Moth to a Flame (24 page)

SHE WASN’T ANSWERING my texts and I was worried as hell. Lia was in no shape to have this bomb dropped on her because she was still so fragile from last night. As I relived our fight earlier, I wished I had just kept my mouth shut. We’d be happy together right now had I not bared my revelation to her. But that wasn’t right and I couldn’t live with myself if it meant lying to her.

I’d driven by her house, Anj’s, and the bank. I was running out of places to look for her.

Where the hell did she go?

Finally, feeling as if I had no more options, I called Ben’s cell.

“Mr. Reeves, what can I do for you this Saturday afternoon?” he inquired with twinge of annoyance in his voice.

“Have you talked to Lia? Is she with you? I really need to speak with her,” I rushed.

He huffed through the phone. “Dammit, Cale. What have you done? I spoke to her earlier and she took an impromptu vacation to see her mom in New York. Now, as much as that girl misses her momma, I have a feeling it had more to do with you. She doesn’t even as much as look at a guy the entire time I know her, but when you come rolling into town, suddenly she’s hopping on your white horse and riding off into the sunset. I told you not to hurt her. Fix it, Cale,” he threatened.

“FUCK!” I boomed into the phone. “New York? When will she be back? I promise you I will win her back. She just has to listen to me. I fucking love her.”

“Love’s a strong word, Cale. If you mean it and if she ever felt the same about you, she’ll find her way back. You’re going to have to work hard for her though. Lia is a one of a kind, but she won’t put up with bullshit,” he sighed.

“Thanks, Ben,” I replied, hanging up the phone.

Damn it all to hell. Lia had left me here in Texas with my heart broken.

I spent the rest of the day lying in bed, thinking about everything that had happened. God, I already missed her and it hadn’t even been a full day yet. There had to be a way to fix this. She had to give me a chance to convince her that everything could still work out. The real psycho was in jail after last night.

Thinking about what Sam had almost done to Lia had me grabbing the bedside lamp off the table and heaving it. It crashed against the wall, smashing to pieces. As much as I wanted to solely blame him, I couldn’t help but point back at myself. I’d fucking kidnapped a woman.

Am I even any better than Sam?

What would I have done to her had she not crashed the car and escaped?

I was a fucking monster. I shuddered at the empty memories of my blackout. In a way, I was thankful I didn’t have to relive it. The thought of having hurt Lia absolutely killed me. She was my everything. I wished I would have died in that crash.

I stood up and paced the room. Since I hadn’t died and had royally fucked up my future with Lia, I needed to figure out a solution. There was no way in hell I was going to let her just walk away from us. Crazy pasts or not, we were perfect together.

Deciding that calling my dad might be a good start, I phoned him.

When he answered, I mumbled, “Dad, I fucked up.”

“What the hell, Cale? What’s wrong?” he demanded with concern in his voice.

“She left me, Dad,” I uttered shakily into the phone.

“Wow. That’s hard to believe. You guys seemed really into each other,” he muttered in disbelief.

“Dad, I fucking love her. I can’t lose her. But I fucked up. Badly.”

His voice grew hard when he asked the next question. “Did you hurt her? Did you put your motherfucking hands on her?”

“Wait, what? Hell no. Well, not exactly…” I didn’t know how to explain our story.

His voice was cold. “Explain it to me then, Cale.”

“Dad, do you remember the accident? You even said you helped get me out of hot water legally.”

“Yeah,” he huffed but waited for me to proceed.

“That night, I was so drunk. I was actually driving to try and reconcile with you. Anyway, I blacked out while driving down the highway. I have no idea where I went or what I did. Well, apparently, I thought it was a great idea to abduct a woman. Not just any woman, Dad. I abducted Lia. When we crashed, she was able to escape.” My stomach turned just thinking about what I did to the love of my life.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he roared into the phone in disbelief. “There’s no way. I absolutely don’t believe you could have done this.”

“Dad! I have a fucking angel tattooed on my arm! She was that angel!” I cried out, delivering the final blow.

“Shit, Cale!”

“What do I do, Dad? How do I fix this?” I pleaded for an answer.

“Cale,” he sighed, “it’s done. I’m not really sure how a woman can come back from something like that. We’ll get you the best lawyer around. You don’t have to worry about your reputation as a builder. I do believe it would be in your best interest to move back to Austin though. Things could get nasty in Jonestown for you.” He was the dad I remembered, trying his best to control the situation and fix it.

“Dad, you don’t get it. I don’t want to protect my reputation. I just fucking want Lia back!” I shouted.

