Read Online Dark Without You by Sue Lyndon - Free Book Online Page B

all. I finally tracked Madison down and sent Alice packing. No harm done.”
    Andy clenched his fists and turned away from Rich. The little man had become a monster. While Andy disbelieved Alice had been pretending to keep him happy, a seed of doubt had been planted in his mind. She hadn’t resisted his advances at all, nor had she batted an eye at his peculiar tastes. It killed him that she’d left without a good-bye—without any explanation at all. Andy glanced back at Rich. He’d never forgive her brother for his part in this, even if Alice had only been pretending.
    Anger and betrayal consumed Andy. His head pounded and his ears rang. He looked coldly into Rich’s eyes. “I’m done here.”
    He left the hotel with only the clothes on his back and hailed a cab to the airport. He had no desire for another pointless conversation with Madison while he packed his suitcases, plus it would only delay him further. He was broken inside. He’d lost a childhood friend, had a close encounter with the ex-girlfriend he despised, and his future with Alice hung in the balance.
    A storm delayed his first flight to Maryland, and Andy sat in the terminal with a cup of hours old coffee in his hands, nursing an aching heart. If Alice’s original purpose on the tour had been to keep him content, he hoped her love hadn’t been feigned. She’d seemed genuinely happy during the past few weeks. Andy swallowed hard and his mind drifted further into the blackest night he’d ever known.
    Alice .
    It was dark without her.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    Rain trickled down the windowpanes as Alice stared outside. Everything was gray, the world outside as well all the corners of her mind. She trudged upstairs to pack another box in her bedroom. Already she had ten boxes lined up in the foyer, set for loading into the U-Haul truck she planned to rent tomorrow. Half of them would go into storage, and the other half would go with her to the little apartment she was fixed to lease tomorrow. Her first two month’s rent would be paid up front, but she’d need to find a job soon if she didn’t plan on asking Rich for money. Finishing up school and working at the same time would be difficult, but she’d manage.
    It would be a cold day in hell before she asked Rich for a goddamn thing. He was dead to her. Andy was dead to her too. She’d thought he loved her, but he’d invited Madison back to the tour. Rich had been the one to break the news. He’d urged her to return to Maryland, saying her job was finished. He’d stood there with Madison while she’d packed her suitcase.
    It had been so humiliating.
    Her trust in Rich and Andy had been shattered in one swift, painful moment. She felt used and dirty, especially when Madison informed her that Andy wanted her help opening up a music store after the tour ended.
    A fucking music store. Just like he’d wanted to open with Alice in Salisbury. Now the idea he’d shared seemed like a cheap pickup line.
    Stupid, stupid, stupid.
    The first time she hadn’t run away from a relationship and this was what happened. She really was better off alone. Even her brother was a slimeball. He’d invited her to the tour, only to kick her out when choice number one in his design to pacify Andy showed up. The friendly way he’d treated Madison broke her heart, causing a dreadful sense of abandonment to wash over her.
    Seeing the groupie up close only made Alice feel worse. Madison was gorgeous. She had long locks of wavy blonde hair and a body to die for—not to mention her picture-perfect face. She looked like a movie star, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why Andy liked her. Alice saw the pair of them together every time she closed her eyes.
    She sighed and looked around the bedroom that had been hers since she’d been a baby. As much as she hated leaving the house her parents had built, it no longer felt like home. She wondered if she’d drift through the rest of her life never