“I’ll go to your next event.”
She smiled, kissing my lips. “My next three events.”
“Now you’re just pushin’ it.”
“Mmm hmm…”
“I love you,” I whispered in between kissing her, before I turned around to walk back inside. Knowing I’d be getting a call, silently hoping it wouldn’t ring until I was out of her sight. Though when had I ever been that fucking lucky.
As if on cue, my phone rang as soon as I stepped away from her.
Adding more secrets to our mound of bullshit lies.
SKYLER
Feeling exhausted, I quickly got dressed in the black fitted gown my stylist picked out for me. Trying to use my fatigue as a distraction for the night ahead. I spent all day on set, and now I had to get ready for yet another event. Unraveling with every minute that passed since Noah told me he wouldn’t be attending it with me this morning. Although, I had a million reasons not to trust him, I had a million more why I should.
Of course, my mind went right to the worse. Noah was hiding more shit from me, I could feel it. His phone going off at ten o’clock precisely wasn’t helping. Mumbling a hello, walking away from my prying ears. He still refused to tell me who it was. Just saying it wasn’t something to worry my pretty little head over. And at this point, I had to pick and choose our battles. I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do. I tried with all my strength to make him feel welcome, included, part of my life, but I knew he wasn’t happy. As hard as he tried, he just couldn’t fit in. He hated my world which was why I spent so many years keeping them separate.
In the past, we were part of the same world. Out here we were on the same planet, but galaxies apart.
For the next couple of hours, I mingled with all the “so-called” right people. Pretending to be there in the moment with them when I was miles and miles away in my own mind.
“Where’s your hot tattooed bodyguard?” Melania questioned, winking at me. I hadn’t told her how important Noah was to me, but she wasn’t stupid. She saw the way we looked at each other, even from across the room. She could feel the chemistry radiating off of us. She knew something was up. Though she never called me out on it.
“He’s out riding with your bodyguard, Travis.”
“Travis? What? He’s here with me.”
My eyes shifted toward the direction she was pointing, and I couldn’t resist. I excused myself and was over to him as soon as I made it through the crowd. Normally I wasn’t one to be shy, but how the hell was I supposed to ask a total stranger why he wasn’t out riding with my boyfriend like he was supposed to be?
“Hey,” I nonchalantly greeted, smiling.
“Yes, Miss Bell, can I help you with something?”
“Umm… yeah. So… Noah tells me you ride.”
“Noah?”
Nervous anxiety caused my stomach to churn, but I kept going, trying not to sound like a complete idiot. “Yeah, my bodyguard.”
“Oh yeah. Noah. Right. We’ve talked a few times, nice guy.”
Relief washed over me, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “He said you guys were going to ride out tonight. Did those plans change?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Bell. I think you might have me confused with someone else. I mean we’ve talked about possibly going riding one day, but we’ve never actually made plans to do so. Are you sure he said it was me?”
My heart dropped, feeling all sorts of emotions.
Hurt.
Betrayed.
Angry as hell.
“Yeah, I must have. Thanks, Travis. Have a good night.”
I fought with each sentiment as I went back to the event.
He lied to me.
He fucking lied to me.
How many other things had he been lying to me about?
As much as I wanted to, as much as I tried, I couldn’t focus on anything other than Noah’s lies. I told my team I wasn’t feeling well and excused myself before they could question me any further. My heart was in my throat the entire time my chauffer drove to my house. I was done pretending we could continue sweeping things under the rug.
I needed answers.
And I needed them right fucking now.
“Pull over here, please.”
He gave me a confused look through the rearview mirror.
“Miss Bell?”
“Please, Paul. I can walk from here.”
He did as he was told, pulling over to the curb in front of my house. Thankful as fuck the paparazzi still thought I was at the event, giving me time to escape unnoticed.
It was a little past nine by the time I walked through my gates, praying that Noah was still there and I could confront him. He wasn’t getting out of this one, not with how I was feeling.
He’d never lied to me before.
Or had he?
As soon as I saw him backing out of the garage on his Harley, I hid. Deciding to follow him instead, I grabbed the keys off the holder on the wall and jumped into my SUV, tailing a few cars behind him. Preparing myself for I don’t know what, or maybe I had known all along and didn’t want to come to grips with it. My heart just kept racing as the seconds ticked by, watching the lights on streets blur in the distance. Taking a deep breath every so often, trying to steady myself.
Was he going to the girl?
Their baby?
Is that what he’d been doing all this time?
Was she the one calling?
Did he kidnap her?
But why?
After what felt like an eternity later, I was parking my SUV furthest away from his bike in a dimly-lit lot just off Hollywood Boulevard. We were in the seediest neighborhood in all of L.A., and I was suddenly questioning why the fuck I decided to follow him here of all places. Especially when I was dressed in thousands of dollars’ worth of clothing and jewelry, basically asking to get mugged. It wasn’t until I looked at my surroundings that I noticed there where expensive sports cars parked along the side of the place. Lamborghinis, Ashton Martin’s, Ferrari’s and so on.
