Save Me From the Dark (5 page)

Turning my head slowly to face Gary, “He’s AJ, isn’t he?”

“Bella…”

“Isn’t he!” I yell, thankful that it was too loud for anyone but us to hear.

“Yes, but-”

I interrupt him. “I want to leave. Please take me out of here.”

Gary starts to interrupt, but when he looks at my face, he just nods. Helping me carefully climb down the stairs, I see out of the corner of my eye that Ace looks at Gary in confusion. The two men almost seem to have a whole conversation silently. I tune them out. Gary leads me out the same door we came in, but when he starts to lead me to Ace’s trailer, I start to protest.

“I want to go home,” I push through clenched teeth.

“You need to hear him out.”

“Well, that’s nice, but he’s not my boss and you’re not my father. I want to go home. Now!”

Gary spins around and faces me. For the first time since meeting him, I’m a little scared. He takes a deep breath, as if to pull himself together.

“I know you’re angry. I understand. Please just listen to him. If you still want to leave after all is said and done, then fine, but please,
please
just give him a chance to explain. Please.” He looks at me pleadingly.

Sighing, “Fine because I always do what makes everyone else happy.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” I hiss and stomp off toward his trailer.

When we arrive, he comes in to sit in the kitchen while I have a little inner monologue with myself. When he starts chuckling, I snap my head up glaring at him.

“You don’t have to stay, you know?” Just as he is about to answer, I correct myself. “No, you better stay because I recant my earlier statement about not being a threat to him,” I growl.

Gary’s eyes widen. Flopping down on the couch, I sigh. Running every conversation we’ve ever had through my head to try and figure out if he’s even hinted at this being who he is, but he hasn’t.
Why wouldn’t he tell me?
I lean forward hugging my legs, looking down at the ground. My anger slowly slips away to hurt.

I hear the door open, but I don’t bother looking up or moving. I will stay just like this until I can walk out of here. If I look at him, for even just a second, I might change my mind.

“Is she still here?” He sounds almost panicked and out of breath.

“She’s still here.”

There is a pause.

“You can leave us alone, Gary.”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, but I don’t want to be in here either,” Gary laughs then the door shuts.

There is quiet for a moment. A pin could drop on the carpet and it’d echo in here like a pan had been dropped. Suddenly his hands are touching my arms.

“Don’t touch me,” I mumble into my legs, still not lifting my head. “You lied to me.”

“Let me explain.”

“Go.”

Instead of talking, he gathers me in his arms, holding me tightly against him. I can’t help it, I melt into him.  The warmth his touch fills me with is addicting and very distracting. He lifts me up and switches our positions, setting me in his lap.

“I’ve been so worried about you. You haven’t been on all week and after what I heard on the phone…” his voice trails off.

I’ve been dreaming about what it’d feel like in his arms. Now, here I am, completely wrapped up by him, while he tells me he’s been worried about me. My heart is beating out of control. He runs his hands up and down my back. Then starts smoothing down my hair when he hit the newest lump on my head from the basketball practice my father used my head for off my desk, shelf and floor. I wince before I can stop it. Ace’s hand freezes before lightly tracing the lump again.

“Bella?”

Scrambling off his lap, “I’m fine,” I snap.

He is up and in front of me before I even realize he’s moved. “You’re not fine. What happened?”

Ace tips my head up until our eyes meet. Our eyes lock together like a puzzle piece firmly positioned. With both hands, he lightly brushes the hair from my face. I belatedly realize why my hair is in my face to begin with. Quickly turning away, but I wasn’t fast enough.

“Oh my God, Bella! Did your dad do this to you?”

Pulling away from him, I start for the door, but he grabs my hand. “Bella, please talk to me.”

As I try to pull free, he holds tighter then tugs me into his arms, holding me firmly. I break and I start beating my fists into his chest, crying. Ace just lets me do it, continuing to hold me. After a moment he carries me over to the couch, sits down with me on his lap, rocking me as I cry. Eventually, I cry myself to sleep.

Ace

Taking a long deep breath, relief flows through me with her finally being in my arms. A small smile forms on my face. I’ve been dreaming of this moment since about a month of talking to her. Bella took my breath away with every conversation. When I saw her from the stage, I forgot for a moment that I was in the middle of a performance. Bella is definitely the perfect name for her.

When I started to sing
Save Me, Moon
, I was a bundle of nerves. That song was written about a bad moment in my life. It was therapeutic writing the song and even when I recorded it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to sing it in public. To open myself so completely in front of millions of people. Then I looked over at her, I saw her tears. Her mouth moved with each lyric as she held her hands to her chest. It was all worth it in the end.

There is sadness in her eyes that tugs hard at my heart. The pull to her too strong to resist, I walk over to her. When I kiss her cheek, I
really
wanted to kiss her lips. She is finally so close and yet I can’t hold her yet because of the concert. Panic hit me painfully, when I saw her standing up in the middle of my last song. Honestly, I was ready to jump off the stage that very second, but Gary and I had a silent conversation.

“What’s going on?”

“She’s upset about you being AJ.”
One-step in her direction had Gary glaring at me.

“I need to explain it to her.”

“And you will after your show.”

“Don’t let her leave, please. She’s important…”

“I know, son.”

Then they were gone. Somehow, I make it through the rest of the show and practically ran to my trailer. In my defense, I was going to tell her before the show, before the technical issues reared their ugly head.

Kissing the top of her head, she may be upset with me right now, but she is right where she belongs. Just as I place another kiss on her head, Gary knocks on the door.

“Come in,” I say as quietly as possible, but still loud enough for him to hear.

