This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

want to pass them by you, Ok? >>

Audry nodded, keeping control of her temper. “Ok. Should we meet? Or will you pick me up at my place?”

He paused then said, << For come crazy reason, I can’t seemed to remember where your apartment is. I’ve been struggling with it for a while. Can you just flag me down outside? >>

She sighed. Silvia’s shadow spell. It had to be it. “Ok. See you when?”

<< I’ll pick you up at six. >>

“Ok,” she said

And he hung up.

Audry set the phone down and thought. Then she looked at the computer and the list. Peering at it, she decided to call Cara Houston—Hera—first.

Their conversation was short. Audry apologized for not believing her when they had met in New York. But considering the situation, with a total stranger storming up to her boyfriend, it was way too upsetting—and Hogan had spilled the beans about his goddesses to her already for her to not readily take an opposite side.

<< That’s because he really does want to marry you, >> Cara replied over the phone, peevish, but not mad at Audry. In fact, she was glad Audry had called as she was worried for her.

“He told me your uncles drove him away and would not let him elope with you,” Audry said, listening.

Cara chuckled. << Lies. Hogan had no intention of marrying me. I didn’t realize it then, but I figured it out when I suggested we elope after I got pregnant. My father would have paid for the wedding. >>

All of this made Audry feel sick. “So what makes you think he wants to marry me?”

Cara chuckled. << Because Isis hates you. She wants Hogan for herself. She wants to destroy him and make him come back to her, begging on his hands and knees. >>

Audry paled.

<< But don’t forgive him just because of Isis. Hogan is a master manipulator. And he loves his conquests. And if he’s not getting any sex out of you—chaste little Artemis—then he is getting it somewhere else. >>

That was the second time Audry had heard that.

<< Call the other women on the list. Isis may be a vindictive trollip, but uh… she’s not wrong. >>

“I actually heard this from Rachel—Aphrodite.”

The other side went silent. << I’ve heard of her. >>

Audry closed her eyes. “Yeah? Did he say anything bad about her to you?”

<< No. She was his sob story to me. The gal who dumped him for some Texan. >>

Closing her eyes, clenching her teeth, Audry shook her head. “Did he tell you she had attempted suicide after she heard about the goddesses from Charlene?”

Cara’s answer came in a whisper. << No. Oh my gosh, did she? >>

“Yep.” Audry swallowed as her anger rose inside. “She showed me her scars.”

<< Oh… that liar. >>

“Do you want her email?” Audry asked. She had it right there.

<< No, >> Cara said immediately. << I think if she went to Texas to get away from Hogan, let’s just leave that alone. Besides, if I really want to get all that information, I’m sure Isis would be happy to give it to me. >>

Which was true. They ended the call soon after. There was little else to say. However, Audry did call two others on the list: Demeter—who turned out to be florist he had relations with—and Sita, an ‘Indian’ woman whom he had met in Portland, Oregon who apparently was Tlingit (a Native American) and not from India at all. Both women had their stories. Sita went back to Canada to her family after Hogan had gotten her pregnant, losing her future career as an artistic wood carver, which she had been studying in Portland at small arts college. Her family did drive him away, calling him a ‘no-good paleface’. Demeter, who also lived in Portland, was living with another man and merely said that Hogan was the kind of guy who came and went and really didn’t care one way or the other about marriage. He called it a game. She even said she’d still sleep with him if he ever came around again. She didn’t care about marriage or kids either. He had gotten her pregnant three times, and she had ‘dealt’ with it. Audry didn’t think that implied giving birth and caring for her children.

When six o’clock arrived, Audry stood outside her apartment in a nice dress but with clenched fists, trying hard not to scream out loud. She was screaming internally though. She wanted to drop-kick Hogan. He was a liar. He was a philanderer. He was scum. And she had been blind to it.

Hogan pulled up, smiling at her through the passenger side window. “Hop in! I’ve got the best restaurant picked out.”

Audry pulled on the door handle and climbed inside. Though she had broken up with Harlin over the phone, this time she had to break up with Hogan in person and in public.

She was silent as they drove to the restaurant. Hogan chatted it up, but Audry could only manage a few terse, yet polite, replies. Finally, when they arrived, pulling up to the restaurant where the parking attendants hopped forward to take the keys to the car, Hogan turned to her and said, “Is something wrong? How bad was your day? You have been quiet this entire time. I thought you’d miss me?”

Turning to him, Audry was about to say something, but then shook her head and opened her door, getting out. He climbed out also, handing over the keys to those standing by. The attendant quickly got in and drove off with his car.

“No, seriously, what is it?” Hogan asked, confused yet still happy to see her. “You are really tense, and it is kind of freaking me out.”

Audry stepped onto the curb and turned, staring at him. She could not take it any longer. “You promised not to lie to me.”

He stared, nonplussed. “Pardon?”

Heaving a breath, clenching her teeth, Audry said, “You didn’t tell me about Rachel Plummer.”

