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“That’s fine, but if you’re not back soon, I’m going to come looking for you.I’ll knock down the goddamn door if I have to.”
I turned and then asked the burning question, “Where’s Rafe?”
“Watching.”
“He’s always watching, it seems.”
“You’re wondering if he watched during our entire relationship?No, he’s not a stalker, Scarlet.Just wants to make sure you’re going to keep your mouth shut.We’re on his terms now.”
I had one last thing to say and I couldn’t help it from coming out.“You’ve always been on his terms, Nick.It just took until now for me to see that.Not that I see how this benefits Rafe one way or the other,” I added, hoping like hell he’d explain that part.
“Sorry, Scarlet.You knew the man you were getting into bed with and you did it anyway.”Turns out, no such luck on the explanation I so needed.
“Yeah, I just didn’t know I was having a threesome.Turns out the rumors aren’t true.They’re no fun.”I was using it as a metaphor, but the fact still remained that I was dating two men this whole time, and I didn’t trust either of them.
I didn’t really have to pee, but that didn’t stop me from closing the bathroom stall behind me and locking the door.I was confined in a small space and it seemed ironic for the predicament I was in—trapped in a crap situation I knew there was no way out of.I didn’t want to marry Nick, that was for sure.Frankly, I just wanted to get the heck out of here.
I took my phone out of my purse and sat on the top of the toilet.No one else was in here.I could easily call Colt and have him come pick me up.The courthouse wasn’t more than twenty minutes from his brother’s house, so he could be here in record time.But that didn’t change the fact that I was endangering him.Again.What the fuck was I going to do?
I held the phone in my hand like it was my lifeline and pulled up Colt’s contact.All I had to do was hit his number.
There was a banging on the bathroom door and I knew who it was.“Scarlet, are you in there?”
I muttered, and when he raised his voice louder this time, I answered, “Yeah, there’s just no toilet paper.Could you get the janitor to bring some in here?I can’t leave until then, Nick.I’m sort of stuck.”Everything that just came out of my mouth I never thought would, but desperate times and all that.
“Are you making this up?Who gives a shit about toilet paper?”
“I do, Nick.You know how I am.I can’t leave without it.Just get me some help, okay?”
“Fine!”he yelled back.Then I heard him mutter something I couldn’t distinguish before leaving.
When he was gone, I made my decision, I was calling Colt.The phone rang once, twice, three times.I said a Hail Mary.“Come on, pick up.”He picked up on the fourth ring.“Colt!Colt!”It came out more anxious than I wanted it to.
He sounded worried, too.“Scar, where the hell have you been?I’ve been trying to reach you.I know you lied.You’re not at Brooke’s.”
“Colt, listen to me, I need you to come down to the courthouse.”
“The courthouse?Why there?”His voice got an octave louder.
Now was not the time to go into the whole story.“I’ll explain later, but, Colt, please hurry.I don’t have much time.”
“You don’t have much time?What is happening, Scar?What’s going on?”
I heard the bathroom door open and knew it must be the janitor, but that Nick was probably outside the door waiting.My time just ran out.“Just get here.Fast.I’m in the ladies room on the sixth floor, and I’m going to try to stay here as long as I can, but I don’t think—”
I heard him calling my name when I didn’t answer because I dropped it when Nick crawled through the bottom and cursed at me.“You lying bitch.”
I swallowed, the lump in my throat making it heard to breathe.“Where’s the janitor?”It was all I could think to ask.
He picked my phone up from the floor and crawled out of the stall.“You conniving bitch.”
I unlocked the stall door and followed him out to where he was already entering another stall and flushing the phone down the toilet.“It’s not what you think,” I shrieked.
My phone had something so important on it, and now like the glimmer of hope I used to have, it had been flushed down the toilet.Brandon left me a voicemail on that phone and it was all I had left.I listened to it when I most needed to hear his voice.It was nothing important, just him saying that he missed me and couldn’t wait to hear from me again, but it meant everything to me.My brother was gone and that voicemail was all I had.The thought kept spinning around in my head.I nearly broke down into tears when he pulled my hair and dragged me to the corner of the bathroom where the paper towels were.
“What the hell were you thinking?”he demanded.
I begged, “Please, let me go, Nick.This isn’t you.”Perhaps if I could appeal to his ethos he would let me go.All the years we’d been together he had never laid a finger on me.This was just stress, that’s all this was.He felt like he didn’t have a way out himself, his life was collapsing around him and he didn’t know what else to do.“Nick, look at me,” I pleaded, trying again.
