Take This Man (14 page)

“No,”
she said. “But I do want to go over there and knee Coop in the nuts for you.”

Jason
tilted his head and gave her a little smile. “Aw, you’re sweet.”

Elyse
frowned, turning somber. “Do you want to go?”

“Now,
honey, do you think I dragged you all this way just so you could watch me crawl
home with my tail between my legs?”

Her
spirits lifted immediately. Now this was the Jason she knew and loved. Clever,
crafty, and maniacal.

“Go
up to the counter and get us a couple of coffees, will you, hon? We can’t sit
here and not buy something.”

Elyse
went up to place the order and came back with two coffees and a couple of
oatmeal cookies.

“Thanks,”
Jason said. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, pushed a few buttons, and
brought the phone to his ear. “Now let’s see if asshole picks up.”

Elyse
went still. Coop must have had his cell on vibrate, because there was no ring
tone. After a few moments he excused himself to his friend, looked at his phone
and frowned, then slipped it into his jacket pocket.

“He’s
not picking up,” she murmured.

Jason
spoke at the same time. “It sent me to voice mail. Prick.” He began tapping the
keys. “All right. Let’s see if he responds to this.”

“What
are you—”

He
showed her the words he’d typed onto the tiny screen:
What the fuck r u
doing?

Elyse
watched Coop pick up his phone, and glance at the screen. Jason read what was
texted back to him.
Busy with lawyers. TTYL.

Jason
typed and spoke at the same time. “
Look behind u, asshole
.”

He
pushed s
end
and swiveled in his seat
.

Coop
looked at his phone. His head jerked up as he nervously scanned the room. He
froze when he saw Jason staring at him.

“Busted.”
Elyse hissed.

Jason
rose from his chair and strode to other side of the room. Coop stood also, at
first stammering lame excuses, then trying to turn the tables, blaming Jason
for “spying” on him. The redhead stared on, wide-eyed with confusion, along
with the other customers and the baristas.

Jason
met the bluster with complete silence. When Coop winded himself, having run out
of excuses and accusations, Jason picked up Coop’s ceramic mug and tossed the
contents in his face.

Then
he turned toward the front counter with his hands up, palms out signaling
I’m
harmless
. “It’s all right, I’m leaving right now,” he told the baristas, as
though they’d threatened to call the police instead of standing immobilized
with shock.

“Let’s
go,” he told Elyse as he stalked to the entrance. She grabbed the cookies and
stuffed them in her purse as she hustled after him.

Chapter
Ten

Adam
looked at his watch, then at the clock on the kitchen wall. Eight-fifteen. No,
seventeen. And Elyse had promised to be home by seven o’clock.

He
tossed aside the dish towel he’d used for wiping up. That’s what he’d been
doing while waiting for her, compulsively cleaning, in between trying to reach
Elyse on her cell and constantly checking the clock. The oven was on warm, but
the pork roast he’d cooked over an hour ago was probably as dry and tough as
shoe leather. The scalloped potatoes meant to accompany it were crusty and
hard, the green beans limp and gray.

Fuck
it. He’d wanted everything to be special tonight, perfect, especially after the
last couple of nights. He was going to lay it all on the line this evening,
tell Elyse how much he loved her. Ask her to stay with him—not for just a week,
but forever. If she wanted, they could move in together, live together, get
married, whatever. He was ready to go as fast or as slow as she wanted. All he
wanted was her.

But
he should have known she’d blow him off. All week long he’d wanted to tell her
how he felt, and she’d managed to cut him off at the pass every time. Now she
pulled this crap.

He
looked at the table he’d set with his mother’s good crystal and china, and real
cloth napkins. He’d placed a centerpiece of roses on the table next to a bottle
of that pink wine she liked—white zinfandel.

Adam
shook his head in self-disgust. What an almighty fuckhead he was.

He
slammed open the oven door and pulled out the roasting pan, dumping the pork
into the garbage, tossing the pan into the sink. It spattered grease on its
way, and rang with a satisfying clank as it landed. The potatoes were like
glue, so they went into the garbage, pan and all. The green beans followed.

Grabbing
the wine bottle, he uncorked it with a few angry twists, saluted the roasting
pan in the sink, and took several deep swallows. The wine did nothing to cool
the rage blistering his guts. His mouth twisted at the sweetness of the wine.
He’d have pretended to like it for Elyse’s sake, but there was no need for
pretending now. She wasn’t here.

No
use in pretending at all. He knew where she was, and she knew he knew. She had
not turned her cell off accidentally. She was still punishing him, still trying
to make him pay for what happened two years ago.

She
was with Jason. Her
best friend
.

Jason’s
hands touching her, grasping Elyse’s hips as she moved on top of him. Elyse
shuddering as her climax hit unexpectedly…

The
memory hit Adam like a punch in the gut, almost doubling him over. A sour burn
rose in his throat, and sweat popped out on his upper lip.

This
was bullshit. He was not going to hang around here like some fucking dickless
wonder, waiting for her to come home, imagining the worst. Hell, no.

He
wasn’t waiting any longer. He was going to track her down and have this out,
once and for all.

****

“I
don’t think oatmeal cookies and gin are such a good combination,” Elyse said,
brushing some crumbs from her shirt.

They
were back at the hotel again, in Jason’s room, lounging on his bed and getting
wasted on what they scavenged from the mini-bar. Elyse was alternating sips of
a G&T with bites of her cookie.

“Try
it with the whiskey,” Jason told her, lifting his own glass. “It’s not bad.”

She
frowned. She was semi-drunk, and Jason had emptied a lot more bottles than she
had. “We should slow down.” Meaning
he
should.

“Nah,”
he answered. “Still a lot more of those little soldiers to kill.”

