Steel 5: Blackthorne MC#5 by Carrie Cox Read Free Book Online

conflicted as he shook his head again and looked down at the ground.
    He wouldn’t look in my eyes as he said, “I don’t want to go with you.”
    I clutched my towel against my chest and took a step back. His words stung as if he’d slapped me.
    “I thought…”
    “That’s the problem, Ella,” he said. “You think you know me, but you don’t. If you did, you’d know that I could never leave.”  
    Nick pushed past me, leaving the bathroom. I stood there shellshocked.  
    Maybe I had been a little naive, but did he have to be so cruel?  
    I felt tears well up in my eyes. I blinked them away angrily. I didn’t need this crap in my life.
    I’m not sure how long I stood motionless in the bathroom, reeling from what Nick had said, but when I finally went out to the bedroom to get my clothes, Nick was already dressed and sitting on the bed.
    He looked up at me with a mixture of emotions in his eyes, but I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t.
    “I’m sorry, Ella. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
    “Well, you have, ” I said, my voice brittle. I glared at him as I reached down to pick my jeans up off the floor.  
    “You’re an asshole,” I said, struggling not to cry.
    Nick bowed his head. Then he looked at me and sighed. “I think you’re finally getting to know me.”

8

    Nick left to go and get something to eat, but I had no appetite.  
    Truthfully, I thought a little time apart would do us good. I didn’t understand how I could have been so wrong about him. I’d always been a good judge of character in the past.  
    But maybe he was right. This whole situation had been an emotional roller coaster, and because he’d been kind to me, I’d clung onto him, perhaps giving him character qualities he didn’t have.  
    I paced the bedroom, feeling trapped and miserable. I didn’t feel like I could think straight. The room felt so claustrophobic.  
    I longed to walk amongst crowds on the New York streets. I wanted to go shopping, meet friends for a drink. I wanted to be free. I hated this.
    I was still pacing the bedroom, fruitlessly trying to rack my brains as to how I’d completely misread Nick’s feelings when there was a knock at the door.
    My first thought was that it was Nick coming back to try to apologize again.
    I opened the door and saw the waitress from last night. She looked just as slender as she had the other day. She wore a pair of skinny jeans, which were baggy around her knees and ankles, completely swamping her.
    She looked over her shoulder and down the corridor as if she was afraid we were being watched.
    “Can I come in?” she asked urgently.
    I stepped back to let her inside the room, wondering what she could want.  
    She pulled the cell phone from her pocket.
    “Oh, that’s kind of you.” I said, thinking that she’d come to lend me her phone again. That simple act of kindness touched me.
    But instead of handing me the phone, she gripped my hand.
    “I tried to find you earlier,” she said. “But I couldn’t find any of you. I was scared you’d already left.”
    I shook my head, feeling confused. “We just went into town for a few hours.”
    The girl nodded and then nervously licked her lips. “There was a phone call for you.”
    “For me?” I looked at her puzzled.
    She nodded eagerly. “They must have gotten the number when you called using my phone.” She waggled her cell phone in front of me. “Anyway, they said they would call back at three o’clock, which is in five minutes.” She checked her watch and then pressed the phone into my hand. “So I’ll leave it with you and come back for it in about half an hour. Is that okay?”
    I stared down in disbelief at the cell phone “Are you sure it was a call for me?”
    She nodded. “Definitely. They asked for Ella. That’s you, right?”
    I felt the excitement building in my chest. “Yes, that’s right. Was the person who called female?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
    My God. It must be Claire. It