“I can’t believe Kyle would do all of this! What did he think? That I wouldn’t find out?” I shouted. “How convenient that he was in the airport at the right time. He was probably following me.”
“Ryan said he saw Kyle going in and out of Lauren’s trailer a lot. I wonder if she was doing him?” Marie mused.
“No wonder Ryan was so mad the other day when I talked to him… Kyle was going after all of his women.” Anxiety started to take me down again. “Marie, you know what… just take me home, please.”
“No, I’m taking you for a new phone. You and Ryan need to keep in touch and work this out,” she stated emphatically.
“Why? I haven’t spoken to him since last night. You’ve talked to him more than I have. You keep saying stuff to me about marriage, heck, I’ll be lucky if this relationship lasts another week.”
“That’s it! I’ve had enough of your negativity. God! Arg!” she groaned at me. “And you wonder why I slapped you last night. I want to slap you again right now! Taryn, just TRUST me!” she shouted as she turned the car ignition off.
“When we go in there I think you should get a log of all the calls made to your number. We’re going to find out just who the hell called you that day in Florida,” Marie said as we walked towards the store. “Oh, and Ryan asked me to try and convince you to use his credit card to pay for the new cell. He wants to replace it for you.”
I huffed as I opened the door. “I don’t think so.”
“Don’t fight it. You need to get used to spending your husband’s millions,” Marie kidded me.
I scoffed at her comment. My mind was elsewhere.
“I wonder if Lauren’s boyfriend knows that Kyle was inside her trailer?” I was thinking about Lauren’s fidelity or lack thereof and if her boyfriend was pissed.
“What boyfriend?” Marie asked. She stopped walking.
“Isn’t she involved with that actor, Lucas Banks? That’s the guy she dumped Ryan for, right?” I figured Marie would be up on the latest celebrity gossip.
Marie drew in a big breath. “Tar, she hasn’t been with Lucas for months. Lauren told Ryan that she and Lucas were still together and madly in love, but I just sent a link to Ryan’s phone this morning of pictures of Luc and some model kissing in public to show him that Lauren has been lying.”
“Why are you sending pictures?” I felt lightheaded again. “Why does Ryan care about any of that?” My thoughts immediately returned to visions of Ryan and Lauren together.“Ryan and I both think that Kyle didn’t act alone in this. I think Lauren wanted you out of the way so she could get back with Ryan,” she said quietly.
The old, familiar burning feeling entered back into my chest.
The minute we returned to my apartment, Marie went right to work, analyzing my cell phone history and making phone calls.
“This is going to be harder than I thought,” she groaned. “Customer Service is telling me that this number is a payphone in Miami.”
She drew another circle around the numbers on my cell phone call log and then dropped the pen onto my kitchen table.
“I guess I should call Gary. Are you feeling up to playing poker tonight? It’s okay if you’re not…” she trailed.
“Yeah, I’m feeling up to it,” I answered with a firm nod. “I need to get back into my familiar routine.”
“Good! Okay then,” Marie said as she stood up from the table. She looked at her watch and grabbed her coat. “Do you smell that? Whatever Tammy is baking down there smells fantastic!”
“I know! Let’s go beg for samples!” I snickered.
I decided to stay in the kitchen with Tammy after Marie left.
Tammy pointed to a tray on the large cooling rack. “You can have one of those too, if you’d like. I made extra.”
I was eyeing the chocolate-dipped strawberries when my doorbell rang several times in a row. Marie had just left a few minutes ago; I wondered why she didn’t let herself back in through the kitchen door.
“What did you forget?” I chuckled, opening up my new back door to my apartment.
My smile instantly faded to shock and panic when my eyes caught sight of Kyle. I leaned hard into the door, trying to close it as quickly as I had opened it, but Kyle shoved his heavy black boot in the doorway.
“Taryn, please! Just hear me out!” Kyle pleaded. His fingers were wrapped around the edge, pushing the door open. I leaned all my weight into the door, but it was useless to fight him. He was so much stronger then I was. My planted feet slid unrestricted on the smooth flooring.