Eden High Series 2 Book 1
By
Jordan Silver
Chapter 1
CARTER
Oh hell, what is she doing here? I’m not sure if I should hang around to find out, or get the hell out of here.
My gut burned with the implications, but one wrong move now could prove disastrous if I were wrong.
How had my life come to this? How had I fucked things up so royally? My feet felt leaden as I moved through the quiet stillness of the night. I heard a rustling sound coming from my left somewhere and hurried my steps.
Hindsight is a son of a bitch; too little too late. I thought I could control the situation though, I mean she was just a kid after all. I’m a grown man, a man who suffered a great loss and went through a rough patch true, but I’ve always been sensible.
I’ve never given in to the wiles of Hollywood, not until now anyway. The debauchery that was kept well hidden: the bed hopping and orgies that would make Caligula’s look like a garden-variety tea party. I’d kept myself well above it all.
But then something happened, something that I had no control over. I never knew the loss of a child could hit a man this hard, never knew I was weak enough to make the choices I’d made since.
All I wanted was to feel again, not just alive, but anything, anything to erase the numbness that had set in and tainted everything around me. I just wanted it not to be so fucking hard anymore.
I’m sure everyone would say that’s no excuse, but what do they know? A man loses a child it’s like nothing to the world. The mother gets all the sympathy, while the dad gets a few pats on the shoulder along with an absent there-there, and that’s supposed to be enough.
No one saw me bleeding; no one saw how my world had been turned upside down; how much I suffered, and now this, the icing on the cake.
Leave it to me to pick a sociopath my first time swimming in the adultery pool. I thought it would be so easy. Steal a little warmth and tenderness for myself, throw her a few baubles here and there; can’t be selfish after all. And that was supposed to be good enough, until I exorcised the demons that plagued me; then I could go back to normal.
But then things changed. The more I had the more I wanted, and she, she was like a drug. I didn’t know young girls even knew half the things she did. She had made me feel again that’s for sure.
For the first time in what felt like forever, I actually felt alive again, at the top of my game. The sex was off the charts good as the young people would say, and she knew all the right buttons to push. Even now with all that had happened, the memory of some of what we had shared had the power to weaken me.
I should’ve known though, what she really was. I’d seen that streak in her once or twice before, though she was very careful to keep it hidden. But that too had added to her appeal. My wife had become almost docile and dormant in the last few months.
The warmth and gaiety of our life together had faded, and there didn’t seem to be any way to get it back. But maybe I had gone too far. You think Carter? I berated myself as I came back to reality.
I looked over my shoulder as I hustled away from there, begging and praying that I hadn’t been found out. That would just make what I’d just done all for nothing. I’d lose my family, my career, everything…
It’s funny how everything that seemed so dismal, so poignant here lately, has now become rather significant at this moment in time. Why couldn’t I have remembered these things months ago, before I started this mess? Before I embarked on this fool’s mission.
Like the first time I saw my wife, that feeling that came over me; how could I have forgotten that? And my daughter, the look in her eyes lately. I looked back over my shoulder, but even now I played the coward.
I rushed away from the place of my demise and headed to my car, which had been left hidden in a secluded place. Even now, my only hope was that it had not been seen. I would hate for my mistake to be found out now, after…but what was she doing here? She couldn’t possibly know.
There were a million other reasons for her being here. I was very careful these last few months while I was playing the fool, so there was no reason to suspect that my secret had been discovered.
The bitter taste of guilt was heavy in my lungs as I turned the key and looked back one last time before pulling away.
I saw headlights in the rearview just as I was turning the corner. Whew, close call. Chances are, if I had stayed there a minute longer, I would’ve been found out.
I couldn’t rest easy though, not until I found out what she was doing here and what she knew if anything. There was still a chance that it was all innocent. After all, the girls went to the same school, though Cass was younger, both in years and personality.
JACE
“What the fuck was that?”
“That was a gunshot.”
“What the fuck?” I turned around to see my dad behind me.
“We need to get out of here son, because whatever that was can’t be good.”
“What’re you doing here?”
“I followed you of course. You didn’t really think you were fooling me all those times you snuck out of the house did you? What kind of dad would I be if that were true?”
He smirked as he herded me out of the shadows. “You have eyes on me still?”
“What do you think?”
“Dad…”
“Before you say anything, it’s nothing intrusive son. I know you’re a grown up now, so I do things accordingly. But I have to keep you safe, not only for your sake or mine, but for your mother’s as well. Have you any idea what it would do to her if something was to happen to you?”