The Beats in Rift (21 page)

MY GPS TELLS me I’ve reached my destination. I look up at the small house and can’t seem to get out of the car. It’s been two years since I last saw Meadow, when she told me my Father was a monster. He denied what she claimed to be true, and told me she was a whore who came on to him and couldn’t handle rejection so she lied. I know seeing her again is going to pull me back into a false sense of security. She always makes me feel like I’m not alone, even though I am. Everyone leaves me in the end. How bad a person must I be to have everyone leave me so easily?

I couldn’t believe it when I got a phone call from Drake. I hadn’t heard from him for months, then he called me telling me he found Meadow and she has things she needs to tell me. My heart stopped when he said her name. I’ve tried looking her up over the years but could never find her. God, I don’t even know if my heart can take seeing her again. I dropped my hand on the table and left the poker game I was involved in as soon as he gave me her address, then I drove through the night and now I’m here. I am sitting in my car too scared to see the woman who messes my head up every time.

I open the car and smooth down my crinkled suit. I make a move towards the entrance when the front door opens. There she is, her violet eyes watching me move towards her. She looks more stunning than I’ve ever seen her; her figure is flawless and her hips are more rounded, showcasing her tiny waist. Her toned legs hold a natural tan. She looks confident in her black shorts and cream blouse, her hair pulled up to give me a glimpse of her elegant neck.

“Hey you,” she says as I reach her porch. She closes the distance and puts her arms around me. I embrace her and hold her against me, inhaling her familiar scent.

“Hey.” She pulls from my hold and asks me to sit with her on the step. “You don’t want me inside?” I ask.

“I don’t live alone so I want to speak with you privately first.”

My heart hammers against my chest but who am I kidding? She’s gorgeous, of course she doesn’t live alone. It’s only fucked up me that can’t move past her. “Okay.” I sit on the top step and she follows suit. Her hand goes to my knee and I feel like she’s about to tell me someone died.

“So, you saw the pictures in the magazine too, huh?” she mutters.

Confusion stumps me. “Magazines?”

“Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“I’m here because Drake called me. He told me he found you and you have things you need to tell me.”

Her mouth pops open and forms an O shape. “Wait, what do you mean found me?”

I rub my hands down my face. “I’ve tried looking you up over the years. I kept in contact with a few people from home. He was one of them. He knew I looked for you over the years.” Her face has lost all color and tears fill her eyes. “Hey, Med. Don’t do that.”

She shakes her head. “Justin, I’ve also been in contact with Drake for the last two years. He told me he didn’t know where you moved to.”

Anger pulses in my veins. “What?”

“He knew where you were all this time?”

“I don’t understand why wouldn’t he tell me,” I say, completely mind fucked by the realization that my friend purposely kept me from her.

“He had feelings for me but I didn’t for him. I had… other things.” She sighs and clasps her hands together as she looks straight ahead. I’m trying to digest the fact my friend betrayed me when she drops a bomb. “I was looking for you because after that week of the wedding I found out I was pregnant.” My stomach twists into a knot. “This is really hard for me to say to you and I know you will think I’m slutty, but Jared and I were together that week too.”

I let out the breath I was holding. “What are you saying, Med? You have a kid with my brother?”

She lowers her head. “I don’t know which one of you is the Father. And, actually, I have two kids.”

My heart sinks. Two? So she has moved on, and has a kid with someone else as well.

“They’re twin girls,” she clarifies.

“Twins?” I choke out.

“Jasmine and Jules.” Shit, I need a drink.

“So, Jared doesn’t know?”

Meadow shifts nervously. “Actually, he saw me in a magazine with Drake so he found me.”

“Wait, what? He has my number, why hasn’t he called me?” I stand because my temper won’t allow me to sit still any longer.

“He didn’t know. He got here yesterday. I want to do a paternity test, Justin.”

My stomach drops. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

She stands up and puts her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry. I know this is a shock and you have a right to be mad.”

The front door opens and Jared steps out, his hand resting on Meadow’s shoulder. He pulls her towards him, kissing her forehead and swinging her into him.

“I thought you said he got here yesterday?”

Her face flushes. “He did.”

Un-fucking-believable. “So what, did you just pick up from being sixteen again?” I ask with acid in my tone.

She pulls from Jared who tries to stop her. “There has always been something between us.”

I stop her. “When you say us, are you referring to you and me ‘us’, or you and him ‘us’?”

Her face drops and Jared steps towards me. “Don’t be a prick, Justin. There are two little girls in there. This is more than any of ‘us’ anymore, but whatever the results of the tests are, Beats and I are going to be together.”

Meadow’s eyes drop to the floor.

“Listen, I’m going to the pharmacy now to pick up those tests. I looked it up online, there’s one nearby that has them.” Jared speaks directly to Meadow. She gives him a nod of her head, and he leaves, walking past me without even a look in my direction.

“So, a lot has changed since last time we saw each other,” she says.

Looking in the direction that Jared went in, I shake my head, trying to clear it. “Yeah, and a lot hasn’t. Some things never will change, huh, Med?”

The front door opens again and a girl steps out. She looks across the street. “There’s that car again, Med.” I follow her gaze, as does Meadow, to a black Sedan.

