Crave Me (The Good Ol' Boys #4)(125)

“Where is she? I’ve been—”

“You’ve been what? Not doing a damn thing, but drowning in your own f*cking shit that you created by getting high? You think she deserves a man like that? You think your children, your babies would? I’m only going to tell you this once. One. Fucking. Time. She’s moving to Myrtle Beach because for some reason that I can’t f*cking fathom, she loves the Carolinas. Get your life in order before it’s too late and there is no life to f*cking save.”

He threw a piece of paper on the counter, turning around to leave.

“Do you know?” I asked, stopping him dead in his tracks.

Needing confirmation. He spun to face me again. Looking me dead in the eyes. He didn’t falter.

“Kids aren’t in the cards for me, but I can only imagine what it would feel like to lose one. With or without my consent.”

He turned around and left without so much as a second glance. I immediately grabbed the paper, realizing he left me with her address. I grabbed my phone and keys, mentally preparing for whatever the f*ck I had to do to get her back. I was in my car and driving to her house with hope in my heart that the reason she was moving to Myrtle Beach was to be close to me. It was only an hour away.

I couldn’t live without her any longer. I’d barely been living since she left me. Slowly killing myself with thoughts of her through a needle in my vein. I would do anything it took to be with her again. I’d go to rehab, live in a sober living community, f*ck even just be her goddamn friend if that’s what it took for her to trust me again.

I knew she still loved me as much as I loved her. She was mine. End of story.

I sped the entire way there with a heavy heart and a guilty conscience. Ready to beg for her forgiveness, her mercy.

Her f*cking love.

I followed a car into her gated community. She lived in the suburbs of Myrtle Beach. One of those neighborhoods that looked like it came straight out of one of her books that she use to read. There were kids playing outside everywhere, laughing and smiling. Not a care in this corrupted world. It calmed the anxiety I felt all around me.

“One-zero-six Oak Field Drive on the right in one-hundred feet,” the GPS informed.

I decided to leave my car at the park down the street. I didn’t want her to see me coming. I thought it would be better to surprise her. Not allowing her to have time to not answer the door. I grabbed my burgundy beanie off the seat, taking one last look at myself in the visor mirror. I looked like I hadn’t slept in months, but she used to love this beanie on me.

My mind raced with thoughts of what to say to her, with each step that brought me closer to her house. Praying that she would at least talk to me. After all this time she would give me a chance to make things right again.

I saw the moving trucks in her driveway and on the street before I found her. My eyes wandered everywhere trying to spot her amongst the workers.

Waiting to see my girl.

My Daisy.

And just like that she appeared, my angel walked down the ramp of the moving truck with a few small boxes in her arms. My eyes widened and my breathing hitched, staring at a woman that I didn’t recognize. That I didn’t know. I shook my head and blinked a few times, thinking it was my f*cked up mind playing tricks on me.

It wasn’t.

Her hair was a deep shade of brown. Like the vibrant purple that I’d loved had never existed. The new color made her blue eyes stand out more, but they weren’t bright and shining or full of life. I couldn’t see any of her tattoos. They were all covered up by one of those prissy f*cking sweaters she always hated. She wore it over a buttoned-up blouse and black slacks. She was still breathtakingly beautiful, but she was no longer my girl. No reminisce of the woman I had spent years with existed anymore.

“The f*ck?” I whispered to myself, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Did Martinez send me here to rip my f*cking heart out all over again? Did he do this on purpose?

She smiled, big and wide. I didn’t have to follow her gaze to figure out what was causing her to smile. The same smile that would make me catch her expression in the air and place it near my heart.

My heart f*cking dropped.

I stopped breathing.

Everything played out in slow motion as if I were in one of those black and white movies. My whole world and everything I so desperately wanted to believe in came tumbling down on me with no remorse or compassion.

He grabbed the back of her neck, bringing her lips to kiss his. She went effortlessly, kissing him with the same love she once kissed me with.

She smiled against his lips, as he softly pecked hers again, grabbing the boxes out of her hands. He said something that made her laugh. Her head fell back, making her body shake. I could hear her laughter in my head from all the times I made her come undone.

My feet moved of their own accord to hide behind the moving truck. Needing to hear what they were saying as if seeing her with another man wasn’t enough for me to realize the truth of what Martinez was trying to warn me.

“So that was your fee for helping me with the boxes, wasn’t it?”

“Of course. Men need to be rewarded, Daisy.”

I immediately shut my eyes, leaning my forehead and hands against the side of the truck for support. Trying to reel in my fury. Feeling like I just took a goddamn bullet to my f*cking heart. Nothing could ever compare to the hurt I was drowning in right at that moment. The hole in the ground that was swallowing me alive.