Page 10 of Sinful Lies
Chapter 5
Dia
I’ve been in love withReed Hayes since I was sixteen years old. He wasn’t like the other boys around here. He was tough and dangerous, but I only ever felt safe in his arms. The night he walked out of my life rocked me to my core. Everything unraveled so fast that night, but we were eighteen and helpless to stop any of it. Rumors were flying all around me that the love of my life was a cold-blooded killer. I knew better. There was more to what happened that night than anyone would tell me, but even now, a decade later, I don’t have answers.
I stare at the phone in my hand, my finger hovering over the number Reed called me from last week.
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1 Week Ago
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“Hello?” I press thephone to my ear. I rarely answer calls when I don’t recognize the number, but for some unexplainable reason I wasn’t able to let it go to voicemail.
“Hey Angel.”
It’s been so long since I’ve heard that voice that my heart is now in the pit of my stomach, and I can’t speak. Silence fills the line. I blink away a tear and force myself to speak before he hangs up. “Reed, is it really you?”
“It’s me. I wanted to hear your voice.”
A million sweet memories of Reed and I flood my mind and my lips curve upward. I turn, pacing toward the back of the house, so I can steal this moment and treasure it forever. “It’s been a long time. I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you,” I whisper, not wanting Ben to hear me. “Are you alright? Where have you been?”
“Why are you whispering?”
“I’m not alone Reed.” I glance over my shoulder. Ben is close by. He’s always close by, but right now he’s not paying any attention to me. Although that could change at any moment. “I shouldn’t be talking to you.”
It tears at my heart to sever the connection with Reed. I’ve waited so long for this moment, there’s so many things I want to say to him, but I can’t. I hear Ben’s footsteps down the hall. “It’s nice to hear your voice, Reed, but I have to go.”
“Goodbye, my angel.”
“Goodbye.” I close the phone and pass the back of my hand under my eyes before turning to face Ben.
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Present Day
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Istill don’t knowwhy Reed called me after all this time. After ten years, he just wanted to hear my voice. It doesn’t make any sense. There’s something going on with him, and the tone of his voice didn’t sit right with me. He probably thinks he’s the last person I would want to hear from, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I had never wanted to talk to someone more, but it wasn’t safe. My marriage is all that’s keeping Reed out of jail. I toss my phone onto the bed. I have to be smarter than this. If Ben finds out Reed made contact, it’s all over.
When Reed left me, I spiraled into a depression that nearly killed me. My thoughts were crippling. I couldn’t get out of bed for weeks. Time passed, but it felt like none at all because the ache in my heart never faded. I slept. I cried. I pushed food around on my plate to look like I ate more than the few bites my stomach allowed. I’d never felt such intense pain before. My chest was so heavy it felt like it was crushing my heart until it broke beyond repair. Reed was my entire world and the thought of facing a single day without him was paralyzing. No one understood. My family, my friends, they all pushed me to return to the living, but even when I pulled myself out of my bed, I was just going through the motions. I wasn’t living.
Eventually I pulled myself together despite the pain retching my heart into a million pieces. I had to find a way to go on. I couldn’t live in the past, grieving for a future I’d never have. I hadn’t heard from him in months. He left me standing there, tears stinging my eyes, and I had to move on. Just like he did.
I took a job working in the office at Cross Shipping. That’s where I met Ben. I knew his name from school, but we didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Ben was the typical Reddington Hills upper class snob. Reed and I rebelled against our family’s money every chance we got and wouldn’t be caught dead associating with people like Ben back then.
It wasn’t until the following year I married Benjamin Cross III. I didn’t marry him for love or for money. I married him to keep Reed safe. Ben was always jealous of Reed and even with him gone, he knew he didn’t stand a chance with me. Reed was the only man that existed in my eyes. After I rejected him, Ben hired a private investigator to locate Reed and blackmailed me into marrying him. He promised he wouldn’t tell the authorities that Reed was running with the Krymson Destroyers Motorcycle Club and going by the name Tank. After what happened the night Reed left town, I feared for his life. Reed would never get a fair trial in this town. Reed was the son of one of the wealthiest men in town, and they all turned their backs on him. They made him out as a monster, and I wanted nothing more than for Reed to find his way out of the darkness and bury the past. I would do anything for him. Even this.
I pull myself together and rummage through my closet. Ben and I are attending a big charity event this evening and I’m expected to play dress up and parade around like a trophy wife while he takes part in a pissing contest to see who in this town can throw around more money. In a town like Reddington Hills, money is power. Now that Ben is CEO of the family business, Cross Shipping, he thinks he can play with the big boys. I settle on a long sleeveless brown gown with an open back that’s tucked away in the far recesses of my closet because it’ll piss Ben off. It’ll drive him insane when the wives of his high society friends whisper about the tattoos on my arms. My rebellion against the standards women in this town are expected to adhere to make them uncomfortable, but it’s who I am. It’s who I’ve always been. Not even the arrangement I have with Ben will change that. Besides the fact, pushing Ben’s buttons excites me.
My lips curve into a smile as I drop the robe wrapped around my body and step into the soft satin fabric. The muffled ringing of my phone catches my attention. I dig through the mountain of clothes piled high on my bed, tossing them over my shoulder as I search around the bed for my phone. It stops ringing and within seconds rings again. I find it wedged between a stiletto and a Gucci clutch.
“What the hell took you so long to answer?” Ben’s irritated voice greets me when I raise the phone to my ear.
“Hello to you too.” I shift the phone to hold it with my shoulder. “I’m getting dressed. What do you want?”
“I want you to hurry the fuck up. I’m in the car out front.”
