Sidewalk Flower (50 page)

She rolled over and he could see the same
things he felt wading across her face.
 
He inched closer as her hurting soul pulled at him.
 
“You don’t need me Trissy, but I need you.
 
I’m sorry.”
 
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers, then kissed the
tip of her nose.
 
“Get some rest, baby
girl.”
 
Laying
at her side, he rolled to his back but angled his head so they were nearly
cheek to cheek.
 

His women had smelled like many things,
but never quite like her.
 
He was so
fucked up right now, he could actually cry over it.
 
Perversions were nothing new to him; he’d
seen it all.
 
But there was no excuse for
the hard on growing between his thighs.
 
“Flowers?” he whispered down to his dick.
 
“Fuck you, you little
fucker.
 
You don’t get her.
 
Ever.”
 
What the hell did his body want from him
right now?
 
On a good night, he loved the
shit out of sex.
 
But honest to God, he’d
never looked at Trissy with lust.
 
And
this was the worst night of his existence.
 
Still, his balls were now full too.
 
“Fuck.
 
Me.”
 
He rolled away from Trissy who just lay there
on her back.
 
Maybe he just needed
release.
  
“I hope you’re happy you
little asshole,” he said,
then
wrapped his fingers
around his cock, sliding them up and down.
 
A few minutes later, hot cum spurted into the comforter he’d hidden
under in case she woke up.
 
“Christ,
thank you,” he again whispered to himself.
 
Breathing in too deeply through his broken nose, he rolled back to face
Trissy.
 
Still out of it.
 
But that was good.
 
She’d missed his freak show.
 

 
The jasmine accents surrounding her lulled him
away from the ugly thoughts that refused to leave him
be
until he saw her wince and try to wiggle a shoulder free from her robe.
 
Half out of it from exhaustion, he untangled
the wrap around tie, loosening the robe’s opening so she could ease out of it
if it was rubbing against her cuts.
 
Part
of it fell away, letting him see the raw skin of her collar bone and the
fingertip bruise marks.
 
The sight made
him choke, but he undid the tie completely and eased the robe away.
 
Then he pulled a single sheet up to cover her
lightly.

The darkness of the room sheltered him
along with the goodness he
hoped
 
had
survived in his friend.
 
He knew his time with her wouldn’t last much
longer, that he’d have to—no—wanted and needed to give her back to Lucky.
 
He nuzzled his nose into her hair and inhaled
the sweet scent.
 
She was safe.
 
And then he stopped thinking because it hurt
his head too much.
 

Before he drifted off completely, he
heard Trissy ask in a subdued voice, “Are you going to be okay?”

No more thinking.
 
Only the truth.
 
“Eventually, yes,” he replied.
 
“And so are you.”

That was the extent of their
conversation.
 
He waited until her eyes
fluttered closed.

In his mind, he knew they were done.
 
Finally, sleep came over him.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Lucky waited in his room.
 
He hadn’t slept.
 
Just waited.
 
Wondering when he might hear from
Trista.
 
He wanted to be ready for when
she called.
 
But she hadn’t done so yet
and it was fast approaching ten a.m.
 
He
remembered that he still had her room key and so he decided to go see if she
was doing any better.
 

When he arrived, he knocked lightly to no
answer.
 
She was most likely asleep.
 
If that was the case, he didn’t want to wake
her.
 
But he felt an overwhelming need to
see that she was okay.
 
And so he reached
into his back pocket and pulled out the room key, slid it into its slot and on
the sign of the green light, slowly opened the door.
 

The room was dark, much more so than his,
with curtains pulled together so tightly not a single shard of light barged
through.
 
But since their rooms were laid
out identically, he maneuvered by memory amidst the dresser, the bed and the
small table and chairs.
 
He remembered
from past experience that Trista had preferred to sleep on the left side of the
bed.
 
So he hoped that by making his way
to the right side he’d be able to simply
lay
down and
not wake her up until she was fully rested.

The moment he knelt down to feel for the
edge of the mattress, he was tackled to the ground and had a man’s hands in a
chokehold around his neck.
 
He would’ve
fought back however a light came on after he hit the ground and the sight of
Trista scooting hurriedly over the few feet of the bed to look down in his
direction stunned him.
 
He was pinned
beneath Jaxon, wedged between the couple feet of space between the sturdy frame
and the wall.
 
Thank God Jaxon wore
shorts.
 
But why had Trista moved so
quickly to cover herself up in the sheets?
 
Before he could give the troubling thought anymore of his time, Jaxon’s
voice bellowed out at him.

“What the fuck, Lucky?
 
You scared the shit out of me.
 
Shit, that fucking hurt.”
 
Jaxon winced and moved his hands to the left
side of his rib cage.
 
They were
obviously still tender from the attack.
 
Trista was out of his view now and he wondered why she wasn’t still
watching to make sure they weren’t pummeling each other.
 
What had her more preoccupied than the
possible intruder who had entered the room unannounced in the dark?

He might be down-home and simple but any
man in love would be attuned the same way he was and he knew something was very
wrong.
 
Lord, had he been a fool to leave
Jaxon with Trista for so long?
 
