Defiance (New Adult Romance) (Isaac & Maya) (19 page)

25

Jace

I know I should just give up on these phone call
s, but I can’t. At this point, Piper has to be expecting me to call her at 8:00 like I always do and if I don’t she might think I’m giving up on her. That will never happen. I thought that I would be getting over her at least a little bit by now, but I’m not. It gets worse every day.

I know that if I miss a call, she’ll be more likely to pick up. That’s how girls work. No, that’s how people fucking work. Hell, that’s not even exclusive to humans. My mom would always call the other dog’s name if she wanted the one that hated her to pay attention. B
ut I’m not pulling any of that pick up artist bullshit on Piper, because I’m the one in the doghouse here. I’m the one that royally fucked up and I’m the one that needs to prove something.

At 7:57, I just can’t wait anymore and I dial her number.

“Did you send him to see me?” Piper asks after picking up on the first ring. Holy shit. She answered the phone.

“Who?”

“Who do you think?” she yells. “Did you send that sneaky little prick Isaac to fucking see me?”

“No.”

“Well, it isn’t going to work. I’m still not talking to you.”

Actually, you are
. “I didn’t fucking send him to see you,” I repeat.

“Yeah, right.”

“I swear. When did this happen?”

“Today! A few hours ago.”

“I’m gonna fucking kill him,” I say, even though I am totally not going to kill him. I’d rather buy him lunch or something for getting her to answer the phone. “I didn’t ask Isaac to do that, but I’m still sorry.”

“You don’t actually expect me to say ‘that’s okay’ and giggle, do you?”

“Of course not. It’s not okay and you don’t giggle.”

“I can fucking giggle,” she replies.

I know. It’s sexy as hell.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Should I tell her that I’d do anything to hear it again? She’s finally speaking to me and I have no idea what to say. “It’s so great to hear your voice, Piper.”

“I… I’m hanging up now.”

“Please don’t,” I whisper. But she does. Fuck this, I’m calling her back. This is a golden opportunity and I’m not wasting it. I’ll call her ten fucking times if I have to. She answers on the fourth, not saying anything. “Thanks for picking up again. I really miss you.”

“I really fucking miss you, too,” she says after a long pause.

My heart starts beating so hard it’s probably going to crack my ribs. “What does that mean?”

“It means you get to keep hurting me, I guess. I’m sure that satisfies your massive ego.”

“No, it doesn’t. That’s the last thing I want to do.”

“Did you know about the whole bodyguard thing?” she asks.

“Yeah, Isaac told me.”

“There’s always a man I don’t know at all watching me now. I suppose that’s been going on since last August, though. I should be getting used to it, but I’m not.”

“Piper… you know me.”

“Maya told me there was a camera in our living room that you were supposed to keep off when we were home unless you suspected something. Did Isaac really tell you to do that?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Did you listen to him?”

“Sometimes, at first. And then later on when we were together, I felt too guilty about it. But mostly, no. I didn’t listen,” I confess.

“So you just watched me?” she snaps.

“I did.”

“For fun?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“A lot of chicks would think that’s hot. I don’t.”

“I know.”

“It, like, majorly freaks me out,” she says.

“I’m really fucking sorry. I regret it.”

“Did you see me naked? Before we…”

“A few times, yeah,” I admit.

“Were there other men watching me too?” she croaks. God, I’m such a scum bag. No wonder she doesn’t want to talk to me.

“No. Just me, I swear. I only worked with one other guy who was ever in charge. Oliver. He’s the one that helped me kick the door in and stopped Luke from driving away in the van. He’s about the most honest person on the planet, very professional, unlike myself, obviously. If I wasn’t there, he was and that camera was off. He gave me shit all the time for creeping on you. And if it was just me… I wouldn’t let the other guys look at you. It made me too jealous.”

“Isn’t that fucking precious,” she growls.

“I was wrong, alright?” I’m not going to dig myself in deeper and tell her than I couldn’t help it. Piper really hates the men can’t help it excuse, but that’s what it felt like.

“Did you jack off while you watched me?”

Fuck. “Just once.”

“Ew!” she yells. “Yuck! That is so fucking gross.”

“You weren’t naked or anything, you were just… being you. I’m trying to be honest here.”

“No, you’re trying to give me just enough negative details so I’ll buy the rest of your crap.”