The door opens and in walks Gary. Gary’s been working for me since I sang my first note. He’s more like a father than a body guard. For a while there, he was the only person I had to talk to that cared to notice the boy not the money.

Honestly, I believe the feeling is mutual between us. And thinking about it now, I think the day he feels the need to retire, I will do the same. I’m not sure I could trust myself with anyone else but him.

“Well, you’re alive and in one piece I see,” he smirks.

“She cried herself to sleep,” I say quietly looking down at her.

“I trust her AJ. There seems to be no deception in anything she’s said to you. Considering her reaction, I think it’s safe to say that she had no clue you were Ace,” he half laughs.

“I never doubted her, Gare. Never for a minute. My heart told me she was special.”

“There’s only one concern I have,” he pauses when I look at him waiting. “She’s guarded. Protecting herself against something. It’s more concern for her than for you.”

“What do you mean?” However, I know exactly what he’s referring to, but I want to hear how he arrived at his conclusion.

“Take for instance the fact that she struggles to meet your eyes. She’s jumpy, fidgets, but there were two things that set it for me.”

“Which are?”

“When I came back to tell her about the technical issues, she was talking about how clean it was here. I commented that you clean it, she thought you hired someone,” he smirks. “Anyway, when I spoke, she screamed and fell curling herself into a ball as if to protect herself from something. Then when I was trying to keep her from leaving, she made a comment about doing whatever makes everyone else happy.  There’s something there, I can feel it.”

Sighing, I didn’t like the feeling that is taking over me. “I’m going to show you something, more because of your background, but also because I think you care about her as much as I do.”

He nods. Gently, I brush the hair from her face. Gary gasps and growls at the same time. He comes closer, looking closely at her bruised and swollen face. Lightly, he ran a finger over the side of her face, my gut tightening with each face he made.

“There’s a knot on the back of her head too, but be careful because it’s tender.”

We start shifting her slowly so Gary can get a better look, when she wraps her arms around me snuggling in deeper and mumbles, “You promised to never let me down.”

Sadness fills me. My eyes meet Gary’s and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am. This moment isn’t over. Looking down at Bella, I know I’ll be pleading for my life when she wakes up. Shock smacks me hard in the face. Looking up at Gary with wide eyes, my mouth drops open.

“What?”

“I… I…”

“What?” He sounds almost worried.

“I think I might be falling in love with her,” I say barely above a whisper.

“Son, you were there a while ago,” Gary chuckles.

“How… How can I when we’ve only just met?”

“Son, it doesn’t always take your eyes for your heart to see what it wants. You want my opinion?”

“Of course,” I say still thinking about what he just said.

“You guys built a foundation over the, what, six months you’ve been talking. You two took time to really get to know each other before looks and sexual tension made an appearance. That’s my opinion, take it or leave it.”

Looking back down at Bella, “You might be right. The problem I face now is getting her to believe it. Something tells me that reaching that goal is going to be a lot harder than I’ve ever thought possible.”

“Let’s have a look at her head. Where about is it?”

“Right in this area,” I say drawing a circle at the base of her head.

Gary bends down and carefully shifts her hair around. When his face darkens, anger pools in my gut because I know what his look means… something bad.

“Jesus Christ!” He hisses before meeting my eyes. “She’s being beat Ace. We can’t let her go back to that. I can’t let her go back to that.”

“I was on the phone twice with her when she suddenly screamed…” My voice trails off as a thought occurs to me. “Fuck! Remember when she got pissed at me for sending her those packages?” Gary nods as his face darkens. “Damn it! I think she was hit for that. No wonder she was mad at me. We have to get her away from there. It’s her dad. I know it is. I heard her scream at him to stop that he was hurting her.”

He finishes looking at her and sits down in the chair in front of the couch, sighing. “We can’t keep her here against her will.”

“The hell I can’t!” I roar causing Bella to jerk in my arms. Taking a few deep breaths, I close my eyes to try to get myself under control. “If she says no?”

“You have to let her go, son.”

“So your advice is to let her go back and have the shit beat out of her?”

“Sadly that’s all you can do. Enjoy your time with her tonight, because when she wakes…” He stood, squeezing my shoulder then walks out.

“I can’t let you go back to that Bella,” I whisper as I kiss her forehead. “But I don’t know how to keep you here either.”

Slowly, I scoot to the edge of the couch, lifting her in my arms. Carefully, I carry her back into my room. Gently laying her down on the bed, I remove her shoes. Figuring she might be more comfortable without her jeans on, I pull them cautiously down her legs, revealing even more bruises, some looking really bad. Grabbing my phone, I took a few pictures. Not for some perverse agenda, but so Gary could look at them. His medical background is really coming in handy right now.

Covering her up, I trail my hand down her cheek. “You are so beautiful, Bella. I’ll save you from your nightmare if it’s the last thing I do.”

Walking away, I grab a blanket and a pillow from the closet. Just as I was about to walk out to sleep, she starts crying out.

“Please no! Not the bat again!” she yell/cries.

Dropping everything to the floor, I climb on the bed cupping her face in my hands. “Bella! Bella wake up!”

She jerks up in the bed and looks around the room before her eyes fall on me. “Ace?” she says blinking a few times.

“Yes, baby. I’m here. I’m right here.”

She looks confused for a moment then her face clears. “Is it AJ or Ace?”

“Whichever you want to call me,” I say hesitantly.

“I was dreaming about you, but then…”

“You’re safe tonight. Just sleep we’ll talk about everything in the morning, okay?”

She nods her head and I climb off the bed. Bending down, I gather my blanket and pillow from the floor.

“Goodnight my beautiful Bella. I’ll see you in the morning,” then I turn and walk out to the couch.