“Get off
me, man.”
 
A vein throbbed near his right
temple as angry blood pumped through his reeling head.

Jaxon raised his hands and started to
back off, reaching a hand out to pull him up.
 
But Lucky gave him a slight shove instead and then got up on his
own.
 
Jaxon stumbled a couple steps
back.
  

What would he see if he looked over at
her now?
 
As it was, all Jaxon had on
were
his shorts.
 
And
he’d seen in a brief flash that Trista was wrapped up in a sheet undoubtedly to
conceal her nakedness.
 
He took deep
breaths to quash the spinning in his head.
 
Not again
.
 
He had to leave.
 
This was too much.
 

Firm in his assessment of the situation
and without looking her way, he spoke to Trista.
 
He masked his hurt with a curt tone.
 
“I guess you’re okay so I’ll leave now.”

“Lucky, don’t go,” she said in a quiet
plea.
 

But he couldn’t stay.
 
And it felt like her words lacked
conviction.
 
Fight for me, Trista.
 
Say
something else.
 
But she didn’t.

He gave her his full attention in one
last look.
 
His breathing was shallow but
his heart felt like it would erupt at any minute.
 
Why hadn’t she come to his side just
now?
 
How could he have been so wrong
about her?
 
When their eyes met, he could
have sworn she’d had more to say but all that met him was silence.
 
Bowing out, he turned to leave before the
moisture plucked again at his eyes.
  

“We need to talk, come here.”
 
It wasn’t Trista, it was Jaxon.
 
His cousin finished pulling on his black
pants and tee and then escorted him with an insistent glare toward the door.
 
“Do you want to do this in my room or yours?”

“I have nothing to say to you so it
doesn’t matter.”

“Fine then, mine.
 
I’m closer.”
 
If Jaxon’s words hadn’t meant to be a punch in the gut, he wouldn’t have
known it.
 
Just needing out of that room,
he followed his cousin into the hall.
 
And
then against his better judgment, went with him a few doors down to his
room.
 
It was like he had to hear
whatever crap Jaxon was about to throw at him so he could throw it right back.
 
All he wanted to do in that instant was leap
at Jaxon’s back and pound him into oblivion.
 
Again, his cousin had stolen the woman he loved.
 
There was no bigger fool for miles around.

“Have a seat, Lucky.”
 
Jaxon winced at the simple extension of his
arm and motioned toward a chair.
 

“I’m not some little kid you get to boss
around, Jaxon.”
 
But he sat down
anyway.
 

“Listen to me.
 
What you saw just now, that was not what you
think it was.”

“Yeah.
Okay.
 
Look, if you want me to sit here and listen
to you, fine.
 
I will.
 
But let’s be honest.
 
I’m a god-damned man, Jaxon.
 
Why don’t you try being one and tell the
truth.”

“All right.
The truth.
 
But you
better sit there and really listen.”
 
He
gave the threat a second to sink in and then started again with a new intensity
until he began to speak of Trista and her pain.
 
“You have no idea what happened last night.”
 
Jaxon’s face paled as a shudder caused him to
breathe in through his nose with a loud hitch.

“You’re right, I don’t.
 
All I know is what I keep seeing when I find
you two together.”

“Shut up and listen.
 
Last night, we were attacked by a bunch of
assholes.
 
They were sadistic fuckers and
they beat me before I could do anything to get Trissy out safely.”

“That doesn’t explain how you ended up on
top of her, on the cold ass ground, Jaxon and…”
 
Saliva choked in his throat.
 
“In bed with her just now.”

Jaxon shook his head then settled in a
dead lull.
 
“Lucky, these bastards were
forcing me to rape her.”
 

What had his cousin just said?
 
The words wouldn’t sink in, they
couldn’t.
 
They just oozed over him like
putrid, burning acid.
 
“What?
 
They forced you to—oh my God!”

“That was their game, their plan.
 
But I couldn’t do it.
 
I fucking tried, Lucky.
 
But I couldn’t do it.
 
They got pissed and were gonna take her and
gang rape her because I couldn’t do that to her.”
 
Jaxon’s dead eyes were drowned out by
brimming tears.
  
“You and Stefan drove
up and then they tossed us to the ground and beat us a few more times.
 
I did the only thing I could do; I tried to
protect her by hiding her under me.
 
I
didn’t know it was the two of you coming up.”

He sat down and tried to settle his
anxiety and disgust over Jaxon’s depiction of the events.
 
For as much as he hated what was going on
with Trista, he couldn’t deny the stream of sincere gratitude at Jaxon’s protectiveness.
 
But he still couldn’t forget what he’d just
intruded on.
 

“I’m sorry, man.
 
I had no idea.
 
But—“

“What you just saw, Lucky, was what I
needed from her.
 
I had failed.
 
Let her down.
 
And you have to know as a man who cares about her what that feels
like.
 
I can’t explain this to you.
 
I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to
understand, but I needed to have some time with her where I wasn’t hurting
her.
 
Where I was a
comfort instead of a drain on her goodness.
 
I swear to you, it was nothing more than
that.”
 
Jaxon didn’t blink.