Burning Bridges

Layla was never too far from his mind as Lucas began his old routine again. He didn’t want it to be like that, but he had to let her go. He had to let her be free from him—no matter what she felt.

“Lucas, snap the fuck out of it and do your damn job!” Jefferson scolded for the seventh time during Lucas’s shift.

He couldn’t just snap the fuck out of it. He’d let her down. He’d let her leave, and now? He had her under his protection still and she probably knew it, but she didn’t let on.

“Layla!”

Lucas shot up at the sound of her name. She was with her mother in the produce aisle, holding a small basket out.

“What do you think about a nice salad for dinner?”

“I don’t care, Mama…” she sighed. “I have to go to the restroom.” Layla handed over the basket to her mother and proceeded to the back of the store.

Jefferson acknowledged her, but she only waved—no smile, no cheer. Her eyes didn’t even catch Lucas’s gaze, and he desperately wanted her to look at him.

“It’s over, Lucas. You fucked that up,” Jefferson reminded him. “Why?”

Lucas shrugged, watching the door to the back open again and Layla stepping through. She turned in his direction and he smiled, but Layla froze and dropped her head, turning in the other direction.

It had been a month since they split up, and not one of them had had any incidents. They didn’t know what to believe anymore or how they felt.

Lucas had Billy on her at all times, paying him extra for having to be away from his wife.

“Mama, I’m going to the car,” Layla said as she slipped past Shelly and out to their station wagon. Once inside, the tears flowed. She was not going to cry in front of Lucas Foster.

***

Lucas had closed his gates again and put his No Trespassing signs out. He’d started fighting for Tim and still held his other jobs.

He even kept working for Ron because Layla said it was okay. It didn’t matter though. Layla had moved back in with Gretchen.

“I can’t believe that sorry son of a bitch,” Gretchen had said when Layla told her the day they split up. “He’s got some fucking nerve leaving you like this. Come on and move in. You can’t be near that motherfucker.”

So, that’s what Layla did, and she worked and she worked and she worked. She drank and popped her pills and slept most of the time. All she could think about was Lucas, and all he could think about was her.

***

“But nothing has fucking happened!” Tim said. “Isn’t that weird?”

“Don’t pretend to know what the fuck is going on!” Lucas roared as he stepped out of the ring. “You’ve no idea how I feel. Stop telling me I did the right thing.”

He didn’t want another woman. Tim would provide them, and Lucas brushed them off. His drinking was back to its original flow, and it angered him. She was his calm, and now? Now he’d let her go, and for what? To save them both?

Lot of good that was doing both of them, but it did stop everything. He wasn’t naive. There might have been a calm before the storm, so he helped, even if she wasn’t privy to his help at all.

***

“Go away, Billy!” Layla jabbed the man in the chest with her little finger. “I don’t care what Lucas says. I don’t want to be stalked. This is stalking.” She continued walking to her car, with Billy at her heels.

“He still wants to protect you.”

“Go tell him to fuck off.”

She turned around and saw Lucas standing behind her. “Fuck off,” she fumed. “Why are you here?! I don’t want you around me or your little cronies.”

Security for the school she was working at happened to walk by. “Sir?! These men are harassing me!”

“What seems to be the problem?” The security guard began walking toward them. “Ma’am?”

“Nothing.” Lucas took one last look at Layla and waved for Billy to exit the scene.

“Just leave me alone, Lucas! I’m not your little problem anymore, remember?” she called out as the two men drove off.

He didn’t abide by those rules and kept people on her. She seemed to be focused on work and going out every now and then, but not with Shawna and Devon.

They’d tried to get her to have a lunch date, but Layla declined. She wasn’t going to be associated with anything that had to do with Lucas.

***

She started seeing more and more of Colt. He was everywhere, and he was available.

“Do you want to get some coffee?” he asked after running into each other at the bank. “I promise I’m only in it for the coffee.”

Layla smiled. “Sure. Let’s go for coffee.”

Coffee became lunch which became dinner and a movie which became meeting the parents which then became an endless amount of sex.

“Fuck, Layla…,” Colt said, toppling off of her and pulling her into his arms. “Where in the hell did you learn all of that?”

She didn’t say where, or who, for that matter, but she thought of Lucas.

“Are we a thing, Colt?” she asked, not really caring either way. Her heart was so dark and bitter that rebounds didn’t matter to her at all now.

“Do you want to be?”

“I guess so.” Her flippant attitude was new, but Colt didn’t care. He liked her and she liked him.

She started clubbing more and knew she’d end up at Club 2, but it didn’t bother her. The booze was flowing, and she was trying to be as content as possible with Colt, who was incredibly laid back.

“I hope you know how beautiful you are,” Colt told her after they had a quickie in the shower one night. “So sweet—so pure.”

Layla just nodded and finished showering, then gathered herself and went to bed.

***

Gretchen wasn’t at all interested in her friend having a new boyfriend. It wasn’t like Layla Potter to go man-surfing so easily.

“Is he here?” Gretchen asked as they slipped into Club 2.

“Maybe. I don’t care.”

But she did care, and she spotted him right away, looming over the crowd and casing the place to make sure no fights or illegal activity were going on.

“Well, we can go if you want to,” Gretchen said, who was already ogling a man at the bar.

“This is déjà vu.” Layla smiled. “I’m going to take my drink and go outside.”