I watched Noah walk into what appeared to be some sort of abandon warehouse from the lot. Once again ignoring the looming feeling in the pit of my stomach, I waited lost in my own thoughts. Gathering the courage to follow him wherever the hell he was going, already feeling like I knew where that was. Although, I had to see it with my own two eyes. There was no way around it, not when I’d made it this far.
I took another deep breath before slowly stepping out of my SUV. My hands shook so badly, I had to place them under my arms. Holding myself together from crumbling into pieces. My whole body felt like it was giving out on me with each step that brought me closer to his truths. There were too many emotions happening all at the same time, and I couldn’t control any of them.
Not a single one.
The warehouse was eerie and silent. The only light came from a few bulbs that weren’t broken, hanging above my head as I walked down a long, narrow hallway. The closer I got to the end of what seemed like a road leading the way to Hell, the more I heard loud beats of techno music.
Something was not right.
This wasn’t right.
Making my way toward the sound of the heavy vibrations thumbing and echoing off the walls…
Ten steps.
Twenty steps.
Forty steps.
“I got thirty grand on Noah!” I heard a voice shout. “Vlad, I got forty!” Another followed.
What the fuck? Who’s Vlad?
Fifty steps.
Sixty steps.
Several crazy amounts of bets were hollered before a thick husky accent stated into a microphone, “Ladies and gentlemen.”
I should have stopped.
I should have turned around and left.
But I couldn’t get my feet to stop moving.
Seventy steps.
Eighty steps.
“Choose his fate,” the same voice announced, at the exact moment I walked into what I could hav
e never been prepared for.
To feel.
To see.
Noah Jameson chose his fate that night, and it didn’t include me.
THIRTY-EIGHT
SKYLER
The smell of mold with a distinct trace of sweat and copper instantly assaulted my senses.
The crowd didn’t hesitate in chanting, “Death! Death! Death!” over the deep beats of the music. Feeling the high adrenaline pumping in the atmosphere from that alone.
The intensity.
The ambiance.
The depravity of it all.
However, it was the man who was wearing only gym shorts, beating the life out of his opponent, who had my undivided attention.
Noah.
The two men were surrounded by people who were dressed exactly like I was, waving wads of bills in the air, yelling out obscene amounts of money for Noah to divide and conquer his victim. I’d heard of events like this taking place around the world. When you lived in Hollywood, in the midst of millionaires who already thought they were God, it was only natural they’d want to prove it by taking lives without any consequences or repercussions.
I just never imagined it would be Noah who crucified the victim.
Even with the dim lighting of the spacious, grungy warehouse, I could still see Noah’s cold, dark, murderous glare. Sucking all the air from my lungs, taking my heart. The heart he owned and shattered it into a million pieces.
It was raw.
Excruciating.
Downright fucking torture.
As I watched the love of my life take another man’s soul, for blood money. I spotted the man, who I assumed was Vlad, standing in the back with his arms crossed over his chest. His concentrated stare solely focused on Noah. There was another man standing beside him, keeping tally of the bets placed with chalk on the blood-stained wall behind him.
My attention snapped back to Noah while my mind urged me not to watch, to look away, to run, but it also willed me to stay in place. My feet glued to the goddamn dirty floor beneath me, as I suffocated in his demons.
In his lies.
In the lives he’d taken purely for some sick fuck’s satisfaction and entertainment. He was as fucked-up as they were.
Noah’s fists moved in the same momentum as the adrenaline coursing through my veins, flowing through the degenerate and voyeuristic air. Their bodies were covered in dirt, sweat, and blood, and just by looking at his opponent’s mangled face and body, I knew the blood on Noah’s skin wasn’t his own.
His desolate and brazen eyes never wavered from the man he was tearing to shreds with his blood-infested hands. His chest heaved, his nostrils flared. He looked like a rabid fucking dog.
“Noah! Noah! Noah!” they cheered, only spurring him on more.
Blinking away the sweat and blood, he gripped onto his opponent’s head, and used all his strength to knee him repeatedly in the face. Brutally pushing and pulling the guy’s skull toward his knee, mercilessly connecting them at the same time. Enough to make me sick to my stomach. Bile rose in the back of my throat as I leaned forward and threw up, heaving everything from my stomach.
My food.
Alcohol.
His lies.
His demons.
Our love.
Panting for my next breath, I looked up and instantly locked eyes with Noah. Through the chaos exploding around us, he found me. As if he felt me through the pain and torment he was slamming into my body, using the same forceful blows he delivered to his opponent. Our eyes stayed connected for several seconds. Fuck, it could have been hours. Time just sort of stood still. It wasn’t until my eyes shifted to the lifeless body on the ground that I took one last look at Noah…
And hauled ass like a bat out of hell, running to safety. The furthest away from him I could get.
The boy who once saved me.
Killed me in the end.
Again. And again. And again.
NOAH
She wasn’t getting out of this that easy. I wouldn’t let her. Like a lion after his prey, I chased her. I hunted her down, ready to destroy anyone in my path to get to her.
My sunshine and happiness.
Turned out to be my biggest demon in the end.
“Skyler!” I ran behind her.
“Get away from me!” she shouted back, sprinting barefoot down the uneven street as if her life depended on it. Her heels firmly in one hand while the other held up her black gown.
