All of Me by Tiffany Patterson

Chapter 32

Gabe

“What the fuck are we doing here? I want to go home,” I demanded as Preston pulled into the parking lot of The Rustic.

Just seeing the sign of the bar made me want to tear the entire building down. It reminded me too much of the memories I’d made there with Lena. Our first time playing pool, the night we hustled a couple of guys at the tables, the surprise party she threw me.

I still couldn’t believe that I’d bared my fucking soul to her, only for her to rip me to shreds.

“That’s too damn bad. I swear I’ll put you in a chokehold and drag your ass into this bar,” my best friend threatened.

“Try it,” I growled as I got out of his car and started walking in the opposite direction toward the street. I would flag down a passing vehicle and hitchhike my way home before I stepped foot in that damn place.

What had once been my sanctuary now felt like a vice around my heart. Preston’s threat didn’t sound so bad compared to the pain in my chest.

For a month, a constant ache accompanied my every waking breath. At night the pain moved from my heart to my head, inserting itself into my dreams. I would wake up feeling more tired than when I first went to sleep. The shit was endless.

“Get your ass back here,” Preston said, grabbing me from behind.

I spun around and yanked my body away from him. “I’m not taking my ass in there.” I pointed at the bar.

“The hell you’re not.” Preston’s voice was tight with anger. “You’ve been moping around the damn office for weeks. And that’s on the days you show up. You need to snap out of it.”

“I can’t snap out of it!” I roared, pushing him away from me.

“That’s too damn bad. I will fight your onery ass to get you in that bar.”

“He’ll have company, too,” Joel said from behind Preston.

Next to my father stood Micah.

“What the hell are you doing out here? Didn’t your wife just have a baby?” I glared at my brother.

He nodded with a scowl on his face. “Jodi said I needed to come down here to help straighten you out. But you better make this shit quick because I need to get home to my wife and son.”

The pain in my heart doubled, and it felt like someone had punched me in the gut. Micah’s words reminded me of what I’d wanted with Lena. Hell, what I still wanted. But for whatever reason, she didn’t want the same.

For weeks I’d tried to figure out what the hell had gone wrong. She loved me. She told me she did, and then she completed her album and tossed me away like yesterday’s news.

“Fuck all of you.” I started in the direction of the bar, brushing past Joel and Micah.

I pushed through the door of the bar. I made a beeline for one of the back booths and took a seat.

Minutes later, a beer slid in front of me, and I took it to the head before slamming the empty bottle on the table.

“Another one.”

A second bottle slid in front of me, but as I lifted it to my mouth, a massive hand stopped me.

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, son.”

I stared into my father’s intense gaze and slowly lowered the beer back to the table. “The least you can do is let me drink my problems away.”

“Night’s still young.” He took the beer out of my hand. “Drinking ain’t gonna take that pain you’re feeling away.”

My lips tightened, but I didn’t say anything.

“Believe me. I’ve tried to drink the pain away more times than a cat’s got hair.”

I rolled my eyes at my father’s nonsense sayings. “I’m not in the mood for your old man wisdom tonight.”

“Watch your mouth, boy,” he grunted. “Lucky as hell you’re my youngest, and I like you the most.”

Micah grunted. “You told me last week you liked me the most.”

Frowning, Joel looked toward Micah. “I told Ace the same thing the week before I told you.” He shrugged and turned back to me. “What’s up your craw?”

I glared at him. As if he didn’t know.

“Woman troubles, huh? I know all about that.”

I wasn’t in the mood to tell my father that I didn’t want to hear about his relationship with my mother. The only relationship I’d ever known him to be in. I was sure he’d dated other women since her death, but he never brought any of them around my brothers and me. Not once.

“What’s your gut telling you?”

I reared my head back. “What?”

“Your gut? The wolf’s instincts are unrivaled. You know what’s true in your gut.”

I couldn’t answer that question. My damn emotions and head had been all over the place in the past month. My initial reaction to seeing Lena walk away was disbelief, followed by anger, and right then, as I sat in the bar, all I wanted to feel was numb.

In the distance, I heard the television over the bar turn on.

“The Ricky Auburn Show is about to come on,” someone in the bar said.

My father, brother, and Preston began talking about some bullshit. Preston told them about the new athletes we recruited. I was only half listening.

“Tonight’s special musical guest will be Lena Clarkson.”

