Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) (8 page)

“I’m so glad you’re moving in here,” Brianna smiled. “I like waking up next to you, but without you having to run out of here at the crack of dawn.”

“I know. I’m sorry, but I already promised Jeremy I’d open the store today. I promise I’ll make it up to you when I see you tonight.”

With a brief kiss, Abby and Brianna said goodbye to each other that morning, and Abby went home.

In the cab, on the way to her apartment, Abby checked her phone for messages or calls from Kyle. She was surprised to not find any. Kyle had never gone twenty four hours without calling or texting her. Concerned, Abby dialed Kyle, but the call went straight to voicemail. She called him again from the apartment before leaving for work and again on her way to the bookstore. Abby got Kyle’s voicemail every single time. She also texted him several times, and nothing.

After many failed attempts to get Kyle on his phone, Abby called Kyle’s mother. Mrs. Garrett, who was thrilled to hear her future daughter-in-law’s voice, told Abby Kyle was fine but still asleep. After some chitchatting about the reunion and other things, Abby asked Mrs. Garrett to tell her son to call her and then hung up. With the knowledge that nothing bad had happened to Kyle, Abby went on with her day.

Chapter VI

Kyle woke majorly hung over later that morning. He was sorer than he was the night before. His head was pounding, and his jaw still hurt. The glare filtering through his bedroom’s window was making his hangover worse. Lying on his stomach, Kyle reached behind himself and pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. He looked at the time and saw it was almost noon. He dropped the phone on the bed and buried his face on the pillow.

He could only remember bits and pieces of what happened the night before. Abby’s betrayal, however, he remembered vividly. It was the one thing he could not forget but wished he could. He wished he had never met that conniving, deceitful girl. He wanted to go back to sleep so he wouldn’t have to think about his cheating girlfriend, but the nausea building in the back of his throat forced him to get off the bed and find something to throw up in.

Holding his pounding head with his hands, Kyle dragged himself to the bathroom where he spent a good half hour throwing up with his head inside the toilet. He stopped retching long enough to hear a soft knock on his bedroom’s door.

“Kyle, honey? May I come in?” Mrs. Garrett asked from the other side of Kyle’s bedroom door.

Kyle wiped his mouth and staggered out of the bathroom. “Come in, ma.” Kyle grunted while collapsing back on his bed and lying on his stomach.

Mrs. Garrett walked in, holding a cup of hot tea and a bottle of pills. She sat down on a chair next to the bed and placed the tea and the pills on the nightstand.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked. “I just got off the phone with my friend Margaret. She told me you were at her husband’s bar last night. She said you were falling down drunk and got into a fight with a very scary man.”

Kyle grunted and pulled a pillow over his head. He mentally cursed Phil and his loose lips. The last thing Kyle wanted was for his mother to find out what happened the previous night. But now that she knew, Kyle needed to do whatever he could to ease her mind. He flipped around to lie on his back and then sat up.

“It’s nothing ma. I told you. I’m fine,” Kyle lied, avoiding his mother’s gaze and reaching for the bottle of pills she had brought. After reading the label, he opened the small, plastic bottle and threw a couple of the pain pills down his throat.

Kyle’s attempt to downplay the previous night’s events did not work. His unkempt appearance and his refusal to open up to her were making Mrs. Garrett more worried than she already was. She handed Kyle the cup of tea so he could wash the pills down with it.

“No, Kyle. You are not fine. You are not the type to get drunk and then go driving. You took my car without my permission and didn’t tell anyone where you were going. What if something terrible had happened to you? And you definitely are not the type to pick fights with random men at bars. What is going on with you, sweetheart? Talk to me.”

“Jesus Christ, Ma,” Kyle snapped. “Would you stop treating me like I’m a little kid? I’m twenty-one years old for God’s sake.”

The harshness and loudness of Kyle’s voice startled his mother. He had never spoken to her like that. She took the cup from Kyle’s hands and placed it back on the nightstand. It broke her heart to see her baby spiral out of control like that. She felt helpless. She wanted to help her son, but Kyle refused to confide in her.

