Dismantled (Girls on Top #2) (19 page)

I’m going to kill that fucker. My own brother is trying to take her away from me. As I run upstairs taking two steps at one time, I’m trying to come up with a plan to bury his face in the fucking dirt. Asshole!

As soon as I enter my place, I see Notso standing in the living room, with a grin on his face. He’s putting his phone in his pocket.

“Hey Traxx, you’re looking a little rough. What’s up?” He tries to hide the fucking smirk and I just give him a dirty look.

“Maybe I should be asking all of you what the hell is up!? Why don’t you tell me, Notso. We’ve been friends for a long time, so choose your loyalties wisely.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, dude. Tell me what’s got you in this brooding mood.”

“I don’t have time for this shit. I’ve got to be somewhere.”

“You do? Where are you going?”

I don’t bother to answer. Out there in a movie theater, there’s a truck with Texas plates that I need to find.

“Thanks for letting me pick the movie, Wyatt! Did you enjoy it?”

“Yeah, I did. I like actions movies, especially when there are a bunch of super power beings dressed in costumes trying to save the world. It was fun! Are you hungry?”

“A little… I can munch on something. What do you have in mind?”

“How about some beers and hot wings?”

“That sounds good.” I smile at him. I really appreciate him trying to keep my mind away from Traxx. On the way here, he tried to convince me that Traxx just needs time. I’ve given him so much time already, how much longer could I wait? My head tells me not much longer, but my heart tells me forever. He reassured me that his brother is stubborn and sometimes he just needs a push in the right direction.

We get to his truck and immediately notice that there’s something wrong with it as it’s leaning to one side.

“What the fuck!” Wyatt, goes around to the driver side to see what’s going on. “It seems we’ll be here for a little while.”

I come around to his side and my eyes show surprise when I see that not one, but both of his driver side tires are completely flat. What the hell?

“Well, I have one spare. But that will get us nowhere. And at this hour, there’s nowhere I can take it to replace them.”

“We can call Uber, the car company, and they can pick us up and take us back to the apartments.”

“I really don’t want to leave my truck here overnight, though. That would be asking for trouble. Luckily I do know someone who has a truck just like mine and can probably let me borrow his spare.”

He’s talking about Traxx.

“Where are you? I
know
you are not too far.” Wyatt is talking on his phone.

“What happened?”

“Like you don’t know. Some
asshole
flattened two of my tires. Yeah…” He grabs the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

“Can you let me borrow your spare? We have the same type truck and tires.” Yeah, okay.” He puts his phone on his pocket.

“Traxx will be here in a few minutes. Sorry, Ciara. Here I am trying to help you forget about him and end up bringing him front and center. This was very… unexpected.”

I nod in agreement and prepare myself for what was coming. I don’t fear him, it’s just that my body and soul respond to his presence in a different way than when it pertains to anyone else. Wyatt jumps on the back of his truck, unlocks the toolbox and takes out his jack, a wrench and a flashlight. He then gets to work replacing one of his tires.

I sit on the driver seat, waiting it out. “So, Wyatt, what’s your story? I ask in order to kill time.

“What do you mean? You know my story.”

“I meant the part that really made you decide to move away from Texas. That’s the story I want to know.”

He takes his time. Then he turns to face me, his shoulders drop and he gives me a defeated look. “The short story is that I was engaged to this girl, a couple of weeks before the wedding, she decided she was not ready to get married and broke off the engagement. Texas has too many memories. Every place I went, I had something to remember from our time together. That’s pretty much it. Let’s keep the long story for another time, okay?” I nod and he continues to change the tire.

“What about you? What’s your story with Traxx?”