“No, I’m… shit,” I stammer. “Why do you have to be so intelligent? That would make a lot of sense, but that’s not what I’m doing.”

“I feel like I’m in the fucking twilight zone. I know I’m being manipulated, but I can’t do anything about it.”

“Yeah, I feel like that sometimes after talking to Isaac, too.”

“He told me I can’t come see you. Guess what that made me want to do?”

Thank you, Isaac
. “So that’s why you picked up the phone,” I laugh.

“Yeah, it is. And there’s always some fucking asshole watching my every move and all I can think about is… that I wish I could swap out this asshole for another one. You.”

“I… thanks?”

“That can’t happen though, can it?”

“No.”

“So is that why I want it to? Because it can’t? Is this some forbidden fruit reaction here?”

“I hope not. And I didn’t realize you were allergic to forbidden fruit.”

“You know…” She starts laughing even though she doesn’t want to. I can picture what it looks like. I never thought I’d here that again. “This doesn’t mean I want to see you,” she reminds me.

“Could it mean that you want to talk to me?”

“Um… maybe.”

“Maybe?” I say excitedly.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Is there anything I can do to turn that maybe into a yes, or at least a probably?”

“Hmmm, let’s see. What’s the worst thing that you don’t want me to know?”

I inhale sharply. “Well, I, uh… Look, it was really nice talking to you, Pipes. Please pick up again soon. I’ll keep calling.”

“Are you getting off the phone?”

“No, you’re about to hang up on me because I… sort of listened to you fuck Kevin,” I blurt out, cringing.

“What?”

“Okay, not sort of. I did.”

“Did you watch?” she gasps.

“No, there wasn’t a camera in your room.”

“Ew! That is so fucked up, Jace.”

“I, um, also ran outside after you kicked him out and almost punched him in the face because he tried to come in yours.”

“Oh, my fucking God. That’s… ugh,” she groans. “I will be as fucked up as the three of you are by the time this is over. That’s kind of… sweet. In, like,
the
most messed up way possible.”

“Really?”

“Don’t push it. What else?”

“I sent Isaac to go get you from the club that night so you didn’t go home with that skeevy guy.”

“Okay, maybe I should thank you for that one, but I won’t. What else?”

“Uh… AJ.
Luke broke into your place and threw her, that’s how her leg got hurt.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. And Maya knew about the surveillance, we talked about Isaac a few times behind your back. And I sent her upstairs that day when Luke showed up so she didn’t have to see him.”

“That’s not so bad. Why are you telling me that?”

“I don’t know, nothing happened, but it just felt shady having your friend at my place alone. I was worried you’d come home.”

“You had to have told me bigger lies than that, Jace.”

“Um, yeah, I guess. I didn’t go to college for two years before I went into the service. I told you that so I wouldn’t look like such a knucklehead. I went right out of high school. The part about my father pulling strings to keep me in the rear is true, and that is what pushed me into the private sector. But I downplayed how much experience I had in personal security so you didn’t suspect something. I’ve been doing this for almost five years, not two.”

“Have you had other jobs like this one?”

“No. It was mostly just cheating spouse shit since I got back from doing private security jobs in Afghanistan.”

Piper sighs and it’s quiet for a little while. I never thought it could be so satisfying just to hear someone breathe. “How is your father doing, Jace?” she asks, all the hostility in her voice disappearing.

“Not so great. I guess that’s what he gets for being so fucking ancient.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that. I’ve been paranoid that’s why you were still calling so much.”

“No, I’m still calling so much because I fucking can’t stand not being with you. I don’t want you to feel guilty for not answering, though. Do you want me to text you if something happens to him?”

“Yeah,” she whispers.

“Piper…”

“I should go.” Is she starting to cry?

“No! Please,” I choke. “Please stay on the phone.”

“I can’t.” She’s definitely crying. So am I.

“Piper, we can fix this.”

“No, we can’t.”

“We have to. I…” I didn’t want to tell her like this. “I love you,” I say, my heart pounding as my stomach flips over. “I really do.”

“Jace…”

“Not just romantically. You’re my new best friend, too. It all happened, it was all real, I swear on my life.”

“I am not falling for this,” she says to herself.

“Can you just give it some time? Maybe we can start slow, just talking on the phone.”

“I can’t do this to myself. I need to move on.”

“Please don’t start seeing anyone else, Pipes.”

