Chaos (15 page)

“Oh, my God,” I whispered, trying to swallow the bile that rose in my throat.

“That’s right,” Trevor said with a wicked grin. “Sebastian showed up on his daddy’s doorstep, and her perfect little family wasn’t perfect anymore. It worked out great for me, though. After all, I’d done her a huge favor. She owed me.”

“Is that why you tried to rape Aaliyah?”

“I never tried to rape her!” Trevor screamed. “The little bitch told her father that I tried. She wanted me, I knew she did, but she wanted me on her terms.”

My stomach lurched.

“Conrad wasn’t quite as easy to manipulate as I thought he’d be. Especially when Lauren didn’t bother to tell him what leverage I had over her. She said he wasn’t going to know, either.”

I swallowed hard, trying to back away as Trevor got closer to me. “Wasn’t going to know what?” The words came out as a croak. I was fighting the urge to throw up, but I needed Trevor to keep talking. Because if he stopped, I feared he was going to do to me what he’d tried to do to Aaliyah.

“Payton!”

My ears perked up when I heard that voice. That wasn’t Leif yelling my name that time. I was pretty sure that was…

“What the hell is he doing here?” Trevor barked.

Conrad.

“Well, I’m sorry, love, but I think the time for talking is now over.”

I was just about ready to scream when Trevor’s hand landed over my mouth, effectively shutting me up.

That’s the moment that my fear damn near incapacitated me.

Sebastian

When I pulled into the Trovato Inc. parking lot, my back tires squealed, and my heart damn near leapt out of my chest. I saw Payton’s car alone in the front lot, then caught a glimpse of Leif’s Mustang pulled up near the front door, but I didn’t see anyone. I drove around to the back first, and that was when I found the bay door open. I pulled my truck inside the building, passing my father’s Lexus, which was parked haphazardly off to the side. I slammed on the brakes, threw the truck into park, and bolted out.

The first thing I heard was Leif yelling Payton’s name. When the echo of his voice stopped bouncing off the metal walls, I stood motionless, listening.

“They’re here somewhere,” Conrad shouted as he walked back in from the main offices. “But they aren’t upstairs.”

That meant they were in the shop. And since I didn’t see them, there were only two options. Two sets of doors on opposite sides of the shop.

“Payton!” I yelled as I made my way to the closed doors. The first knob I turned gave easily, and I pushed it open, finding a storage area full of parts and boxes. I slipped inside, making my way down the aisles, looking in every nook and cranny. Two minutes later, I came up empty.

Back in the shop, I went to the next door, pushing it open. It was the single-person restroom—empty.

That left two doors, both offices that were used by the mechanics.

I nodded my head toward the first door when Leif and my father looked at me expectantly. They both nodded and moved in that direction.

I looked at my father, giving him the go-ahead. If anyone was going to get through to Trevor, it would be my father. That or I was going to tell Trevor that I was going to rip him to shreds.

“Trevor?” Conrad called, shouting louder than necessary.

With my ear pressed to one door and Leif’s pressed to the other, we both listened. That was when I heard Payton’s muffled cry.

Yeah, fuck the reasoning. I didn’t give a shit if Conrad could talk Trevor down or not. I tried the knob. It didn’t turn. I took one step back and then kicked the door right beside the knob with the heel of my work boot. It cracked but didn’t cave. I did it two more times before it flew in, slamming against the wall behind it.

“Two seconds, Trevor,” I told him. I could hardly see him through the red haze that had clouded my vision. “One…”

Trevor didn’t back away. He moved behind Payton, holding his hand across her throat. From what I could tell, he didn’t have a weapon, but I wasn’t about to risk hurting her.

“Let her go,” Conrad growled. “Right now.”

I turned my head to see my father standing there.

With a fucking gun trained at my girlfriend’s head.

“Dad! Goddammit!”

“Let her go right now, Trevor, or so help me God, I will shoot you. And I won’t fucking miss.”

“Aww, it’s kinda sweet that Daddy Dearest is coming to the rescue now. Took you long enough, old man.”

“Now, Trevor.” Conrad’s tone was harder than I’d ever heard it before, and trust me, I’d heard him as pissed off as I’d thought he could get.

Apparently he’d been holding back on me.

