Eruption (The Hunted Series Book 3) (18 page)

But I still opened the lid of the shoebox. I wasn't scared of
Isabella. Whatever was inside couldn't take away the fact that I knew he was
the love of my life. And that he meant every word he ever said to me.

Inside there were dozens of handwritten letters and short
notes. On top of the jumbled up letters was another post-it note:

Love is something to hold onto when your past is dark. When
you need an escape from your reality. When you're an addict.

Fuck you, Isabella.
She didn't know him. She never
did. James was in control of his own fate. He wasn't addicted to me. And he was
certainly never addicted to her. I picked up the first letter that was
underneath her note:

My beautiful Isabella,

Today we start our lives together. There's nothing I want
more than to fall asleep with you in my arms and to wake up to your smile for
the rest of my life. I've been dreaming of this day my whole life, the day
you'll finally be mine, the day we finally become one. Marriage, starting a
family, growing old together, I want everything with you and only you. You are
the love of my life. You are my heart and soul. You are my happily ever after.

I'll love you always and forever,

-James

I could picture him writing this to me on our wedding day. He
had even said some of these things to me before. Almost word for word. This was
how he had felt the day they had gotten married. His words were so full of
hope. They were so full of love. I felt a tear fall down my cheek.

He had made it seem like he never loved her. Like he was
forced into it. But he had said he tried to make it work. He had wanted it to
work. That letter didn't make it seem like he was trying to love her. It made
it seem like he did. I sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter and
reread the letter.

Maybe I was wrong. His words were so heartfelt. Had he
actually been in love with her when they got married? That wasn't what he told
me, though. I pulled out the picture from my purse and stared at the two of
them kissing. He wasn't pushing her away. Maybe he still loved her.

I grabbed another note from the box.

My love,

You love me despite my flaws. You understand me better than
anyone else ever has or ever could. The best decision I ever made was marrying
you.

Yours,

-James

I could feel my heart beating in my throat. I picked up
another note and read one after another.

Isabella,

Your eyes sparkle in the sun. I get lost in them every time
we're together.

Love,

-James

To the sexiest woman I know,

 When we're not together I dream of you. My lips against your
soft skin. My fingers in your silky hair. The taste of you drives me crazy,
baby. I'll never get enough of you. I can't wait for this business trip to be
over. Not having you every night is torture. I feel like a teenager again.

Thinking of you,

-James

My beautiful wife,

I can't wait to have children with you. I can't wait to start
our family. You're going to be a wonderful mother. You're so loving and caring.
I'm ready to try. A bunch of little yous running around would make me the
happiest man in the world.

Love always,

-James

I couldn't read anymore. All the words were blurry because of
my tears. He loved her. He loved her so much. These were sweet notes written to
a woman he was head over heels for. He wanted to start a family with her.

And he didn't want one with me. I put the notes back in the
box and closed the lid. He was ready to have children four years ago, but he
wasn't ready now. It didn't seem like he ever wanted kids with me.

James meant everything to me. He was my whole world. And now
it felt like my whole world was crumbling in front of me.

The pictures could be explained. He went for closure with
Rachel. Isabella kissed him, not the other way around. Those could all be
logically excused. But these notes? He lied to me. James had loved Isabella. He
didn't have to lie to me about that. He could have said he loved her. And that
she cheated on him and it broke his heart. The only reason you lied about a
divorce was for one reason: if you were still in love with the person. And you
wanted to convince yourself you weren't.

I wanted to grab a box of notes James had written for me, get
lost in them, and forget about everything he had ever said to Isabella. But I
didn't have a box of notes from James. I mostly had emails and texts. And the
few handwritten notes I did have weren't anything like this. They were telling
me he had gone for a run. Or to remind me about a dinner we had to go to.

James was my first love. He was my only love. But I wasn't
his. He had made it seem like I was. At least his first love like this. A great
love. The kind you see in movies and read about in books. But it didn't seem
like I was.

