The Devastatingly Beautiful Series (3 page)

5

Tatum

I head back to the hotel that night feeling better about things than I did in a long time. I could be that I’ve finally gotten away from my family and the knowing stares, it could be that the air here is a lot lighter than the heavy air in Texas, or it could be that I’ve found a new quest in the woman from the photography studio.

Molly.

Her name fits her to the T. Her red hair, shining in the sun, was my first sign that she’s the real thing. I’ve become an attractant for all things fake recently, so seeing someone like her push back against me, and not take my over smug self, it hot as hell. Now all I need to do is get on her good side. Hopefully this ‘job’ will do that.

I really have no interest in having a job, but I also have no interest in anyone else finding out who I really am. I think I’m far enough away from Texas for people not to recognize me on the street, but you never know what magazines have run stories on me or my family.

Feeling this way about a woman is different for me. Has it really been that long since I’ve been laid? Either way, it makes the thought of going into work a little easier when you have nice eye-candy who actually knows what she’s doing in her line of work. I’ve worked with too many incompetent women in my line of work, so this is a nice change. It’s actually turning me on, watching her do something she knows so well. It was like she was dancing a choreographed dance, knowing exactly what she had to do and when she had to do it.

I never thought that someone working in a darkroom would be sexy, but watching her move through the dark, only lit by a little red light, was amazing and sexy as sin. She glided in the dark, knowing exactly what she needed and where she was getting it from, and damn if she didn’t feel perfect against me when she ran into me. The red glow of the light on her skin, and the dark contrast between everything around her was incredibly sexy.

Mark that on the ‘places to do’ list once I finally get on her good side.

I’m never going to get used to having a boss or having to report by a certain time, but at least she made it sting a little less that this is how low my life has come. I mean come on, a millionaire as a photographer’s assistant; how hard could it be?

I check my emails to see a new one from a good friend and smile reading his rant on how I could have possibly disappeared like I did and threatening to find me himself if I don’t check in with him soon. Shooting him a text, I smile to myself and laugh thinking of such a tough looking man freaking out that he can’t find me.

It’s his job… if he really wanted to, he’d know where to find me.

For now, though, it’s time to get some sleep. Apparently tomorrow’s a busy day, full of babies and happy couples. Perfect, just what I need.

Molly

I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Tossing and turning all night, wondering what Tatum’s doing, and what he’s thinking. Being in the dark room with him yesterday taught me one thing: don’t ever go in that tiny room with him again. I almost jumped him right there, before even learning his last name.

It’s been a while since I’ve been laid.

He shows up this morning in nice, fitting dark jeans, a pair of chucks, and a black t-shirt. Jesus, this man is nice to look at. I can’t think that way though. His cocky attitude should be making me want to run away, not to mention the fact that he’s now my employee. Never mess around with employee’s… it’s one of my only rules and I spent the night last night envisioning all the different ways we could mess around!

“Morning, Tatum, glad to see you didn’t chicken out.” Maybe if I tell myself to be mean to him, I won’t like him as much.

Please.

“Nope, that’s one thing you have to learn about me. I never chicken out.”

Great, he’s so sure of himself. No time like the present to get the ball rolling then, I guess.

“Great, follow me. We have a newborn shoot this morning and engagement photos this afternoon.”

He helps as I gather items for the newborn shoot. This is one of the hardest parts of the job for me, but I can’t stop myself from booking them. Such innocent little lives, so precious. Most of the time they’re only a week or two old, so new and fresh. It’s heartbreaking and awe inspiring all at the same time to watch the new parents with their baby.

This particular parent wants their baby to be pictured in their home so we have to load all of the equipment up. Baskets, blankets, teddy bears, sound machines, small outfits, and anything else I can think of. Tatum loads it all in, asking questions mostly about the types of materials and why so much has to be packed.

“Infants are so unpredictable, you never know what is going to work well. A mother might have her mind set that the photos are going to be a certain way, but if the baby won’t wake up or won’t go to sleep sometimes those pictures don’t work out. I always want to be prepared. You never know when your last moment will be with your child so I want to make these pictures as precious as possible. That way, worst case, they have beautiful moments of time to look back on.” Wow, I didn’t expect to talk that much about it. Blinking away the mist in my eyes, I get in the driver’s seat. Tatum watches me quietly, but thankfully doesn’t ask any more questions.

