The Exception Read online

  My skin felt like a blowtorch was being applied to it. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my arm, white noise rushing past my ears. I tried to block everything out except for the man in front of me.

  I have to take control.

  “If you don’t get your hands off of me right now, I am going to scream with everything I have.” My teeth were clenched as tears from the pain began to sting my eyes. I continued to yank on his fingers with my other hand to no avail.

  Panic began to set in.

  “Oh, Jada.” He pulled me forward. I slammed roughly up against his body, his hand releasing my arm in the process. I tried to pull back, but he had ahold of the back of my neck with one hand and his other arm wrapped around my back. “You’re a little cock tease.” His pupils were dilated now and his eyes hard.

  I have to find a way out of this.

  “I’m not,” I said firmly, trying to keep myself from losing control.

  My stomach was threatening to expel the little dinner I had eaten. I raised my hand to cover my mouth when I realized my keys were still in my hand. I put one between two of my fingers—the sharp point out—and encased the base in my fist. I raised my hand back as far as I could and jammed the key into his back.

  His eyes went wide from the impact and he loosened his grip. I shoved him away and he stuck his hand out to grab me, knocking me off balance. I caught myself on the side of my car, my hands slamming into the metal.

  I looked over my shoulder. Simon was rubbing his back with one hand and was watching me, eyes blazing.

  “Is everything okay over there?” Someone’s voice rang out from a few cars over, but I didn’t look up to see who it was. I jumped in my car and darted out of the parking lot, leaving Simon to deal with any questions.

  JADA

  The thirty minute drive home felt like an eternity.

  I was in shock, both physically and mentally. I had never been grabbed like that before. Even when Decker had threatened me or backed me against a wall, he had never actually touched me. The feeling of someone’s hands on me made me feel so violated, so vulnerable.

  At least he’ll feel that pain in his back for a little while from the key.

  I checked my rear view mirror a few times, fearing that he had followed me out of the driveway. But I didn’t see his Avalanche.

  Surely he wouldn’t be stupid enough to follow me.

  I felt numb, unable to clearly process what had happened. My head felt like it was full of Styrofoam packing peanuts. The only thing that I could really feel was my arm and it hurt like hell.

  I swung my car into the driveway and ran into the house, looking over my shoulder. I burst into the front door, slamming it behind me and locking it. I leaned my back against it, closing my eyes and letting the scent of coconut wrap around me and comfort me.

  Breathe …

  “Jada? Is that you?” I heard Kari’s voice call from the kitchen.

  Please, God, don’t let Max be here.

  “Yeah, it’s me!” I yelled back. I cleared my throat and made my way through the house to find Kari taking a pizza out of the oven.

  “I don’t know how I burn frozen pizzas! I set the timer and everything!” she whined, smoke coming out of the oven.

  I sat my things on the counter, jumping when the oven door slammed closed.

  “Jada? Are you all right?” Kari asked, eyeing me.

  I rubbed my eyes with my fingertips, not trusting my voice quite yet.

  “What’s going on?” She sat the oven mitts down and put her hand on her hip.

  “What’s going on with what?” Max asked, coming around the corner.

  I must have done something really wrong in a past life.

  Kari and I just stood there, staring at each other. She knew something had happened and I wasn’t about to tell her yet—especially not in front of Max.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. So you tried to make frozen pizzas again. Nice.”

  “You’re a liar.” She crossed her arms in front of her.

  “Not now, Kari,” I said through clenched teeth. “Don’t we have some Charlie to watch?”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

  I looked away to try to prevent the tears from falling, but my eyes landed on Max. He was standing in the doorway, his hands in his back pockets, Saints hat backwards on his head. His stance may have been casual, but his eyes were unrelenting, accessing the situation in a way that only he could.

  “Drop it.” I turned back to Kari, my eyes hard. “I’m just going to go to bed, okay?”

  “Jada,” Kari said, reaching out to pull me in close.

  As soon as her fingers touched my arm, I jumped back in pain and covered my arm with my other hand.

  “Jada?”

  I tried to turn away, but Kari pulled up the sleeve of my shirt before I could take a step.

  “Jada!” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand. “What happened to you?!”

  “Nothing.” I brushed her off, pulling the sleeve down over the purple marks that were starting to appear. “Just leave it be.”

  “I will do no such thing! What happened?”

  Max quickly covered the distance between us and picked up my arm gently. There was no point in fighting him so I just let him look, closing my eyes, knowing that things were about to get real.

  I hadn’t had time to process what had happened. I didn’t know whether to call the police, to go to the doctor, or to just go to bed and cry. But this was about to get ugly with or without my consent.

  “I’m going to ask you this one time, Jada,” Max said, his voice eerily calm, “and you will answer me. Who did this to you?”

  I pulled my arm away from him and he let it go, but his eyes forced me to stay put.

  “I don’t want to go into this right now,” I said, my body starting to shake. “Just give me a few minutes to sort this in my head.”

  “You can take all the time you want to sort whatever you need to. But you have about five seconds to tell me who did this.” His unyielding voice overwhelmed me. I knew he was looking out for me, but I just needed a damn minute.

