Accidents Waiting to Happen (43 page)

Fighting with himself to give a delicate, more softened version, Josh struggled to speak.
 
But knowing lies and deceit were useless currency, he paid with the truth.
 
“I started the affair three months after you lost the baby.
 
We were strangers to each other.
 
We were both unsure what we wanted or even if we wanted each other.”

“That’s it?
 
Because we had a rough patch you ran off to find the first bitch you could fuck?”

“No,” he recoiled.
 
“You didn’t want to know me, you pushed me away like it was my fault.”

“I’m so sorry.
 
It must be my fault you put your dick in your secretary.”
 
Sarcasm laced the tirade.

“No, I’m not saying that.
 
I’m telling you the truth—something I should have done a long time ago.
 
I had an affair for my own selfish reasons, but I realized it was wrong.
 
I came back for you and I made this family work, did my best to make us happy.
 
I love you Kate and I want you.”
 
Josh maintained his distance, Kate still had the poker and he feared what she would do with it in this distraught state.

“How do I know you won’t run off with the next pair of pretty tits that jiggles by?”

“Because I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere.
 
I’m one hundred percent behind this family, for this family.”

Kate glared.
 
Her face, screwed tight with the fury and pain, suddenly relaxed.
 
She dropped the poker to the floor.
 
It twanged against the fireplace tiles.

The Kate Josh knew came into focus.
 
It was going to be okay.
 
He managed a weak smile.
 

The house was silent, not even a noise from Abby’s bedroom.

“I want you to go, Josh,” Kate said.

He couldn’t believe it.
 
He had lost.
 
He tried to challenge, but she knocked his pleas down with a raised hand.

All the emotion had drained from Kate.
 
“I don’t know what I want, but I do know I don’t want you.”
 

Kate’s fury, present moments earlier, now possessed Josh.
 
He knew he could do nothing here.
 
He’d lost his family and stormed out of the living room.
 

He yanked on the door but the security chain was still attached.
 
The door ripped itself from his grasp and slammed shut.
 
He jerked on the door even harder.
 
With a crack of splintering wood, the fixings tore from the doorframe.
 
The chain attached to the door recoiled and swung out, narrowly missing Josh’s face.
 
The door’s momentum sent him sprawling.
   

Josh tore over to his car and flung himself behind of the wheel.
 
He gunned the engine, yanked the gearshift into reverse and the car roared backwards into the street.
 
He jammed the gearshift into drive and floored the gas pedal, trails of black smoke pouring off the screaming tires.

“Fucking bitch,” Josh growled.
 
He would be damned if Bell would be allowed to get away with this.
 
She would pay dearly for what she had done.

Chapter Twenty-nine

The journey to Bells’ house took minutes.
 
The rules of the road didn’t apply to Josh.
 
He bullied his way past every vehicle in his path.
 
The engine screaming in pain, Josh tore along the roads, taking each bend too fast and stopping too late.

The car screeched to a halt outside Belinda Wong’s borrowed house.
 
The car rode up over the rolled curb and positioned itself untidily on the sidewalk, trailing a pair of black, wavy lines on the pale road surface.
 
Josh leapt from the driver’s side.
 
A Pontiac Grand Am missed him by inches as it passed him.
 
He ignored the driver’s violent over-correction and the subsequent insult.
 
Blinded by rage, he charged up to the house.
 

Josh yanked on the door.
 
It was unlocked and opened easily.
 
It didn’t matter that the door was unlocked.
 
Nothing would have prevented him from getting in.

Bell appeared from the bedroom dressed only in a white silk teddy and skimpy panties.
 
The silk was opaque, but sheer enough that it clung to her delicate frame.
 
The peaks of her nipples were easily highlighted under the seamless material.
 
When she moved, the material momentarily stuck to her like wet cotton, giving glimpses of the contours beneath.

“You, bitch.
 
You fucking, bitch.”
 
His rage was so intense he thought he would puke.

She smiled sweetly, not showing a hint of surprise at his uninvited intrusion.
 
“Josh, so good to see you.
 
You must have gotten the news.”

“You had to tell her.
 
You couldn’t have taken the money.
 
You had to destroy my family.”
 

Bell cocked her head to one side and flashed a tight-lipped smile of regret.
 
“Things not too good at home then?”
 

“You knew what Kate’s reaction would be.”
 
Violently, Josh grabbed her by the shoulders, his fingers digging into her supple flesh.
 
He shook her in some vain hope of making her understand the significance of what she’d done.
 
Bell’s raven hair scattered over her face and shoulders.

Still in Josh’s grasp, she shook her head, revealing blazing eyes and an open mouth excited by Josh’s energy.
 
“God, you have no idea how horny you’re making me.”
 

