Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) (8 page)

“He’s supposed to be engaged or married or something but he’s spent the last few years practically stalking her.” Ann says.

“What did he say to you?” Marie asks “Cause you can’t trust anything he says. He once told us he had kids when he didn’t, then when we formed our band, he was supposedly formed one too. He kept telling us all of these stories about landing gigs and recording an album and it turns out he made them all up.”

“He’s been trying to get Cath to date him for as long as we’ve known him. He used to yell out date requests from across parking lots at her and then wonder why she would turn him down. Half the time we couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking,” Ann shakes her head. “Some people just don’t understand what no means.”

“All he asked me was if she was here,” I say. “Have you filed anything against him?”

“He’s been given warnings but nothing formal has been filed. I tried but was told he hadn’t done anything to threaten me or my family. He was showing up wherever I was but I had nothing to prove that it was anything other than a coincidence.” Cath says quietly.

I frown, my eyebrows knitting together. “So he would have to threaten you or harm you for anything to been done? That’s ridiculous.” I say.

“It’s scary,” Cath says, an odd look crossing her face. “I don’t know how he finds out where I am but he does. I don’t want him here. I don’t want to see him or talk to him. Either he has to leave or I will.”

I walk over to her and pull her in for a hug, wrapping my arms tightly around her. Cath glances up at me and smiles as she snuggles in to me. It feels strange holding someone else so intimately but she looked like she needed to be comforted and I didn’t know any other way to do it. She is safe here and she needs to know that.

I hear three very familiar male voices joking around and laughing and I try to back up but I’m not quick enough. Jack, Dean and Noah walk in before I have a chance to move away from Cath. Jack flashes me a dirty look, his eyes radiating with anger. Dean looks disapproving and Noah almost looks amused.

“Tyler...might I speak with you for a moment?” Jack asks, although it is more of a demanding request than a question.

“Give me a minute. There’s something I need to take care of first,” I glance down at Cath. “I’m going to go tell him to leave and if he refuses then we can call security.”

Cath licks her pouty, pink lips and a worried look crosses her face. She places her hands on my stomach and then grabs a fistful of my Ramones t-shirt.

“You have to be careful,” She begs. “Just because he’s never done anything before doesn’t mean that he won’t and you can’t believe anything he says to you.”

I nod, wondering what he could say that has her so worried. I turn to walk off but she grabs my shirt again stopping me. She glances up at me, her brown eyes filling up with tears.

“Please be careful,” she says again. “If anything happens to you...”

I smile down at her. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself. I’m a big boy.”

Her lips turn up into a wicked smile. “I don’t doubt that.”

“Ooookay...well I’ll be right back then.”

I turn again to walk out, this time with Jack on my heels.

“What is going on?” He demands.

“Ah, some guy that follows Cath around is here in the lot. She doesn’t want him here so I am asking him to leave.”

“And the passionate embrace was necessary because?”

I snort with laughter, which only gets me another famous Jack Riley dirty look.

“I don’t know what you think you walked in on but there was nothing passionate about that hug. She was upset so I comforted her. It’s what any decent man would do.”

Jack rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “You don’t think she may possibly be exaggerating things here?”

“Why on earth would I think that?”

“Let’s see, maybe because she just hit on you! Don’t tell me you didn’t catch that little innuendo there.”

I frown, I had caught that. “Yeah that was kind of weird, wasn’t it?”

I walk through the doors, back into the parking lot with Jack following behind me. I glance around but don’t see Jesse standing by Jack’s truck. Walking a little closer, I see him sitting on the ground leaning up against one of the tires.

“Hey, it’s Jesse right?” I ask him.

He jumps up from where he is sitting and wipes his hands on his pants. He moves slowly towards us, glancing warily back and forth between me and Jack.

“Yeah, where’s Cath at? She’s in there right?”

I nod. “She is but she says she doesn’t want to talk to you, so you have to go.”

“I just want to talk to her.” He says.

“Well...she doesn’t want to talk to you besides, she’s working. Would you want her to bother you at your job?”

“I would love for her to visit me at work.”