My gaze shot over to the screen to see a smiling Lena walking out onto the set, waving to the camera.

How could she be smiling?

I felt miserable inside. Like a piece of me was missing, and I had no idea why. Yet, there she was on camera, smiling. As much as I hated to admit it, she looked good. Her hair had been styled in long, dark tresses falling over her shoulders, and she wore a dark green pantsuit that accented every curve of her body to perfection.

Every second I stared felt like a dagger to the chest.

“Turn that shit off,” Preston yelled over to the bartender.

“No,” I yelled louder. “Leave it.” I needed to see it, to prove that if she could move on with her life so fucking quickly, then so could I.

Lena reached the microphone stand and stood in front of it. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them.

“I originally planned on doing the first single from my new album, but I changed my mind. I want to sing something else off the album for you all tonight.”

She turned to the band behind her and said something out of the earshot of the microphone. A breath later, a slow melody began playing from the keyboard. I didn’t recognize it.

She promised to play all of her new songs for me before she played them for anyone else. Another lie she told me.

“Before I start, I’d like to say that, um, I broke a promise. I told someone very special to me that I’d sing all of my news songs for them, first.” She paused and looked down at the floor. “Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way. But this is the first time I’m playing this song for anyone. I hope he hears it.

“This one is titled ‘Cry Wolf’.”

The hold she already had around my heart tightened another centimeter.

She opened her mouth, and magic came pouring out. Her voice was smooth as honey and comforting as warm milk in the middle of the night. Even as I sat there pissed as hell at her, her voice had a defrosting effect on the ice around my heart.

But it wasn’t until I listened to the lyrics that something began to shift inside of me. The song was about finding herself. The renewal of a relationship with herself through finding love. It spoke about honesty and truth telling. The hard truths and the uncomfortable ones.

“I would never cry wolf to you,” were the last words of the song.

A buzzing sound started in my ears when the studio audience began clapping as she finished the song. I couldn’t do anything besides stare at the television.

I watched as the TV host approached Lena. He asked her a few questions about her music and the song she sang. It was her answer to his final question that shook me to the depths of my core.

“What is the title of your new album?”

She looked right at the camera and said, “All of Me.”

Three simple words pierced through my heart enough for me to see her. The sadness in her eyes even though she continued to smile for the cameras.

You have my whole heart.

I remembered those words she’d told me months ago. Lena had told me she loved me, and I believed her. I felt it in my gut. I knew she wasn’t lying when she told me those three words. And she wasn’t lying up on that stage when she sang that song. A song I knew she wrote to me.

“You’re dating her, right?” The woman’s voice shocked me back to reality.

I pivoted my gaze and looked across to the end of the stool. There stood a young woman who looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her.

“We don’t want any, sweetheart,” Joel said, dismissing her.

She smiled and shook her head. “No.” She waved her hand. “I was just saying that I hope Lena’s doing okay after that guy threatened her at The Tavern a few weeks back.”

That jolted me. “What?”

She blinked. “I’m Jude. I waitress over at The Tavern.” She pointed at the screen. “Lena was in there with some guy about a month ago. The conversation didn’t look friendly.”

“What happened?” I insisted.

“He grabbed her wrist. It looked like she tried to leave, but he was stopping her.” Jude shrugged. “She pretended like everything was okay, but it didn’t seem like it. Anyway, I, uh, I’m a fan of hers, and well, I hope everything is all right.” She waved and walked away in the direction of a group of women seated at another booth.

All I saw was red. I needed only one guess as to who the fuck the guy she was with at The Tavern was.

“Move,” I told Preston while already pushing him out of the way so I could get out of the booth.

“Where are you going?” Joel asked.

“To find out who I need to fuck up about my woman.”

I started for the door, not even thinking clearly. Preston came up behind me. “Did you forget I drove you here?”

“Give me your keys.”

“That’s a hell no,” he responded as we pushed through the door of The Rustic. “Besides, where are you going?”

“To find out where I can get some information.”

Nate. He had to be the one at The Tavern, and my guess was he was holding something over her head. Whatever it was, I needed to find out.

That was when Micah cleared his throat behind me.

I turned.

“Did you forget I’m the best PI in the damn state?”

Right then, I was grateful for my cocky ass brother. Best or not, there was no one better to help me get to the bottom of this shit.

God help Nate, and whoever else was behind this when I got my hands on them.