Somehow Trevor made himself smaller, hiding behind Payton until there wasn’t a chance my father would get a clear shot of him. I met Payton’s wild eyes. Trevor’s hand was crushed over her mouth, and she was crying. That was the first time I realized her clothes were torn, her T-shirt ripped and tattered.

I willed Payton to understand what I was telling her. I looked at her face and then dropped my eyes to the floor quickly. I needed her to go to the floor, and I only prayed that my father didn’t shoot Trevor. That was a fucking mess we didn’t need.

“Dad,” I called to Conrad, glancing his way briefly. “Put the gun down.”

My father didn’t even look at me when I spoke. His eyes were trained on Trevor, and I had the feeling he was imagining shooting him in the head. If my father had any idea what Trevor had done to Aaliyah, then I wouldn’t doubt that he was running through the whole scenario of pulling that trigger and watching Trevor bleed out.

Shit.

I met Payton’s panicked stare once more and signaled her to do as I asked.

In an instant, Payton’s body went completely lax, her legs giving out beneath her as she crumbled to the floor, surprising Trevor. I took two steps forward and threw a right hook, then a left, both landing perfectly on each side of his face.

And just like that, it was over. Trevor’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and I reached for Payton, pulling her toward me as Trevor’s limp body dropped like a ton of bricks.

“Cops are on their way,” Leif announced from the doorway.

“Put the gun away, Dad,” I barked. “Now.”

My father looked at me, then back at Trevor, but I wasn’t sure he was there with me. He was lost somewhere in his head, and I knew the feeling. I’d been there many times.

Payton cried in my arms, and I lowered myself to the floor, pulling her head against my chest. “I’ve got you, Angel. I’ve got you.”

Dealing with cops was not something I looked forward to doing. Unfortunately, there was no getting out of that today. We spent two solid hours giving statements about everything that had happened since the time Payton had walked into the office that morning. I listened to Payton recall every single minute, and I was ready to pound Trevor into the pavement once again. Since he was in the back of the cop car, that wasn’t going to happen, but that didn’t stop me from imagining it.

My father continued to apologize to Payton profusely after the EMTs had looked her over, doctoring the cut on her lip. At one point, Conrad even hugged her, which surprised the shit out of me. She’d seemed a little freaked out, too, but I wasn’t sure if that was because her boss had hugged her or because of everything that had happened.

While we’d been dealing with all the shit, Leif had called Derrick, who’d kindly come out to the scene to help sort things out.

As it turned out, Trevor had deleted the emails Conrad had sent to Payton, so she’d had no idea she had been given the entire week off. Which was exactly Trevor’s plan, and it had played out beautifully. The bastard.

There was one positive outcome from the whole debacle. Apparently Trevor was scared shitless of going to jail, and since that was definitely on his agenda for a little while, he was ready to sing like a fucking canary. All of the details that Payton and I had pulled together were going to take care of Lauren as well.

Now I just had to sit my father down and talk to him. I doubted anyone was going to believe that he was completely innocent in all of this, but I still had to wonder. Based on the events of the day, he sure as shit didn’t seem like he knew what was going on.

When the cops finally left with Trevor, I decided I needed to get Payton home. And by home, I meant to my place. Toby had called me back after seeing that I’d called earlier, and I had explained to him what had happened. He’d offered to have someone drop him off at the offices so he could drive Payton’s car back. She was in absolutely no condition to drive. Hell, her hands were still shaking. I knew the instant Chloe and Aaron learned of the events, they were going to be all over Payton, so her day wasn’t anywhere close to being over.

I was leading Payton to my truck when Conrad approached me.

“Thanks for coming up here,” I told him.

“No problem.” Conrad’s face was drawn tight, his eyes hard.

After I helped Payton into the passenger side and closed the door behind her, I turned to face my father. “We need to talk.”

He nodded.

“Today, Dad.”

Conrad glanced around as though he’d just realized where he was. “All right,” he said gruffly.

“Follow us to my place,” I told him, not giving him an option. I was not taking Payton to his place.

“Let me check in with Lauren. She needs to know what happened.”

I touched my father’s arm. “No, she doesn’t. Not right now.”

My father’s forehead wrinkled, his eyebrows downturned. “Why?”