Hogan practically swayed from the blow of her words. He looked as if someone had kicked him in the gut, really. Frowning, his brow wrinkling, he was unable to say anything for several seconds. But gazing to Audry, he finally said, “Charlene visited you again.”

“And Rachel,” Audry bit back.

He went pale. “What?”

“She came all the way from Texas to talk to me,” Audry said.

Another blow to the gut, only this time Hogan looked like he was about to puke. He swallowed. “Oh heavens. Um, Audry, it’s not what you think.”

“Oh no?” Standing back from him, she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot. “Then what’s your story?”

Catching his breath, shaking his head, Hogan went up to her. “I was in love with Rachel when I was a kid.”

“She said you were nineteen.” Audry glared at him. “And she was sixteen.”

He stiffened. “I was eighteen. And I was interning with a company that summer with no pay. Not Water Way, but like it. Look, I was a stupid kid. I did stupid things. I thought we were going to leave the past in the past.”

“I would have,” Audry ground out. “But her story was so convincing, how you used her as a kept woman—”

“Is that what she said?” Hogan protested.

“No,” Audry bit back angrily. “It was how I interpreted it. You used her while you were running around with other women.”

“Oh, come on…”

“No!” Audry shook her head. “When you went to Connecticut, were you screwing around with other women?”

“No.” And he met her eyes. “I told you when I told you about the goddess list—I’m done. I love you. I was an idiot before, but—”

“No,” Audry said. “I’m not buying that anymore. I am sick of your excuses. You just can’t keep it in your pants, can you? How many women did you really sleep with?”

Passersby were staring. His car was gone, but they were not going into the restaurant. Hogan tried to pull Audry aside for privacy, but she jerked away from him.

“I thought when we met that we agreed the past was in the past,” he said, distressed and hissing. “I’ll admit, I did some stupid things in the past, but come on. I love you.”

Unfortunately, she could see he wasn’t entirely lying. He loved her in a way, but it really wasn’t the kind of love that she wanted. He probably loved each and every one of his goddesses in some form or fashion, simultaneously in some cases. Mostly it had been passion and pure lust. One thing was now clear to her, his ‘love’ was not true mutual respect. He was not really concerned about her happiness at all, but about getting his optimal results by playing on her emotions and sentiments. He probably wasn’t even a vegetarian.

“What kind of man leaves a trail of women after he gets them pregnant?” Audry asked.  

Hogan closed his eyes. “I want to marry you. I am fully committed to our relationship.”

But Audry eyed him funny. “You might be, but are you fully committed to a relationship with only me?”

He drew in a breath. That hesitation was her answer.

“Well, yes,” he said. But she knew he did not mean it. Not really. There probably was a Connecticut gal waiting for him to come back.

“I’m done with you.” Audry pulled off her ring and handed it back to him. “I’m done with all men.”

He refused to take it.

She shoved it into his hand, her mind also flashing back to Rick making out with Daisy in the alley. “You’re all predatory scum.”

She let go of the ring. It fell to the ground, pinging against the concrete as she rushed off.

“Audry!”

She did not stop, finding the nearest subway station to go home as she cried.

*

A black cat showed up in Rick’s dorm window, pacing outside it.

“I know,” Rick said to the cat at the window. He then opened it. The cat hopped in then pulled into full human shape. The tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed man peered down at him, shaking his head. “How long has it been going on? You and Daisy?”

Rick took the card with the address out from his wallet and handed it to him. “Since Audry got engaged. This address is old, so….”

Randon raised his eyebrows as he took it. He tucked the card into his pocket. “I’m giving this to Silvia. She can’t scry right now, but once she can, she will.”

Rick nodded.

“You can’t keep secrets like this, Rick.”

“I know.” Rick closed his eyes, resting his forehead on the desk.

“You know she doesn’t actually love you,” Randon said.

“Yeah.” Rick’s breathing grew heavier.

“This room reeks of her,” Randon sniffed the air in disgust. “I’m telling your father what you’ve been up to.”

“Good luck. He’s in Morocco and his phone’s off,” Rick whimpered. “He’s been there for the past week. I think he’s with a pack there and won’t be in contact for a while.”

Randon stared at him. “Then I’ll tell Carl or your family steward, what’s-his-name.”

“Henry.”

Sighing, Randon sat on the bed next to Rick. “I know it’s not fair. She found you when you were vulnerable. But you have to fight this.”

“I’m addicted, Randon,” Rick said clenching his teeth. “It was easy to resist when she didn’t know how to get a hold of me. But now… I think she’s not going to leave me alone until she gets pregnant again.”

“We’ll send Tom after her,” Randon said.

Rick cringed. “Tom is in California with Michael setting up something to protect his mother. He left two days ago. I can’t even get a hold of him. He’s ditched his cellphone.”

Randon stared. Rising, he said, “Ok, I’ll figure it out. Just… I’m watching you. And for the record, that alleyway was a dirty place. You could at least be a little more selective where you hook up with your she-wolf.”

He shrank back into a cat again and jumped on the desk, climbing out the window.

The fresh air blew in, taking a bit of the intensity of Daisy’s smell out of his dorm room. Rick stared