I didn't know him at all.

Saturday

I wasn't sure how long I stood there, staring out the window.
The sun had set over Central Park and the lights were coming on, lighting up
the walking paths. It was so beautiful that it didn't even seem real. That was
the same conclusion I had come to about my relationship with James too. It was
too good and too perfect to be real.

I knew he was out of my league. But I thought he loved me. I
knelt down in front of the window and pressed my forehead against the glass. I
closed my eyes and savored the feeling of the cool glass on my forehead. There
weren't any tears left inside of me. I had tried to call James a few times, but
it always went straight to voicemail. It wasn't his fault, but each time he
didn't pick up it just validated all my fears.

This was how Isabella wanted me to feel. She had won. It
hadn't been a fair fight at all. I touched my cheek where she had slapped me.
She had even warned me. I shook my head.
No.
Isabella had said she had
two weeks to win James back. If she was sending me this stuff, I didn't even
want to know what she was doing to him. I already knew she had kissed him.
Maybe that wasn't the end of it.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. I pulled it out.
Mason.
I quickly answered it. "Mason!"

He laughed. "Hey, Penny. Having a good weekend?"

"Can I talk to him?"

Mason laughed again. "Jumping right into things, then? So,
about that...you need to stop calling. You're distracting him from having
fun."

"I'm sure he's having quite enough fun."

My comment was greeted by silence.

"Where are you guys?"

"Costa Rica."

What the hell were they doing in Costa Rica? "What
hotel?"

"Nice try, Penny. I'm not telling you where we are.
You're not allowed to infiltrate his bachelor party."

"Mason, I really, really need to talk to him."

"Umm...I would hand the phone over, but he's currently
indisposed."

"Indisposed? What have you been doing?"

He laughed. "I'm just kidding. He's taking a
shower."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't matter how upset I
was, I would always worry about him. "Has he been getting packages? Or any
mail there?"

"No?"

"Has he been acting weird?"

Mason laughed. "He's not getting cold feet, if that's
what you're worried about."

"Okay."
Well, that's good.
Isabella probably
didn't know where they were.

"I promise I'm taking good care of you fiancé. You don't
need to worry. I'm not going to let him fuck up the best thing that's ever
happened to him."

That was sweet. It was also apparently untrue. "That's
not what I'm worried about."

"Are you okay, Penny? You can talk to me you know."

Talk to James' best friend about this? No, I can't.
"I need to talk to him, Mason."

"I'll give him a message for you."

"That's okay. I'll just...see him tomorrow night.
Right?"

"I'll have him back before midnight. I promise."

"Okay. Bye, Mason"

"Wait. There was a reason I was calling."

I didn't say anything.

"I think Bee's phone died. I haven't heard from her all
day. Could you go over there and see if she's okay? And tell her to call
me?"

"So you want me to tell Bee to call you, but you won't
let me talk to James?"

"Yeah."

"You're a terrible person." I couldn't help but
laugh at the irony.

"And that's why you love me."

There was some noise in the background.

"Rob's back," Mason said. "I have to go.
Please check on her, Penny." The line went dead.

***

Even though I wasn't allowed to talk to James, at least I
knew he was safe. That was the only reason I had walked over to Trump
International. And because Bee's phone had gone straight to voicemail when I
called her.

I paused in the lobby, remembering the day that James had
brought me here when he was still my professor. It had been perfect in every
way. I laughed to myself. This was also the first place I had ever met Mason. I
remembered how his stare had made me uncomfortable. It was almost like he could
see me. Really see me. But he was probably just sizing me up for his side
business.

Bee worked hard. She had probably just fallen asleep early in
front of the T.V. or something. I got onto the elevator and listened to the
fancy elevator music playing. It was strange that Bee and Mason lived in a
hotel. But they had made their apartment very homey. I always felt comfortable
there. Besides, living like you were in a hotel was kind of fun. Even though
their apartment was technically classified as a condo in the hotel, they could
still order room service whenever they wanted.