“Oh my God,” Meadow says, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

“Who is it?” I ask, stepping down the front step and striding towards the car. It pulls out with a screech and drives off at an unnecessary speed.

“It kept turning up outside our old apartment, and we assumed it was someone visiting one of our neighbors, but it showed up in other places I went,” Meadow says.

“Did you call the police?”

“No, nothing has happened. I just thought it was coincidence.”

“It’s freaky now, Med,” Crystal says. “This is our new house, there’s no way that’s a coincidence.”

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I slide it out and put it to my ear.

“Walk away from the porch,” my Father’s voice speaks into my ear. I look around, twisting my head from side to side. “We need to talk. There’s a diner a mile up the road from where you are. It’s called Jessie’s Diner. Meet me there in ten minutes. Don’t tell them where you’re going.”

My stomach feels like a washing machine on a spin cycle.

“Sure,” is my only reply before sliding the phone back into my pocket.

“Everything okay?” Meadow asks.

Yeah, just peachy. Ghosts are resurrecting and the past is revisiting to smash the shit out of me.
The pain in my chest is an old friend and it came back as soon as I saw her eyes again. “Yeah, I just need to sort something. I’ll be back to do the test in a little while.”

Her smile drops. “You don’t want to meet the girls?”

“It’s a lot to take in, Meds. I just found out they exist, and that no matter what, Jared will be there Dad, so…”

She lowers her lashes and pushes her hands into her shorts pockets. “That’s not true. I would never do that to you. If you’re their Father then YOU’RE their Father, regardless of me and Rift.”

I offer her a weak smile before turning to leave.

THE AROMAS FROM the diner make my stomach growl. I haven’t eaten since I got the phone call from Drake telling me about Meadow. I need to have words with that son of a bitch, but it will have to wait because sitting in a booth on the worn fake-leather bench seat is a man who disappeared nearly two years ago.

I stride towards him and slide into the seat opposite. An overweight waitress comes over, dropping a cup to the table and pouring steaming hot black coffee into it. “You eating?” she asks.

“Pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs.” I tell her before she walks off.

My Father grins. “I’ve missed you.” I’m struggling to form words when he continues. “I know you’re surprised to see me.”

“Surprised? I thought Jared had killed you and buried you in the desert.”

“Why would you think that? Jared’s not man enough to kill me, and he has no reason to want to,” he says, confident with himself.

“For the shit with Meadow.”

His eyes darken at the mention of her name. “That whore lies and she’s been turning him against us for years.”

“Don’t call her a whore, Dad.”

His palm slams down hard on the table. “You’re still sticking up for her after everything she took from us? Now she’s raising more girls to turn into whores! She isn’t what you think she is, Justin, she never was. She used you, and she hurt you over and over. Now she’s going to take you for child support and run off with your brother. They’ve been plotting for weeks.”

“He only got here last night, Dad.”

His laugh is mocking. He pulls out something from his pocket and throws it at me across the table. Picking it up, my mind absorbs the image of Meadow laid out on a bike and Jared between her thighs. My hand tremors, holding the evidence of their lies.

“This was a few weeks ago.” He points down at the picture. “Putting on a show.”

I hold the picture up between my finger and thumb. “You’re the one who’s been following her?”

He shakes his head in disgust. “She is the one taunting me, Justin. She always was! She put on that show for me to see and now she’s playing you again by rubbing it in your face that she’s picking him over you. They planned it, and now it’s time to get payback.”

“How?”

My mind sinks further into darkness. I listen to him talk while I wait for my food to arrive.

RIFT’S DELICIOUS, WARM body is pinned against my back as he nibbles my shoulder. We’re naked; sweat moistens our skin from our love making.

Justin has left, taking the DNA tests he and Jared took earlier with him. He’s dropping them in the post on his way out of town. He said he needs time. I’m okay with that; he’s had a lot to take in, and seeing me and Rift together on top of that wasn’t fair on him.

“What are you thinking about, baby?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

“How did you carry two babies in this body and not have any marks to show for it?” he asks, stroking up my stomach. I trace his hand, laying mine on top of his as I guide him to the small silver line where my bikini line is.

“This is my mark. I went into early labor. I was only six months so I didn’t have time to get huge. Crystal swore by this bio oil stuff, and made me bathe in it. Therefore, no stretch marks, just the C-section scar.”

“I want to take you to my life, Beats. Show you the good side. The glimpse you got was not it. You’re my woman. You’ll ride on the back of my bike. My boys won’t ever treat you like they did that morning.”

I’m nervous. I have a job, a house, I have Crystal, and I know what he is implying. When he says
take me to his life
, he wants me to live there. To give up everything I have to be with him in his world. My heart pleads to be there with him, but my head rules me now. I’m scared to allow my heart to make decisions for me again.

“We’re having a barbecue over the weekend. I want to take you and the girls.”

My breath hitches. “I don’t think the environment is good for the girls, Rift.”

“Baby, we’re a family. A lot of my brothers have wives and kids; it’s not all about the club. Please. Let me show you.”

I turn in his arms to face him. His hand wraps around my waist, the other moving into my hair.

“What do you actually do there? For money, I mean,” I ask.