Romance: Love Left Behind - A Mystery Romance: (Romance, Mystery, Mystery Romance, Romantic Suspense) by Paige Powers Page B

sounding in his head.  He pushed against his girlfriend’s arms, gently extracting himself from her grip.  As he moved to walk past her and see what was going on in the bedroom, Mina jumped in front of him, trying to stop him.  She grabbed at his arms and his waist.  Ben was too strong, though.  He moved around her, pushing her off him as he went.
    On the bedroom floor lay the waste of the green lamp that had sat on their nightstand.  The lackluster green ceramic was shattered in chunks across the floor, leaving a trail of green-gray dust in between the pieces.  There were slits in the lampshade from the broken glass of the light bulb.  Small spots of dark blood also dotted the lampshade.
    It was the sight on the bed that was even more shocking.  Jack Halloway, another reporter for the station where Mina worked, was sitting on the bed clutching his bleeding foot.  He wore no clothes except for a skimpy pair of gray boxer-briefs, and his brown hair was tousled.  Behind him, Mina’s clothes were thrown across the bed, including her pink lingerie set.  An open condom wrapper rested haphazardly on the pillow, reflecting the light shining in from the window.
    Jack looked up when Ben entered the bedroom and said, in a choked voice, “Can you get me some gauze and a bandage, man? I stepped on that glass.  I think the cut is really deep.  It won’t stop bleeding.”
    Ben was shocked.  “Are you kidding me?  You want me to get you a bandage?”
    “Man, please help me.  I’m not good with blood.  It hurts too, it hurts real bad.  Please help.”
    “You were just in here fucking my girlfriend and you want me to help you?  Fuck you, Halloway.  I hope you bleed to death.  You’re just lucky I’m not over there kicking your ass right now,” Ben spat across the room.  Jack Halloway looked up, momentarily stunned.  Even Ben was amazed at the animosity in his voice.  But in what world did Jack Halloway think he was going to get help from the scorned boyfriend?
    Mina came scurrying into the room, her cheeks bright red.  She rushed to the bed and handed Jack some gauze, whispering sweet nothings all the while.  When she was convinced that he was going to be okay and that he could take care of his foot for a minute, she turned.  There was fear in her eyes but also something else that Ben couldn’t quite place.  It was a haughtiness of sorts, a defensiveness.
    She walked towards him and took his hand in hers.  He wanted to pull away.  He wanted to hit her, actually, but he knew he couldn’t do that.  The betrayal was not palatable to him.  Soothingly Mina pulled, leading him out of the room, settling him onto the couch in the living room.  She sat next to him, sinking into the cushions.
    “Now I want you to listen to me,” she said.  “And I know you don’t want to listen to me right now, but I need you to just hang in there and hear what I have to say.  Okay?”
    “Don’t touch me.  Don’t you dare touch me.”
    “Fine,” Mina said, removing her hands.  She held them into the air, a sign of surrender.   “Fine, I won’t touch you.  But you need to listen.  I know everything, Ben.  I know you still love her, that Starla girl.  The way you look at her…you’ve never looked at me like that.”
    Ben wanted to protest but Mina shook her head, holding up a finger to silence him.  “You told me about her a few times.  You always referenced her as that lost love from your childhood.  Maybe I thought you’d change and finally love me the way you loved her.  When we moved in together, I thought that was it.  But seeing you and her the other day made me realize that you never stopped loving her.  And that’s not fair to me.  Because now I feel like I’ve been waiting around for all of these years for someone who will never love me the way I need to be loved.  I cried for a long time after I saw the two of you together and then it dawned on me that if you were looking at her