Mr. Write Now Read online

  “I told you I didn’t want to see you ever again,” she countered. “Leave now Brody, and I won’t call the cops.”

  “Aww, come on Rosie. Don’t you want to meet my friend?”

  To Rick’s horror, Melanie’s voice came thundered through the doorway with the fury of an oncoming train.

  “Where is he?” she demanded, directing her voice into the apartment. He sword he could feel her glare piercing the walls.

  “Rick, you bastard! Get in here!”

  He didn’t move. Rosa shot him a panicked glance from the door.

  “Don’t do this Brody,” she pleaded. “We can talk about this another time.”

  Rosa’s voice was cut off as she was shoved backwards and sprawled on the living room carpet. Melanie marched into the apartment, zeroing in on Rick.

  “You,” she hissed, advancing on him with murder in her eyes. “You loathsome, you despicable…” Brody caught Melanie’s arm with an easy smile, keeping her from moving forward.

  “Calm down, Mel,” he said.

  “Calm down? Calm down? This asshole was probably cheating the whole time! That’s why he stopped giving a damn about us.”

  “That isn’t true,” he protested, glancing from Melanie to Brody and back. Just what had this psycho told his ex-wife?

  Melanie spluttered, her fury stealing her voice for a time. Brody flashed a bright smile at Rick.

  “See Rosie? I bet you weren’t the first student he dallied with.”

  Rosa’s eyes filled with angry tears. “Damn you to hell Brody. I told you no. Why can’t you just leave me in peace?”

  “But you haven’t exactly been honest with him either, have you?” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “McCall? That’s the name you’re going by now?”

  Rick turned to her. What was the man talking about?

  “You see, Mr. Johnson,” Brody said, grinning at his confusion. “My dear sweet cousin is actually Rosa Kinnelsworth.”

  Rick had struggled to recall why that name sounded familiar, with Melanie still straining to get at him. Finally, it clicked. He’d spent countless hours looking up the names of old money families looking for inspiration for the main villain in the Connor Valentine novels. Though he hadn’t chosen the name to base his villain, he remembered the Kinnelsworth family.

  He turned slowly to face Rosa. “Is that true?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “My last name is McCall now. It’s legal. I got a court order.”

  “I know.” Brody shook his head. “Do you know how much of a pain it was to track you down this time?”

  “Get out,” Rosa ordered, pointing a quivering finger at the door.

  Brody’s smile turned wolfish. “Sure.” He let go of Melanie’s arm and turned for the door.

  Melanie lunged forward and slapped Rick, sending him reeling.

  “You’ll pay for this,” she seethed, drawing herself up to her full height. “I’m calling my lawyer tomorrow.”

  “Why?” he grumbled, rubbing his cheek. “The divorce is final. You don’t actually have any evidence I had done something. Which I haven’t.”

  “I’m filing for sole custody.”

  The bottom dropped out of his stomach. “You can’t,” he protested. “Elle needs me. We agreed.”

  Melanie shot Rosa a scathing looking. “You can’t raise our child while dating a child,” she spat. And then she too turned and left the apartment.

  The silence they left in their wake pressed against his ears. One thought coursed through his brain.

  “Not Elle. I can’t lose her too.”

  “Rick…” Rosa began weakly.

  “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” he said quietly.

  “I…I didn’t want it to ruin things.”

  “Would you have ever told me?” he demanded, finally meeting her eyes. She was crying.

  “It’s not like that. I wasn’t trying to—”

  “To lie?” he cut across her. “Because from where I’m standing, I don’t know who you are Rosa. At all. Who are you this week? Flirty college girl? Intelligent, down-to-earth girl next door? Trust fund baby?” He threw his hands up in the air.

  “Good God Rosa, you can’t tell me you had a stalker! That would have been useful to know!”

  “Rick, please. We can talk.”

  “No,” he said flatly. “We’re done talking. I’m leaving.” He turned toward the bedroom and proceeded to get dressed.

