Between Loves (The Pendant Series Book 2) (5 page)

Chapter 8

Alive

I shot straight up in bed and sat there, breathless.

What kind of sick dream was that?

I glanced over at Ray’s side of the bed as I quietly tried to assemble my thoughts. He was sleeping soundly next to me. He looked so peaceful and I considered this may have been the most sleep he’d gotten in the past two days. I had been so consumed with my grief for Nouri and the unanswered questions of who had murdered her that I really never stopped to consider what Ray had been going through and how he must be feeling after discovering Nouri’s cold, dead body. Not to mention me being beaten on the ground.

Of course, he hadn’t slept well since Monday. He’d been preoccupied at my bedside making sure I was okay. Despite Ray’s character flaws, there was no doubt that he did love me.

I carefully slid out of bed and crept over to my closet. Although I adored my new dress, I needed to be a bit more comfortable and so I slipped on some black sweat pants and a soft cotton top. I opened the laptop and very quietly slid into the seat at my desk.

My heart told me to make my latest dream more real and so I began to notate it in my online journal. Every morning while my mind was fresh, I recorded as much as I could remember from my subconscious journey to uncover what it was that Samael was trying to show me.

Samael’s coming for you, Sidney. Don’t let the dreams or his charm fool you. It’s all lies.

My mother’s warning rang out in my mind before I brushed it off. It was all just a dream. No one was coming for me. I just had to figure out the point to these annoying midnight ventures and then I was sure they would stop.

But I was alone in this endeavor.

The main man in my life was anything but enamored with my enthusiasm. I had told Ray all about the dreams the instant they began, but of course they had nothing to do with him, so they didn’t hold his interest.

In fairness to the devotion he had shown me this week, I tried to make my presence as miniscule as possible. But my typing fingers still woke him.

“Are you serious?” I heard him mumble with his face in the pillow. I glanced back and saw his thick, golden curls illuminated by the setting sun through our bedroom window.

Like a compulsive romantic I shushed him. “Go back to sleep, I need to write this down before I forget it.” I could hear him grumbling as I tip-toed out of the bedroom to enter my rapidly disappearing memories of my latest dream.

He hissed, “You say you keep having the same dream. Can’t you write it down the next time you have it at a more reasonable hour? Who cares if you forget it, Sid? It’s just a meaningless dream.”

I gave him a parting shot as I closed the door. “I have to figure this out.”

He groaned.

That was Ray, it was always about him.
I ignored his tantrum as he shouted at me through the door. I didn’t bother telling him the dream had evolved since I had met Adrian. Ray would never understand and instead just get angry I had mentioned the name he wished I would forget.

Taking the computer into the spare bedroom across the hall, I sat down and began to type the new details of my dream with the incestuous siblings, more accurately
, sibling
. I suppose during biblical times, that sort of thing took place, but did I really need to dream about it?

Gross.

After typing the dream, I sat back and evaluated my work. Why would my mother warn me about this Samael character? There is no way he could be real. The entire story was beyond bizarre and I still failed to understand the point of all this nonsense.

Slamming the laptop down, I headed downstairs.

It was close to five o’clock in the evening and I remembered I had asked Adrian to meet me tonight. I thought maybe I could leave Ray a note and sneak out of the house before anyone saw me.

No such luck.

As I galloped down the stairs, I noticed Chrissy sitting on the couch trying on my new teal pumps. She looked up as she heard my footsteps. “Hey Sidney. How are you feeling?”

I shrugged my shoulders and tossed a couple of the pills in my mouth that her father had prescribed for me. “I’m okay. Do you like the new shoes? Sleeping Beauty picked them out all by himself.”

“I’m impressed. Perhaps money can buy you class.” She quickly explained, “I’m referring to Ray, of course.”

I smiled and nodded, allowing her to see I understood.

Chrissy stood up and examined her feet in the new shoes. “I do say they are absolutely stunning.”

I sat down next to Chrissy on the sofa and looked down at my hands. Immediately I recalled last night’s incident in the hospital. Tracing the lines of the scab with my fingertips, I thought of Adrian and how much I already missed him. I wanted to sneak off and see him. I had stated that desire, but now I was thinking of the man upstairs sleeping in my bed. The man who still only saw me as a possession and would never allow the friendship I yearned for with Adrian.

Retracing the lines of the scratches caused from the rose thorns last night, I realized that Ray had never even apologized for injuring me. He had been too consumed with getting rid of Adrian’s symbol of endearment by trashing the flower.

Looking up at Chrissy, I saw she had already dismissed my silence and now her attention was onto some detective show on TV.

I asked her, “Did Finn ever bring you flowers?”

The sound of Finn’s name was all it took to gain my best friend’s devoted ear. Although she forced her eyes back on the screen and pretended not to be interested, I knew she was no longer following the dialogue of the show. She brought her feet up on the couch and tucked them underneath her.

