Caught in the Middle

Chapter 22

I had a throbbing headache to a point I needed to sit down on the stairs with my forehead cradled in my hands.  I couldn't recall what happened to Nathan, but I heard hushed voices and the sound of the ringing bell at the door.  I could only assume he left before anything else got more serious.  He probably wasn't expecting to see Mr. Thorton still in the store.  My whole body shuddered at the thought of what else Nathan could have done to me.

"God, what happened?" I heard Mr. Thorton's voice from the distance.  There was ruffle of papers and stacks of books being put back on the bookshelves.  I wanted to get up to help him, but my legs felt too weak.  "Do you know who that person is?"

I settled for grunting.  Any coherent word out of me would have caused the headache to pound worse.

"I leave this bookstore for forty minutes and we get one unexpected person.  Then I go into the back, and wallah, we get another unexpected person.  Two famous people in one day and they're somehow associated to you."  The sounds of rustling stopped.  I could feel the weight of his stare.  "I'm afraid to ask-."

"Don't," I finally managed.  The headache was getting unbearable.  I couldn't answer Mr. Thorton with a hurting head.

He went quiet.

"I'm," I inhaled a deep breath before licking my cracked lips.  "Sorry."

He came closer to me.  "Are you okay?"  There was concern laced in his elderly tone.

I slightly shook my head.

"Did he hit you that hard with the book?"  What kind of question was he asking me?  He was there when Nathan suddenly dropped the book on top of my head.  But then again, he wasn't there to witness everything that happened before the attack and I preferred for Mr. Thorton never to discover my secrets.

"Yes," I breathed.

"You need some painkillers.  I have some Advil in the office.  And I should call the police on that man.  He was vandalizing my store."

Instantly, I shot up on my feet.  The world felt like it was tilting.  I was about to fall down; when I felt tense hands grabbed my shoulders.  "Tessa, you shouldn't be moving."

"Do-n't," I panted.  I clutched onto his forearms.

"Damn it!  I should be calling the ambulance or something.  You shouldn't be acting this way over a hit with a book."  I highly doubted the furious pounding in my head had to with the book.  It more had to do with stress or the fact that I hadn't eaten anything since that morning. 

Then, there was the fact Dane still hadn't enter the bookstore.

Where the hell was he?

"Here, take a sit."  Mr. Thorton directed me to take a sit on the steps.  "I'm going in the back to get you some Advil."

Silently, I thanked him for his help.  He left me.  I heard as his footsteps receded to the back of the store.  The moment the office door closed, I hunched over and began rubbing my head with cold fingertips.  I forced myself to inhale and exhale slow air.

I could hear a heartbeat in my ears.

The pounding in my head only got worse and I moaned in pain.

I wanted to curse my terrible luck.

Nathan mentioned that Dane wasn't coming into the store.  Did Nathan set up something to make sure that Dane was distracted?  If Nathan did, Dane would eventually come looking for me unless he wasn't at the coffee shop anymore.

I felt the sudden urge to stand up and peer through the window to see if Dane was sipping coffee and was probably talking on his cell phone.  He had the knack of getting phone calls during odd times, like during our intimate moments.

I heard the office door open and hastened footsteps moved toward me.  Mr. Thorton knelt before me with two pills in one hand.  He held a cup of water with his other hand.  "Here, take this," he instructed me.

I took the pills and tossed them into my mouth.  My fingers curled around the cup in his other waiting hand.  I brought the lid to my lips and drank the cold liquid while swallowing the pills.  After a few gulps, I pulled the cup away from my mouth and gave it back to Mr. Thorton.  He took it from me.  "Are you feeling better?"

I blinked but my eyes stung.  The glare from the sun outside hurt my eyes.  I shook my head.

"Well, it will take some time for the Advil to kick in.  Until then, rest a little on the steps.  I will call the police."  He moved to return to his office, when my hand grabbed his arm.

He looked down at my hand with a frown on his face.  "Please, don't," I whispered.  I wasn't ready to face the police or be arrested by them.  Technically speaking, Nathan had a restraining order on me.  Even though I was working, I wasn't suppose to be fifty feet near him.  Or was it a hundred feet?

Oh heck!  I couldn't remember!

But none of that matter; what mattered was I had to contact Dane somehow and let him know what happened in the store.

Or should I let go the encounter and still report to work?  I desperately needed the money.

"Argh!"  Furiously, I shook my head in vain.

"Tessa," Mr. Thorton's voice called to me.  His hands reached for my head.  I could feel his fingers sinking into the strands of my hair.  I didn't know what happened next.  I just swiftly reacted to him as I pushed him away from me and I collapsed onto the floor.

"Tessa," he tried to reach me.  This time, he was slowly making his way to me.  "Are you okay?"

I scooted away from him.  For some reason, I could hear Mr. Thorton's voice but the silhouette of the male before me looked like Nathan.  "Stay away!" I yelled.  My back hit a bookshelf.

He halted.  "Tessa," the man said.  He put his hands to his chest.  His eyes looked down at me with worry.  "It's me, Mr. Thorton."

"Stop!" I shouted.  My hands clutched my head.  "Please," I added in a whisper. 

He stooped down while making sure to keep a firm distance between him and me.  "I don't know what you got yourself in but none of it looks good."

He didn't have to tell me that. 

"Both of those men are wealthy.  They usually have people who follow them, and some of those people have vendettas.  Nothing will good will come from whatever your association is with them."  He shook his head.

Didn't I already see all of what he was telling me?  But the problem already happened.  I got involved with the both of them and to make matters shittier, I was getting attached to one of them.

Damn it!  Where was Dane?

"I don't mean to say this-."

'Then don't,' was what I wanted to tell him.  I preferred if he zipped his mouth.

"But those men have expectations...."

Was Mr. Thorton going to talk about the honey and the bees with me?  Oh gosh!  I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole!

I brought my knees to my chest and pressed my aching forehead against them.  I groaned while I tried my best to drown out his words.

"Tessa, what I'm trying to say is nothing comes for free with those men."  Well, I was kept as a hostage in Dane's apartment and I slept with him.  What other things could happen between us?  I ruled out the possibility of him loving me.  Nathan made it quite clear that Elisa created a deep rift between them.  There was no way I could compete with that.

"So it's better if you stay away from them," he finished.

And then I burst out laughing while tears flowed freely down my cheeks.  He watched me with shocked painted across his wrinkled face.  I could imagine how I must appear to him; an insane girl.

But in all honesty, I was laughing and crying at how messed up my life was.  It felt like I was trying to dip my hand in a glass of water to grab at the liquid to only have it slip my fingers.

The irony about my life; it technically wasn't mine anymore.