There was no talking to her and he found it hard to speak.
 
Different emotional states fast-forwarded through his mind—anger, rage, desperation, loss, and defeat.
 
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
 
A knotted ball of frustration in his brain prevented him from doing either.
 
Releasing a primal growl of frustration, Josh shoved Bell away from him.
 
Stumbling, she fell backwards, striking the floor unceremoniously.
 
Legs in the air, panties showing, Bell lost all seductive charm she’d ever mustered in him.
 
Frustrated, Josh collapsed onto the couch behind him.

Bell got to her feet.
 
She dropped her mocking tone and in all seriousness said, “What did you expect me to do, Josh?”

“Accept what happened.
 
I don’t know.”

Bell glanced out the window.
 
“Nice parking job, by the way.”

She came over to him.
 
She looked at him with a pitying expression.

“Why did you do it?”
 
Without the rage, he sounded tired.

Crouching on her haunches, she placed her hands on his knees.
 
“You gave me no choice.
 
You refused to give me what I wanted.
 
I wasn’t just going to disappear to make it convenient for you.”

“But this way, you’ve destroyed everything you wanted.
 
You don’t get any more money.
 
You’ve destroyed my family, so you don’t get me.
 
You’ve lost as much as I have.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?
 
This has never been about money.
 
It was about making you pay for what you did to me.”
 
Pain was evident in Bell’s rising voice.
 

She pushed herself away from him and stood up.
 
She went into the kitchen, got herself a beer from the refrigerator and popped the top with the bottle opener on the fridge door.

Josh followed Bell into the kitchen after a moment.
 
His face was long, stretched by a more powerful gravity than that experienced by anyone else on the planet.
 

Bell saw the sad expression and moved towards him.
 
She wrapped her arms around him.
 
The condensation from the bottle soaked Josh’s shirt where it touched it.
 
Its coldness burned against his flesh.
 
She raised herself on tiptoe bringing her head close to his.
 
The instability made her teeter on her toes and Josh steadied her, putting his hands around her waist.
 
Taking that as her signal, she kissed Josh, her tongue seeking entry to his mouth.
 

Sickened by the intrusion, Josh’s face contorted in disgust.
 
He twisted his head to break the kiss.
 
He tasted the sharp bite of alcohol from her in his mouth and its odor filled his nostrils.
 
She’d been drinking and more than one beer.
 
It wasn’t a good sign.

Bell leaned into him applying more pressure.
 
Her heat marked an outline against Josh’s body.
 
Although slight, her weight seemed heavy on him and resistance was difficult.
 
Finally, he broke the cloying embrace with a powerful shove that almost made him topple.
 

The force propelled Bell backwards.
 
She lost her hold on Josh and her balance.
 
In an attempt to save herself, she let go of the bottle of beer.
 
The bottle slammed into one of the overhead cabinets before striking the vinyl flooring without breaking.
 
The spilt contents fizzed on the floor.
 
Bell crashed into the cupboards and grabbed onto them to save herself from falling.

Josh dragged the back of his hand across his mouth and looked at it, half expecting to see blood.
 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“You still don’t get it, do you?”

“You’re right.
 
I don’t.”

“I love you.
 
I want you back.
 
Why do you think I’ve been doing this?”
 
Bell answered her own question.
 
“Because I want you free from all things so you have only me left.”

Bell’s motives shocked and abhorred him.
 
She was crazy.
 
She had to be to think destroying him would drive them together. It was a madness he never thought possible in Bell.
 
Did she expect him to thank her, flattered by the lengths she had gone to?
 
Josh shook his head.

“Do you honestly think I would come back to you?
 
I broke up with you because I made a choice.
 
I chose my family.
 
And even though you’ve taken that away from me, I still wouldn’t come back to you.”

Josh stopped.
 
He had expected a tirade of verbal abuse fuelled by disappointment and rejection, but there was silence.
 
There was nothing further to be said.
 
Bell had stopped looking at him.
 
Her gaze was aimed over his shoulder.
 
A blank look took over her face, as if she didn’t understand what she saw.
 
Josh turned his head to the point of interest.

A flash of colors was all he saw.
 
At the speed it was moving, Josh didn’t get enough time to focus on the object, only its blur, before it hit him.
 
He felt it though.
 
It smashed across the back of his head, numbing him with its force.
 
Josh fell forward, out cold before he hit the ground.

***

Josh came to.
 
He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious.
 
An intense ache emanated from the back of his head.
 
It rippled outwards from its epicenter like waves in a millpond.
 
He raised a hand to the ache, but the briefest movement drove knives through his skull.
 
He found a lump the size of an egg on the back of his head and the pain forced his eyes closed temporarily.
 
He left the bump alone, but became aware of his sore cheek, which must have broken his fall.