“You sound like stalker. You better just move on and forget about her. With what you’ve done, you’ll never be able to convince her to come back to you. You will seem like the crazy person you were that night. I’m sorry, son, but there’s no other way.” His voice was stern—resolute.

“I can’t accept that. I’m going to her in New York. Maybe she’s calmed down enough to talk to me,” I stubbornly told him.

“I seriously think that’s a terrible idea, Cale.”

I ignored his last statement. “Dad, has your friend looked into Sam Vickerson yet? He was taken to jail last night, but I want to make sure the fucker never gets out, so any information I can provide to the police will be helpful.”

“I’ll contact him, son. I’ll let you know what I find out,” he assured me and hung up the phone.

This has to be the worst fucking day of my life.

WHEN WE FINALLY arrived at the hotel, I smiled, realizing that it was located near some of the best places to shop in town. My mother was just like me when it came to shopping—we were slightly addicted. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in our case.

After the cab pulled up to the curb and we grabbed my bags, we made our way into the swanky hotel.

Mom led me to the elevator and stroked my hair lovingly as we rode up to my floor which was just one floor up from theirs. When the doors opened, I followed her down the hallway to my room. She unlocked the door and ushered me inside. Once I dumped my bags, she called room service for some coffee. I unzipped my bag and located my pajamas. Today was one of those days. Not long after I curled up on the sofa, room service arrived and my mom handed me a steaming cup of coffee.

“Okay, baby girl. Spill,” she instructed, taking a sip from her cup.

“Oh, Mom. Where do I even begin?” I questioned with annoying tears filling my eyes again.

“You start from the beginning. Just tell me all of it. We’ll sort through your pain, I promise.” She reached a hand over and stroked my hair again.

I sighed before beginning. “So you remember how you got a call one day out of the blue with my random news of moving to another town?”

She nodded. “I never really thought it was random, but you seemed to feel strongly enough about it that I never pressed on.”

“Well, Mom, it wasn’t random at all. Things were perfect at school. I was acing my classes. The sorority was great. I had plenty of friends. But Jessie left me at a party one night. I ended up walking home alone late one night. Mom, I was kidnapped,” I tearfully admitted.

Her eyes bugged out of her head. “My poor baby. Why didn’t you tell me sooner or call the police? How did you escape?” Tears welled in her eyes as she attempted to understand.

“My abductor was taking me somewhere and I was terrified but unable to get away. I ended up causing him to crash the car and was able to escape. That’s how I ended up in Jonestown.” I was sobbing now.

“Oh, baby. I had no idea,” she bawled and squeezed me tight.

“I survived three long years without incident. Figuring my abductor was a random person, I felt safe where I’d ended up. Then, out of the blue, I had two different people vying for my attention. Sam was my delivery guy. Cale was the new builder I’d accidentally maced.” I couldn’t help but smile at that memory, and she smiled too. “They both wanted to date me. I ended up going on a completely platonic date with Sam and it ended horribly. Cale came to my rescue and we were glued to each other’s sides ever since. Sam continued to terrorize me and even set my house on fire!” I exclaimed.

“What?! Oh my goodness!”

“Don’t worry, Cale was with me and put out the fire immediately. It could have been worse but thankfully he snuffed it out right away. The window has been replaced and the mess has been cleaned up. Anyway, Cale was my knight in shining armor, protecting me at every turn. Last night, we went to Anj’s Halloween party. Cale and I had planned on surprising each other with our costumes. When he texted me to tell me he’d arrived, I told him to meet me upstairs in one of the rooms.” I swallowed in fear of having to retell the next part. “He snuck in behind me and started touching me. I was so happy he was there. When I turned around and he pulled off his helmet, I was horrified to discover it was Sam.” A shudder quivered through my body.

“Oh no!” she shrieked.

“He held me down and forced my dress up. My panties were ripped from my body,” I gasped, eyes wide in fear.

“Shh, honey. It’s okay. I have you,” she consoled me.

“He was just about to rape me when he was forcefully pulled away from me. Cale had kicked in the door and began punching him over and over again. Anyway, they hauled Sam off to jail and he took me home.” At this point, the tears poured from my eyes.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite a ride, baby girl,” she sniffled, stroking my hair some more.

“That’s not all. This is the worst part. This morning, Cale and I professed our love for each other.” A painful wail escaped me.

“Honey, that’s good news. You finally found someone perfect,” she replied softly, trying to calm me down.

“I finally got the nerve to tell him the story of my abduction. Mom, it was him. Cale abducted me all those years ago!” Now I was a hysterical mess.