“Skyler, you’re gonna hurt yourself!”
“Not as bad as you’re hurting me!”
“Jesus Christ, slow the fuck down!”
“Fuck you!”
“For fuck’s sake, just talk to me!”
“Eat shit!”
And she did exactly that, she biffed it. Falling headfirst onto the jagged road. Piercingly yelling out in pain as her body tumbled in circles once it landed.
“Fuck,” I breathed out, running faster. Darting until I finally got to her. Sliding on my fucking knees, ignoring the sting as my own skin torn. “Baby, baby, baby,” I coaxed, carefully sitting her up as she weakly shook off the daze. Her forehead was split wide open, and there was no way in hell she wasn’t going to need stitches. Blood was gushing down the side of her face. “Shit!”
“Mmm…”
“It’s alright, I gotcha ya. I gotcha, Cutie.”
I carried her back inside the warehouse, heading straight to the one person I knew could fix her up immediately. Calling out his name right when I saw him, sitting in the next room from where the fight was going down.
“Aiden!”
He peered up from his phone.
“Help me!”
“What the hell? Who’s that?”
“My girl.”
“That’s Skyler? What the hell is she doing here?”
“Stop askin’ me questions I don’t know the fuckin’ answers to and help my girl.” I laid her on the table and she whimpered, half conscious. “I know, baby, I know. Aiden’s gonna fix you right up. I’m right here, I’m right fuckin’ here.”
He shook his head with disappointment written clear across his face.
“Aiden, don’t fuck wit’ me right now.”
“You know,” he pulled his gloves out from his medical kit, putting them on “when you first came to me a year and a half ago and told me you were going to start fighting for this motherfucker Vlad, I had no choice but to try to be here for you when I could, so you wouldn’t fucking die! Taking me away from my wife, my patients, my life to try and save yours!”
I didn’t say anything because what could I reply to that.
“I told you, Noah. I fucking warned you this guy was going to ruin your life, but you were adamant you had it under control,” he stressed, injecting Lidocaine into Skyler’s deep wound on her forehead. “And after what happened with Maddie—”
“Don’t,” I gritted out.
“Don’t what? Tell you the truth. I’m sick of this shit. You are your own worst enemy, Noah. You have been since the moment I met you as a punk ass fifteen-year-old kid trying to be a man. No one can hurt you as much as you hurt yourself, and now you’ve dragged this innocent girl into your bullshit!”
Bowing my head in shame, I squeezed Skyler’s hand while Aiden quickly went to work, stitching her up.
“What the hell were you going to do if I happen to not be here for a medical conference in L.A. this week, huh? What? You think you could just walk into an emergency room with her? She’s Skyler Bell, the press would’ve torn you apart, and all oyour secrets would have been exposed. Probably landing your ass in jail!”
“I didn’t know she was gonna fuckin’ follow me. Do you honestly think I wanted this to happen?”
“Yes.” He glared at me. “I do, Noah. You’ve been holding a gun to your own head for as long as I’ve known you. It’s like you want to die, and I’m fucking exhausted from trying to save you from yourself, but I do it because I wish someone would have done that for me. I do it because you’re lik
e a son to me. I have told you time after time, Vlad doesn’t give a shit about you. You’re just another fighter he stumbled upon during a bar fight. Where you were fighting anyone to feel anything but your daughter’s de—”
“Aiden,” I warned through a clenched jaw.
He shook his head, finishing up Skyler’s wound. Before slamming a bottle of pain pills and antibiotics into my chest for her. “Make sure you watch her all night, she probably has a concussion. If she’s still out in the morning, call me. Immediately.”
I nodded. “Thanks, man. For everything.”
Aiden wasn’t just my friend, he became the father I never had. I’d be forever grateful and indebted to him for being there for me whenever I needed him.
No questions asked.
“Vlad is using you, Noah, and you’re letting him. Why? You have her.” He nodded to Skyler. “You finally fucking have her, and you’re just going to end up losing her like you lost Madd—” he stopped himself, shaking his head again. “Get your shit together, man, because you’re going to lose everyone who loves you. Including me.”
I don’t know how long I stood there just looking at Skyler after he left. Fucking dreading what was still to come between us, knowing it didn’t end here. If anything, her falling only delayed the inevitable shit storm that awaited me when she’d fully come to the next morning.
Vlad didn’t give me shit when I asked him if he could deal with my Harley and I’d pick it up from him later. Aiden was right, he didn’t give a shit about me. Bottom line, all that mattered to Vlad was that I’d win fights and make him money.
End of story.
I drove Skyler’s SUV back to her house, and for most of the ride she was in and out of consciousness. Spending the rest of the night in that state as well. I held her in my arms for as long as I could. Whispering how much I loved her, how sorry I was, how much I truly couldn’t live without her. I must have fallen asleep sometime during the early hours of the morning. Letting my exhaustion take me under.
I woke up to the sound of her shower running, and I resisted the urge to go to her. Touch her, kiss her, make love to her, like I had done too many times to count in that exact shower. Simply waiting for her to walk out like I was a man on trial…