She recalled that night Lucas saved her from the men who were trying to assault her. She desperately wished that she wasn’t there, but Gretchen lived for that club, and Layla would forever be a people-pleaser.

“Layla…”

She didn’t turn around. Gripping her glass, Layla felt him move toward her, but his steps were soft and calm.

“Lucas.”

“How are you?”

“Fine.”

Lucas melted at the sight of her. She was so beautiful, so angelic—everything he craved.

“Are you with someone?” He gritted his teeth because he’d heard she was seeing Colt.

“Gretchen.”

He was next to her now, but she still couldn’t look at him. Her body ached for him, but her heart ached even more.

“You going to the VFW fall party?”

“With Colt, yes.”

“That’s—that’s great.” Lucas noticed she didn’t once ask him how he was, which wasn’t like her at all.

“So, have a good night, Lucas.” She turned in the opposite direction and headed back inside. He deserved the cold shoulder.

He didn’t deserve her at all.

***

“I am so happy you could make it!” Rosie said as Layla and Colt entered the Post. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah!” Layla was in high spirits that night as she linked arms with Colt, who looked to be the happiest man alive. “We’re just excited to be here.”

Colt leaned in and kissed Layla’s cheek. “Wanna drink?”

“Sure,” she said as she continued to chat with Rosie.

“I could bring you back on as a dispatcher if you’d like…”

“No, I am okay. I have my hands full at two jobs and helping my parents. Besides, I’m thinking about getting out of here.”

“Getting out of here?”

“Colt’s invited me to stay with him in California for a while, and I put in for some jobs up there. I love my counseling job here and the farm work, but I need to get outta town, ya know?”

Rosie nodded but noted that Layla was rambling, and not in her cute, socially awkward way—almost too nervous.

“You are okay, right?” Rosie whispered.

“Couldn’t be better.”

Colt returned with the drinks and the three chatted for a bit longer.

Layla and Colt made their way around the Post, talking to some people here and there. She bypassed all of Lucas’s buddies who tried to talk to her, but Layla wasn’t having it.

“To hell with them, Lay,” Colt whispered to her. “You’re so hot tonight. Absolutely fucking perfect.”

Colt excused himself again, and so did Layla when she realized she’d left her purse in Colt’s truck.

Heading out, she was paying no mind to what was in front of her and ran smack dab into someone’s chest.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Layla said as massive arms and warm hands wrapped around her waist.

“You good, Miss Potter?” Lucas swallowed hard, staring down at her like a man starving for her.

He didn’t let her go. She felt too good.

“Yes, sorry,” Layla mumbled, wiggling free and heading to Colt’s truck.

Colt appeared and smiled at Lucas. “Fucked it all up, eh?”

“She’s happy?”

“I hope so. I try to make her happy. You were an idiot.”

“I was trying to save her.”

“Tsk, tsk… You’re a fool, Lucas.”

Lucas sulked the rest of the night and watched Layla and Colt dance and be merry until they bid their farewells, and off she went, looking content with life.

“See? No harm, no foul,” Billy said, handing Lucas a beer. “She’s in good hands.”

***

Sunday morning, Lucas was at Ron and Shelly’s working on the Camaro. He was dying to see Layla, but she wasn’t there. It was a little early for lunch, and the Potter’s had told him she’d be there around noon.

He was anticipating her arrival. He knew she was with Colt, but he’d been stupid to let her go and he was going to tell her—tell her how much he loved her, how much he needed her and craved everything about her, and how he had held on to her promise ring.

Suddenly, a car came speeding down the road, and Gretchen’s little VW bug came barreling into the driveway. She swerved to miss Yeehaw and Dinah, braking so forcefully that she almost went through the window.

“Where is she? Please tell me she’s here.” Gretchen was tugging at Shelly’s arm. “Layla. Is she here?!”

Lucas ran to them as fast as he could. “What? What is it? What’s going on?”

“She didn’t come home after the party Thursday, so I assumed she was with Colt. She’s missed a few of our outings and now her phone is going to straight to voicemail.”

Shelly gripped Ron’s arm. “Oh my God…”

“Where’s Colt?” Lucas demanded. “Where is that motherfucker?”

“No one has seen him either. Lucas, please tell me she’s with you or something?!” Gretchen pleaded, but Lucas was already on the phone with the guys and Officer Perkins.

“She’s fucking gone, Heath! I fucking failed her!”

***

Layla moaned, barely able to move or even open her eyes. She was cold and her limbs hurt, and so did her head and stomach.

There was a sweet smell all around her and she could hear voices, but then she realized her blindness was caused by a blindfold wrapped around her head.

“She’s up,” a voice said. “Get him.”

She was so weak that even her heartbeat seemed barely there. She couldn’t fight if she tried—even her whimper was pathetic.

“H-help m-me…” was all she could croak out of her body.

Sounds of footsteps all around her, a woman screaming. Was that Sylvia?

“H-hello…?”

The bed or whatever she was on dipped, and someone ran their hands over her body. She flinched and tried to move away, but she couldn’t go far at all.

“We going with the full plan?”

Paul?

“You’ll get what we talked about.” Another voice, this time closer to her face.

She knew that voice and could feel the breath enveloping her flesh. She smelled him—oh God, no!!!

“It’s been a long time, Layla. Did you miss me, Doll Face?”