“I don’t know, he got me a corsage for prom, does that count?”

Ray had gotten me a corsage as well but that was part of the damn ritual. Ray and Finn probably went to the flower shop together to get them for us. I shook my head, still inspecting my hands.

“Adrian visited me in the hospital last night. He brought me a rose.”

As soon as I mentioned his name, I knew I had made a mistake. I changed the subject quickly, trying to bring the conversation onto safer ground.

“Do you think if Finn would have brought you flowers you would have stayed with him?” I asked.

She laconically replied, “It’s too late for me to think of the what-if’s with Finn. That ship has sailed.”

It frustrated me how Chrissy could write Finn off the way that she did. “What if I told you he set the anchor as soon as you walked away and he’s still out in the harbor waiting for your return?”

This time I had Chrissy’s full attention. “Did I tell you that Finn was the one who drove me back to the airport the night I found Ray with Lilly? He tried to tell me what I would find before I burst into his room, but I didn’t listen.”

“I had no idea,” Chrissy said in astonishment.

“When Finn tried to explain to me Ray’s position, he began by telling me that you were rated a 10.” I laughed. “Like, what does that have to do with Ray cheating on me? Nothing, but everything Finn says relates back to
you
, because he’s still in love with you, Chrissy.”

As Chrissy’s eyes began to glisten, she grabbed my teal shoe and pretended to be inspecting the heel again. I took her moment of weakness as my chance to leave.

“You can have them if you do me a solid.”

“Anything!”

“Tell Ray I went to pick up my paycheck.”

Chrissy looked at me sideways. “That’s easy enough. Couldn’t he just call if he wants to know where you are?”

“I’d rather he didn’t. Can you just tell him I’ll be back by seven?”

I stood up and went to open the front door but Chrissy moved too quickly. She stood up and caught my wrist.

“Bob’s not working tonight so our checks won’t be ready for pickup until tomorrow. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

“You’re meeting him again, aren’t you?”

I put on my best poker face as I stared at my best friend, feeling eerily similar to Samael and his father.

“This is a bad idea, Sidney. I thought you already ended things with this guy.”

I let out a nervous laugh. “Ended what, Chrissy? There’s nothing between us. Now do you want the shoes or not?”

Chrissy paused for a moment and pondered my offer. I had found her weakness as she stood at the front door with nothing left to say.

I gave her a triumphant smile. “That’s what I thought. Be back by 7:00.”

She still didn’t move.

“Sidney. You haven’t even been home a full day. Don’t you think that maybe you should just relax tonight? Besides, I really don’t want to get involved in this whole three-way thing you’ve got going between Ray, Adrian, and yourself.”

I impatiently put my hand on my hip and glanced up at the wall clock. It was five minutes to six. I really didn’t have time to deal with Chrissy’s nonsense tonight.

“Why don’t you just stay in? We can talk some more like we did in the hospital and try to figure out who wrote that note. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go out by yourself alone when there’s a killer on the loose.”

I knew what Chrissy was insinuating and it aggravated me to no end. She didn’t want me alone with Adrian because she still suspected that
he
could be the killer. I wished I never told her about meeting up with him. I took a step toward her and pinned her against the wall.

“Adrian isn’t the killer and I’d appreciate it very much if you could stop assuming that he is. Or else you might want to look for a new job and a new friend.”

I backed up and Chrissy remained pinned against the wall like a poster plastered in a teenage girl’s bedroom. Her face was frozen in amazement as her mouth failed to work. I used this moment to exit, slamming the door behind me. I’d decided that no one was going to stand in the way of me seeing the only one who seemed to make me smile anymore. The only one who allowed me to be myself.

Chapter 9

Everything Has Changed

Adrian’s house was a massive white Edwardian style home. Shaped like a giant white box, it looked like something that would grace a plantation in Mississippi. The driveway was in the back of the house so I couldn’t tell if his car was there. I passed the small walnut tree which was the only object concealing my arrival.

Suddenly, I was in plain sight walking directly in front of his house. I felt like that cartoon character we all saw as children, the robber wearing all black with a face mask tied across his eyes who looked so obvious and apparent to anyone within a visual mile of him.

Initially, I began to have second thoughts and decided maybe it would be better for me to turn around and go back home. Maybe Ray was still asleep and he would never have to know about this secret meeting. But just as I passed the old weathered flag pole, the unmistakable aroma of Marlboro Reds pulled me in and I spied the shadow of a figure sitting on the front steps of the house, his body leaning against the white banister. I stopped dead in my tracks, like a deer that had just stumbled into a panther.

Too late to turn back now.

He was holding his phone and he had a set of headphones plugged in.