“Don’t you mean fucking? Please don’t start
sleeping
with anyone else,” she yells. “That’s what you really miss, isn’t it? Not that I’m stupid enough to think you haven’t already moved on in that respect.”

“I have not slept with anyone else. I don’t even want to.”

“You can do whatever you want, Jace,” she tests me. “So can I. We’re not together.”

“If you need to fuck around to get back at me, or just to… you know, have a good time, that’s not going to change anything. But I won’t be doing the same thing, I swear.”

“Yeah, right,” she scoffs.

“Piper, I’m still calling you. Will you pick up sometimes?”

She hesitates. If she says this is a real, final goodbye, I think my heart will explode. “Give me a few days. And stop calling at noon, it’s right in the middle of class and sometimes I forget to put my phone on silent.”

“Sorry about that. Does one o’clock work?”

“I guess.”

“Piper, I—”

“Bye, Jace.”

She hangs up before I can say goodbye, but I don’t know that I would have because I’m trapped in a stunned silence. We talked. I just had an actual conversation with Piper. I smile for the first time in what feels like forever, but then the nausea hits me. She’s still not here. I’ll miss her so much more now. I groan and clutch my stomach as my head spins. This fucking hurts. I wonder if she’s reacting the same way.

I decide to call Isaac because this almost feels like a panic attack, but he doesn’t answer. He’s probably balls deep in Maya like he always is. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll call back. I can’t let myself start indulging in some fantasy, but that could have been the first step towards reconciling with Piper. She might take me back. Getting my hopes up is pretty fucking stupid, but I can’t help it. She still cares about me. I could hear it in her voice. That has to count for something, right? If she doesn’t truly hate me, anything could happen.

Isaac texts to see if it’s an emergency and I almost tell him yes. He can’t call back until the morning. God, I’m so fucking pathetic. I need to do something other than mope around and eat. I haven’t worked out in weeks. What if Piper shows up one night and I’m all fat and pitiful instead of the cut badass she remembers? Shit! That could totally happen, like, tomorrow. I better get to the gym, and not just to do some lame paperwork this time. I’m also throwing all this junk food out before I go
, along with the bag of weed I just scored… okay maybe I’ll keep the weed. Piper could drop by tomorrow, after all.

26

Isaac

I kiss Maya before she goes to school, feeling more than a little pleased with myself because I’m sending her off to the class she has with Sam all giggly and thoroughly fucked. My mind wanders to all the bad things I’ll do to her tonight, but I can’t get lost in it because I need to call Jace.

“What’s up?” I say when he picks up the phone.

“You went to see Piper yesterday?”

I can’t help but smile because that means she finally answered for him. “Yeah, I did.”

“What the fuck, Isaac,” Jace grumbles, but isn’t really mad. “I told you to stay out of it.”

“I did. It wasn’t about you, it was about Maya.”

“Maya? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s doing okay, but she could be better. This should help.”

“What should help?” he asks.

“Piper didn’t tell you?” Hopefully she didn’t feed him any of her theories.

“No.”

“Really? So what did you talk about?”

“Dude… Us, I guess.”

“Can you be a little more specific?”

“No, I can’t,” he returns sharply. Jace isn’t one for ‘girl talk’ as he calls it, much to my dismay.

“So, then, why’d you call last night?”

“I don’t know, I was just all… weird after we got off the phone. Twitchy, like you get.”

“Aww, does that mean you needed somebody to talk to?” I tease him.

“Fuck you, man,” he laughs.

“Seriously, sorry I couldn’t answer. I kind of figured that you talked to her and I didn’t want to make Maya suspicious by being evasive on the phone.”

“Suspicious of what, Isaac?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit!”

“It’s between me and Piper.”

“What? There is no
between you and Piper.
”

“There is now...”

“I will kick your fucking ass, Isaac.”

“Jace, come on. I’m messing with you. I just want them to hang out more without saying that to Maya’s face. She needs to get out of the house.”

“She’s not the only one. I’m a fucking hermit, but there’s no cute, giggly girlfriend to hang out with in my case.”

“I know.”

“Wanna go to the gym or something today?” he suggests.

“Actually, I sort of need you to do me a favor.”

“Of course you do. What is it this time?”

“
Sloane
.” I try to say it calmly, but it still ended up a growl.

“Fuck, Isaac. Seriously? Today?”

“I’ve put it off for way too long already.”

“So where do I fit in? To keep you from killing her?” Jace chuckles.