I stepped off the elevator and made my way down the hallway.
The sound of music blaring got louder and louder as I got closer to Bee's
apartment. I stopped outside her door and knocked. The door flew open.

"Welcome to your bachelorette party!" Bee screamed.
"It's about time you got here." She grabbed my arm and pulled me into
her apartment. "I was starting to think Mason forgot to call you."

Bee, Kendra, Marie, and Melissa were all decked out in
sparkly dresses and looked super excited. And maybe a little intoxicated.
Melissa was even smiling at me, which was a good sign.

"You're two shots behind," Kendra said.

"This is really nice of you guys, but I don't really
want a bachelorette party," I said and stood in the doorway. "Can't
we just stay in and watch a movie or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Kendra said and brought two
shot glasses over to me. "Besides, it's too late. We've already planned
the whole thing."

I looked down at the two shot glasses she had shoved into my
hands.

"Come on," Marie said. "With everything we
have planned, you're going to need that."

Oh God.

"Don't be such a party pooper," Melissa said and
gave me another smile. She used to say stuff like that to me all the time in
college. It was nice that she was finally talking to me again. I didn't want to
fight with her. All I really wanted was to be curled up in my bed back home,
though. I sighed and downed one shot and then the next.

"First things first," Bee said. "Put this
on." She grabbed the shot glasses from me and handed me a sparkly dress.

James didn't like when I wore stuff like this. At least, in
public.

"Melissa picked it out for you. So you know it's going
to fit perfectly. Go change."

"Can't I just wear what I have on?" I was wearing
jean shorts and a baggy t-shirt.

Kendra laughed. "Absolutely not. Get to it. We have a
huge list. It's going to take us all night to get through all this stuff."

Maybe this was exactly what I needed. I wanted to have fun
tonight and forget about everything that had been going on. That probably
wasn't possible though. I walked down the hallway and into the bathroom. The
dress was tight and ended right below my ass. My boobs weren't big, but this
dress made them look huge. I looked like a total slut. Luckily I was wearing
flip flops. Heels would have tipped the scales to making me look more like a
hooker. I didn't dwell on the fact that my eyes were still red from going in
and out of hysterical crying fits all day.

"There's a pair of shoes out here for you to wear
too!" one of the girls yelled from the other room.

Shit.
I walked back out into the kitchen and looked
down at the stilettos they wanted me to wear. "What are we doing exactly?
Are we going to be walking a lot? I think I'll just stick with these
shoes."

"You can't wear a dress like that with flip flops,"
Melissa said.

"And everyone's going to be looking at you, because
you're the girl of the hour." Bee pulled a pink sash over me and added a
sparkly tiara to the top of my head.

I looked down at the sash. It had 'bachelorette' written
across it in a fancy font. I could feel my face turning red.

Marie clapped her hands. "You look perfectly
embarrassed. Penis cookie?"

"What now?"

Marie held a plate of cookies shaped like penises in front of
my face.

I started laughing. "No, I'm good right now. Thanks,
though. They're very anatomically correct, huh?"

"Thanks, I made them myself," Marie said.
"I'll bring a few with us. Let's get going."

"Really, no movie?"

Bee laughed and hooked her arm through mine. "Trust me,
this is going to be so much better. We can watch a movie tomorrow while we're
working through these hangovers."

***

"So, you need to ask a random guy to buy you a
drink," Marie said as she looked down at a list she had.

"Can I see that?" I tried to snatch it from her,
but she moved it away too quickly.

"How about him?" Kendra said and pointed to a guy
at the bar. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. His hair was shaggy. It looked
like he belonged at the beach instead of in a bar in New York. He was probably
a tourist. Which meant he wouldn't want to pay for a drink that was way too
expensive for a girl he didn't know.

"He looks like a tourist."

Melissa laughed. "So? That means he's here to get laid.
He'll definitely buy you a drink."

"I don't want to lead him on."