  “Are we over?” Rosa’s tenuous voice came from just behind him.

  He snatched his pants from the floor and yanked them on. He pulled his shirt on as well, not bothering to button it. He stomped back to the living room, pulling on his coat and zipped it up over the open shirt.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered, digging his keys from his pocket. He didn’t turn back to see how she reacted to his words.

  He stepped out into the hell, thoughts of Elle, Melanie and Rosa buzzing in his head.

  He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard a broken sob through the door as he walked away.

  Chapter Ten

  Rick scrolled through the pages full of thumbnails, not really paying attention to many of them. “Teen goes down on three huge cocks,” one read. “Blonde with huge natural tits goes for a ride,” read another.

  He wasn’t really sure if he should be watching porn on a school night. Or at all. He needed to do something to relieve his frustration. Another night with Melanie was only going to be violent, and ultimately unproductive. He could find Brody, to take it out of the smug bastard’s hide. And he’d just feel like a schmuck for yelling at Rosa for something that wasn’t completely her fault. He had a hand in this mess too.

  So instead he was trolling the internet, watching porn. His dick was in his hand, only semi-erect, as it had been for almost an hour. No matter what he wanted, it wouldn’t co-operate.

  He clicked on a link called “Brunette Babe’s First Threesome.” This one was slightly more effective than his previous selections. Odd, since blondes used to be what had exclusively gotten him off.

  He pumped vigorously, trying to get the delicious friction to ease away the thoughts even for a moment. But of course, it wasn’t working.

  He shoved his laptop away in disgust, flopping backward onto his bed. Porn didn’t have the same appeal it used to. He wanted Rosa. He wanted her here with him. He tried to picture her, hair tousled, straddling him. His cock responded to that image almost at once, becoming harder than it had the whole time he’d been alive.

  He cursed. Of course, it would do it now. He didn’t have Rosa here, and likely never would again. Even if by some miracle, it didn’t get to the board, Rosa’s family would come between them. Her cousin seemed hell-bent on keeping Rosa from being with anyone.

  It was all too much to take in, really. He put on his pants and wandered into the other room, dialing his cellphone as he went.

  His brother picked up on the second ring. “Hello?

  “Rob.”

  “Hey Rick. What’s up?”

  “Need to talk some stuff through with you. You got an hour?”

  “Sure,” Rob agreed. “Wanna meet somewhere?”

  “The square,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.

  “Done. See you in a few.”

  He hung up and shuffled back to the bedroom. He really ought to put on a shirt.

  Around twenty minutes later, he was pulling in next to his brother’s silver BMW. He nearly rolled his eyes. Of course, Rob had bought one. He made decent money with his independent practice, and he’d always wanted to own a luxury car.

  He and Rob looked a lot alike, even though they were about five years apart. Scruffy, dark haired, lanky men with high cheekbones and blue eyes.

  The physical traits were about all they had in common. Rob had married his high school sweetheart and had two kids before he was twenty-five. Rick had been with several women before Melanie, and even when he had settled down, they’d waited a long time before having Elle.
r />   “I should probably charge,” Rob teased. “I mean, I counsel you a lot for free, you know. You’re a huge untapped revenue stream.”

  “I’m not in the mood, Rob,” he snapped.

  Rob raised an eyebrow. “Okay, jeez. Alright, Doctor Johnson, Doctor Johnson will see you now. What seems to be the problem?”

  He told him. He spilled the whole sordid story as they traversed the city square.

  Rob whistled. “You don’t do things halfway, do you baby brother?”

  “Apparently not,” Rick said, rubbing his temples. “What do I do now?”

  Rob mulled it over as they waited for a car to pass. They crossed the street, still in silence. Finally, Rob spoke.

  “The way I see it, you only have a few options.”

  “And those are?”

  “Resign. Quit before they can fire you. Lawyer up and try to fight for custody of Elle.”

