She dropped her face into her hands. “Oh God. I did overreact.”
Bethany slid her hand over Josie’s back.
“I should have confronted him, absolutely, but I completely overreacted. I shouldn’t have done what I did. Now he’s going to be so pissed at me, and I don’t blame him!”
“He won’t be pissed, Josie,” Mia said softly. “He’ll just be glad to have you back.”
She shook her head miserably. “It’s worse than what you think. He said . . .” She sighed. “He said he loved me and I threw it back at him. I said some pretty horrible things. Like that I couldn’t trust that he wasn’t saying it to manipulate me.”
“Was it the first time he told you?” Bethany asked gently.
Josie nodded.
“Then it’s understandable that you would have reacted the way you did,” Mia said. “Do you love him?”
“Oh yeah,” Josie breathed. “Completely and utterly in love with him.”
Bethany beamed. “There. You love each other. You can work this out. He’ll forgive you and you’ll forgive him.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Josie muttered. “I was such a hysterical twit. I can’t believe I marched into his office and said the things I said. I wish there was a Rewind button and I had it to do all over again.”
“Love isn’t perfect,” Mia said. “We’ve all made mistakes. Gabe, Jace, me, Bethany. And now you and Ash. It’s not supposed to be perfect. It’s what you make it. And you can make it really special, Josie. Go and talk to him. Or call him. Make things right and give him the chance to make things right.”
Some of the heavy weight lifted off Josie’s shoulders. Hope crept in and with it the realization that this wasn’t the end. Nothing Ash had done was unforgiveable. She’d make mistakes. There was no doubt she would. But she absolutely believed that Ash would be a lot more forgiving of her mistakes than she’d been of his.
“Thanks, you guys,” she said, smiling with relief. “I’m going to go home, take a shower and call Ash and hope he’s not too pissed to listen to me apologize.”
Mia smiled back. “Oh, he’ll listen. Come on. Let’s go. We’ll drop you back by your apartment.”
Josie shook her head. “Thanks, but I’ll walk. I need some time to get my thoughts together. I want to get this just right.”
“You sure?” Bethany asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s not that far and it will give me the chance to work up my nerve to call him.”
“Okay, but you have to swear to text me and Bethany and let us know how it goes!” Mia demanded.
“I will. Promise! And thanks again. This means a lot to me. That you’d be willing to kick his ass when we’ve only known each other a short time.”
Mia grinned. “What are friends for?”
Josie rose, hugged both of the women fiercely and promised again to text them the minute she got things worked out with Ash. Then she walked out with them and waited while they got into the car and waved as they pulled away.
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she started walking in the direction of her apartment. Her thoughts were a whirlwind, but excitement and relief replaced her earlier gloom.
Now she just had to hope that Ash would forgive her and that he really did love her.
The walk took longer than she’d thought and by the time she reached her apartment she was tired from not having slept the night before and she was impatient to get inside, take a shower and call Ash.
She cursed the fact that she’d left her cell phone in her living room. She could have already read her texts and listened to her voice mails. They would give her a good idea of Ash’s mood and whether it would be a simple matter of apologizing to him.
She put her key in the lock, frowning when she realized she must have forgotten to lock it on her way out. But then the last thing on her mind hadn’t been whether she locked up or not. She really needed to be more careful. Of course if she and Ash reconciled, she wouldn’t have to worry about that because he always made certain she was protected. For that matter he had still made sure she was protected, even though she’d left him. But then she hadn’t noticed her two shadows when she returned to her apartment. Had they given up? Had Ash given up?
A frown tugged at her lips as she pushed inside, closing and locking the door behind her. The minute she stepped inside her living room she realized she wasn’t alone.
Her breath caught when she saw three men standing, waiting, grim expressions on their faces. She recognized two of them from before. What she’d assumed were Ash’s men. For her protection. In that instant, she knew she was terribly wrong. These men weren’t here to protect her at all.
Before she could react, one moved in quickly behind her, barring her pathway to the door. Not that she would have had time to escape anyway since she’d locked her door on the way in.
“Miss Carlysle,” one of the men said in a tone that sent shivers down her skin. “There’s a message I want you to deliver to Gabe Hamilton, Jace Crestwell and Ash McIntyre.”
Before she could demand to know what he was talking about and that they get the hell out of her apartment, pain exploded through her body. She lay sprawled on the floor, utterly bewildered.
And then pain. More pain, agonizing, splintering through her body as they meted out violence. Blood smeared her nose. She could taste it in her mouth. She couldn’t breathe right. It hurt too much. She couldn’t even scream.
She was going to die.
That thought hit her and, oddly, she didn’t fight it because it meant escape from the horrific agony she was enduring.
Then it went silent. A hand dug into her hair and yanked her head painfully upward. A man leaned into her face, his nose just inches from her own.
“You tell them that nothing they hold dear is safe from me. I’m coming after them. They will regret the day they ever fucked with me. They ruined me. And by God, I’ll ruin them before I’m done.”
He shoved something into her hand and then dropped her head back onto the floor. Pain shot down her spine. She heard footsteps and then her door opening. And then it closing.
A low whimper stuttered past stiff, swollen lips. Ash. She had to get to her cell phone and call him. Had to warn him. He’d come for her. Everything would be all right if she could just get to her phone.
She tried to push herself up and shrieked in agony when she put weight on her right hand. She stared down at it, her vision fuzzy, one eye nearly swollen shut. What was wrong with her hand?
Using her elbow to prop herself up, she dragged herself toward the coffee table where she’d left her phone. She reached up for it, knocking it onto the floor and then praying she hadn’t broken it.
With her left hand she fumbled to push the right button to bring up her contacts. Then she changed her mind and hit recent calls because his would have been the last. She hit his name and with a whispered prayer as she waited for him to answer.
Chapter thirty-one