The Mighty Storm (The Storm #1)

“You haven’t seen him for the last fucking decade!”

I don’t even make the attempt to try to explain to him. He would never understand the connection I have with Jake.

“I’ve loved you for two years of my life, Tru! Two years! I gave you everything! Trusted you! Would have given you anything! I gave you my heart for Christ’s sake! I wanted to marry you!”

His words blindside me. He wanted to marry me? We’d never even talked about it.

“All of it gone, because you’re some cheap whore who can’t say no to a fucking rock star! I never had you down as some slut groupie.”

He’s looking at me with utter disgust and contempt. And I deserve it.

“I’m sorry,” I cry. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’ve loved Jake since I was young–”

“Spare me anymore of the goddamn details!”

Nervous, I look down at my hands, my eyes fixing on the bracelets. Jake’s and Will’s.

And then I just know I want Jake. He’s all I’ve ever wanted.

I unclip Will’s bracelet from my wrist.

Getting to my feet, I hold it out in my hand to him. “You should have this back,” I say quietly.

He looks down at my hand. Then he grabs the bracelet and throws it across the room.

His face becomes a blind rage. I’ve never seen him look this way before. Then he’s striding across the room, purposefully, angrily.

“Where are you going?” I ask panicked.

“To kick your fucking boyfriends’ ass!”

I’m moving quickly behind, but Will is already through the door, practically sprinting down the hall looking for Jake’s room. He’s like a man possessed.

I’m screaming after him.

Then I see Jake’s door open and he’s standing there scanning the hall, looking worried. He must have heard my screams.

Jake registers Will, then me, and it all just happens so quickly.

Will is on him, and he punches Jake in the face.

“NO!” I cry out, as I hear the crack from the impact.

I stop in my tracks, watching in horror, as Jake momentarily loses his footing, staggers slightly, his hand going straight to his mouth.

“Did you think you could fuck my girlfriend and I wouldn’t find out?! That I would do jack shit about it?!” Will yells at him. “I don’t give a fuck who you are! I’m gonna beat the shit out of you!”

Jake moves his hand away and I see the blood. He looks down at his hand, then runs his tongue over his lip, licking the blood and smirks.

“I’ll let you have that first one mother fucker, but not the next.” Jake sounds unnervingly calm.

Then he punches Will hard in his face. It’s so quick and unexpected.

“NO!” I scream out, again. “STOP, PLEASE!”

Will staggers back from the force and I try to help him, but he pushes me away, hard.

I lose my footing and fall against the wall hitting my shoulder, and fall onto my ass.

Jake’s face flames with rage. And then he’s on Will punching him to the floor, hard, repeatedly over and over.

I scramble up to my knees, finding my voice to scream, “NO! STOP!” begging Jake to stop, and then Dave is there, pulling Jake off Will.

Denny appears in the hall from behind me, and he’s straight in there, telling Dave to get Will out of here, and taking hold of Jake, pushing him back because he looks crazy right now, like he’s ready to kill Will.

I’ve never seen Jake looks so wild.

Then Simone is beside me, helping me up off the floor, putting her arm around me, holding me close.

Dave pulls Will up off the floor. He’s covered in blood, his lip looks cut and his eye is swelling already.

I can’t help the sob that escapes me. This is all my fault. He doesn’t deserve any of this.

Will shakes off Dave’s grip.

“So you need your fucking bodyguard and your pussy band member to help you fight your battles for you?!” Will yells at Jake.

I’ve never seen Will like this before. He’s like a different person. And I’ve done this to him.

I see Jake’s eyes narrow and he steps forward, malevolence clear on his face, but Denny pushes him back. “No man. Leave it.”

Dave pulls Will further back down the hall, turning, he releases him pushing him backwards. “You need to leave. Get your stuff and go,” Dave says firmly. “If you don’t I’ll remove you myself.”

Simone moves me out of the way, backing me up against the wall, as Will steps back.

He turns to me.

I see complete hatred on his face which is meant solely for me. Tears are running free from my eyes.

“I loved you, Tru. I would have done anything for you. But how wrong was I. You’re just some cheap fucking whore, like he is. You deserve each other.”

Then he turns and storms away. Dave walks past me, following Will as he goes back into my suite.

My whole body is shaking.

Everyone has just been witness to the fact that I’ve been sleeping with Jake behind Will’s back. Even though they probably already knew, I still have never felt trashier than I do in this moment.

I should go after Will, I know, but what can I say that will make this better?

I knew what I was doing by telling him. Yes, it was the right thing to do. But I was also making my decision. I was choosing Jake.

He may not want me now after all this. And I don’t know how I feel about him sleeping with Zzhuilette.