“You’re
gonna clean out the mini-bar?” Her eyes bugged.

“That’s
the plan, sis.”

“It’ll
cost a fortune. It’d be cheaper to go down to the bar and drink there,” she
reasoned, although her faculties were rather muzzy at the moment.

“They
might cut me off. I want to drink ‘til I pass out.” He drained his glass and
clapped it on the nightstand. “Blessed oblivion.”

Jason
closed his eyes and laid his head on the pillow, his left hand splayed on his
chest. They sank into silence. Elyse thought her friend had fallen asleep,
until he spoke again. “He could come after me, you know.”

“Who?”

“Coop.
Legally, I mean. What I did could be considered assault.”

Elyse
looked at him. “Throwing a drink? Nah.”

“If
it had been hot, he might have been burned.”

“But
he wasn’t.”

“No.
But if it had been, it wouldn’t have stopped me. I was that angry,” he said. “I
wasn’t thinking.”

“He
won’t come after you,” Elyse assured him. “He’s not about to out himself. He’s
too afraid to give Debra and her lawyers that sort of ammunition.”

“I’m
so stupid,” he muttered. “So stupid to let myself do that. So stupid to fall
for his lies. Again.”

“You
trusted him. You didn’t know.”

“I
did know. I knew two years ago when he was fucking me, telling me he loved me,
while the whole time he was planning to marry Debra. He showed me who he was
then. But I didn’t want to believe it.” Jason turned his face away from Elyse,
his eyes still squeezed shut, but she saw the wetness gathering under his
lashes.

“Come
here,” she murmured, tugging at him until he rolled toward her and rested his
head on her breasts. She combed her fingers gently through his hair.

“He
never really wanted me back,” Jason told her, his voice muffled. “He was
already hooking up with guys he met over the internet. But I was the one who
got away. He just wanted to see if he could reel me back in.”

“He
sucks,” Elyse kissed the top of her friend’s head, and lay her cheek there. “He’s
a shit.”

“What
does it say about me, that I fell for his shit so easily?” Jason sat up and
glared at her, his eyes red. Elyse knew he was not angry at her, but at
himself. “He never really wanted me back. Having me here cramped his style—he
had to sneak off to make his secret calls and arrange his play dates.”

“How’d
you find out?”

“I
hacked into his PC. Well, maybe hacked is not the right word. I figured out his
password…the name of his dog when he was a kid. Bunky. God, the man is so
predictable. Once I got in, it wasn’t hard to find out about the other men. And
about the meeting today with what’s-his-name.”

“So
all the stuff he’s been saying about not wanting to come out—”

“Oh,
he’s still keeping it on the low—at least to his wife. But on the web, and
anywhere out of town, he’s as queer as the proverbial three dollar bill.” He
sighed and lowered his head to her chest again. “So now you see how low I’ve
sunk. From defending the law to breaking it—assault with a lukewarm cappuccino
and tampering with private property.”

“I’ll
make your bail,” she said.

Jason
let go a long breath and squeezed her around the waist. “Thanks. You’re a real
friend.”

They
lay quietly for a time, until a rattle at the door roused them.

“You
expecting someone?” Elyse asked.

“No.
Maybe housekeeping. I should have put up the Do Not Disturb sign.” Jason sat
up. “Unless…shit, it wouldn’t be Coop, would it?”

The
rattle turned to pounding. Jason was in no condition to get up, so Elyse made
her way over, none too steady on her feet. But not too unsteady to tear Coop a
new one, just in case it
was
him at the door. “Hold on, damn it…”

When
she opened the door, Adam pushed by her and stormed into the room, his
expression fierce. He stopped and his mouth fell open when he spotted Jason on
the bed. The rumpled bedspread and flattened pillow provided clear evidence
that another body had been beside him.

Adam’s
face turned red with rage. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Elyse
gaped at him. “What are you doing here?” Suddenly she remembered—oh hell, she’d
told him she’d be home by seven. He made a point before leaving this morning of
telling her he was planning “something special.”

After
all of Jason’s drama with Coop, she’d completely forgotten. Shit.

“What
the fuck you think I’m doing? I’ve been waiting for you over an hour, Elyse.
Nice way to blow me off. Thanks for answering your fucking phone, by the way.”

“Jesus…”
She scrabbled in her purse for her phone and flipped it open. Dead. When had
she last charged it?

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t know it wasn’t working. And I totally forgot about tonight.
Something came up—”

“What
came up? Devereaux’s cock? What the fuck were you doing in bed with him?”

Jason
levered himself up. “As trite as this may sound, it’s not what it looks like.”
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and lowered his head into his hands
with a groan.

Adam’s
gaze swept the room, taking in the rumpled bedclothes and the empty mini-bar
bottles lined up on the nightstand. “It looks like a fuckin’ orgy, is what.” A
muscle ticked in his jaw as he stared at Elyse.

“An
orgy, huh?” Elyse stared right back, her nerves alive with fury. Where the hell
did he get off, barging in, making accusations? “Well, what is it you object
to? That we’re having one, or that we didn’t include you this time?”

****

It
had been Adam’s idea to go out clubbing that night. He had surprised Elyse,
since he generally hated those meat-market hook-up joints. The music was too
loud to talk over, and Adam wasn’t much for dancing. When they went out for
drinks, they usually went to one of a couple of low-key blue-collar bars Adam
favored. Places where people were regulars, and everyone pretty much knew each
other. Elyse was okay with that. She felt so lucky to have him in her life, she
was usually on board with whatever he wanted to do.

So
she’d dressed in her sexy chick clothes, wanting to look hot for him, and he
approved. Then they caught cabs from one place to the next, laughing at the
cheesiness of the bars and the desperation of the people. They got
progressively more buzzed as the evening wore on, until they reached Baby Jane’s.