the calories.
“Are you sure? Aren’t you hungry?” He said furrowing his eyebrows at me. It was 11:20pm, way past dinner time. Why was he so thrown off I wasn’t going to eat anything? Shit, maybe he was wondering why I even bothered to come with him if I wasn’t going to eat. “Not even a cookie?” I hadn’t had a cookie in a year, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to have one now.
“No, I’m really not hungry,” hopefully I didn’t sound too embarrassed.
He shook his head and started to order. I dug into my bag to find my wallet, but by the time I had gotten to it he had already paid and handed me the tea.
“You didn’t have to pay for that,” I said.
He gave me a crazy look. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve already bought tea for someone else this week, let me do the same for you,” he said as his furrowed brows turned into a grin. I stopped in my tracks and thought for a moment. What was he talking about?
“Are you going to stand there and look confused or are you going to join me?” He chuckled. Then it hit me.
“You! You and Nathan were at the coffee shop that morning!” I exclaimed in sudden realization, sitting in the chair across from him.
“Yes, we were. I kept trying to figure out where I had seen you before when we were at the meeting. Sorry if I stared at you,” he laughed, then suddenly looked toward his lap as if in deep thought.
A slow smile crept across my face. So he was staring at me. No, he was just trying to figure out who I was and nothing more. Hopefully he didn’t realize who my father was.
“It was a very nice gesture. Do you always do things like that?” He asked quizzically.
“I don’t know; it just seemed like the right thing to do. The poor lady was flustered and couldn’t find her money, the guy behind her was being a jerk, and her kid was hungry,” I stated. I really didn’t think anything of it; the lady needed a break, and I was able to give her one.
“Most people would have just been annoyed. Luckily we were in the other line or Nathan would have lost his patience.” He chuckled.
“If I remember correctly, Nathan was oblivious, lost in a conversation on his phone.”
He laughed, “Nathan is always oblivious while he’s on the phone.” Tyler leaned back in his seat and stared at me with a grin. I couldn’t help but grin back at him. His smile was infectious.
My phone started to buzz again. Tyler looked down toward my pocket as he took another bite of his sandwich. I silenced it without looking at it.
“So are you close with your brothers?” I asked, trying to ignore my phone.
“I guess you could say so, more Nathan than Mitch. Mitch and I don’t always see eye to eye. He’s a lot like my father,” he grumbled.
“What is your father like?” Now I was the one asking inappropriate questions.
He looked torn, as if he wasn’t sure he was going to answer me. “My father is very… controlling. He wants to control our lives without actually being in them.”
“I know what that feels like.” I muttered.
“Oh? I thought Maxwell Stine was a family man?” Shit. He knew the relation. My eyes widened. I didn’t know how to respond.
“I’m assuming you are related. He does have a daughter named Rebecca, or so I’ve read.”