“What are you listening to?” I casually asked as I accompanied my pounding heart up the narrow path that led to the porch.

He removed the earbuds and placed his phone back into his pocket, his eyes never leaving mine. His cool composure was what I liked most. He made everything seem so easy. I wondered if he could sense what a nervous wreck I was.

He looked nicer than usual, his hair combed back and not falling in front of his eyes for once, the gel holding every strand in place. He was wearing a brown sweater and a pair of loose fitting dark denim Levi’s.

“You look nice. Do you have a hot date?” I joked, obviously referring to myself.

“The hottest in town.”

I smiled at the compliment and nervously shoved my hands in my pocket.

Is he flirting with me?

Adrian was so strange sometimes. The things he said to me always sent mixed signals. His words told me he was obviously interested but he never really made a move romantically. I couldn’t say what I would do if he had. I really did enjoy his company but sometimes I caught myself wanting more. Then I would remember Ray and shake those unwanted thoughts from my head. Adrian and I were just friends. Maybe it was better that he never made any advances. I may not be able to tell him no.

Taking a seat next to him, I took a giant breath trying to compose my thoughts, but instead I choked on the toxic fumes he was dispersing in the air.

“Have you ever thought about quitting?” I asked impulsively.

He put the filter to his mouth and inhaled, causing the end to burn red as he did, making a sizzling sound. He blew the gray smoke out of the corner of his mouth in a pathetically failed attempt to blow the smoke away from me.

I coughed again.

“What for?”

I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my face in my lap looking at him sideways. “For a longer life, for starters.”

“I’m not afraid of death,” he said, flicking the butt off the steps.

“Well, you wouldn’t get to hang out with me if you were dead, would you?” I suggested, waving my two hands up in the air as if I was some great performer he would be missing.

“You’d follow soon,” he concluded as he quickly stood up.

He seemed to be in rare form this evening.

I shrugged off his response and stood up to follow him, but then I realized he’d never answered my first question. Impulsively, I stepped toward him and reached into his pocket. My forwardness must have thrown him off guard and it was very satisfying to watch his reaction as I turned the tables. He was well aware of how his close proximity made me shudder and I suspected that he
enjoyed
making me squirm.

Now it was my turn as he attempted to take a step back but the banister prevented him from retreating. I took a step closer as I stared into those green eyes that no longer contained humor.

Could it really be possible that I made him just as nervous?

“You never answered my question.” I breathed as my hand slid deeper into his pocket. I gripped his iPhone, pulled it out, and spun around to ensure that he couldn’t snatch it back from me.

He didn’t try, instead Adrian let out a sigh of relief as he tried to get a hold of himself. Quickly going to his media player, I saw the song that he’d left off on, the Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran duet.

He made a feeble attempt to snatch the phone back but my reflexes were faster than his as I playfully stretched my arm up to the sky and out of his reach. The sun was still in full force, reminding us that summer was right around the corner. I was pretty sure that Punxsutawney Phil was wrong this year when he predicted six more weeks of winter. Spring was really in the air. It was more than in the air. It was here.

“Come on, Sidney.”

“Don’t worry, Adrian, I’m not going through your text messages in search of all of those dark secrets you insist on keeping from me,” I toyed with him. “I just wanna see your playlist. You can tell a lot from a person when you see what kind of music they listen to.”

Now I had his attention. I even managed to bring back that infamous half smile I’d grown to love. “Yeah, like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. All sorts of things, I suppose, but mostly I just wanna see how many songs match my playlist.”

Adrian folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the banister. “Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s a thing I do. It sounds a little silly saying it out loud, but what if you found someone who had the exact same playlist as yours, two people with every song in common…they’d have to be each other’s soul mate or something, right?”

Now Adrian’s smile was in full force as his perfect teeth gleamed at me. “So you’re checking my phone to verify if we’re soul mates or not?”

He took a step toward me, taking this opportunity of my weakness to regain the upper hand in this little game we seemed to be playing with each other.

I wasn’t ready to place the ball in his court yet, so I responded a tad harshly, “You’re such an ass. I don’t know why I even tell you these things.”

He was still creeping towards me and I didn’t want to get lost in the whirlwind of emotions that usually hit me when he closed in. So I dodged his advances and quickly climbed the wooden stairs, heading toward the front door. Adrian quickly followed.

“So now I’m an ass just because I think it’s weird that you’re looking for your soul mate, even though you told me you have already found him.”

Ignoring him, I went to open his door and retreat into the house but just as I pushed it open I felt Adrian’s hand cover mine as he shut it in my face.

Angrily, I spun around to confront him but once I saw how close his face was to mine and felt the heat of his body searing into mine, I once again lost the use of my tongue and stood there dumbfounded as words failed me. I could never compete against him. He was the master when it came to making someone feel vulnerable.

