Jacked (44 page)

SHE RESTED HER
forehead against the window as I backed my truck out of the garage. Her car looked just as wounded as she did, though only one of them was propped up on jacks and missing two wheels.

“Do you think your ex did this?” she finally asked, rolling her fingertip through the mist clouding the edge of her window.

Good question. I pressed the Bluetooth button on my steering wheel. “Call Nikki cell.”

Erin’s attention whipped my way but I ignored her concern and her disapproving glare.

“Adam?” Nikki’s surprised greeting threw me for a second, making me question my level of hostility. My jaw clenched. No, this was just another one of her tricks, manipulating the situation to her advantage.

Just hearing her phony bullshit made me borderline homicidal. “You crossed the fucking line today, Nikki.”

“Are you serious?” Nikki’s disembodied sigh was annoying. “You never answer your phone. How else am I supposed to talk to you?”

My hands tightened around the steering wheel. “You wanted my attention; you
got
my fucking attention now. Your childish stunt was totally uncalled for. I just filed a police report on the damage.”

“Oh my God, what damage? I rang your doorbell.
You
knocked the picture off the wall when you pushed
me
out the door, remember? Can you be any more melodramatic?”

“Melodramatic? After what you did?”

“Jesus. I didn’t do anything. You broke that ugly-ass picture, not me.”

“Do
not
fucking lie to me, Nik. Not now. I’m in no mood.”

“Why are you so pissed? It wasn’t even worth ten bucks. Jees, Adam. Arrest me.”

“You know exactly why I’m calling.”

“
You
may think so. What’s got your panties in a twist? Did your new piece of ass find your bag of ropes and shit and leave you or something?”

I bit back my reaction to tear her apart, but the loud rumble that erupted from my throat was something I had no control over. It’d been coming out of me the entire last year of our relationship. Still, my need to wound her surfaced. “She’s not as shallow as you, Nik.”

“Shallow? Nice, Adam. Thanks for that. Well, maybe you can tell me why you’re so pissed and being such an asshole to me again, because despite what you think
I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I thought slashing tires was something you and your bitch posse did in high school. You’re lucky I don’t press criminal charges.”

“For what? I didn’t do anything. Are you accusing me of something? Because if you expect me to apologize for coming over to
my
old house to see you, you’re crazy,” she snapped. “Being on TV has gone to your head. You think everyone is out get you, like it’s all about what Adam is doing. That’s your problem. You only care about yourself. Our friends are going to be laughing at me at Ellie’s wedding and you don’t even care.”

Nikki’s ploy was making me lose my temper in front of Erin, and although I knew there might be a possibility that one day Erin might see me lose my shit, today was definitely not going to be that day.

Nikki may have made it a personal goal to bring out my mean side but Erin most certainly did not. And through months of counseling with my fucking therapist I’d come to realize that my uncontrollable anger was a form of poison that had no business in my life.

I had a choice: let the shit fester and eat at me or figure out a better way of handling the never-ending mountain of bullshit. The festering had caused the binge drinking, my way of seeking some semblance of peace in the constant turmoil. But times like these, it would be just so easy to explode. I took a leveling breath.

“If you feel people are going to laugh at you, then don’t come to their wedding. I don’t give a shit. Is that why you sliced two very expensive tires on the car in my driveway?”

“Wait. What? Somebody slashed your new whore’s tires? And you think I did it? Hah. Wow. Um… Ellie told me things were getting bad with the fans harassing the unit but I didn’t believe her. Oh well… Maybe your new pussy should be careful or she may get hurt.”

It took everything in me not to point my truck toward Nikki’s apartment and call in an extra unit for backup. “Careful, Nik. You know I don’t deal with threats. And we both know who’s to blame here. I know you did it and I’m telling you right now, this shit repeats and I will not be gentle.”

“I didn’t do it, all right? I’ve been at my sister’s shop all day, right after you tossed me out, so quit accusing me. You’re the one with the psycho fans, not me. Probably one of them did it. I told you doing that show was a stupid fucking idea but you never listened to me. You think some new girl is going to put up with that kind of bullshit? I mean, I know how to handle it but it’s not for everyone, especially when they see how dangerous your life is. How many nights I worried that you might get shot on the job. That’s hard for a woman to deal with. I still worry about you, baby.”

“I’m a doctor. I’ll fix him if he gets hurt,” Erin snapped. “And he’s not your baby anymore.”

I almost slammed on the brakes, hearing Erin speak her mind. I knew she had teeth but unlike Nikki, Erin was reserved.

“Oh, you think so, bitch? Let me tell you—”

“Enough!” I cut Nikki off. “Stay off my property. Do not come to my house anymore. I catch you sniffing around and I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. We clear?”

“Whatever, Adam,” Nikki snipped back. “It’s just a matter of time ’til you get tired of this one and come running back to me. You always do. You’ll never love—”

I killed the phone connection.
Fucking delusional bitch
.

Erin crossed her arms as though she was just getting started to let Nikki have it. I rested my hand on Erin’s thigh; the spark from feeling her budding possessiveness swelled in my chest and snuffed out all of Nikki’s bullshit. I could also clearly see that Nikki’s words were marinating around in Erin’s brain.

“What she said, it’s not going to happen.” I knew enough about how women think, and the crinkles around Erin’s eyes meant she needed reassurance. I glanced over at her, making sure she saw the truth in my words.

Erin’s little nod of assent wasn’t very convincing, well, to me at least it wasn’t. I took her hand in mine, giving it a squeeze, trying to keep her walls from slamming me out. I relaxed a bit more when her fingers tightened around mine.

“I’m starting to think your ex is not a very nice person.”

Understatement.
I laughed. “She’s not.”

