Mask - A Stepbrother Romance (14 page)

Chapter 18

Jace

I stepped into the abandoned furniture warehouse, and as I got closer to the main work floor, I heard Rayna’s voice. She was sobbing and saying, ‘
Jace is a good guy, it isn’t true
,’ so clearly, Roy was filling her head with bullshit and trying to poison her against me.

Then I heard Roy’s reply, and my heart sank.

“What I’m saying is true. Ask him yourself when he gets here. Just ask him about his accident. You’ll see,” he said.

“You’re making this up; he never caused any sort of car accident, and he never hurt anyone. It’s not true!” Rayna replied.

Shit.
I had no idea how Roy had even heard about the accident I’d had up in Scotland, but rumors had obviously spread far and wide. I loved that Rayna was defending me so much, despite all the shit I’d gotten her into, but she needed to know the truth.

“Rayna,” I said as I stepped into the room, my voice tinged with shame. “It
is
true.”

Roy smirked triumphantly, and Rayna’s face fell. It was then that I saw what Roy had done to her; he’d tied her to a fucking pole like some sort of hostage in a thriller flick. Jesus, he was seriously messed up.

“You…you seriously killed two people and let your Dad pay the cops off?” Rayna said, seemingly not even caring about the ropes holding her wrists anymore as she stared at me with wide eyes.

“Wait, what? What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

I hadn’t killed anyone, and my father certainly hadn’t paid anyone off, so I had no idea where she’d gotten that from. I’d definitely caused an accident with my own sheer stupidity, and I had hurt someone, though not seriously at all, and that’s what I’d assumed they were talking about when I walked in here only seconds ago. Clearly Roy was just making shit up to try and make Rayna hate me.

“You just said it was true about the accident,” she said.

“I—”

“Boo-fucking-hoo,” Roy cut in. “You guys can discuss this shit later. Just give me my cash, Jace.”

I was shaking with rage, and I wanted to knock his fucking teeth out for spreading lies about me, but I had to keep myself controlled. One wrong move and Rayna could be hurt. I put the briefcase down on the dirty concrete floor and kicked it over to him, and then I held my hands up so he knew I wasn’t a threat. “It’s all there. Thirty grand. Count it.”

He leaned down and opened the case, and I rushed over to Rayna. As I undid the ropes binding her to the pole and pulled her into the safety of my arms, I felt just how cold and scared she was as she trembled against me, and I gently rubbed her head and made soothing sounds. “I’m so sorry, Rayna. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry.”

She pulled back and slapped me, hard, and I rubbed my cheek and looked at her. “I guess I deserved that for getting you into this,” I said.

“And I deserve to know the truth!” she said, her eyes blazing. “What the hell happened in Scotland? I really thought you were different, Jace.”

“Look, I got in some trouble up there like I told you the other week, but it’s not what you think.”

Roy snickered from over by the case as he held up a banknote against the light of his cell phone to make sure it was real, but I forced myself to ignore him and went on with my story.

“I moved up there to get away from the whole drug scene, like I told you. I was okay for a while, got a decent job and everything. But then I met some new guys through work, and some of them were a lot like my old friends—they loved getting fucked up. I resisted at first, but it was hard to get out of the habit when there was nothing truly stopping me. So I gave in, and pretty soon I was in the same place as I’d been in Manchester. Getting fucked up all the time.”

Rayna kept her eyes on me, her gaze never wavering. “And?”

“One night I went out, and I was smashed off my head. I know it was fucking stupid, but at the time, I just didn’t care. Roy’s right; I did get into an accident. I crashed right into a parked truck, and another car swerved off the road to avoid me, and the woman driving that car ended up with a few cuts and bruises. But I didn’t kill anyone. I know I
could
have, driving around high like that, and I’ll regret that forever. But I didn’t kill anyone, I promise. The only person who got badly hurt that night was me.”

I lifted up my shirt and angled my back towards Rayna so she could see the long, thin scar that ran down it. I’d kept this scar away from her eyes in the past by only ever showing her the front of my torso, but there was no point in hiding it anymore.

“I was in hospital for a week, but aside from the deep cut on my back and some other bruising, I was fine. But I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I had to stop acting so fucking crazy and reckless, and it was the push I needed to sober up and start doing the right thing.”

I recalled my Mom’s heartbroken face by my hospital bed when I finally came around after the crash. It was just another thing to add to the long list of shit I’d given her.

“So once I was mostly healed up and able to get out of bed properly, I packed up and moved back here. As much as I loved being close to my Mom, all I did was hurt her. So I came back here to sort my shit out and straighten up. It needed to be done.”

Rayna’s face crumpled, and she began to cry again. “I knew it,” she said softly. “I knew you could never do what he said you did. I’m sorry if I thought…”

Her voice trailed off, and I took her in my arms again. I knew what she’d thought for a few seconds there. When I’d walked into the warehouse and told her it was all true, I hadn’t known the exact story she’d been told only moments before, so what choice did she have than to think I really had killed someone?

I looked over her head at Roy, who’d just finished counting the cash in the case. He stared at me with a sullen expression before speaking. “Well, it’s real, and it’s all here,” he said.

“I fucking told you it was.”

He gave me a long, hard look. “You know, for what it’s worth, I really thought you’d killed someone up there. That’s what I heard. You know what the rumor mill is like with the old crowd.”

“I don’t give a shit what you heard. Take the fucking money and get the hell out of here.”

He grinned. “All right. Nice doing business with you, old pal,” he said sarcastically.

I tried to keep the smirk off my face as I looked at him. Roy thought he was getting away scot-free, but he wasn’t going to have that money for too long. My plan was still in motion, and he’d be in lockup within an hour.