Kyle sighed, realizing his mother didn’t deserve his outburst. He reached over to hold her hand. “I’m sorry, Ma. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I’m fine, really. Don’t concern yourself with me. Phil should not have told you anything about what happened last night. He is blowing it out of proportion. The fight was just a little misunderstanding.”

“I’m also sorry for taking your car without your permission,” Kyle continued. “It was reckless of me to go driving in the condition I was in. You’re right. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

Mrs. Garrett was not buying her son’s attempt to downplay what happened. Her friend Margaret had told her everything. “Margaret also told me what you were doing with some girl in the parking lot of the bar. How could you do such a thing, Kyle? How could you cheat on Abby just when you are about to propose to her? How could you do that to that sweet girl?”

Kyle chuckled bitterly and shook his head. He wished he could tell his mother that the girl she thought was so sweet and pure was nothing but a back-stabbing, lying, cheating slut. But he decided to hold his tongue for her sake.

“Look Ma, I don’t really want to talk about any of this anymore. My head is still pounding from last night, and I need to go throw up some more. Can we please drop it?”

“Talk to me Kyle. I’m your mother. Whatever is troubling you, tell me so I can help you.”

Kyle kissed his mother’s hand. “Thank you for caring about me so much, but you can’t help me on this Ma. No one can. So let’s just drop it please.”

“The only reason I’m being so nosy is because I love you, Kyle. I see you’re hurting, and I want to help you. You’re my baby, and I love you. I’m just worried about you.”

Kyle gave his mother a sweet smile. He was grateful that there was at least one woman in his life who cared about him and loved him unconditionally.

“I know Ma. Please stop worrying. You can’t help me with this, so there is no point in telling you anything. This is something I will solve once I get to New York. After I handle it, I will tell you all about it, but not now. Trust me on this. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Okay, sweetheart. I won’t ask you again. You should stay in bed until you feel better. I will bring you something to eat later.” Mrs. Garrett gave her son a kiss on the top of the head and walked out of the room.

Kyle flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He needed to get off the bed to take a much needed shower and change out of his stinky clothes. But he couldn’t summon up the will. Abby had robbed him of his will to live and his joy for life, and Kyle hated her for it.

He reached for his phone lying next to him on the bed and looked at all the missed calls and texts he missed. Most of them were from Abby. Kyle did not want to talk to her. He no longer trusted himself to feign civility towards her over the phone. But he realized that if he kept avoiding her, she might start figuring out he was on to her. He didn’t want her to suspect anything. He wanted to catch her red-handed in the act. Exerting a great deal of self-control, Kyle dialed his cheating girlfriend’s cellphone that morning.

Abby was in the middle of ringing a book purchase at the bookstore when her phone buzzed. She answered it immediately when she saw it was Kyle. “Hey, honey. Where were you? I’ve been calling you all morning.”

Fucking liar. Like you give a shit whether I live or die.
Kyle wanted to scream those words at her. Instead, he counted to ten in his head and forced a smile on his voice.

“I know. I’m sorry. I went out with some friends last night, had too much to drink, and crashed. I just woke up and saw all of your calls and texts.”

“Are you alright?” Abby asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Kyle snapped, raising his voice. Realizing that he was giving away his anger, Kyle drew a long breath and reigned in his tone. “I just have a little headache. That’s all,” he added in a calmer, more subdued voice.

Abby was sensing Kyle was hiding something. He was being invasive and snappy, just like during their last call. Abby realized he wasn’t going to tell her anything no matter how much she pried. So she decided to stop harassing him with her questions.

“Okay, then,” Abby replied with resignation in her voice. “Take care of yourself. I hope you feel better.”

“Thanks.”

“Listen, I have to go. I’m in the middle of my shift, and the store is really busy. Talk to you later?”

“Sure.”

Abby wanted to say something else, but Kyle didn’t give her a chance. He disconnected the call as soon as the word ‘sure’ came out of his mouth.

Abby removed the phone from her ear and stared at the screen, surprised that Kyle ended the call so abruptly. After putting the phone away, Abby continued to wait on her customers. But she couldn’t get the phone conversation with Kyle out of her mind. It bugged her how cold and distant her boyfriend sounded.

