Page 231 of Savior
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
DEAN
In my heart, I know she wouldn’t betray me. Not Vanna… Not my fucking Vanna… Never her…
Yet my mind is still at war with my foolish heart.
Ripping open the kitchen cabinet, I grab for the bottle of Jameson.
She lied to me. She lied to me and to Cherry. To Axel and Rusty. Ditched them, to go and meet in secret… with Him!
How many times? How many fucking times!
I chug a few gulps of the whiskey, wishing the slight burn down my throat, and the warmth it creates in the pit of my stomach, would hurt. It doesn’t. It never does. The best I can hope for, is that it numbs out the emotional pain… The mental anguish…
There is no agony like that of a broken heart. And I swear I can feel the cracks in mine I believed to have been healed, beginning to spread once again, as the tip of her knife pierces through me... I know what’s coming. I’ve been down this road before…
She’s going to lie to me…Right to my face…
And when she does, I’m going to shatter.
The nervous expression she wore as she crossed the street with him… As if she feared someone would see them together. The look on his demonic mug as he got her into her car. Watched her drive off as if he knows what it’s like to care about a woman. As if he cared whether or not she was safe.
I chug another few gulps of the whiskey.
She won’t rush home. She’s got time to spare according to her text about staying later with Cherry. I easily beat her back here.
The anger rising within me in waves, crashes and churns with despair. I grab a shot glass and the bottle of Jameson. It won’t be long before she arrives home. I will pace myself.
Sinking into the leather arm chair in the living room, I wait for her in the darkness.
“Where’ve you been?”
Dean’s voice startles me, making me jump as I flick the light switch on by the door. It turns on the recessed lights in the ceiling leading towards the hallway, and I spot his shadowed figure sitting in the leather arm chair against the far wall of the living room.
“Dean, you scared me.” I sigh, my heart racing in my chest. I’ve been completely on edge this entire evening.
The faint clink of a glass emanates from his form, and then a clunk as he places the bottle, of what I can now see is Jameson, on the rustic wooden table beside him. I watch his mostly shadowed arm raise to his face, and then the hissing sound of his exhale after taking the shot.
“I asked you a question.” He growls.
“Little Washington, down town. I told you that was this evening.” I say, slipping off my shoes and moving towards the kitchen island to place my purse down on the marble.
“Come in here.” That authoritative tone of his. Though he’s speaking calmly, I can feel the anger radiating off of him in waves, even from across the room. I make my way around the side of the leather three-seater, into the living room where I come to stand in front of the large stone fire place, a few feet from his sitting form.
He reaches to turn on the lamp beside him, and as soon as the dim light illuminates his features, I can see he’s seething… And that bottle of Jameson is half empty. He places the shot glass down beside the bottle, then uncrosses his leg to plant both heavy motorcycle boots on the hardwood floor. Leaning forward in the leather chair slowly, he rests his elbows on his knees, his hands hanging down between them as he stares at me through slightly scowling, dark eyes.
“Don’t make me ask you again.”
“I met up with Cherry. We looked at bridesmaid dresses, and went to that baby registry place she told me about, for the shower.”
The tightness around his eyes slackens slightly, and a glimmer of pain flashes in them before he regains his hard glare once more. “But you were with him, after… Weren’t you?”
“Dean, I-”
“Were you with him!?” he nearly shouts at me, making me jump again. My hands instinctively drop to cradle Ace. He flinches at my reaction, dragging a hand through his hair with visible regret. I watch him squeeze his eyes shut for a moment, taking a breath through his nose and letting it out through his mouth. “Vanna, were you with him?” his tone is somewhat calmer now, though I know this isn’t going to go well.
“Yes, but-”
