“What the fuck are you doing in Drew’s bed?” Karlie wanted to scream or at least yell, but all that came out was a whisper.
“I could ask you the same.” Lisa smiled back, “What are you doing in our home? I told you earlier that Drew and I are together. He’s just in the shower, cleaning up after we just, well—I’m sure I don’t need to paint a picture.” Karlie could hear the shower still going and felt sick. She looked back at Lisa, who seemed very pleased with herself. “You see, after I forgave Drew for his little indiscretion with you, well, we just fell into our old ways. Seems you couldn’t please him. He was an animal with me this morning, like he was starving for a real woman.” Lisa sat up, exposing her perfect breasts, and Karlie looked away. God, how could she have been so stupid? Starting to fall for a man who would do this to her again, she should win first prize for being the biggest chump. She rubbed at the pain in her chest. Drew was just like Jake—he cheated on her with another woman. At least this one wasn’t her sister, yet somehow the betrayal hurt more.
Karlie knew she had to leave. She needed to run. She grabbed her bag and as much of her stuff as she could, and froze when she heard the shower shut off. Lisa laughed, “Leaving so soon, sugar?” Lisa taunted. Choking back a sob, Karlie found she couldn’t say anything in return. Her vision was so blurry from the tears that she gave up the search for her stuff. She just needed to get out of there.
Karlie found her keys on the entry table and grabbed her purse. She said a little prayer that Drew had put her car back together and threw everything into the passenger side. Turning the ignition, she swore when it just sputtered. She couldn’t take his truck, and she didn’t want to see him again while she waited for a taxi. She turned the key again. “Come on, start.” Finally, after two more tries and pumping the gas pedal, the old car sputtered to life. “Thank God.” Sobbing, she wanted to look back in her rearview but couldn’t bring herself to see what she was leaving behind. She’d start over and forget all about everyone back home.
∞
Drew turned off the shower and glanced at his cell. Karlie still hadn’t checked in. He didn’t want her running into Jake without him around. After he found some clothes, he decided he’d head over to her parents. He needed to be with her, see that she was okay, and touch her.
As he pulled on his jeans, he heard a woman’s voice coming from his bedroom. Had Karlie come home? But the voice didn’t sound quite right. He opened the bathroom door, letting the steam escape, to find Lisa naked and in his bed.
“Fuck.” He glared at her, and Lisa smiled and started crawling on all fours toward him.
“Okay, lover, fucking sounds perfect,” she purred.What a tramp.He was so furious—it took everything in him not to physically pick her up and throw her bony ass out the door.
“What are you doing here, Lisa? Why are you naked and in my bed?” Suddenly, as if he noticed the absence of her things in his space, he turned and strode to the bed, fury radiating off his body. “I heard you talking to someone. What the fuck did you say to Karlie? Where is she?”
“Well, she’s not here, Babe. It’s just you and me.” She ran one of her long, bright red fingernails over his bare chest, and he recoiled in disgust.
“I’m going to ask this one last time, Lisa, then I’m going to throw your naked, trampy ass out my door.”
She gasped and leaned back away from him. “You wouldn’t, Drew.”
“Try me.” With that, he grabbed her wrists and started for the door, her naked body in tow.
“Okay, you win. She was here while you were in the shower. I told her we are back together, and she left.” She shrugged like it was no big deal.
“Left?” Drew repeated her word like it was foreign to him. “Where did she go?”
“How the hell would I know? We didn’t exactly exchange numbers and promise to be pen pals. She just left,” Lisa said. Drew picked up Lisa’s things and threw them in her direction.
“Put on your fucking clothes and get out of my house. I don’t know how you got in here or why you just fucked up my life, but if you ever come near me again, I’ll call the police,” Drew growled.
Lisa gasped, “Drew, you can’t be serious. We’re together. We’re a couple. You can’t just throw all of that away for some slut and a weekend of fun.” He towered over her. He’d never wanted to punch a woman in his life until just now.
“Let’s get one fucking thing straight. You and I were never a thing. We were never a couple. You were just some woman that I liked to hang out with and fuck. That’s all we were.” He walked to his kitchen and found the Angel’s number. He’d call them first; in case she ended up there. It was getting late in the day, so she might not want to drive home to Georgia today. He’d find out where she lived, and he’d go after her. He would explain that Lisa was a psycho, and he’d beg her to believe him. He’d do anything to make Karlie see the truth. He had to because Karlie was his life. His hands were shaking as he searched for the piece of paper that Karlie had written her parents’ number on earlier.
“We could have had something real.” Lisa was crying in the kitchen doorway. “You would have never been happy with her. She was damaged goods. Jake said that she was a crazy bitch, the way she went after him at the wedding.”
Drew dropped his cell phone mid-dial. “What the fuck did you just say?” He moved closer to her, and he could see her fear.
She was breathing so hard she was almost panting. “I was—I said that she, I mean, um, Karlie is damaged goods.”
“Yeah, I heard that part. I am more interested in what Jake told you and when you talked to him,” Drew said. Her eyeswidened. Yeah, he caught that and had picked up on something she didn’t plan on admitting out loud. “Lisa, I am past the point of patience. When did you talk to Jake?” He waited her out, watching her squirm, trying to come up with a story. “Lisa,” he snapped.
“Fine,” she yelled back, “Jake and I talked today, just before I came here. He told me that Karlie was at her parents’ house, and he said that you two had broken up. That Karlie was over there, and she was crying, saying that she was over you. He told me that if I wanted my chance with you, I should take it before Karlie changed her mind. He was the one who gave me the idea to wait for you naked in bed. I was hoping that you’d be out and come home to find me there. When I found you in the shower, I couldn’t believe my luck.” Drew wanted to tear down the fucking wall, but hitting it would have to do. Fucking Jake—the guy was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth. He’d find Karlie, then he’d have a “Come to Jesus” discussion with good old Jake.
“It’s time for you to go.” He turned to Lisa, who was clutching her purse and cringing, looking open-mouthed at the hole Drew left in the kitchen wall.
“Yeah, I think that might be a good idea,” she stuttered.
“And Lisa, I meant what I said. If you come near me again, I will have you arrested for breaking into my house and slap a restraining order on top, just for fun.” Drew knew his scowl was mean, but he didn’t give a fuck. He needed to find his woman and put an end to this whole miserable mess.
Chapter Nine
“Please,” Drew begged, “Mr. Angel—it’s been over two months. Ten of the worst weeks of my life. I just need to know where she is. Please.” Karlie had been gone for two months, with no word from home, and he didn’t know if she was even alive at this point. All Drew knew was that she had gone back to her apartment in Atlanta, packed up what she could fit in her car, and left. The landlord had bitched to Drew about back rent and furniture left behind. Drew just wanted to know where she went. She had to have left a forwarding address, but if she had, the landlord wasn’t giving out that information. She had just disappeared. He found where she worked, and they hadn’t seen her either. She never went back to work after she got back to Atlanta. Her old boss had a paycheck for her, but no forwarding address. Drew left his contact information with both her old boss and landlord, just in case she showed up, but he was losing faith. God, he needed her so badly, needed to touch her, hear her laugh, just talk to her.