  “I can barely afford the house payment and all my bills. Next option.”

  “You have your girlfriend drop out of college. No more issues on that front. You’re both consenting adults. You don’t lawyer up, and accept that you won’t be able to see Elle.”

  “Not an option.”

  Rob sighed. “Like it or not, you screwed up, brother.”

  Didn’t he know it. “And the last option?”

  “Fight dirty,” Rob said with a shrug.

  “Fight dirty?” Rick repeated skeptically. “And how exactly do I manage that?”

  Rob’s face scrunched up into an expression of disgust. “First you take care of Brody Kinnelsworth. You know he’s stalking Rosa. You just need proof.”

  He nodded. “What about Melanie?”

  “She signed a prenup, didn’t she? Examine the fine print. See if you can stop this bullshit in its tracks.”

  They stopped again, having made the full circuit a third time. The chill was beginning to seep into Rick’s bones. He leaned against his beat-up old truck.

  “And Rosa? What do I do about Rosa?” he asked.

  Rob laughed. “That is your problem. I can’t give you any answers on that one.”

  “Is it wrong?” he whispered. “That I love her?”

  There. He’d said it aloud. Why had it been so difficult to say before?

  “That’s not for me to judge.”

  “She makes me happy,” he said. “I never thought I’d feel like this again. I thought it had left me for good when Melanie walked out.”

  “Then make it work,” Rob said fiercely. “You need to step up. If you want this, you’ll do what you need to do.”

  “Thanks. You’re good people Rob.”

  “That’s what they pay me for.”

  He watched Rob pull out of the space and drive away. He had a lot of work to do in the coming weeks, and he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

  He dialed the number he had learned by heart over the last month.

  Rosa answered almost immediately.

  “Rick,” she breathed.

  “Rosa. I need a favor.”

  “Like what?” she asked warily.

  “I need your help with something.”

  “Does this mean you’re not breaking up with me?”

  “I’m not,” he confirmed. “But we need to talk. Meet me at my house.”

  “Uh-oh. No conversations that starts with ‘we need to talk’ ever ends well.”

  “I think I actually started it off with ‘I need a favor.’”

  “That’s only slightly better” she said dryly. “It ranks third on my ‘things I don’t want to start a conversation with,’ list.”

  “What’s the first?”

  “Your cousin is in jail again,” she said grimly. He winced.

  “Yikes.”

  “Well you have met Brody.”

  “Will you be there?” he asked.

  “Of course, I will,” she sighed. “What’s the favor?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Rosa looked very uncomfortable seated across from him at his long kitchen table. There were none of the usual trappings of their romantic interludes. No music, no food, no wine, no poetry or books to discuss. The lack of it made her fidget uncomfortably in her chair. It made her seem even younger than she already was. She called to mind a nervous high school student faced down by the principal.

  He tried to ignore that train of thought as it made him intensely uncomfortable to think of the events that had led them here in that context.

  “What do we need to talk about, and why couldn’t it wait until morning?”

  “Because,” He said, leaning back in his chair. “If this conversation goes well, you’re going to be very busy tomorrow.”

  She raised a brow. “Oh? And what exactly will I be doing?”

  He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the hardest sell of the evening. “You’re going to withdraw from my class, at the very least, if not from the university entirely.”

  “What?” A look of hurt flashed in her dark eyes before she schooled her expression back into its mask of feigned indifference.

  “This relationship breaks a lot of rules Rosa, and you know it.” His mouth twisted down in disgust. Mostly at himself. “And I’ve let it go on for far too long.”

  “You said you weren’t breaking up with me.” Rosa protested, a note of panic entering her voice.

  “I’m not. But we can’t carry on like this, Rosa. Trite as the phrase is, we can’t have our cake and eat it too.”

  “Why not?” She pleaded, rising have from her seat. “We’ve done it for over a month and a half now. We can keep it on the down low until I’ve graduated.”

