Page 44 of Scandalously Yours

I started to pace across the floor, not even giving a damn that tiny slivers of glass were still on the bottom of my feet. I alternated between cursing and throwing things. I had wiped out nearly everything on the tables and shelves, and I was still just as pissed off as before, if not even more so now. Eventually, however, the adrenaline wore off and I sagged against the wall. Beside me, there were multiple holes, and I hadn’t even realized I had struck any of them in all of my fury.

I walked back over to the liquor fridge, then retrieved another bottle before picking up my phone. I chose the burner one because I needed to talk to Alessia. I could explain that this wasn’t permanent and make her see that we were meant to be together. As I dialed her number, it went straight to voicemail as if she had turned it off.

“Of course, she did,” I muttered to myself. I dialed her actual number and while it didn’t go to voicemail, she didn’t pick it up either. I hung up and tried again.

The phone beeped and I tried to calm down so my mood wouldn’t come through in my voice. “Hi, Ale. I’m sure by now you figured that I have seen your video. I have and I’m just...”

My voice trailed off and I didn’t know what to say. I was bordering on wanting to tell her that everything would work out and begging her not to leave me. If the other Titans could only see me now. For all of my strength, one woman still managed to bring me to my knees. The phone beeped and I realized that I had stopped midsentence. I hit redial. Her same greeting played, and I knew I had to speak before the call disconnected.

“Ale, I know you’re listening to this message and just know while things might look bad now, they will get better. I love you, goddamit, and that’s all that matters. Please, call me back when you get this.”

I pressed pound to send the message to her, then leaned back against my cushions, or what was left of them. In my earlier stupor, I had knocked most of them off onto the floor. One look around my living room, and I realized it was a complete mess. Items and things could be replaced, but not Alessia. I needed her so badly, and until I knew we would be okay, I couldn’t focus on anything else.

The seconds turned to minutes and those to hours as I sat there despondent. There were no return calls and I had checked my phone so many times over the course of that time that it was quicker to just hold it in my hand. It didn’t help any when it came to willing her to call me. Eventually, the realization sank in that she wasn’t going to because she had truly walked out of my life.

I won’t allow it, I swore. I had to make her see that we could still have all those things we fantasized about. It would just take a little more time.

She didn’t want to hear it, and I couldn’t blame her. She’d been the doctor in charge when Hayley sauntered into the emergency room with injuries she said were caused by me. She’d even had a rape kit done as if I would ever touch her in that way again. This was all part of some sick, twisted game that got my ex off. How could Alessia have known? All she did know was that there were marks and bruising on the bitch, and they had to have come from somewhere. Hayley spent a fortune each year on makeup, but there were no cosmetics that could look that real.

Part of me hoped whoever had done that to Hayley had hurt her. I wanted her to feel the same kind of pain currently piercing my chest, and making it hard to breathe. She would never feel that though because she would have to have a heart first, and we both knew she didn’t possess one. All she cared about, and had ever cared about, was herself. She was in this marriage for money and clout, and nothing more. Me, our kids, and everything else had always been an afterthought to her. If she wanted something, she got it, but not today, and not anymore.

I got up and found a shirt and shoes, then grabbed the keys to my car. Although I had been drinking, I staggered toward the door, anyway. When I opened it, I walked straight into a wall of muscle. I looked up and saw Mason Steele standing there. “Hey, I came as soon as I heard.”

“Heard what?” My blood began running cold, and if something had happened to Alessia, then...

“A deputy was at the Vault and he said something about you being dragged down to the station. I came by to check on you. Is everything okay?”

Life as a Titan sometimes sucked more than others. I couldn’t enjoy a night in the town... go on a date... or evidently get brought in for questioning without being either photographed or gossiped about. I normally didn’t give a fuck what they said, or did to me, but that basically went to hell the moment the love of my life walked out of mine this evening.

“I’ve been better,” I responded as he stared at me. I was about to tell him I wanted to be alone when an idea struck me. “Are you busy, Mase?”

“Not tonight, man. What’s up?”

I took a deep breath. “I need a ride somewhere.”

I was in no position to drive, but I needed to get to Alessia to hold her in my arms, and I wouldn’t be able to rest until I did. For as careful as I’d been up until this point, I no longer gave a damn. I was a man in love, and I’d write it across the sky if I could, or even shout it from the tallest rooftop, and Manhattan had plenty to choose from. None of those grand gestures would mean a thing to Alessia, though. She was different than all the other women I had dated over the years, valuing people and emotions over material things.

“God, I’ve fucked this up so much,” I stated out loud more to myself than Mason.

“Where to?” he asked.

I rattled off her address in the upper east side. She didn’t live too far away from my current location, and for that, I was grateful. I was completely on edge the entire drive over there, and I could tell Mason wanted to ask me where I was going, and why, but he didn’t. The silence in the cavernous sportscar would’ve been unnerving any other time. Tonight, it allowed me to try to get my bearings.

I didn’t know what I was going to do once I got there. All I knew was that I needed to hold her in my arms, and promise her something. But what? I raked a hand through my hair, and cursed under my breath. What did I have to offer her other than more of the same? I’d never get her wide eyes out of my head. They were filled with the kind of pain I would only wish on one person at this point.

“I should just go home,” I finally said.

Mason looked over at me. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Kris. You’ve obviously been drinking, and whoever has you running into the streets has to be important or else you wouldn’t have even thought about leaving your place.”

I supposed he was right. I didn’t have to go over there to beg her to come back to me. I could simply check on Alessia while letting her know I was here for her when she was ready to talk to me. Yeah, I could do that. “You’re right.”

Mason continued up the street until he finally pulled up in front of her building. “I’ll wait right here for you,” Mason told me, and I nodded.

“I shouldn’t be long.” My ultimate desire was that I would be because she would fall into my arms and tell me what I wanted to hear without me saying anything. I got out of the car and hurried inside. On my way up to her floor, I tried to remind myself that I was just here to check on her and nothing more. As I got out of the elevator and walked down her hallway, my heart had other ideas. I didn’t want to play it cool. I wanted to plead with her to give us another chance, as well as time to fix everything even though I didn’t have the slightest inkling as to how I was going to do that.

I stopped in front of her door, then took a deep breath as I knocked lightly. It was late and the last thing I wanted was for one of her neighbors to open their doors because I was banging on hers. When I heard no sounds coming from behind it, I knocked a little louder. I waited for another few seconds, and still nothing. Using just a bit more strength, I knocked again. I finally heard the sound of a door opening, but it wasn’t Alessia’s. Her elderly neighbor peeked his head out of his own door and looked right at me.

“She left a few hours ago. Took her suitcase and everything. Looked like she was going to be gone for a while,” he told me.

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