Sunday (Timeless Series #7) Read online

  SUNDAY

  E. L. TODD

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Fallen Publishing

  Sunday

  Editing Services provided by Final-Edits.com

  Copyright © 2016 by E. L. Todd All Rights Reserved

  Buried Six Feet Under

  Kyle

  I stopped in mid-sentence as I addressed the jury, driving my point home. My confident and calm exterior disappeared the moment I saw her standing there, a look of horror on her face. Her eyes were coated with tears, and beneath that moisture was the heaviest look of betrayal I’d ever seen. There would be no forgiveness—and there would be no forget.

  She marched out of the courtroom, moving as fast as she could without running. Her heels echoed on the hardwood floor because the room was so silent. Her departure took up everyone’s focus. And everyone stared at me, trying to make sense of what just happened.

  My first impulse was to chase after her and explain the situation. Walking into the courtroom and seeing me as the prosecutor must have been jarring—and nauseating.

  But I couldn’t do anything about it.

  I was in the middle of a trial, and there was no excuse grand enough I could make to storm out. And if I did, it would make me look bad. I couldn’t afford to ruin my image to the jury, not when Audrey and Rose had so much on the line.

  I did my best to cover it up. “I’m sorry, everyone. That was Rose…Peter’s previous victim. She came her to see justice, but looking at him was too much. She had to go.”

  Every member of the jury looked at the door like they suspected she might return.

  I adjusted my tie and took a second to remember my train of thought. A witness was still on the stand, the waitress who waited on Audrey and Peter that terrible night. I wasn’t done with my point and I had to keep going.

  So I did.

  ***

  Keeping up the same demeanor, I slowly walked out of the courtroom like I had nowhere else to be. Everyone else filed out, returning to their lives outside the courtroom.

  Even though I seemed calm to everyone else, I was dying inside. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might explode like a land mine. I hated myself for hurting Rose, for allowing her to find out this way. I needed to set the record straight, to explain my actions—and lack of actions.

  When I was finally on the sidewalk and away from witnesses, I kicked my ass into gear and picked up the speed. I practically ran all the way to her apartment, migrating through the sea of foot traffic. If she wasn’t at her apartment I didn’t know where else to go. I would call her but I suspected that would be pointless.

  I took the stairs two at a time until I reached her floor. I didn’t bother with the elevator because I could run faster than that ancient piece of machinery. When I arrived at her door I was out of breath and covered in sweat. “Rose?” I knocked on the door harder than I meant to, shaking the wood because I was so anxious.

  There wasn’t a sound inside.

  She had to be there. Where else would she go? If she planned on going somewhere she would have came by the apartment to grab her things. I was only an hour behind her. “Please open the door, Rose.”

  Still nothing.

  What I was about to do was immoral on so many levels but I was desperate. I grabbed a paperclip from my satchel and picked the lock until it came clean. The door drifted open, revealing a quiet apartment with no one inside.

  I walked in and shut the door behind me, locking it just the way it was before I picked it. She wasn’t anywhere in sight. It didn’t seem like she came here in a rush either. When I inspected her bedroom it didn’t seem like anything had been taken. She must have gone somewhere else because she knew I would come here.

  Maybe she was at her office.

  I sat on the couch and set my satchel down. If I chased her all over the city she would just run. If I stayed in one spot and waited for her to come to me, I would have the chance to talk to her.

  It was wrong to wait it out inside her apartment, somewhere she felt safe, but I was desperate. And you know the saying, desperate times call for desperate measures.

  I leaned my back on the couch and tried to steady my racing heart. The anxiety was getting to me, swallowing me up. Rose meant the world to me. She’d become an integral part of my soul. When she told me she loved me, I felt complete. The search for my future wife had officially ended.

  I couldn’t lose her.

  ***

  Late that night, she came home.

  The apartment was dark because I didn’t turn on any lights. If I weren’t so upset I probably would have fallen asleep since I sat there for so many hours. The key jiggled in the door then she stepped inside.

  She assumed she was alone because she shut the door and tossed her purse on the table. Then she ran her fingers through her hair, releasing a painful sigh that went all the way into my chest. She stared at the table before she closed her eyes.

  I didn’t need to hear her tell me how much I hurt her. I could see it that very moment.

  She released her hair then grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, moving unnaturally slow. The life seemed to have left her body, like she had no will to do anything.

  Now I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to startle her, but not making my presence known might scare her even more. I rose from the couch and turned to her, deciding to clear my throat.

  She turned around and spotted me in the darkness. “Agh!” Her water left her hands and fell to the ground, pouring out everywhere. She immediately backed up and reached for a knife in a drawer, terrified for her life.