"You aren't. You're wearing a freaking sash that says you're
getting married any day. You're fine. Go ask him."

Bee gave my shoulder a little nudge. "You aren't going
home until you do everything on that list. You might as well get it over
with."

This was going to be mortifying. I slid off my bar stool and
walked over to him. I leaned on the counter next to him. "Hey," I
said. My voice sounded nervous and not flirtatious at all.

He turned away from the guy he was talking to.
"Hey." He looked down at my sash and smiled at me. "One more
crazy night, huh?"

"Not exactly. Look, so my friends over there..."

He looked over my shoulder.

"No, don't look." I grabbed his arm.

He laughed. "Okay, not looking."

"Well, they have this list of things I have to do, and
one of them is to ask a stranger to buy my a drink. But I know you don't want
to do that. So, you can tell me when they aren't looking and I'll slip you ten
dollars. And could you just order me a drink with that? Then I can go back
there and pretend you bought me a drink?"

The more I spoke, the bigger his smile got. "I don't
know, their eyes are glued on you. You might not get an opportunity."

"Crap. They're looking right now?"

"Mhm. So maybe it's easier if I just buy you a
drink." He lifted up his arm to call over the bartender.

"You don't have to do that."

"Isn't that why you came over?"

"Kind of. But I was just going to pretend..."

He laughed again, drowning out my words. "You know, you
could have just asked me to buy you a drink. I didn't need the whole story. All
a beautiful woman like you needed to do was say you were thirsty. The whole bar
would be buying you drinks all night long."

"Thanks. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm doing. I've
never flirted with a guy at a bar before."

"You're flirting with me? I thought you were getting
married?"

"No." I could feel my face turning red. Two shots
was enough for me. I didn't need anything else. "I mean, yes I'm getting
married. And no, I'm not flirting with you. I just meant, I don't usually talk
to strangers in bars."

"You're even sexier when you blush. What's your poison?"

"Something not very strong."

"Whiskey it is then." He ordered before I could
correct him. Whiskey was super strong. Where the hell was he from? He handed
the glass to me.

"Whiskey? Really?"

"I was thinking that if you haven't flirted with a guy
in a bar, then you haven't really lived yet. Maybe a strong drink will help you
decide to change that tonight."

I shook my head. "Let me pay you for this."

"That's okay. You can repay me at the end of the
night." He winked at me. "Let me know if you need to cross off
anything else on that bachelorette party list of yours. I'm happy to
help."

"Okay, thanks." My voice had gotten weirdly high
pitched. I quickly walked away from him.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Kendra said. "What
did he get you?"

"Whiskey." I slid it toward her.

"Oh, no. Number two is drinking whatever he buys
you." She slid the glass back to me.

I looked to Bee for help.

She shrugged. "I actually came up with that one. So, how
did it go?"

"It was awkward. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm going to
sleep with him at the end of the night because he bought me this." I drank
a sip of the whiskey.
Ew.

"Yeah, it's a total bucket list thing for guys,"
Marie said. "To have sex with a girl who's destined to be married. It's
the ultimate one night stand."

"The unicorn of one night stands," Kendra
corrected.

"Can I take this sash off now?" I asked.

"Finish your drink."

I drank the whisky as fast as I could. "It's so
gross."

Kendra laughed. "I love whiskey."

"Then why didn't you drink it?"

Kendra grabbed the list and waived it in the air. "Okay,
number three." She smiled. "Ask a guy if you can see his six
pack."

"Nope." I clapped my hands together. "Let's go
to the movies. There's this new one out that I really want to see..."

"There," Melissa said. "He definitely has abs
of steel. Let's see 'em!"

She was pointing to a guy who was wearing a tight t-shirt. He
was clearly ripped. And he liked showing off that fact or else he would have
worn a shirt that was a little looser.

"And don't forget number four," Marie said.
"You have to touch them."

"I'm not going to do that."

"You only get to veto one thing. Do you really want to
waste it already? This list gets raunchier and raunchier."