A Jade's Trick (Lilly Black's Jaded Series Book 1) (52 page)

"Evan?" Cain calls out as he tries the light switch.  "Evan, are you here?" 

"Yes."

"What's going on with the lights?" he asks.

"I don't want you to see me," I say flatly.

"Is this a game?" 

"This is not a game."

"Where are you?  Are you alright?"

"No, Cain," I confess.  "I am not alright."

"What's wrong?" 

"You." 

"What did I do?  Evan, can I turn on the lights?" he asks as I hear him moving around checking the other switches.

"I ran into someone today, someone you used to fuck." 

"I've never cheated on you if that's what you're getting at," he says, growing impatient.

"I didn't say that."

"Then what did I do?" he asks, exasperated.

"The same thing you've been doing since the day we met,"  I say.

"And what's that?" he demands.

"Lying," I spit the word at him from the darkness.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Evan!" he shouts, exploding with anger. "You know what I've been doing since the day we met?  Putting you on a pedestal!  Worshipping you!  Making you the center of my goddamned universe, and you're going to put me through hell because I've neglected to mention that I fucked some slut in Vegas whose name I probably don't even remember?" I'm taken aback by his rage, which he must sense because his tone softens immediately, but it's too late to change anything.  My bags are packed. "Baby, I don't know who you ran into, but if I didn't tell you about her, it's not because I meant to lie to you.  It's because she's insignificant." 

"The night we shared our histories, I told you everything about a past that made me feel like a slut, and you just sat there and lied to me!"

"Evan, how many times do we have to go through this?  I never lied to you.  I omitted part of the truth, and you know if you had known the whole truth, you never would have given me a chance!"

"And now I wish I hadn't!" 

"What are you saying?" Cain asks, and I turn my spotlight on him.  As he raises his hand to block his eyes from the bright, raw bulb, he looks so beautiful and perfect dressed for work, his tie and jacket already shed.  This is going to be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do in my life, but the time has come to lay my cards on the table.  I steady myself and throw the riding crop at him.

"This is what I'm saying!"

"It's your riding crop," Cain says, puzzled as he picks it up from the floor.

"No, the riding crop that
was
mine is safe in San Diego with Lucy.  I called her.  This one was belonged to some slut you used to fuck," I shout.

"I don't understand," Cain says, examining it.  "Why would anyone have a replica of your riding crop?"

"You tell me.  As I understand it, there are a lot of other replicas
out there, only they're not just replicas.  I had this one appraised.  It's worth more than $150,000.  Does that sound about right?"

"Evan, I'm sorry, but I'm completely lost here.  Where did this come from?"

"One of the ten women you bought them for."

"I only bought one!  Yours!" he rages.  "Fucking tell me who gave you this, Evan!"

"Lorraine," I spit her name.

"Lorraine Meriwether gave you this riding crop?" he asks incredulously, not even seeming to notice or care that this means that Rain is alive and well.

"Yes."

"And what did she tell you?" he asks, still holding his hand above his eyes.  "Will you turn that thing off?"

"No.  I don't want you to see me, and you need to respect that if nothing else.  Rain said that you had given these out to Victoria, Lourdes, and a bunch of other country club bitches.  This one belonged to Elizabeth."

"What?" he barks, but as everything crystallizes in his head, he softens, coming toward me.  "Baby, no."

"Stay back.  Don't you fucking touch me," I growl, low and serious, but he ignores me, yanking the lamp out of my hand and throwing it against the wall behind me where it shatters, leaving us in complete darkness.  Then he grabs me, and though I fight, he's too strong.

"Stop it!" Cain commands.

"Let me go!"

"I promised to never let you go."  He's speaking calmly, yet forcefully with no intention of acquiescing.  If I want him to release me, I'm going to have to hurt him.

"You promised I would never
have
to let you go.  I don't have to.  I'm choosing to," I say coldly, trying to pull away when I think he has dropped his guard.  He hasn't.

"You're not going anywhere," he hisses, then he picks me up, stalking toward the bedroom as I struggle futilely.

"Cain, you're scaring me."

"Good," he barks as he throws me on the bed where the tethers are still attached to the bedposts.  Sitting atop me, he gets the cuffs out of the nightstand.

"Stop it!" I scream, fighting him as he straps one wrist into a cuff, then the other, doing it all skillfully in the dark.  I guess it's no wonder.  He's apparently had much more experience wearing a blindfold than he led me to believe! 

"Hold still," he roars, but I fight him until my hands are bound over my head.  Then I feel my ankles being cuffed as well as he sits across my shins to stop me from kicking at him.

"Let me go!" I demand.  "Cain, I'm serious!  I am not having sex with you!"

"Don't flatter yourself.  I could not possibly want you less than I do at this moment."

It's the most hurtful thing he has ever said to me, and if I weren't so pissed off, I would lose all fight.  This is not how it was supposed to happen.  I was in charge of this! 

"Let me go!" I shriek again as I hear him milling around in another room.

"I'm not letting you go, Evan," he says, matter-of-factly as he returns, his face illuminated by his cell phone, casting dark circles under his eyes.  I hear it ring.  It's on speaker.

"Zahara Grohl," says a sultry voice with a slight accent.  Arabic maybe? 

"Zahara.  It's Cain."

"Cain, how are you?"