“I thought your soul mate was Ray,” he persisted.

“So did I but I never expected my soul mate to hurt me like he does.”

It was as if Adrian’s gaze hypnotized me and forced the truth right out of me, no matter how private the matter was.

"The song in your head, there's a line about taking down walls and opening doors for you. I would do that for you, Sidney."

Adrian’s face was now dangerously close to me and his eyes were burning into mine, asking—no
begging
me to make a move. But I was terrified. I was so frightened I couldn’t even breathe. Instead, I just bit my lip and remained frozen on his porch. It had all been fun and games when I had just
assumed
he was interested in me but now he had trapped me against his front door as he was inviting me into his heart. I wanted to run.

I bailed. “I should go.”

His arm dropped and he breathed a sigh of defeat. He turned around, not allowing me to see his face. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out that red and white box, but then decided against it and placed it back in his pocket.

“Can I show you one thing before you go?”

Before allowing me time to answer, he turned back around and brushed past me as he swiftly entered through the big red door. Slowly, and very apprehensively, I followed. If Adrian gave it even the smallest push there was no telling what I would do.

I knew that I still loved Ray, but for some reason I couldn’t stay away from this dark-haired stranger. Chrissy was right, it was a bad idea for me to come here and I knew it was an even worse idea to follow him into the house.

But I was never one for good judgment and so I followed him inside.

We passed the wooden staircase and entered one of the rooms on the right side of the foyer. It was a small office with dark wood paneling that ran up the walls. There was a large desk with a computer.

Once I entered the room, Adrian pushed me against the wall and slid his hand into my pocket. I held my breath as he repaid me for the uncomfortable feeling I made him suffer earlier. I reminded myself that no matter how well I played this game, he was a hundred times better. I watched helplessly as he pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and plugged it into his computer. He fumbled around with the keyboard and after a few seconds he unplugged my phone and tossed it back to me.

“I guess we’re soul mates now.” He smiled.

“I’m not going to L.A.” I blurted out. “Ray goes back on Friday and I’m staying. I just wanted to let you know that. Goodbye, Adrian.”

Very quickly, while I still had my head on my shoulders, I spun around and headed for the exit. While walking home I gazed down at my phone, wondering what he could have done. That’s when I noticed that he must have downloaded
his
playlist onto mine. Now our playlists matched.

I told him that you could learn a lot from a person’s choice of music and he just gave me every song that he had related to in his life. He was being truthful when he told me he would take down his walls and let me in. This was his first step.

***

It was a little past seven when I opened the door to the big craftsman house. Ray and Chrissy were both seated together in the living room. The coffee table between them displayed a half-empty bottle of Jack. There was no escaping their accusing eyes. I shot a look of discontent right back at them.

Chrissy quickly rose, her teal heels already strapped onto her perfectly manicured feet, and suggested that she ought to go check on Granny.

I slowly walked into the living room and took my seat in the green recliner across from Ray, his eyes following my every move. I pretended to be interested in what was on TV.

It was airing a reality show about ghost hunters setting up video surveillance in a creepy old building. I snuck a glance at Ray and met his gaze.

Before I could break away, he said, “We need to talk.”

Swallowing hard and still pretending to be interested in the people on the television show, I nodded my head. Ray quickly snatched the remote and powered off the set. Grabbing the bottle, he headed out the front door as I followed apprehensively.

Outside on the porch, he took a swig of the liquor before finally speaking. “Did you get your check?”

I shook my head. “Bob wasn’t in. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

It wasn’t really a lie. Chrissy had already told me that Bob wasn’t in tonight. I pulled the prescription bottle out of my pocket and opened the lid. My nerves were frazzled and I needed something to calm them down.

Ray took a seat on the wicker chair, leaned forward, and ran his fingers through his blond hair. He looked hurt and I couldn’t decide if he knew I was lying or not. I wondered if the big mouth wearing the new heels spilled the beans.

“I leave in two days. I need to know that you’ll be safe without me here,” he said softly.

I stood frozen, waiting for him to finish.

“As much as I wish I could, I can’t change the past. I pushed you away and this Adrian guy was there when you needed a friend. I’m not gonna lie and say it doesn’t bother me, but I’d rather know that you have someone here in this town that might be able to protect you if you need it. You’ve never given me a reason not to trust you, and I never want to be that boyfriend who tells you who you can and can’t hang out with. The night when I got back and you tried to break up with me, I freaked out. I felt like I was losing you and the only way to stop it was to end your ties with your friend. I’m sorry I put you in that position.”

“Okay,” was the extent of my response.

I didn’t know what else to say. I wondered if Ray knew I was with Adrian tonight or not, but I really didn’t want to get into it. Ray had agreed that I could hang out with him and that’s all I needed to hear.