“Something like that.”

“Are we going to the club?”

“Yeah. I had my Interior Designer call her and set up a meeting at 9:30 in the morning so she’ll probably be in by 10:00.”

“Dude… are you sure this a good idea?” he asks.

“No. That’s why I’m bringing you.”

Jace laughs dismissively. “Fine. Where should I pick you up?”

“At my office.”

“It is so weird to hear you say that. I’ll be there in an hour.”

It’s even weirder for me to be here. Typically when I get involved with someone professionally, I make sure the office is in the back with an easy way to sneak in. This place has a glass door that opens up to a sidewalk that I can see from my desk. It’s like I’m sitting in a fish bowl. Screwing Maya on this particular workspace is never going to happen.

“Where is everyone?” Jace asks as he walks in.

“Nobody works out of this office full time yet.”

“When does that start?”

“A few weeks.”

“So what’s up with all the blueprints everywhere?”

“People still walk by every day, I wanted it to look professional.”

“Well, mission accomplished. It looks great. I’d let you build my house.”

“Thanks. At least the truth isn’t showing,” I grumble.

“Which is…”

“I have no idea what I’m fucking doing.”

“So what’s the official story? Are you just putting up the money?”

“Hey, I’m very sought after for my creativity,” I retort. “But the money helped too.”

“How does that work? You technically don’t have any,” he says.

“Stop talking Jace.”

“Huh?”

“I know this place is fucking bugged, assholes!” I yell to whoever is listening.

Jace’s eyes widen and he looks around. “Shit. Are you serious?”

I nod, laughing. “Let’s go. We’ll talk on the way.”

“The street parking here is pretty good,” Jace says in an obviously fake voice as we climb into his car.

“Dude, they can’t hear us anymore,” I chuckle. “Since when did you become a shitty actor?”

“I don’t know! You could have given me some warning. What if I had said Maya’s name or something?”

“I’m operating under the assumption that they know about us. Carl does. Glory does. And they have to know I’m not actually living at the hotel.”

“Still. What if they don’t?”

“Then I’m pretty fucking lucky, I guess.”

“Sloane knows, right?”

“Yes,” I reply, tapping my thumb on my knee. “Yes, she does.”

“Everybody makes mistakes, Isaac.”

“Are you saying that about me, or her?”

“You. I know you’re beating yourself up for trusting her,” Jace says.

“That’s an understatement.”

“You can’t explode on her, man. You just can’t.”

“Sloane fucking betrayed me.”

“Yeah, well, she can still fucking betray you,” he reminds me, driving as slowly as possible toward the club.

“She can’t say anything to my father that would fuck up the investigation.”

“Isaac, that’s not necessarily true. There is no good reason for this visit.”

“She owes me $250,000. How’s that for a good fucking reason?”

“Holy shit, are you kidding me?”

“Nope. That’s her real fucking motivation for rolling on me in the first place.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If I go down for this, or the IRS starts digging into me, she doesn’t have to pay me back. Well, as far as she knows. She threw me to the wolves for fucking
money
,” I hiss. “I knew she couldn’t repay me, I never would have asked her to. It wasn’t a loan, it was a fucking gift. But Sloane’s pride can’t handle that, so she does this instead.”

“Okay, first of all, you are making some pretty big assumptions here. You don’t know what else they had on her, she might have been out of options. Second of all, Isaac how much money do you have that you don’t care about $250,000?”

Shit
. “A lot more than that.”

“How?”

“From…” The feds fucking know and so does Glory. I guess it’s time my best friend did, too. “From when my mother died.”

“You said you get that when you’re 25.”

“I do. I just also got some when I turned 18,” I say.

“How much?”

“You’re not going to look at me the same way.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll always be a little punk tagging along to me, Isaac.” He grins and punches my shoulder.

Laughing, I glance over at him and think about all the times he told me to get lost when we were little kids. I thought he was so fucking cool. “Ten,” I confess.

“Million?”

“Yep.”

“Fuck, dude,” he gasps. “That is a lot of money. How much do you have left?”

“Thirteen.”

“How the hell does that work?”

“Interest and a good stock broker.”

“Shit…” he exhales, laughing. “Does this mean we don’t have to pay you back the hundred grand you loaned us to upgrade the gym?”

“Well, you have done me a lot of favors lately and I don’t exactly need it anytime soon,” I reply, grinning at him. “Or ever, for that matter. If you’re cool with that.”