But I love him. I’ll always love him. It’s always been him.

The door opposite me opens and Tom stumbles out, looking half-asleep.

“What the fuck’s going on out here?” he yawns, stretching his arms over his head, as he glances around taking in the scene.

Me in my pyjamas in Simone’s arms crying. Jake bleeding from the mouth. Denny in his boxer shorts.

“Oh, right,” he says putting two and two together, dropping his arms down. “Guess, I’ll leave you guys to it then.” Stepping back he closes his door.

Jake hasn’t taken his eyes off me, but I can’t bring myself to meet his stare.

“Come on,” Simone says to me. “You can’t stay out here.” Because Will could come back out soon, she leaves off.

Moving me forward, my legs feel like lead as she steers me into Jake’s suite. He steps back, making room for me to pass.

Denny closes the door behind us all, as Simone sits me down on the sofa, sitting beside me.

It’s utter silence in the room. The most uncomfortable silence I’ve ever been in.

“Come on, man, let’s clean you up.” Denny jerks his head in the direction of the bathroom at Jake, breaking the unnerving silence.

Jake looks at me. He seems hesitant to go, but after a long, lingering moment, he wordlessly follows Denny through the bedroom to the bathroom.

“I’ll get you some water.” Simone gets up and quickly returns with a bottle of water and a wad of tissues, handing me them both.

I wipe my face dry with the tissues, putting the bottle beside me on the sofa.

“How did he find out?” she asks in a quiet voice.

“I told him.” I glance at her, a fresh tear leaking from my eye. I wipe it away. “He knew something wasn’t right from my behaviour last night, and I couldn’t keep lying to him.”

“You did the right thing.”

“Yes, but I did the wrong thing in the beginning. I’ve fucked everything up, Simone.” Leaning forward, I put my head in my hands, as tears form in my eyes again.

Simone rubs my back. “You made a few errors in judgement granted, but you’re only human, Tru. And you’re clearly in love with Jake.”

I turn my head glancing at her. “I know, but I still shouldn’t have done what I did.”

“No, you shouldn’t have, but there’s no changing it now I’m afraid.” She tucks my hair behind my ear. “So now you have to figure out what you’re going to do from here.” She nods her head in the direction of the bathroom.

She means what am I going to do about Jake.

“I don’t know.”

“Well I’m taking it you and Will have broken up.”

“But that doesn’t mean I should jump straight into something with Jake, and … well, Jake spent the night with another woman.” My lips turn down at the corners.

I was half-expecting Zzhuilette to be here in his room to be honest as it’s still so early.

She shakes her head. “No he didn’t.”

I look at her surprised. “He did. Stuart told me Dave had brought him and her back here.”

“I was leaving the party with Denny last night, not long after you left, and Tom said he was coming back with us, that he’d just got off the phone with Jake – said Jake had called him and he was wrecked and was in a real mess over you. He said he’d never known Jake to be like that over a girl, and it was freaking him the fuck out. I said I thought he’d left with that girl too, but Tom said there was definitely no girl with him because no girl would have put up with his whining over you.”

“And from what I know, Tom spent most of the night in Jake’s room talking him down. I know for definite there was no girl in here because Denny was so worried about him that he left me to go check on him too. When he came back, he said that maybe I should talk to you, because Jake was really screwed up over the whole Will being here thing.”

“I’ve messed up so badly,” I whisper, the tears starting again.

I’m relieved that Jake hadn’t slept with her, but I’m all cut up over Will and how much I’ve hurt him. I just don’t know what to do.

The bathroom door in the bedroom opens, and Jake comes out with Denny behind him.

My whole body tenses.

The blood’s gone from his lip, but it’s all swollen and readying for a bruise.

He comes over and sits on the edge of the sofa, opposite me, resting his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together, he looks over at me with wary eyes.

I dry my tearstained face again, and set the damp tissues on the sofa beside me.

“We’re gonna go get some breakfast,” Simone says, rising to her feet. “I’ll come and see you later.” She rubs my shoulder.

Then she and Denny are gone, and it’s just me and Jake, and a whole lot of silence.

“You told him,” he says quietly, like he can barely believe it.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I look at him surprised. “He knew there was something different about me, and because I couldn’t go on lying to him … and because of you, Jake … because I hated what this was doing to you – had done to you.”

He stares at me with such intensity, it’s momentarily almost too much to handle. My insides are quaking.

“Did he hurt you?”

I look confused.

“When he pushed you and you hit the wall, did he hurt you?”

I touch my shoulder. “No. I’m fine. I should be the one asking if you’re okay?”

I’m lying, it hurt, it still does, but I don’t want to anger him anymore than he already has been.

He puts his finger to his lip. “It looks worse than it is.”