Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)(73)

Bo stood and faced Adrian, “Those *s knew I’d be in Southern New England for a couple weeks on business and they were getting impatient. I knew if I just got it out of the way at the beginning of the trip it would buy me a couple of weeks . . .”

“Damn it, Cavanaugh!” Adrian yelled. “A fight? Behind a garage!”

“Calm down, Turner,” Bo held up his hands and dropped his voice.

“But you didn’t see anyone?” Adrian continued, shifting his glance back to me.

“No, I told you that,” I said as I crossed passed Bo, toward Adrian. I was their geographic center for the moment; I’d seen enough fights for one night, “It was dark, I was hiding behind a f*cking tree, and I”- I stopped myself mid-sentence, dropping my jaw, and widening my eyes in horror at Adrian.

“What?” Adrian reached for me, but I turned to my right.

“What?” Bo asked.

I turned slower than I’d ever turned in my life and addressed Bo.

“When did you know it was me?” I choked, shaken by my own words.

One . . .

Two . . .

Three . . .

“When did you know it was me, Bowan?” I took one purposeful step forward and heard Adrian shift behind me.

“Ember,” Adrian touched my shoulder, turning me back around, “what the hell are you talking about?”

“I saw him that night.” The weight of the revelation did its best to crush me.

Bo touched my back, “Nov-”

“Shh!” I replied, not turning around, “I saw ‘Spike’ that night. It was nearly dark, he was shadowed under a street light more than fifty feet away. I heard the fight, one car pull away, I checked to see . . . ”

I turned back to Bo.

“November . . .”

“When . . . the f*ck . . . did you know it was me?” I recoiled as he reached for me.

Anxious sweat highlighted his forehead, “We were fifty feet away, I had no idea-”

“Bullshit! You realize there was a potential witness to whatever the hell happened and you don’t use every single second to memorize every detail of what I look, sound, act like? Tell me, Bo . . .”

His shoulders sank and my rage ignited unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I lunched toward him with feral strength and I was as surprised as he when my palms connected with his chest and he staggered backwards.

“You knew it was me?” How long did it take? Was it the second you saw me at Finnegan’s, when I sang with you on stage?” I kept pushing and pushing him until he was against the wall. When there was nowhere left to push, I clenched my fists and pounded them in to his chest and shoulders.

“Ember, f*ck, stop!” Bo tried to grab for my arms, but I was thrashing so erratically, he couldn’t catch up.

“Was it after we kissed, after we had sex?!” Heavy sobs replaced desperate anger. “When was it, Bo, when did you realize that I was the scared shitless girl? Was it right away? Were you thrilled by the coincidence that I walked in to Finnegan’s so you could hold onto me as an insurance policy; that I wouldn’t say anything if I remembered who you were?” My fists pounded harder in to him and my voice was lost in my tears. Bo did nothing to stop the blows.

Suddenly, two hands gripped my shoulders from behind and yanked me away, “Ember! Get off him!” Adrian yelled as he moved one hand around my waist.

Adrian forced me down on to the bed and held his hands on my shoulders as Bo slid down the wall and buried his face in his hands.

“Will someone, calmly tell me what is going on?”

“When the fight behind the garage was done, I walked over to see if the guy who came by himself was OK. I couldn’t see him because of the darkness, the distance, and the fact that I was scared as hell,” I’d never attacked anyone before, and it left me quite breathless, “I’m now finding it quite convenient that it was him and he made himself so available to me.”

“November, it’s not like that, I had no idea it was you until-”

“Until when? Are you honestly telling me that you didn’t know I was the girl at the garage before tonight?” I stayed seated and took a deep breath, which caused Adrian to relax his defensive stance in front of my body.

“When you walked on stage at Finnegan’s you looked familiar, but I couldn’t place from where.” I started to respond but both Adrian and Bo held up their hands. “Then Monica mentioned that you saw some sort of altercation near your house, I thought it was a coincidence . . .”

I remembered Bo’s over-concerned reaction that night, and more pieces fell into place.

“You brushed it off so effortlessly that I had no reason to believe it was you,” he continued.

“When, did you know it was me?” Fresh tears formed and tumbled down my cheeks.

Bo sighed heavily as he stood and walked cautiously toward me, “Ember, that night when I came back early from my meeting here, and we walked on the beach . . .” He reached toward me but leaning back was my only response as he planted his knees in front of my feet.

“When we walked on the beach what?” I said blankly.

“We got to the parking lot, and there was a truck . . . ”

“It was their truck.”

“Yes.” His head was hanging so low I could see the very top of the tattoo on his back where his collar opened.