Getting through a newborn shoot is always hard on me. It’s been 5 years and I still can’t look at a baby without thinking ‘what if’. It’s a little easier today, though. Having Tatum to teach helped take my mind off of the dark mood it was getting in.

Tatum seems to learn very easily. He’s already getting the ropes of how to set up for the best shot, how to properly light a shot, and even different soothing techniques for the baby. He almost seemed as if he had done this before.

At the end of the shoot I’m finishing up packing the last of our stuff. It went by without incident, only having to stop once for the baby to nurse back to sleep. I look over and see Tatum holding the tiny bundle of baby. All pretenses are shot. He has the most genuine smile I’ve ever seen, all the while looking at this small baby like it’s his world. My chest tightens and my throat seems to close. I can’t breathe. I try looking to the sky and taking deep breaths, but it’s not working. Walking to the other side of the car, I slide down and wrap my arms around my knees. Over the years I’ve had a few of these spells. Some would call it PTSD, others call them panic attacks. I call them weakness and I wish they didn’t happen. Sitting on the ground probably looks pretty silly, but it’s the only way I know to get over these attacks. I take a few breaths, as deep as I can. A few tears silently fall.

“Hey.” His voice is unmistakable.

“Oh, hi,” is all I can get out.

“Why don’t we head out and after we drop this stuff off grab a bite to eat?” He looks uncertain while talking to me. Maybe he’s scared to set off the crazy person sitting on the ground hugging herself.

“Um, no thanks. I need to get some things done before the engagement shoot tonight.” Lie. I don’t have anything at home waiting for me. Not anymore

“Come on, Molly. It’s my first day and I don’t know many people. I’m hungry and both of us need to eat before the shoot tonight. Humor me.”

I give in. Partially because I don’t have the strength in me to decline him again and partially because I really want to get to know this mysterious man. He’s right. We both need to eat. How much can sharing a meal with him in the middle of the day hurt?

6

Tatum

Something’s bothering her. She hasn’t been herself since we got to the newborn shoot this morning. Today was my first time around a baby in a while and as difficult as I thought it would be, I’m more in awe of this healthy, tiny bundle. I’m actually having a good time learning the ropes of her said profession, but something just doesn’t seem right with her. Her light went out when we walked in the door and it hasn’t returned.

We’re trying a place out in town that she has supposedly never eaten before. It’s a Mexican restaurant with very vividly painted walls and festive music blaring. Not really my style, but the smells are so amazing they make my stomach rumble. The waiter seated us at a booth in the corner, out of the hustle of the lunch rush. I wait for her to take her seat before sitting down and she grins at me. I want to see that grin again.

“So Tatum, tell me a little about yourself. How’d you end up here?” She asks, half smiling. The light in her eyes is slowly coming back, but there’s still a darkness there that she’s trying her best to hide.

Telling her about my life will be tricky. No one here can know my past.

“Well, grew up with both parents. Still married actually. Went to college like any normal kid, met a girl, left the girl, and took a long drive until I landed here. No rhyme or reason to it. How about you? You don’t have the same twang as most people in this town. You aren’t from here, are you?” Vague, but not lying. Turning the conversation to her will hopefully make her not notice my brushing over of her question.

“Good one. Nope, definitely not from here.”

Wow, she’s going to be as difficult as me.

“Boyfriend?”

“No,” she says as her face falls and she absentmindedly twists her bracelet while staring out at the restaurant.

“Have your eye on anyone in particular?” Just maybe, if I play my cards right, she’ll be mine.

She looks up at me with those big, green eyes, tilts her head to the side and smiles.

“No.”

“That’s a shame,” I say, then I leave the conversation to her. If all she’s going to give me is one word answers, I’m going to make her work for more small talk.

We order chicken fajitas and super nachos, and I stick to water while she orders a frozen margarita, no salt. As we sit in silence I can feel her getting more uncomfortable. We talk about inconsequential things like the weather, sports teams we each root for, favorite vacation spots and so on. Neither one of us delve any more into one another’s private lives. I can tell she’s had enough of that for one day. I grab the check as soon as it comes to the table, not even giving her a chance to reach for it.

“Come on, Tatum, let me at least pay for my part of the meal.”

“No can do. Doing that would be a slap in the face to me. Let me treat you as a thank you for giving me a job and taking time out to teach me the ropes.”