“She also seems to go from one emotional extreme to another. Is she… do you know if she’s on drugs?”

Erin’s astute perceptions amazed me. “She’s ah… she’s actually mildly bipolar. She’s supposed to take meds every day but, well, I’m not her keeper.” I looked over my shoulder for merging traffic.

“I heard you earlier this morning when you had your argument at your house. Is she doing illegal stuff?”

“Don’t know, and honestly? I don’t care.”

Erin cleared her throat. “Was she your first love?”

I wasn’t prepared for that but my answer came quickly and with absolute assurance. “No.”

It was hard to make Erin see my sincerity while driving in traffic. The truth was that even though I may have said those three little words to women in the past none of them brought out this side of me before. Just being in Erin’s powerful but unassuming presence made me want to be a better man, though my spinning thoughts were churning my jealousy. “You ever tell some guy that you love him?”

Erin’s fingers flexed but never released their hold. “Yes. Once.” She stared at our hands on her lap; a weak smile twitched her lips but the sadness there was as plain as day. “He didn’t say it back.”

Fuck. Guy must have been a total idiot and asshole.

She scratched a fingernail over her bottom lip and I could see she was trying to rally back to happier thoughts. “And you?”

If we weren’t doing sixty on a major roadway I would have pulled over and kissed the sadness right off that bottom lip. Then I’d kiss the top one just for good measure. “Nope, never told another dude that I loved him, unless we’re counting family, then I’m probably guilty of saying it a few times.”

Erin tugged my arm. “That’s not what I meant.”

At least I gave her a piece of her smile back. “I know.” I put my thoughts to getting us safely into the right lane to turn into the mall instead of her expectant retort. The tire store would be closing in thirty minutes. Her fingers clenched around mine again—a silent urging for me to get back to point—but there was no good way of answering that question.

No woman ever wants to hear that she might be the third or fourth recipient of “I love you” and I sure as hell wasn’t going to spoil it for her.

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Past is the past. You being here should tell you how all that worked out. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?” I pulled her hand to my mouth when she nodded. The simple brush of her skin on my lips sent visions of a dozen beautiful possibilities with her, each one deserving my undivided exploration.

I cut across the vast mall parking lot to get to the tire store. We were running low on time and I needed to focus on the goal. Erin sifted through her purse and pulled out her wallet.

“Okay, good,” she muttered to herself.

I spotted the credit card in her hand. Did she really think that I wouldn’t take care of this? Her lack of faith in me was maddening. “Put it away.” I don’t know why her brows knit together, questioning me. I parked in a spot near the entrance. “You don’t need it.”

“But I need it to buy new ones.”

“Erin.” This day had stressed the limits of my patience, and if she thought I’d allow her to pay for the damage, she was crazy.

Her mouth popped open slightly, no doubt to dispute my intentions, but the glare I gave her needed no explanation. “I know you’re independent and self-reliant but this here,” I waved my hand between us, “changes that.”

Erin leaned back into her seat and sighed, resigning only so far. “I don’t expect you to pay for the tires, Adam. It’s my car. They’re probably going to be expensive.”

I took a calming breath, not wanting to argue and needing to choose my words carefully so I didn’t come off as an asshole. “You’re missing the point. You get a flat while going to work, I’ll take you for a new tire or I’ll plug it myself. You have shit damaged on
my watch
and at
my house
, that is not yours to fix, it’s mine.”

“I appreciate that but I’ve never been a user, Adam. I don’t expect you to pay for everything. That’s not how this works. The tires… What happened—it’s not your fault. You’re not responsible. I’m not—”

I cut her off. “I get that, Doc. It’s easy to see you aren’t a taker and I respect the hell out of that. If you were, believe me, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. But it’s my job to make sure you’re safe and protected and
that is
my responsibility. And I hear ya, but it still doesn’t change things between us or that I want you to put your credit card away.”

Her eyes widened briefly and then narrowed, assessing her options. “Is that your final answer, Cop?”

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her bend to my will. That and her tease amused me to no end. “Yes.”

“I take it you usually get your way once you flash that smile.”

Usually
. “Don’t know. Why, is it working?”

Her answering smile was quite seductive. “Like you have to ask.”

No, I didn’t. I’d learned a long time ago how to sway life with a bit of charm. All the Trent boys knew the tricks, born with smiles that worked like magic. Where Michael’s techniques were slow and stealthy, Jason’s sway tactics were almost lethal. My little brother could bend the toughest of nails with little effort. Kyle used his charm to separate hundreds of girls from their underwear. I turned mine Erin’s way. “Not really, but it’s still nice to hear. And now that I know it works on you, I’ll be unleashing it quite often.”

“That’s not fair.”

Her pout was adorable. “All’s fair in love and war, sweetheart.”

The moment the “L” word slipped out of my mouth, I froze. I caught Erin shifting slightly in her seat, undoubtedly drawing her own conclusions.

Shit
.
Should I do damage control? What would I say? Asshole. Say nothing or you’ll just dig a deeper hole.
I shoved the gear shift into park. “Your smile is pretty potent too, you know.”

My cell started to ring over the system on my dash. Once again, no number was showing.

“You need to take that?” Erin asked.

I shut my ringer off and shoved it in my pocket. “They can leave me a message.”

Squaring Erin away was the only thing on my mind.

I WAS STILL
furiously pissed off by the time I pulled onto my street. I parked at the very edge of my driveway, held the wheel with both hands, and cursed the mounds of snow blocking my way.

I closed my eyes and turned the stereo up. Every word, every note playing through the speakers wrapped perfectly around renewed thoughts of Adam and the two amazing days we’d spent together this weekend. It was as if I could find bits and pieces of him in each song, but it still wasn’t enough to calm my raging anger.