  “No.” He said. “We can’t carry on as we have. Melanie knows about this. Right now she’s channeling all her energy into keeping Elle from me. As soon as she’s accomplished that though, she’s gunning for my career. You can’t be my student anymore, if this relationship means as much to you as you say.”

  Rosa say back down, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked sullen. “So I have to drop out of college? Sacrifice my career and education?”

  “I didn’t say that. There are several colleges in Missouri that have good English programs, if you want to stay within plausible driving distance. Kansas is also an option. You could also think about Oklahoma.”

  “So, what? Are you sending me away?”

  “No. I just want you to consider the options we have before us.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ll keep it under advisement. What’s the favor you wanted from me?”

  “I’ll get to that. Right now I need you to tell me what the hell is going on with your cousin Brody.”

  Rosa’s spine went rigid and her jaw set. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “I need to know.” He pressed. “It’s the only way I’ll be able to help. I can’t protect you if I don’t know what I’m dealing with.”

  “Protect me.” She echoed. “You want…you want to protect me?” She said it slowly, as if it were a completely foreign concept.

  “Yes, protect you. We protect the people we love Rosa.”

  Her face, which had been desolate and remote suddenly brightened.

  “You love me?”

  “Yes.” He sighed. “It’s not really an excuse for the mess I’ve landed us in, but I do love you.”

  She hung her head, guilt plain on her face. “I think we could honestly go halfsies on the mess we’re in now. It really is a grade a clusterfuck, isn’t it? Too big for just you to have landed us in.”

  “We’ll call it a joint effort.” He agreed with a rueful little smile.

  “So what do you want to do about Brody?” She said finally.

  “What’s the story? From what I gathered, he’s been at this for a while. When did it start?”

  Rosa stood up. She was trembling from head to foot, and he watched her carefully as she crossed over to his kitchen window. He thought maybe she didn’t want to keep solid eye contact. Maybe she was keeping an eye out for said stalker. But then she st
arted opening the windows.

  “What are you doing?” He asked.

  “Opening your windows.” She said, trembling even harder as the winter wind sliced through the screen window and flooded the room in cold. “I need a cigarette if I’m going to tell you this, and I don’t think you want the stink in your carpet for days.”

  “Oh…thank you.”

  She resumed her seat a few moments later, plopping her purse on the table before rummaging in its innards. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and set the purse on the ground again. She fumbled a cigarette from the pack and deftly lighted it. She took another long, shuddering breath and then exhaled.

  “Brody.” She said a bit more firmly. “He’s my cousin, as you may have gathered. Dad’s side of the family. Dad only has one brother, and they’re really close. So I saw Brody a lot growing up.”

  She shuddered. “I used to pretend I was sick every Christmas when they came to visit. Brody was never…right. It used to by just typical boy stuff. He was aggressive and loud. He was twelve, and I was six. He would hurt me sometimes, but my parent’s didn’t really pay attention much. Rough-housing, you know.” She said the last absently, waving her cigarette in a lazy motion that conveyed her parent’s dismissal of her plight much better than the words had.

  He nodded. “But it wasn’t?”

  “I wish that was all it was.” She snorted and took another drag.

  “Did he molest you?” He nearly winced as he said it. That was personal. He shouldn’t be asking. But damn it, he needed to know. She needed help.

  “Kissed me, more than once. But he didn’t assault me.” She swallowed thickly. “At least, he hasn’t yet. It didn’t get really bad until I was in high school. I started dating.”

  She shook her head. “He told me he would chase off any guy I tried to date. I dated more, just to spite him. He couldn’t control my life. He wasn’t my father. I thought at least one guy would stand up to him. They all ‘loved me’ after all.” Her voice turned sour at the end.

  “No one even tried?” He asked, disbelieving.

  “Only one.” She let out a bitter little laugh. “He wasn’t even my boyfriend. It was Tyson. You’ve met him.”

  “Tyson Vardy?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.