  I turned, frustrated, and walked across the kitchen with every intention of grabbing my purse off the island and going to my room and locking the door.

  I really need to make getting my own apartment a priority.

  I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder and then picked up my phone. I looked at the screen and gasped, a chill tearing through every fiber of my being.

  Simon: I owe you one.

  I stared at the message, my mouth dry. Tears sprang to my eye with a renewed urgency, filling my lids before spilling down my cheeks.

  Max grabbed my phone from my hand.

  “Give that back to me!” I shrieked, reaching up to take it away. Blood was pounding through my ears as I became fully aware that this was no longer my secret. “Max! Give it to me!”

  “That’s what I fucking thought,” he said, shooting me an angry look as he sat my phone on the counter. “I reckon shit is about to hit the fan.”

  CANE

  There was no sense in trying to get any work done.

  I slammed my pencil on the drawings, turning a circle in my chair.

  I had brought a bid home to work on over the weekend, hoping that it would keep my mind occupied, but it wasn’t working. It hadn’t worked all day. Here it was, after ten on a Saturday night, and I was no better than I was twelve hours earlier.

  All I could see was her face as she watched me walked out of that fucking bar and all I could hear was the sound of being sent to voicemail a few hours earlier.

  She actually liked my fucked up self.

  Liked. Past tense. Dumbass.

  I got up and walked to the window. I rested my head against the cool glass, wishing I could just redo the whole night before. I expected her to be a little pissed at me when I got there, but I should have stayed calm. And I sure as shit shouldn’t have walked out with that chick.

>   That was low. Even for me.

  My phone buzzing on my desk broke my thoughts. I turned and watched it bounce around.

  Maybe it’ll bounce off the desk and smash into pieces.

  I ran my fingers through my hair, tugging it roughly. I needed to feel something other than whatever this feeling was.

  Is this what guilt feels like? Don’t you need a conscience to feel that?

  I need to hit the bag for a while. Work this shit out of my system.

  I headed back to the desk when the phone started ringing again. I saw it was Max.

  “What’s up?”

  “We have a problem,” Max bit out angrily.

  For fuck’s sake. The last thing I wanted to deal on a Saturday night was a construction issue.

  I pay him to handle this shit. Let him handle it.

  “Oh, do we now? What can you not take care of yourself, Max?” I instantly felt bad for being a dick, but I really just wanted to be left alone.

  “Okay,” Max said, his words and their anger hitting me hard. “I just won’t tell you that Jada has fucking bruises on her arm.”

  “Whoa. Wait. What?” I sat back down in my chair, confident that I misheard him. “What did you just say?”

  “Yeah. Jada just got home and she was nervous as hell. Kari grabbed her arm and she pulled it back. Her arm has a bunch of bruises, Alexander.”

  “From what?” I asked, praying that she didn’t do something really fucking stupid. But I had a bad feeling.

  “I’d say in my infinite wisdom that they are fingerprints. They look like someone grabbed her.”

  Adrenaline began to flow through my body and I stood back up, my heart now pounding uncontrollably. “Who did it?” I looked around the room for my shoes, my mind three steps ahead of my body.

  “Powers.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks and tried to wrap my brain around what Max just said.

  “How in the fuck did that happen?” I roared, snapping back to life. “Max! How in the fuck did that happen?”

  “I’m just guessing that your little stunt last night at the bar probably made her forget anything you said. Hell, that probably made her do it. Just a thought.”

  “Now’s not the time for a fucking lecture, Max!” I bellowed. “Where the fuck were you? How did you not know she was meeting him?” I grabbed my shoes from the doorway and put them on.

  “I don’t live there, asshole,” Max said. “But I think the real question is, where the fuck were you? Why didn’t you call her today?”

  If he wasn’t my friend, I would have made sure he met his maker right after Simon. “I did. She didn’t answer.”

  “You do realize how bad this could have been, right? Was getting a strange piece of ass worth this?”

  “Fuck you, Max.”

  “I’m coming up your street now. Be ready.”

  “I’m walking out the door.”

  CANE

  The only sound was the crunching of gravel beneath the tires of Max’s Ford truck. The only light came from the headlights as we turned onto the road that led to Simon’s house.

  Simon lived in the West Valley, on the farthest reaches of the city. There were few houses on this road, just a lot of agricultural land that had not been chewed up by the construction industry.

  “This is Bumfuck Egypt if I’ve ever seen it,” Max said as he flipped his lights on to the bright setting.

  Rage was consuming me, eating me alive. I shifted in my seat, my pulse racing.

  That motherfucker is going to die!

  “Easy, Alexander.” Max shot me a look out of the corner of his eye. “There it is.” He pointed to a small stucco house that sat back off the road.

  At first glance, it seemed nice enough. But upon closer inspection, it was a mess. The landscaping was unkempt and the back gate had been left unlatched and was halfway open. The gutter on the front porch had come undone and was leaned against the ground.

  The parallels between Simon’s home and the man himself were uncanny.

  Max slowed the truck as we crept past, trying to see if there were any signs of life.

  The entire area seemed to be dead. There were no moving parts: no cars, dogs, or lights in the neighboring houses. It was a fitting way to live for a piece of shit like Powers.