  “Rose, it’s me.” I flipped the switch on the wall so the lights would come on. “It’s just me.” I raised my hands in the air, giving her a gesture of surrender. “I’m sorry I scared you, sweetheart.”

  She gripped the knife tightly in her hand before she dropped it on the counter.

  I lowered my hands, still terrified of what was going to happen next.

  “Get. Out.” Her body shook as she stared me down, the unbridled rage escaping from the back of her throat. “Get out or I’ll call the police. I doubt it’ll look good for your record if you’re caught harassing a former client.”

  I didn’t expect her to take this well, but I hadn’t anticipated it being this bad either. “Rose, let me explain—”

  “Explain what? That you’re a liar? A predator?”

  “Whoa…what?” My voice could no longer stay calm, not when I got that kind of accusation. “A predator? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “You know what happened to me and you manipulated me into getting what you wanted.”

  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Is not,” she snapped. “You knew I’d been raped so you did everything necessary to get my walls to come down. And then you took advantage of me once you got me to trust you. Maybe it’s not rape, but you certainly tricked me into doing something I wouldn’t have done if I’d known otherwise.”

  I’d never been so hurt by words in my life. “That’s not how it was, Rose. You know that.”

  “Get out of my apartment.” She pointed to the door. “I mean it, Kyle.”

  “I just want to talk about this. I didn’t manipulate you into doing anything. For the first two months of this relationship I didn’t even know what happened. When I found out,
everything made sense. I did what I could to get you to confide in me but nothing worked. I wanted you to come to me on your own terms. I waited and waited but you were never ready. And the only reason why I wanted you to tell me was so I could show you it doesn’t change anything.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at me. “I don’t understand how you could go on for so long without telling me you knew…I’m so embarrassed.”

  “There’s no reason to be embarrassed.” How could she possibly think it would change her image?

  “That whole time we were together you knew what happened to me. I thought I could have a fresh start, be with a man who saw me as beautiful—”

  “I’ve always thought that—before and after.”

  She shook her head, the tears starting to bubble up. “And then you slept with me without telling me…”

  “You didn’t tell me either.” This was a two-way street. “I was going to say something before we…were together…but then you told me you loved me. When I heard those words, nothing else mattered. What does it matter where we’ve both been if we love each other? The past is irrelevant.”

  “I was going to tell you that night but then you said you loved me back…and I just forgot about it.”

  “Then we’re both guilty of the same thing.” And there was no reason to have this fight at all.

  “I would have told you sooner but I was afraid of losing you…” She sniffed quietly then wiped her eyes with the back of her forearm.

  “Like you could ever lose me.” The distant pain in my chest started to rumble. I could feel it spread everywhere in my body—including my heart.

  “I was afraid you would look at me differently.”

  “Never.”

  She took a deep breath, the kind that was painful, and then she looked at me again. “But you have no valid excuse. You purposely misled me so you could get what you wanted.”

  “No. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid it would push you away.”

  “The fact you lied about it for so long is what has pushed me away.”

  Just when I thought we might reconcile, the conversation took a dangerous turn. “Rose, I understand why you’re upset. It’s shocking, to say the least. But I promise you, I’ve never had any sinister intent toward you. I wanted you to come to me on your own terms.”

  She turned her gaze to the floor, shutting me out.

  “Sweetheart.”

  She leaned against the counter, keeping the table between us.

  “I knew there was something between us the moment we met. When you walked into that restaurant, I was yours. After that moment, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. As time went on, I became more obsessed. I could never figure out why—until I found out what happened. Don’t you think it’s a strange coincidence that my sister went through the exact same thing? What are the odds of that?”

  She slowly turned her head my way, but her eyes were still impenetrable.

  “I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” I continued. “And that’s when I fell even harder for you. I understand what you went through. I understand the burden you carry. What better man could you possibly be with than me?” That was a solid argument, one she couldn’t possibly deny.

  “Or maybe you just like weak women.”

  Now that pissed me off. “Weak? Who said anything about being weak? My sister wasn’t weak. What happened to her was a crime of violence. And you aren’t weak either. That’s not how I see you.”

  She kept the space between us, still in the opposite corner of the apartment. She stood next to the knife on the counter like it comforted her, giving her some strength against me if she needed it.

  The sight broke my heart.

  “I can’t get past this, Kyle…”

  “There’s nothing to get past. What happened to you occurred long before we met. Our relationship is based on so much more.”

  “It was based on trust—which no longer exists.”

  I wasn’t losing her. I refused to let that happen. “And what should I have done? Confronted you the moment I found out? Brought up a subject you weren’t ready to discuss? What would that have accomplished?”

  She was silent like she didn’t have an answer. “I would have known what I was dealing with. Now I know I kissed you and did stuff with you while you were thinking of that the entire time.”