She sighs and nods slowly. I hate that she gives in so easily. The strong woman I met yesterday isn’t anywhere to be found. Her fight’s gone and I want to help her get it back. I’m not certain why I feel so strongly for this woman after knowing her for only a day, but I feel as if I’d do anything to get her out of her shell and back to the feisty redhead I met at the park.

Molly

Ok, I was wrong. Lunch in the middle of the day with your overly sexualized, beautiful looking coworker is a bad idea. Not only am I grilled about my relationship status, I’m then thrown a huge curveball by his response. What the hell does that mean? He can’t possibly be thinking of me that way. Yea, I’m not terrible looking, but for his beauty he could get someone a little less frumpy. That and for the sole purpose to try and scare him off, I’ve been nothing but mean to him since he introduced himself.

Well, apparently that didn’t work. I see his eyes focusing in on me every time I talk, like I’m the center of his world. Only one person has ever done that before and that ended very, very badly. I can’t let anyone get that close to me again. I’d rather things didn’t turn out that bad again, and having someone like him in my life is just asking for trouble.

That, and the fact that I’ve started receiving threats again from them is a sure sign that I need to get my life together before inviting the innocent in.

“Listen, Tatum, I’m not feeling well today. I think I need to head home and rest before the shoot tonight. Can you head back to the studio and make sure everything is set for tonight?” Maybe getting away from him for a while will let my hormones relax. They seem to be in overdrive lately and it’s happening every time I am around Tatum.

“Sure, just tell me what to do.”

I go through step by step what to do with the photos from this morning. He says he’s competent with computers so transferring them from the card to the computer shouldn’t be too hard. Then I tell him about the things we would need for the engagement shoot tonight. There isn’t much equipment needed for the shoot tonight, so he shouldn’t have too hard of a time.

Heading home, all I can think about is Tatum. I got myself so hot during lunch I didn’t quite know what to do. My panties are soaked just from sitting through a mid-day date with him. I can’t have those feelings anymore. When Brian was killed, he took my entire life with him. I can’t start over again, which means I can’t give myself to someone again.

7

Tatum

Maybe one day she’ll open up. Until then, I’ll keep learning how to read her and find out as much as I can about her. There’s something about this girl that makes me want to throw away everything I have just to know all I can about her past and help her recover. Obviously whatever she went through she hasn’t coped well. I’m still floored that it’s only been a day since meeting her and I already feel this connected, but I can’t think of it that way. Fate brought us together, and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. No one here knows I’m here, no one knows why I’m here or who I am, and no one can touch me when they don’t know where I am.

Eddie’s not about to tell anyone, so I should be good for a while. At least until I can help Molly.

Turning the corner to head into the studio, I see two figures inside. They’re both in all black and rustling through the filing cabinets at the front desk. Alarms start going off in my head and I jump from relaxed Tatum mode to the old me. The me everyone called Nate. The one who could kill someone with one arm. What’re they doing here? My mind immediately jumps to the thought that they are here for me, but they don’t know I’m here. No one here knows who I am, and they look like they’re on a hunt for something specific. What the hell?

Right now all I care about is getting to them before they see me. I make sure the front door isn’t open and I sneak around back where I see their car, a rusted out piece of shit that’s seen better days. Who would break into a small photography shop is beyond me. Especially in this small of town. That’s the last thing on my mind right now, though, as I try to get to the men tearing apart Molly’s world before they notice me.

One day, and I’m already putting my life in danger for this woman.

Just as I enter the studio from the rear entrance, one man I didn’t count on jumps me. He knocks me down pretty hard, but I bounce back quickly and grab onto his shirt collar, slamming him into the glass barrier between the lobby and back room. Breaking the glass with his head, he goes down. By now the other two have heard the commotion and come running. I’ve done two against one on more than one occasion. I have not, however, ever won against a gun being pointed at my forehead.

“Tell your boss we were here. Tell her we haven’t forgotten. It’s time for her to pay up.” The man has a raspy voice like he’s smoked a few hundred too many packs in his lifetime.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I say. God, my head’s starting to hurt. These assholes are going to pay.

“You don’t have to, but she will. It’d do her good to never forget,” the man behind me says, then he takes his knife and holds it to my throat. Perfect.

I grab hold of his arm and twist. His arm bends in a very unnatural fashion and the knife falls to the floor. I grab it quickly as he screeches in pain from having his arm broken in multiple places.