I contemplate the question for a few seconds. “I sometimes think we never got a fair chance. Although we always got along really well, he had trust issues before the incident. Then, everyone meddled and it never went anywhere. I was dating around, nothing serious, mind you, because I didn’t want to commit full term with anyone. It was like my feelings for the guys I was dating would completely halt after a couple of months. My heart was always silently waiting for Traxx to be ready. Then the incident happened and he was messed up for many other reasons. He had made so much progress with his PTSD. We were spending a lot of time together, getting along so well, it seemed we were finally on the same level, but I was wrong. He was not ready. I misread him, I guess.” Just then we hear a vehicle approaching us. It’s Traxx.

Wyatt looks as the vehicle approaching and quickly says, “I don’t think you misread him.” Then he gives me a wink. I wanted to ask him about that, but couldn’t because Traxx pulled up like he was driving a race car approaching the pit.

Traxx gets out of the truck with a suspicious look on his face. “Damn, Wyatt, you must’ve really pissed off somebody, ‘cause they did a number on your tires!”

I roll my eyes to the back of my head on that one.

Just like Wyatt did a little while ago, he jumps to the back of his truck and pulls out some tools. Then he goes to the rear of the truck to dismount the spare tire.

I decide to chime in. “Save it Traxx, I have a feeling that whoever got pissed at Wyatt was just trying to start something. Wyatt didn’t deserve this.”

He pops his head out from underneath the truck and gives me a look that said he was incredulous I’d said that.

“Are you serious?”

I decide to dish out some attitude. Living with Brianna for years has taught me a lot. “As a fucking heart attack.”

“Unbelievable.” He goes back to loosen up the tire lug nuts. Then drops and pulls the tire from under the truck and rolls it to Wyatt. Looking at me, he takes a deep breath. “Ciara, can you please ride with me back to the apartments.”

“Ummm, no. I don’t think that would be a good idea. Besides, I’m not about to leave Wyatt hanging.” I hear a chuckle from Wyatt, who’s now replacing the second tire. Traxx starts pacing around and runs his hands through his hair several times, like he’s thinking hard about something.

“Fine! I will catch up with you later, Ciara. I will see you at home, Wyatt.”

I nod in agreement and then he gets in his truck and speeds towards the exit. He needs time to decide what he really wants. A little beggin’ never hurt anyone.

I’m sitting here nursing a beer. No one is home at the moment, which is good because I have to talk to Wyatt once he gets here. I need to know what his plans are. I need to talk to Ciara but I don’t want to force her to talk to me. She needs to
want
to talk to me. Maybe in a few more days she will be calmer and she can be more open to this conversation we
have to
have.

I stand up to look over the balcony’s railing. How can I make so many mistakes and expect her to still want me. The more I think about it, the more I know she is the right person for me. Still, there are some other issues that I have to work out. The nightmares, for one, keep happening. Marcy won’t leave me alone. I have read many articles that explain that my mind is trying to work through the remaining guilt I have.

Every day I remind myself that I can do better than the day before. I can be a better person. I didn’t pull the trigger. Then, I also remember the things that Ciara taught me: Guilt is not going to help me become a better person. Acceptance will. I’m living in the moment, working on my fear and trying to have no regrets, all because of her efforts in trying to make me better. I know that even though after our night together I felt regret, I no longer feel that way, because it made me realize how much, how deeply I care for her. I’m ready for the next step with her – whatever that may be, and I’m ready to fight against anything or anyone to make it happen. Nothing else will do.

I hear the door opening and Wyatt is coming through the door. I walk back into the living room.

“Hello,
brother.
”

“Hey Traxx, what’s up?” He steps in the kitchen and grabs a beer from the refrigerator.

“You, asshat, that’s what’s up. You are up to no good with
my
girl.”

“Your girl? Who is that?”

I take a menacing step towards him. “I’m not in the mood to play games. You know damn well that I’m talking about Ciara. And you, my own flesh and blood, are trying to put the moves on her.”

He dares smirk at me. “Nope, the Ciara I know is a free agent. She doesn’t belong to anyone, because if she did, I’m sure that person would grab on to her and never let go – come hell or high water. Yeah, she is that kind of girl. One in a million. Don’t you agree? So, since she is not seeing anyone – oh, wait, she did go out with me today, perhaps she is ready to change teams. Cowboys are in, you know?”