Okay...clearly I need to figure out another approach. I’m thinking about what to say next when Jack steps forward. He runs a hand through his jet black hair.

“Two things guy, the first is you need to move away from my truck. The second is that Cath doesn’t want to talk to you. You need to respect her wishes and leave.”

“Are you sleeping with her?” Jesse asks Jack.

Jack rolls his eyes and lets out a quick laugh. “No, I most certainly am not. I’m engaged.”

Jesse turns towards me, sticks his finger out and pokes me in the chest. “Are you sleeping with her?”

I try to hide my amused smile but I can’t. “No, I have my own girl.”

“I’m not leaving until I talk to her.” Jesse responds coolly.

“You can leave or we can call security.” I say calmly.

“I can be here. You don’t own the parking lot.” He says defiantly.

I shrug. “Maybe I don’t but somebody does and they probably don’t want you here either.”

Jesse gives me an odd look. Then his face clouds with anger and turns red as he places his hands on my chest and shoves me.

“Really?” I ask. “There’s no reason to start shoving people.”

Jesse shoves me again. “You’re the reason she won’t talk to me.”

“I doubt that,” I say and just because he is starting to annoy me I add. “My guess is it would be because of your receding hair line, the way you shove like a little girl and, no offense, but you are kind of a pest.”

Jack mutters a couple of curse words under his breath. Jesse’s hands ball up into fists as he starts to shake with anger. He’s face has turned an even deeper shade red and all of the sudden he is charging straight at me. Jesse tackles me, his shoulder digging straight into my stomach, knocking my off of my feet.

I quickly stand up and turn to walk away but, just as I do, I feel Jesse’s fist collide with my right eye. I turn to him, cock my fist back and hit him in his mouth. Jesse staggers backwards and cries out in pain. He regains his composure quickly and comes at me again. I duck to avoid his fist and he fumbles a bit, falling to the ground.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Jack yells out. “Both of you need to stop.”

“This isn’t your fight.” I say to him.

“It’s not yours either. Good luck explaining to Abby how you got a black eye because of Cath. I’m sure that’ll go over really well.” Jack says dryly.

“Stop blaming Cath. She isn’t the reason I have a black eye.”

I’m so busy arguing with Jack about Cath for the hundredth time this week that I don’t even notice Jesse has gotten back up until he bum rushes me, knocking me to the ground. Sitting on top of my stomach, he puts one hand on my shoulder and punches me in the mouth with the other one. He goes to hit me again, but before he can, someone grabs him and yanks him off of me.

I sit up to see Jesse being dragged off by one of the security guards. Jack walks over to me and holds out his hand. I grab ahold of it and he helps me up to my feet.

“You okay?” He asks.

“Yeah...that didn’t go exactly how I pictured it.”

Jack laughs. “How exactly did you think it was going to go?”

I shrug. “Don’t know really. I guess I thought I would ask him to leave and he would.”

“Well...if someone told you to leave Abby alone would you?”

“No but that’s different. First of all, Abby finds me irresistible and would never be able to turn me away and secondly that boy has no skills.”

“And you do?”

“Absolutely,” I say as we walk back towards the building. “Do you know what I said to win Abby over?”

“This ought to be good.”

I hold the door open, letting Jack walk through first.

“Nothing. I said absolutely nothing. All I did was give her a sexy, smoldering glance as she was walking up to us that first day. Just one look was all it took.”

Jack grimaces. “If I remember correctly, you fell in love with her the moment she came into view so maybe she is the one with the skills.”

“You’re probably right. That would make more sense.”

I walk over to reception and tap the palm of my hands on the countertop. Clara looks up and she lets out a loud gasp. Her hand flies up to her mouth.

“Mr. McDermott!” She exclaims. “Are you okay?”

“Totally fine, no need to worry. I was just wondering if there is a first aid kit around here.”

Clara jumps up from her seat causing it to spin a couple of times. She rushes over to a wooden cabinet, opens one of the drawers and pulls out a red and white kit. She hands it to me and I thank her, turning to walk down the hall towards the bathroom.

I hear a gasp and look up to see Cath standing in front of me. Both of her hands are clasped over her mouth. She slowly walks towards me, stopping when she is barely a few inches away.