“Get the fuck out before I call the cops.” I growl.

The three of them leave; two laugh and make comments about my bravery and how it was ‘cute’. The other man’s in too much pain to do anything but scream. He’s not going to be able to move that arm for a while, but he’s lucky I didn’t hurt it worse.

After they leave I sit there, mentally taking in the area. The glass partition is broke. Shattered more like it. The files in the filing cabinet are torn apart. They were looking for something, but what is a mystery to me. Obviously they weren’t here for me, or else they wouldn’t have ransacked her place this bad. What’s she hiding?

Time to get up and call the boss lady. It’s taking everything I have not to make a few calls and have this all cleaned up before she gets here, but doing that would raise suspicions that I’m not who I say I am, and I can’t have that.

Not yet, at least.

If this turns out to be something bigger than she’s letting on, though, I’m damn well going to play the Savage card. People will fear me when they hear who I really am, but to keep her safe I’d be willing to put it out there.

I grab the office phone and dial the number she programmed into my cell phone yesterday.

“This better be good. I was just getting ready to take a nap, and no one interrupts my naps,” she snaps at me. Any other situation I would’ve thought it hot, but not now. Now, everything is in shambles… everything she has… and I have to tell her.

“You should come up to the studio, Molly,” I practically growl.

“What? No. I’m taking a nap. I’ll see you in a few hours.” She sighs and I hear rustling. “I’m hanging up, Tatum. You’ve got this… I have faith.”

“Stop being stubborn, Molly. Three men just broke into the studio. There’s glass all over and they threatened both of us. I don’t take things too seriously, but when someone has a knife to me, I damn well want to know what the fuck is going on.”

I hear her gasp, then she starts to curse.

“Shit, shit, shit…. I’ll be right there.”

That’s all she gives me, then she hangs up.

Time to wait and see what this woman has hiding behind those beautiful green eyes.

When he finally arrives, she stops suddenly, right inside the front door. Her face turns white as she looks around at the damage. I stay right where I am, not wanting to spook her.

“Those sons of bitches,” she whispers, then sets her purse down and gets to work cleaning up the glass.

“Hey, so, uh, would you like to tell me what happened? Because as lost as I am, you seem to know exactly what happened here today. Someone had a gun to my head and a knife to my throat. I’m not sure if this is the right place for me to seek employment if being killed is in the job description,” I half joke. Nope, don’t want to be shot at. I won’t, however, leave her side now that I know someone’s out to get her.

“I’m sorry about this, Tatum. I never wanted anyone else to get involved with this. You weren’t meant to be here obviously. They would’ve attacked anyone. Maybe you should go on back to the motel… find another place to grow your roots.” She’s kicking me out. Out of her life, out of her business.

“No. You’re the most real connection I’ve made in a very long time. I’m not going to leave you high and dry while you have psychopaths gunning for you. What the hell is going on?!” Now I’m mad. She obviously doesn’t know danger when it slaps her in the face.

“It’s none of your business. I can handle it. I’ve handled it before on my own. I can do it again.” Her mood has went from sad, to depressed, to pissed all within a few minutes of each other.

She’s hiding something. Something that’s going to get her killed if she doesn’t watch it. An urge comes over me, the strongest emotion I’ve had in a long time. Still unsure if I like this feeling or not, I try to push it back and move on.

“I appreciate you trying to keep me safe. No woman has ever done that before…. Most are out to get me. However, this is way bigger than you think. These men were out to kill today. If I hadn’t broken that one’s arm he would have slit my throat. They will not hesitate to kill you next time they come across you. I guarantee you that.” I know I’m being more forceful that she needs right now, but she has to understand how dangerous the situation today was… and from her reaction she isn’t getting it.

She throws down the glass suddenly, startling me, and glares at me with glistening eyes.

“You don’t think I already know that!? They took EVERYTHING from me! My husband, my child…. MY LIFE!” She starts sobbing and backs herself against the far wall, sliding down it and hugging her knees.

For a moment the air’s knocked out of me. These bastards killed her husband and child? A new level of anger I’ve never felt sweeps over me. I want to personally dismember each and every one of them.

Right now, though, I have a hysterical woman I need to help. If she would just let me in.

“Tell me, Molly. I’m able to help, but you have to tell me everything,” I all but whisper, slowly walking towards her and meeting her on the floor.