He closed the case, picked it up and headed out the main door, and as he walked away, I could hear him on the phone to his dealer already. Christ, he was well and truly fucked, but at least tonight hadn’t become even more of a nightmare with him descending into some sort of drug-fueled violent rage.

“Come on, let’s get the hell out of here,” I murmured into Rayna’s ear. She nodded gratefully against me.

As we stepped outside through the side entrance, the cold late-night air hit me like a slap in the face. Rayna fell into my arms, and she began to sob all over again. The incident had terrified her—as it would anyone—and her legs were shaking like mad. Hell, her whole body was shaking, and her hot tears were making wet patches all over my shirt, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was her.

“Rayna…I’m so sorry,” I said, repeating my earlier words.

She kept crying, but it was softer now; almost all out of her system. Finally she pulled away and looked up at me.

“It’s not your fault. I let him trick me,” she said quietly. “I took a drink from him. How freaking stupid is that?”

“Still wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t let it. I should’ve taken better care of you. I should’ve told you to avoid him, and I should’ve watched you at the party.”

She sniffed and wiped her face, “Jace, you can’t watch me every second of the day and night. I’m not your responsibility, and you thought I was with Liana, anyway, right? So how is it your fault? It’s
Roy’s
fault. He’s the one who did this to me.”

“I guess. But still, I’m never letting anything happen to you again. I promise.”

“I know.”

She looked deep into my eyes, and I knew she knew exactly how I felt about her. Even better…I knew she felt the same way about me, without a single word spoken about it.

I held her steady, and we walked towards the spot where I’d parked my car in silence. A moment later, she stopped in the street and gave me a funny look before finally speaking again. “You’re not really letting him get away with that money, are you?” she asked. “I mean, I know you’re rich, but still…”

Her voice trailed off, and I smiled for the first time in hours. “Of course not.”

“What did you do?”

“He said not to involve the cops,” I said. “But I figured a guy as drug-fucked as him wasn’t gonna be too smart about things. So I called the cops on my way here and told them what was going on anyway. They were right outside the warehouse on the other side, waiting for me to go in with the money, and they were watching you the whole time to make sure nothing happened to you. I only gave the money to Roy to make him think it was all good so that you’d get away safely, but the cops were there to jump in as soon as he walked out. They’ve probably already arrested him, and he’ll be on his way into custody now.”

She nodded, and I squeezed her hand and continued. “Listen, I don’t want you to think I put you at any major risk. If I’d thought involving the cops would actually get you hurt, then I wouldn’t have called them.”

“I know. You did the right thing,” she said. “He was snorting something right in front of me while I was in there. I don’t think he’d have even noticed if there were policemen dangling from the rafters of that old building.”

“Probably, yeah. We’ll have to go in and give them an official statement tomorrow, but Roy will go to jail for this, and he won’t be able to hurt you or anyone else. At least he might get rehabilitated while he’s in there.”

She shivered. “You’re a better person than me. After what he did, I honestly can’t picture myself caring about what happens to him at all.”

“I understand. I wouldn’t either, if I hadn’t grown up with the guy. He used to be decent, believe it or not. So even though I want to fucking kill him for what he did to you, a tiny shred of my conscience still hopes he gets the help he needs.”

She nodded slowly. “I get it,” she replied.

I knew she would. Even after everything she’d just gone through, Rayna would always be able to put herself in other people’s shoes and see their perspectives. That was just one of the many things I loved about her.

Yeah, I said it. I fucking loved her.

We finally reached the car, and as she buckled herself in, Rayna turned to me. “Did you tell our parents what happened?” she asked, her expression anxious.

“I told my Dad. He gave me the cash. But your Mom…er…she wasn’t home,” I said.

“Why wasn’t she home? She told me they were having dinner and drinks tonight, so if your Dad was home, then she should’ve been too.”

“She was having dinner with some friends of hers. Dad didn’t go.”

There was an edge to my voice, and I hoped she hadn’t picked up on it, because after what she’d just gone through, the last thing she needed to hear about was all the shit my father had been up to behind her mother’s back.

Unfortunately, she picked up on it immediately, and her eyebrows furrowed. “Jace…what aren’t you telling me? I can tell by your voice; you’re hiding something.”

I rubbed my chin with one hand, the other firmly on the steering wheel as I looked ahead at the road. “Shit, Rayna, can this wait until tomorrow? You’ve been through so much tonight.”

She shot me a determined glance. “I’m American. I’m tough. Just tell me.”

I sighed. “Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you. But my Dad…he’s been cheating on your Mom.”

She gasped. “
What?
”

“Yep.”

“That fucking prick! How could he? How did you even find out?”

“When I went to find him to get the cash from him—because obviously I couldn’t just withdraw that much in one go from my own account, and I needed real cash so Roy wouldn’t get suspicious—I walked in on him screwing some woman. And guess fucking what?”

“What?” she asked, her little hands balling up by her side in fury.

“She’s your manor ‘ghost’. Apparently that night, she was sneakily staying over while your Mom was checking out her friend’s B&B, and she did the same thing as you in the middle of the night—she woke up and went to get a drink. When she was coming back up the stairs, she saw you, freaked out, and ran upstairs to the fourth floor to hide.”

“Holy crap. So I wasn’t just sleepwalking or hallucinating.”

“Nope. And Dad just let you think that so he’d get away with it. Fucking prick. I knew he hadn’t changed, and I fucking knew he was up to something.”

Rayna slumped back in her seat. “What are we going to tell my Mom?” she asked, her voice shaking again. “She’s been through so much with guys in the past…my father cheated on her too, you know. I don’t know how she always manages to pick the worst ones.”