  “Yeah, but the Avalanche isn’t in the driveway. So I’m guessing he isn’t home.”

  “Well, what do you want to do?” Max asked, pulling away.

  “We wait.” I looked around for a spot that allowed us to still see his house, but not look obvious. “Over there—pull in behind that barn.”

  Max drove ahead a few feet and then cut it in behind an old barn. Pulling around it and shutting off the lights, we had a clear view of the road.

  “Well,” Max said, looking around, “at least we are at the back of this dead end. Something’s going our way tonight.”

  “Whatever. I’d beat him in the middle of fucking Phoenix if I knew where he was. I’m going to tear him apart, Max.”

  “I know, man. Just don’t waste your energy bouncing around this damn truck. You know how this shit works.”

  Max was right. As fucking usual. It wasn’t going to do me any good to get worked up until game time. I needed to breathe and focus.

  “I’m going to kill him, Max. If you know anything I don’t, now’s the time to tell me.” The fury built again as I imagined her scared and at his mercy. My jaw clenched, my teeth grinding together.

  “Just that he had sent her a text that said he owes her one or something like that. That was how I know for sure it was him.”

  “Really,” I said, stretching my neck side to side. “Well, we will see who pays who when he gets home.”

  “We could sit here all night, you know.”

  “Then we sit.” I leaned forward, popping my knuckles. “But we may have just gotten lucky.”

  A set of lights turned down the gravel road and the vehicle sped our way.

  I focused on controlling my breath as my anticipation grew. I liked to go into fights as controlled as possible. It made picking apart the opposition that much easier. It was something my boxing instructor had taught me growing up and had proven to be right every time I needed it … and I had needed it a time or twelve.

  “It looks like his SUV,” Max said quietly, leaning forward on the steering wheel.

  “Okay. As soon as he pulls in, slide the truck in behind him. If he gets in the house, he won’t come out. He’ll know why I’m here.”

  Adrenaline started shooting through me, making me feel like a live wire. I inhaled deeply, trying to keep myself in check and ready for the task at hand.

  The task of tearing Simon Powers apart limb by limb.

  Max slowly pulled his truck around the barn with the lights off as the Avalanche approached the house. Simon hit the gravel of his driveway and Max hit the gas, flying up to the mouth of the driveway as Simon exited his SUV.

  I hopped out of the truck, my nostrils flaring, and rushed around the front.

  I vaguely heard Max’s footsteps behind me as I stalked forward. Simon stood beside the front of his car, his eyes darting around the darkness.

  “Well, well, well. Imagine finding you out here,” Simon said, the arrogance I had always known him to have loud and clear.

  I couldn’t stop the smile that slowly spread across my face. I was going to enjoy this way more than was fucking right.

  With every step, my heart beat faster, every sense heightened. It was all I could do to reign myself in and not just knock him the fuck out. But I couldn’t do that.

  Anticipation was half the fight and I wanted him to have the full experience.

  Simon stood upright, throwing his shoulders back. His fists were balled at his side and I grinned, hoping he would at least fight back so I could extend his pain … and my pleasure.

  “Put your hands up,” I instructed, trying to keep myself from just planting him into the ground.

  Simon cocked his head to the s
ide, eyeing Max for a split second before landing his sights on me again. “You know I’m a lover not a fighter, Cane. Just ask the little bitch I took to dinner tonight.”

  The words were the detonator to my fuse, ensuring that he would be unrecognizable the next morning.

  “Put your motherfucking hands up, Powers!” I boomed, motioning for him to raise his fists. I brought mine up to my chin and looked down my knuckles, waiting for him to get ready.

  There would be no mistake this was a fight.

  Reality washed over Simon like a hurricane. His face paled, his eyes grew wide as his fate became clear.

  I watched with impatience as he did the predictable—the same thing that every guy that watched too many Van Damme movies did. He brought his hands waist high and began bouncing around like a kangaroo.

  Good enough.

  I threw a jab crisply, snapping his head back. Simon stumbled backwards before righting himself, a look of disbelief in his eyes.

  I took a step forward and threw another jab, landing it flush, causing his head to snap back again. A cracking sound echoed through the night and Simon’s hands flew to his face, his eyes wide.

  I laughed as blood oozed between his fingers.

  He withdrew them from his face and held them in front of him, looking down at the crimson dripping off his fingers to the ground. His eyes rose to mine, before back to the blood.

  “What the fuck?” Simon yelled in disbelief, wiping the blood off his face with his hands. As his hand got near his nose, he jumped back in pain.

  His nose was bent, clearly broken.

  “Just giving you something to remember me by in the morning. Don’t worry. I have more presents up my sleeve.”

  “Cane,” Simon began, his voice frantic, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

  I took a step towards him and drew my hand back, making him flinch. “I just heard you owed someone something tonight and I came to collect.”

  “There was a misunderstanding.” Simon took a few steps backwards towards the house.

  I leapt forward, smashing my right hand into the side of his face. His head fell to his right, but was stopped by my left hand, driving his head the other way. His eyes rolled back upon impact and he fell to the ground with a thud.