Broken Hearted Love {Book 2}

Chapter 12

“I count the ways I let you down, on my fingers and toes but I’m running out. Clever words can’t help me now. I grip you tight but you’re slipping out.” – Beautiful Goodbye by Maroon 5

Chapter 12

Christy’s POV

The sun was shining high in the sky when I woke up. The colors of orange and warm yellow leaked in through the blinds of the windows. Everything looked so happy on the outside, like it was a mask for the broken life I was living. I didn’t get a lot of sleep through the night. I dozed on and off, exhausted from the hysterically sobbing I had done so much lately, but other than that, it was pointless. The image of red haunted my mind. The picture of the little girl sitting on Jim Patterson’s desk. The way his golden ring of love and promise was quickly drowned in his blood as he lay dead on the ground. The squishing sound the knife made when it entered his chest’s flesh. Everything was still so fresh in my mind. I always thought, after I had the nightmare of killing Harry, that it would be easier once I put a different face to the blood and dead body, but nothing changed. I still felt a sense of weight constantly sitting on top of my chest, pressing harder and harder. My throat still felt like it was closing in on itself, strangling me.

But there was no going back now. Those memories were always etched into my mind and there was no undoing the fact that I had killed another man. But this time, I didn’t know what the man did that made him worthy of killing. Nothing was listed in his file and I didn’t have enough of a backbone to ask Charlie.

I practically leaped to my feet when the pounding echoed off the outside of my motel room door. I tip toed forward, every single horrible scenario running through my head. Did I not kill the right person? Was Charlie done with me? Was he not satisfied with my work? But even I couldn’t answer my own questions before a booming voice yelled to me.

“I swear to God, Christy, if you don’t open this fucking door, I’m beating it down!”

Oh God, I know that voice.

I stood still in my place, my feet unable to move. The continuous banging only got louder, but I couldn’t move. How had this happened? Why was he here?

“CHRISTY!” He roared, banging one final time on the center of the door. Just open the door and send him away. What could he possibly need? I told myself as I moved each foot forward. My sweating hand gripped around the door knob, turning it until the door opened to the bright outside world.

He looked just like he did the last time I saw him. His sandy hair spiked up. His skin golden with a tan. A white t-shirt and jeans on his built body. But as my eyes met his, they looked different. His normally calm, green eyes were blazing and exhausted. Bags laid beneath his eyelids, tinted to a purple bruising color, like he hadn’t slept since I left or longer.

“Mikey, how did you find me?” I sighed, my eyes leaving his. I couldn’t stand the anger radiating from them to me. I knew he was pissed and I couldn’t blame him. I had betrayed him and his best friend. And now he was dealing with the shattered Harry I tore apart and left for the wolves.

“What? I don’t get an ‘I missed you’ hug.” His voice joked, but his eyes remained filled with anger. I didn’t laugh or smile. Of course, I missed him. I missed him more than anything. He was like a brother to me as well. He and Harry were my family. And I left them alone.

He noticed that I wasn’t giving into his humor and he sighed, letting his head fall forward so I could no longer see his face. “Can I at least come in? The sun may be shining but it’s not exactly the Bahamas out here.” He mumbled, amused. He was still joking but I guess that was the way Mikey was. He was a joker.