“Oh my God Tyler!” She barely whispers. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

I nod and smile. “It’s okay.  It isn’t your fault. He shouldn’t be bothering you anymore though.”

She grabs the first aid kit from my hand, latches onto my arm and pulls me into the bathroom.

“Umm...this is the men’s room.” I say.

She glances around. “So it is.”

“You shouldn’t be in here. I’m just gonna clean myself up and I’ll be out in a minute.” I tell her.

She shakes her head. “No, this happened because of me so I want to take care of you. I’ll be your own personal nurse. Whatever you need...I will give you...I’m happy to do it.”

She grabs a paper towel, wets it and presses it to my lips. She pats gently around my mouth. When she is done she tosses the paper towel into the trash can, grabs a q-tip, dips it into a bottle of antiseptic and slides it along the skin below my mouth.

“There you go.” She says softly as she puts everything back in the first aid kit.

Cath glances up at me, her brown eyes look so sad. She reaches a hand up and caresses my cheek with her fingertips. She bites her lower lip and my gaze falters from her eyes to her mouth. Her lips look so soft.

I wonder what it would be like to kiss her.

I shake my head at the thought. Why on earth am I thinking about that? It must be a side effect from the two blows to the face I just took. She looks as though she wants to kiss me and I am yelling at myself to run away...fast.

The bathroom door swings open and Dean walks in. He looks back and forth between Cath and I and I can practically see the anger radiating off of his body.

What is wrong with him?

“What’s going on in here?” Dean asks.

“I was just cleaning up the cut on his mouth. I figured it was the least I could do.” Cath says quietly.

“Well that’s...nice of you.” Dean says, his eyes never leaving my face.

Cath looks back and forth between me and Dean. To call this moment uncomfortable and awkward would be a major understatement.

“Okay well...I should go,” Cath says. “I’m sorry again that you got hurt.”

Cath grabs my arm as she walks away. I noticed Dean checking her out as she walks by him. He turns back to me shaking his head.

“She has a nice bum.” He says.

“Indeed.” I say.

Dean gives me an odd look that makes me think maybe I should have kept that comment to myself. I turn towards the mirror to look at the damage that wanker did to my face. I touch my fingers up to the bruise that is already marring my eye and wince, sucking in my breath.

“He really got you good didn’t he?” Dean asks.

“Maybe but I wasn’t going out there to fight. If I had, it would have been his ass on the ground and not mine. I would have hit him with an elbow to his jugular, a knee to the stomach and I would have finished by grabbing his arm and flinging him over my shoulder.”

Dean leans back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and frowns at me. “Since when do you know how to fight like that?”

I shrug. “I don’t really. Saw it in a movie once. Doesn’t look like it would be that hard.”

“What movie was it?  Was it a Chuck Norris? I would love to be him for a day.”

“No, it was Miss. Congeniality actually.”

Dean looks as though he doesn’t know what to say to that. Then he bends over, slaps his knees and starts laughing hysterically.

“What?” I ask him incredulously. “Look one of these days, when you’re a big boy, you’re going to meet some poor, unsuspecting woman that clearly has low standards and she’s going to want to watch chick flicks and guess what...you watch them and you don’t say a word about it.”

“What exactly does Abby see in you again?”

I shake my head. “I ask myself that question all the time. I think I’ve narrowed it down to my dashing good looks and my ability to make her laugh...that and the fact that she finds me unbelievably sexy.”

I stand in front of the mirror, put my hands on my hips and puff out my chest. Just then my cell phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket, check the display and groan.

“Abby?” Dean asks.

“Worse,” I say. “It’s Chloe.”

Dean laughs. “I swear she knows things are happening as they are happening.”

“You’re probably right,” I mutter as I accept the call. “Chloe love, how is my favorite future sister in law?”

“I’m well, slugger, do you want to tell me when it was you decided to get into street fighting?” She asks.

“Hmmm...guess it was round about an hour or so ago.” I say.

“And how was it?”

“Eh...a bit overrated.”

“What exactly happened?” She asks, sounding tired.