Oh… I’m going to fuck him up. I put the beer bottle down, just in case. “You need to stop putting a claim on her, because as soon as I can get her to talk to me, you’ll hardly exist. You will be a speck of dust in her life. Better yet, a fucking fly trying to get her attention but becoming nothing but a pain in the ass bug that needs to be smashed and I would love nothing more than to take care of that.”

He smiles as if he has won. “We’ll see about that. As of right now, I’m cooking her dinner tomorrow night. You see, our night got interrupted before we made it to the restaurant, so I owe her. You know what they say… ‘Cooking is love.’ She may enjoy my cooking a bit more than expected.”

That’s it! “Fuck you!” I take one giant step and grab him by the collar of his shirt. By the look in his eyes, he was not expecting that. He recovers quickly and puts his arms inside of mine and pushes out, breaking my hold. I almost go back at him again, if not for the front door swinging open, and Notso busting in.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Says Notso.

I take a couple of steps back. “Nothing. I was just going to my room.” Wyatt looks at Notso and then looks back at me for a split second. It seems he may give a damn about my situation after all.

I spent the night in bed tossing and turning. I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do today. Cooking her dinner! Damn it! Unbelievable. All day long at the office, I haven’t been able to think about anything else but Ciara spending time with him! My own fucking brother’s breaking the guys’ cardinal rule number one. I had to close my door and asked the office assistant to please take messages for me.

I hit the steering wheel with my palm because I’m so frustrated, I don’t know how to release these feelings. Should I go talk to her? Nope, I’m too worked up and I would probably say the wrong thing. Can I ask Wyatt to cancel? Nope, the asshole’s probably still pissed at me for last night.

On a whim, I stop by the gym to work out this anger. I always carry a bag with some workout clothes because I try to squeeze time there whenever possible. After I change, I immediately stretch and go for the elliptical. Yes, I like torturing myself.

I spend thirty minutes on the machine and decide to see if anyone is up for a game of racquetball. As I’m walking to the courts, I see Ciara’s friend, Blaze. He looks up, recognizes me, and start coming my way.

“Hey, man. Traxx, right? Is Ciara with you today?”

“Hi Blaze, unfortunately no, not today.” I answered.

“Uh… That doesn’t sound good. Sorry, man, you look like something’s bothering you.”

I’ve never had verbal diarrhea, but for some unknown reason, I fucking do today. “Yeah, I’m trying to work out some shit.”

“Does it involve Ciara?”

I give him a small nod. “It also involves my brother. It seems he’s trying to put the moves on her.”

“Fuck, man, that’s bad. Is she into him?”

“I’m not sure, but I hope not. We were getting along really well, then, we had a fight, you see…”

“Oh, I get it. He’s the distraction. You know? He’s taking her mind away from the situation, probably because she’s still pissed at you… Don’t you see? She’s not really into him. She’s just waiting it out, probably checking to see what you’re going to do about it all.”

“Ciara is not like most girls.” I tell him in a more serious tone.

“Yeah, you’re right, but I would bet money on it that this is what she is doing.”

“Well, either way, I don’t know what to do about it.”

He laughs. “Man, step off of the soap box for a moment. The answer is clear and it’s right in front of you.”

I look at him puzzled.

He takes a deep breath and tells me the secret solution to my problem. “Dude, you need to boycott the situation. Don’t let it be successful. Cheat if you have to, and let me just add that Ciara
hates
spicy food.”

Then, it all becomes quite clear. A long lost smile appears on my face and I can’t believe that I didn’t think about it myself.

“Shit! You’re right! I know exactly what I need to do. Gotta go! – and thanks for the help!”

“You’d better not tell her that I gave you the idea, she would kick my ass for butting in!”

I turn to show him a thumbs up and then run to the locker room to get my shit. I’ve got shopping to do.