"I'm well, Zahara, but I'm in a bit of a hurry.  I'm hoping you can answer some questions for me about the riding crop I commissioned."

"Shoot," she says.

"When did I order it?"

"A couple of months ago.  Do you need the exact date?"

"No, that's good enough.  How many did I order?"

"One...is there something wrong, Cain?"

"Please bear with me.  Have I ever ordered any other like it from you?"

"No."

"Has anyone else?"

"No."

"Did anyone see it before I picked it up?"

"No.  It came straight from the artisan to my home address.  I examined it to be certain it was up to snuff, then took it directly to the store where it was in a safe until you came to pick it up.  No one else has the combination."

"So there's no way anyone from Grohl's could have seen it?"

"No way.  All anyone in the store knew was that you were paying for a special order item."

"Would your artisan have shared this with anyone?"

"Not if she wanted to continue to do business with us.  It is a contingency of our contract."

"Thank you, Zahara," Cain says.

"Has something happened?" she asks, and Cain explains the situation in brief.

"So somewhere along the line, someone has apparently leaked information about it, but Evan finds it more plausible that I've handed out nearly a dozen of these things," he tells her, his irritation with me blatant.

"If you had been handing those out about five Christmases ago, I might have never let you walk out that door," Zahara purrs.  Cain laughs subtly.

"Sorry I didn't mention it, but you're on speaker and Evan's in the room.  I didn't want her to think that you were tailoring your answers for her."

"Hi, Evan.  Sorry about that.  It's just a really lovely accessory."

"No harm done," I force myself to say, not wanting to give her an inkling of how I feel right now.

"Cain, are you sure that the one you have there is real?" Zahara asks.

"Yes.  Evan had it appraised."

"Tell you what.  I am in the Gaslamp right now, not too far from your place.  Is Lucy in town?  Could she bring me Evan's riding crop so I can take a look at it?" she asks.

"Why?" I ask.

"When I have it in hand, I can call you back and we'll go over them together.  I may be able to determine the artisan of the one you have by the differences.  Could we Skype?"

"Yes.  I'll have Lucy call you.  Thanks, Zahara,"  Cain says.

"Anytime.  Cain.  Evan."  He hits the red button and starts texting Lucy.

"You've fucked her!" I snap.

"Once."

"And when were you planning on mentioning that one?"

"It didn't mean anything to either of us, Ev.  It was Christmas Eve, her husband was with his mistress, and I was..."

"It doesn't matter," I hiss.

"If it matters to you, it matters."

"Just let me go, Cain."

"If you promise to be civil until we can get this figured out, I will."

"Just because some woman you used to fuck covered your ass doesn't mean that I believe a word of it."

"I see you're not ready to be civil."

"Why would Rain go to all this trouble if it wasn't true?  What does she have to gain?"

"What would she have to gain from protecting you at the club?  I don't fucking know!  Maybe if you'd tell me exactly what happened today..."

"Fine!" I shout, then I quickly go over the highlights.  When I mention heroine, Cain is incredulous.

"Rain would never do heroine," Cain says.  "She's was the only Goth at school without piercings.  She's terrified of needles."

"Maybe she's snorting it.  I didn't ask," I growl.

"Don't you think if she was actually on a heroine bender, she would have hocked a $150,000 whip that means nothing to her?"

"She's rich!  She's probably got plenty of other shit to hock, Cain!" 

"So she'd rather hock her dead grandmother's pearls in order to save you from being fooled by a...fuck, what would that even make me?"  He laughs for a half a second, then seems to suck the laughter back in.

"I don't care what it makes you, Cain.  You and Zahara can examine the riding crops all the fuck you want, but I don't really see how that changes anything.  Rain told me you called Elizabeth Domina!"

"I've never called any other woman that in my life!" Cain shouts.

"Just like you've never been with two girls at once?  Like you've only had, like, ten partners in the past?  No, wait, it was twenty.  Oh, no, it was actually more like fifty!  How many is it today, Cain?"

"I don't fucking know!" he wipes off the top of the dresser, and I can hear random objects flying everywhere.  "I've apologized for that, but I'm not going to let you hang that over my head for the rest of our lives." 

"There is no the rest of our lives anymore!" I scream, and as the emotion causes my voice to crack, I lower it and try to sound rational.  "Just untie me so I can leave."

"You're serious about leaving me over this?" he asks.

"Of course, I am!  Do you not realize what your lies have done to me?"

"Evan, I am not lying to you," he says calmly, and then just as calmly, he completely blows me away.  "But if you trust the word of a woman you've met only once over mine, then maybe you should go."  I'm stunned, my heart impaled by a blade of ice, but my defenses wouldn't let me back down now if I wanted to, preferring to see me alone and miserable rather than humiliated.  God, I can't believe the things I've said and done with him...and my scars...I have never been so exposed in front of anyone in my life.

"Evan," Cain says sitting down on the end of the bed.  "I never gave Elizabeth a riding crop.  Before you, Grohl's made a few paddles for me - simple, black, leather paddles with words written in diamonds.  They cost less than $5,000 each, and they said things like 'slut' and 'whore'.  I'm telling you this because I don't want to be accused of lying about it if it ever comes up. I am swearing to you right now that I never gave a riding crop to anyone before you and will never give one to anyone after you, and this is the first time I've ever even had the thought that there might be an
after you.
"