“You and Sloane are the ones with the giant egos. I am definitely cool with that. Like you said, I’ve done you a lot favors lately.”

We drive in silence for a few moments as I debate apologizing to him about Piper. He already knows, why bring it up again. “I’m working on the giant ego thing,” I mention.

“That hasn’t gone unnoticed. I should buy Maya flowers or something to thank her.”

“You are not buying Maya
shit
,” I shoot back.

“Keep working on it,” he laughs.

“I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that instead of feeding your recovering ego by confronting Sloane.”

“I
need
to see her.”

“No, man. You really don’t.”

“Jace… you don’t get it. She wasn’t just a friend. I was closer to her than I am to you in a lot of ways.”

“That’s because I was gone for two years and I don’t do whatever it is you guys do. I don’t want to understand it, honestly. And… it’s not like I’m exactly talkative about… real shit.”

“You mean emotions?”

“Whatever. Guys don’t talk about that stuff with each other, that’s what chicks are for. She might be a freaky lesbo dominatrix, but she’s still a chick.”

“Yeah, a chick that betrayed me.”

“Did you ever fuck her, Isaac?”

“No.”

“Really?” Jace asks, clearly surprised. “You can tell me.”

“I didn’t but… we fucked the same person at the same time, so sort of.”

“Okay… I’m not sure exactly how that works and I don’t want to know, but sex messes with your head. Maybe that’s complicating this for you.”

“Maybe,” I admit.

“Don’t go through with this. You didn’t want your money back anyway. Her club is the only reason you were able to spend any time with Maya at all, not to mention that Sloane saved your fucking life that night. You guys are even.”

“Fuck,” I mutter. He’s probably right. This is why I brought him. “I still need to know how this all started.”

“How what started?”

“How they knew about what we were doing with those girls. I can’t exactly ask Diego and I doubt he knows anyway.”

“Then this is a fact gathering mission, Isaac. Put your professional hat on.”

“A little closure would be nice, too.”

“Yeah? How the hell do you think Maya would feel about you needing closure with another woman that you sort of used to fuck?”

“I… shit! I didn’t think about it like that.”

How the hell could I not have thought about it like that? Jace was already talking me down, but that really put it in perspective. I resolve to stay calm and make this visit quick and clean as we pull into the parking lot. A fact gathering mission, just like he said. Sloane doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. It was all a fucking lie. I wish for Maya’s sake and mine that I could say it doesn’t hurt, but it does. Maybe this is what I get for doing the same thing to Piper.

Sloane hasn’t changed the locks. I haven’t been here for months and the place looks exactly the same. My key still works for the office, too. To my surprise, Sloane is actually sitting at the desk at 9:45. Our eyes meet and she stops writing, her lips parting slightly.

“Holy shit,” she whispers. “Isaac. Hi.”

“Hello Sloane.”

“I take it the interior designer
isn’t late.”

“No, Polly’s not coming at all.”

“You could have just called me,” she says, glancing behind me as Jace closes the door.

“How the hell would I have known that, Sloane? And why was the door locked if you’re in here?”

“Audrey, we’ll have to do this another time. Get dressed and go directly home,” Sloane orders, rolling her chair backwards.

“Who the hell is Audrey?” Jace asks, looking around the room as the toy emerges from under Sloane’s desk, completely naked. I turn around so I don’t see her.

“But you didn’t let me wear any clothes here,” Audrey whines.

“There should be a robe in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the bathroom, Aud,” I tell her, still averting my eyes. “Stop staring at her, dude,” I whisper, trying not to laugh.
The shocked expression on Jace’s face is fucking priceless.

“Please don’t hurt her, Isaac,” Sloane pleads right before we step away from the door to let Audrey through.

“That’s really what you think of me, isn’t it?” I say, spinning around. “You honestly think I’m about to grab your girl and make her pay for what you did, don’t you?”

“You know that she’s my favorite,” she replies.

Sloane may as well have punched me in the gut. I would never lose my temper like that and even if I did, hurting some innocent girl, especially one that trusts me… that’s not how I blow off steam. I never did that shit for fun. I thought Sloane was the one that knew me best, that knew I was a better person than the man everyone thought I would become. My eyes start to tear up, so I close them and inhale deeply. I shouldn’t have come here, it’s just going to make me feel worse.