Steamed 4 (Steamed #4) (6 page)

How could Link have been engaged to that woman? And they
were still close after a broken engagement? I had never heard of such a thing.
It sounded incredibly messed up and unhealthy. How could you be in love with
someone and want to marry them one minute and then decide to just be friends
with them after? It must be so weird between them now. How could either of them
be okay with that? Why not just break contact? Was there a chance that Gloria
wanted to fix things with Link so that she could get back together with him? Was
it Link that had broken up the engagement, and if so, why? Was there a chance
he still had feelings for her as well? She was stunning and smart, what if they
could work things out? My heart felt completely heavy. Why hadn't he told me
about her? An engagement was pretty serious, something that we should have
discussed for sure…especially after he decided to hire her as his lawyer. Why
couldn't he have hired anyone else? It was beyond weird that he would ask his
ex-fiancé to represent his interests in court.

I sat in my
car;
unsure
of what to do but knowing I had to do something.

Chapter Ten

I was at a loss. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. My
first instinct was to go to Link and demand to know what the hell was going on,
but to be honest I wasn't really in the mood. What I really should have done
was gone back into the bistro and gotten drunk with my friends. Then I could
just pour myself into a cab and go home and all would be forgotten. But I knew
that at that point if I returned to my friends they would have all sorts of
questions that I didn't want to answer. There was a part of me that still
wanted to go back though and discuss it with them. Maybe they could make me
feel better about the whole thing. Maybe I was just overreacting. I was
assuming that something sinister was going on and the truth was that maybe it
was completely innocent. Just because there was a chance that Gloria still had
feelings for Link, that didn't mean that he felt the same way. I should really
go over to his place and talk to him about it, but I was just too exhausted to.
I had such a great day with him so far that I didn't want to ruin it. I would
deal with him and Gloria another day. Should I just go home and have an early
night?

It occurred to me to go to Jared's and warn him about
Gloria. I don't know why I wanted to. He had told me off in every way possible
and didn't really seem that interested in having me as a part of his life. I
should just let him be just like he asked me to. He didn't want anything to do
with me and there was no reason for me to believe that he would care about
anything I had to say.

I shrugged. What the hell? It wouldn't hurt for me to try. I
just couldn't seem to let my brother go without a fight. If there was a chance
that Gloria was going to destroy him, he should know. Maybe he could stop it
all before it happened. If he would just quit, Gloria would go away and we
could all be happy. That was what I wanted wasn't it? I wanted Link to be okay
and I wanted Gloria to disappear. That wasn't too much to ask. I would rather
have Jared drop the whole thing than for Gloria to be Link's savior. Maybe that
was how she was going to weasel her way back into his life by saving him. Nope,
I wasn't going to let it happen.

I started the engine and made my way over to Jared's house.

I knocked on his door and surprisingly he answered it right
away.

“What the hell Gemma, why can't you just leave me alone?” he
said, glaring at me.

He turned, and walked back into his house, leaving the front
door open. I walked in behind him and followed him to the living room. There
was drug paraphernalia all over the place and I wondered how he was even
functioning.

“What is all this crap? Jared, why do you need all of this?”

“Oh Gemma, give me a break. If you came here to bitch about
my drugs then please just go. I'm not in the mood and nothing you are going to
say is going to change that.”

“Okay fine. I think that you are acting like a real loser
but that's not why I am here. I was hoping to talk some sense into you, if that
is even possible.”

He sat down on the couch heavily and rolled his eyes.

“So, what's the big news this time Gemma? Are you and Link
getting married or are you pregnant with his unborn, traitorous spawn?”

I almost laughed at him because his words were so ridiculous
and childish, but really all I could do was stare and
him
with pity. He wasn't even happy with his own life or his restaurant. He had
allowed drugs and drinking to bring him so low that even his thriving business
didn't make him happy anymore.

“Stop talking like an idiot Jared, please for just five
minutes. I don't know what's going on with you lately but I don't understand
why you won't just stop all this reckless behavior. What are you really getting
out of being drunk all the time or doing such heavy drugs? Cocaine isn't
exactly getting stoned you know? You shouldn
't even be touching that crap. I
t's
dangerous. You are going to lose everything over this crap you keep putting
into your body. Where is my brother? What have you done with him? We used to do
everything together and now you could care less if you even see me.”

He looked up at me, “You are dating Link...do you not see a
conflict of interest there?”

I laughed, “No, because he's not who you are claiming he is.”

“Okay Gemma, is that what you came to tell me cause it
doesn't sound like new information to me.”

I sighed; it was honestly like talking to a brick wall.
Nothing I said ever got through to Jared.

“Nope that wasn't it. Look, I don't even know why I'm
telling you this…you don’t need my help apparently, and you don’t deserve it
either.”

He sat there silently blessedly for once.

“Link has a lawyer and she's good. Jared she's really good.
I don't know what her plan is at this point but she has one and she is
currently executing it. I feel like if you don't rein things in then you are
going to have one hell of a shit storm coming your way. I'm not joking when I
say she wants to destroy you. You could lose everything. I want you to get out
while you still can. You can stop all of
this;
just stop bashing and accusing Link of all
these things. Please just stop for your own sake.”

“Gemma...”

“Jared, I'm serious. If you don't stop you could get into
even more trouble than you could ever imagine. She's that good.”

He went to answer but there was a loud knocking on his front
door. We both turned to it surprised.

“Who the hell is that now?” He exclaimed.

I had no answer for him except for a gnawing feeling in the
pit of my stomach. He got up off the couch and went to the door. I heard a
muffled thump, and then Jared was saying, “What the hell is going on here?”

A few police officers came into the home and all I could do
was stand there immobilized. Oh god, what were they doing there? I thought of all
the drug paraphernalia all over the house and I hoped to god that it wasn’t
what the police were there for.

“What's going on here?” Jared yelled again.

“Jared Johnson?”

“Who wants to know?”

“Jared, we are going to need you to come down to the station
with us.”

“Like hell I will. What is this about?”

“Sir, we are being polite, but you will be coming down to
the station with us one way or another.”

Jared started backing away from them. Fear struck through
me,
as I
knew Jared was not going to make anything easy on them.

“Officers, what's going on here? What do you need my brother
for?”

“That's not something we can discuss at this time ma'am, you
will have to come down to the station as well if you want to talk to someone
about your brother.”

They were completely ignoring the drugs all over the house
so I knew it wasn't just about someone calling in some drug charge. This had
Gloria written all over it. The drugs unfortunately would be added to whatever
she had in mind, but I knew deep down that the officers were there on her
behalf. This was just the start of Jared's downfall. I would have to go down to
the police station or maybe just call Gloria to see what was going on.

“Jared just
go
with them.”

“No, they have no right to be in my house. I’ve done nothing
wrong.”

I groaned. One officer grabbed Jared by the arm and twisted
it behind his back. He cried out and I watched in shock as the officer pinned
him to the ground and put both arms behind his back. This was not happening, I
kept saying to myself. It just couldn't be happening right there before my
eyes. Another officer proceeded to put handcuffs on Jared. They pulled him up
and escorted him out the door.

I stood there, suddenly alone in Jared’s home, wondering
what was going to happen to my brother now.

Steamed #5 will be released July
11th

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This book
is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products
of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events,
locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2015 Nella Tyler