She also noticed he hung up without saying ‘I love you’ to her. Again. When they were apart in the past, they’d talk for hours on the phone and video chat often. During this trip, she could barely get a word out of him. He also raised his voice at her, something Kyle rarely did.

Still, it did not cross Abby’s mind that Kyle knew about her affair, and that was the reason he was acting the way he was. Abby blamed Kyle’s attitude on him being hung over and shrugged it off.

After hanging up on Abby, Kyle managed to get off his bed, shower and change his clothes. The headaches and the nausea had subsided, but Kyle decided to spend the rest of the day alone in his room. He was sick of people asking what was wrong with him. He just wanted to be alone.

Later in the day, his mother brought him some brunch, but Kyle barely touched it. He decided to spend the rest of the day sitting in front of his computer monitoring the location of Abby’s phone. He already knew Abby was cheating on him. But he figured that if he kept monitoring her, perhaps he could find some clues as to who she was cheating on him with.

While he waited for Abby to finish her shift at the bookstore, Kyle began to plot his revenge. He thought about pummeling the guy’s face to pieces, but doing that didn’t satisfy him anymore. Then the thought of shooting the guy in the face sneaked into his head. Initially, the thought disturbed Kyle a lot. He was not a violent person and was most definitely not a killer. But the more he thought about taking the guy out, the more he liked it. The idea of shooting the guy in the face and having Abby watch him do it made him happy.

Kyle remembered there was a handgun that belonged to his father locked up in a safe downstairs. Kyle knew the combination to the safe because his mother had given it to him when his father died. Kyle knew how to use that gun. His father used to take him hunting and taught him to handle firearms. Kyle thought about taking that gun and using it to kill the son of a bitch who was screwing his girlfriend.

But as the day went on, Kyle gave up on his gruesome fantasy. Even though the thought of killing Abby’s lover made him feel good inside, deep down Kyle knew he couldn’t go through with it. He was angry at the asshole, but he was not a killer.

 Kyle removed the murderous thoughts from his mind and continued the surveillance of Abby’s phone. He wasn’t going to kill the son of a bitch. But he knew one thing for sure: He was going to crush that guy’s face to dust once he figured out who he was, even if it landed him behind bars.

As for Abby, Kyle hadn’t thought about how he was going to punish her. All he knew was that he was going to make her suffer as much as he had. The only thing he was certain of was that after he was done with her, she was going to regret the day she decided to humiliate him and betray his trust.

Kyle kept hitting refresh on his browser until he saw the location of Abby’s phone start to change. Kyle watched Abby leave work earlier than usual and stop at a couple of places before going home. Kyle was disappointed when he pulled the satellite images of the two places Abby visited and saw they were just clothing stores. He cursed under his breath. He was desperate for a clue, any clue as to who the guy was. He couldn’t wait to get back to New York to find out.

Just a few more hours.

Kyle kept tracking Abby’s phone while snacking on junk food he found in his mother’s fridge. He had the whole house to himself that evening. Everyone in the house had decided to go out to dinner. Kyle refused to join them, claiming he didn’t feel well. He felt fine in spite of the beating he had taken the night before. He just wanted to stay home so he could spy on his deceitful girlfriend some more.

Kyle spent hours hitting refresh on his browser but saw no change in the location of the green dot on the screen. It looked like Abby wasn’t going to leave her apartment again after she got home from shopping.

Just when Kyle thought Abby was going to spend the rest of the night home, he saw the location of the green dot start to change again. Abby was traveling uptown. After a few minutes, the green dot was back at the midtown address from the previous night.

“Fucking whore,” Kyle muttered to himself, and his body started shaking with rage.

****

Late that night, Brianna got a call from her doorman telling her she had a visitor. She instructed him to let her guest come upstairs. Brianna had just gotten home from rehearsals for
Chicago
. She anticipated she was going to be too exhausted to cook or go out that night. So she planned a relaxing, casual evening for her and Abby. They were going to order pizza, watch some TV and just chill.