  “Thinking of that?” I asked quietly. “Rose, I never think about it. I can’t think about it because it kills me inside. Do you have any understanding of how much it hurts me?” Every time I considered what happened to her I was no longer a man. I fell into broken pieces. “I lock it up deep in the back of my mind, trying to forget about it. But when I’m with you, it doesn’t cross my mind. I see the woman I love—and nothing else.” I stepped around the couch, needing to decrease the distance between us.

  She stiffened against the counter. “Don’t come any closer to me.”

  I immediately stopped.

  “You still should have told me.”

  “And it would have chased you off.”

  “Yes…it probably would.” She tightened her arms around her chest, cutting me off even more.

  “Then you understand why I didn’t take that route.”

  “We were doomed either way, Kyle. At least if you took that route I would have gotten out of this relationship sooner.”

  It was like she was trying to hurt me. “What would that solve? We would be miserable without each other.”

  “And now I’m miserable anyway,” she whispered.

  Now I was scared this wasn’t just a fight. “Rose, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But you must realize I’m in a terrible position. No matter what I do, I lose.”

  She stared at the ground.

  “All that matters is, I love you. You love me. That’s the end of the story.”

  “But it’s not the end of the story. You’re the attorney on Peter’s trial. You were just never going to tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to say anything because I thought it might upset you.”

  She started to pace in the kitchen, growing flustered. “Of course it would upset me. But to keep it from me is unacceptable. Mark is the one who called me.”

  Goddammit, Mark. “I didn’t want to drag you into this—until the case was over.”

  She gripped her skull. “Do you realize how insane this is? You’re living a double life, one that I didn’t even know about.”

  “No, I’m not. I was going to tell you everything—I just didn’t know when.”

  “I just can’t wrap my mind around this…”

  “Look, this is what happened.” I tried to keep my voice calm even though I was shaking. “Mark asked for my advice about the trial. When I looked through the file I saw your picture. That’s when I figured everything out. Since he lost your case I took it on because I couldn’t afford to lose this one. I have to make sure Peter goes to jail for the rest of his life. I took this case for you. I want to do the right thing—for you.”

  She stopped walking, her hand covering her mouth.

  “Rose, I’m—”

  “That means you saw everything. Every picture and every description I made…”

  Unfortunately. I read her account of that evening, of all the terrible things the men did to her. It was so disturbing it made me cry—in my own office. It was painful to read about it, so I could only imagine how painful it was to experience it. The fact Rose still continued on with her life, still smiled and laughed, was beyond me. “Yes.”

  She closed her eyes like she’d been stabbed.

  “It was hard to read it. It was hard to know the truth. But you know what? It makes me realize how strong you are. Only a strong woman could come back from that and hold her head high. You should be proud of yourself.”

  “That I was raped by five guys?” she asked coldly.

  “Don’t twist my words around.” There was nothing I hated more, as a man and a lawyer. “Most women don’t recover fr
om these sorts of things, but you have.”

  “Who said I recovered?”

  “I did.” She was a beautiful person when she was with me, happy and carefree. “Rose, you’re unbroken when you’re with me. You’re happy. To me, that means you’re healed.”

  “It’s far more complicated than that…” She was drifting further away, escaping to a place where I couldn’t follow.

  I came closer to her, needing to hold her.

  “I told you not to come near me.” She took another step back, her hand held out.

  I stopped, hating this situation even more. “Rose, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of this.”

  She turned her gaze out the window, her eyes still wet.

  “Please forgive me. I love you and I don’t want to live without you.” She was vital to my existence. I’d spent twelve years of my adult life going through women like toilet paper. I only used them for a moment before I threw them away. Francesca was the first person who meant something to me. But when I met Rose, it was different. She shined brighter than the sun, making every other woman become blurred in the shadows. She wasn’t just the next one.

  She was the one.

  “I just…so many lies.”

  “None of them were malicious.”

  “I just can’t believe that entire time you knew. Now I understand why you were so gentle with me, why you didn’t think my behavior was odd. I feel stupid for not figuring it out sooner.”

  My hands were still shaking by my sides.

  “Now everything was a lie. Everything was nothing like it seemed.”

  “That’s not true,” I whispered. “Everything was real—whether I knew or not.”

  “I can’t trust you.”

  That hurt more than anything else. “Yes, you can. You can trust me more than anyone.”

  She pulled out the kitchen chair and sat down, unable to stand on her own two feet anymore. “I want you to leave.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” I wasn’t leaving this apartment until we settled our differences.

  She rested her elbows on the table with her face pressed into her hands. “I can’t do this…”

  “Yes, you can.” I pulled out the chair and sat beside her but restrained myself from touching her.