“I’m serious. Don’t call her. We need to talk first.”

I knew my dad wanted to know what the hell was going on, but this wasn’t the place to tell him all that had happened.

“Okay,” he finally relented. “I’ll follow you.”

The drive back to my place wasn’t as eventful as my drive to the offices earlier. First of all, I kept my speed significantly closer to the limit. Not to mention, I wasn’t on the verge of having a stroke not knowing where Payton was.

She was sitting beside me, her hand on my leg. I put my arm around her while we were on the highway, but when we exited, I had to downshift, which meant I had to pull away. She didn’t budge, though, her head still resting on my shoulder. She’d been quiet the entire drive back. It wasn’t until I was pulling into the garage that she actually spoke.

“Are you going to tell your father what’s going on?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. But you don’t have to be there for that. Why don’t you go upstairs and take a bath.”

“I want to be there when you tell him,” she said firmly. “Can you just give me a minute to shower and change?”

“Of course.”

While Payton went upstairs, I gave my father a brief tour of the house. Surprisingly, he seemed interested in my place. In fact, he seemed to have done a complete turnaround from the last major conversation we’d had. I think he realized the same thing I had. We’d been at odds for so long, but it wasn’t just our conflicting behaviors that had contributed to the rift between us. There had been outside forces, namely his wife, who had been working against us.

Granted, that didn’t mean all was going to be sunshine and roses from here on out. We had a long way to go before we figured out how to bridge the chasm that had developed over the years. But I was hoping that by getting things out in the open, we might actually have a chance.

When Payton came downstairs, she went right to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. My father and I joined her, sitting at the table in the breakfast nook. He hadn’t said much while I’d shown him around, but I didn’t necessarily need him to. What I needed from him was a lot of answers to a million burning questions I still had.

I only hoped he was ready to talk.

After bringing the coffeepot and three mugs over to the table, Payton took the seat to my left, moving closer to me and linking her fingers with mine. I wasn’t sure if that was her way of showing support or if she just needed to touch me as much as I needed to touch her. There was no doubt that, in the coming days, I would have nightmares about what had happened that morning. I knew for a fact that there was no way I wouldn’t be spending the night with her. If she insisted on going back to her
apartment, that
was exactly where I would be. Either way, I wasn’t leaving her side.

“I have a question,” Payton spoke up, glancing between my father and me.

“Yes?” Conrad asked, realizing at the same time I did that her question was for him, not me.

“How did you meet Sebastian’s mother?”

My father’s eyes widened at the same time mine did. I hadn’t been sure how I was going to ease into the conversation, but obviously Payton didn’t have any issues with getting right to the point.

“I … uh…” Conrad looked at me and then back to Payton.

“It’s something he should know, don’t you think?” Payton asked, her tone firm.

Conrad was silent for a moment, and then he sighed heavily. “Yeah, I guess he should.”

I waited with bated breath, eager to hear how this man had made my mother fall in love with him.

“It wasn’t a glamorous introduction,” Conrad began, his voice low, his eyes dropping to his hands, which were wrapped tightly around the coffee cup in front of him. “I met her at the restaurant she worked in. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I hadn’t meant for things to happen between us, but we started talking. The next thing I knew, I was coming into the restaurant every week just to get a glimpse of her. Every time, we would spend a few minutes talking until, out of nowhere, I asked her for her phone number.”

“You were married,” I said unnecessarily.

“Yes, I was,” Conrad replied. “Judy and I had been married for three years by then, and things were going downhill.” He met my gaze head on. “Honestly, I hadn’t meant to get involved with Rachelle, but…” Conrad’s sentence trailed off.

“You fell in love with her,” Payton said, completing my father’s sentence.

“I loved Rachelle more than I’ve loved any other woman. We spent months getting to know each other, but never quite enough for me to realize just what I was doing. I had no idea, until Rachelle got pregnant, that she was underage.”

“Did she lie to you?” I asked.

“Not directly, no. I never asked her age, and she never volunteered it. She looked so much older, and I assumed because she was working that she was out of school. It was a mistake I would never make again.”

“What did you do when Rachelle told you she was pregnant?” Payton asked.

Conrad’s face contorted, reflecting what I could only assume was the pain he felt from days long past.