Free Compulsion: Magnetic Desires by Misti Murphy Page A

while now. Toolbox in hand, I strode through the front of the framed out house, its bare bones reaching into the sky. It was time to take the next step.
    Clo’s car sped up the road toward me. The hum of the motor as she accelerated gave her away. Frozen in place, I watched as her car came to an abrupt halt behind my truck. The thud of the door slamming shut echoed in the quietness, and she barreled toward me. A deep scowl marked her face; her eyes were red and swollen. Pressing my lips together, I studied the tightness in her posture, becoming more evident the closer she got. I hadn’t seen her in, how long? Not long enough, since the answer was instantaneous down to the day and the hour. Exhausted, I leaned against the frame. "What are you doing here?"
    "Fucking bastard." She spat on the dirt at her feet.
    "What?" She had no reason to be calling me a bastard. What the hell was going on?
    "Not you." She stepped onto the slab between the framing of the kitchen. "Him. Zack."
    "Oh." I raised an eyebrow and dropped my toolbox, crossing my arms as she took up pacing. She was shaking, not trembling from the cold, but violently shaking. I’d never seen this side of her. Not once had I ever seen her mad like this. It was almost humorous that this slip of a woman could hold that much anger. "What happened?"
    Turning to me, she rubbed at her arm, her eyes etched with pain. "He cheated on me."
    "Oh." She gazed at me, waiting for me to say something else. To tell her anything that would take the edge off.
    "I found him. I found him and some blonde thing in my bed. How could he?" She burst into tears and turned to stare out at the mountain of dirt in the backyard. "How could he do this to me?"
    Traversing the short distance between us, I pulled her against my chest. I’d known all along, or at least I’d been suspicious, and been able to add up the clues. Her anger fed mine. This was exactly what I’d been avoiding all these years. I would kill the bastard for hurting her. "Do you want me to run him over with my truck?"
    Quiet hiccups accompanied her muffled sobs. "No. I don’t want you in jail because he doesn’t love me anymore. This isn’t your problem. It’s mine. I don’t know why I came here."
    Her anger dispersed, leaving the vulnerable girl I needed to protect. I hadn’t done a good job of it so far, or not enough, if Zack had still been fucking around on her. Guilt nibbled at me as relief she was no longer with the bastard flooded through me. "I’m glad you did," I murmured against her ear, "you know I’m always here for you."
    "But you shouldn’t be." When she sagged into me, I stopped fighting the urge to hold her. She sounded tired, as if, when the anger left, the fight in her had gone too. "You have your own life."
    I did, or, I was meant to. I’d been moving forward as everyone wanted me to, but holding her close, I knew my reality. "It’s not much of a life without you."
    "You have your girlfriend, and your business. I’m"— she took a deep breath— "a problem that makes your life difficult."
    My arms wrapped around her. I wanted to tell her the truth. That she would never be a problem, that without her my life wasn’t worth living. But it wasn’t the time, not today. "You’re my best friend; always have been. We might not have hung out much recently, but that will never change."
    "I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how I am going to get past this."
    An echo of her normal self, broken by what he’d done to her, she needed my strength, and I didn’t hesitate to give it to her.
    "I’m going to help you." I picked up my toolbox. "Let me finish up here. I’ll get some tequila on the way to your place, and we’ll start getting rid of his stuff."
    I watched her shuffle to her car and pulled my phone from my pocket to call Bella. She picked up almost immediately, as if she’d been waiting for my call. "Listen, Bella, I’m not going to make it tonight."
    I listened to her ask why. It