Page 32

What?

I expected more of a fight.

He hits his cigarillo, blowing smoke up into the air. My eyes go to the tattoos on his neck and hand.

He chuckles, his neck falling back more as he looks at the sky above us. “Fuck me.” He hits his smoke again, opening his mouth and exhaling into the night.

Looking back at me with a frown camouflaged as a smile, he says, “Well, that’s it then. You be happy. That’s all I ever wanted.” He points at me, letting his arm hang in the air for a short moment before he drops it to his side.

“Did you?” I ask, deadpan.

“Of course,” he says. “Of course.” He nods, looking off in the distance, and something…acceptance?washes over his face and it fucking terrifies me.

Panic sets in.

He nods once more as if coming to terms with his thoughts and then his eyes bounce to mine.

Fear wraps around my veins, running up the length of them as they flow to my heart.

He looks at me,reallylooks at me, making my mouth close and nerves swarm in my stomach. His eyes dart down my body, and then he says, “I’ll see ya.” He turns, flicking the smoke, and walks away from me.

Leaving me.

Again…

And like before, I do nothing.

Chapter Sixteen

Bexley

One month three days missing

“You loved him,” Danny repeats the words I said. I did love Samuel, but I shouldn’t have used that as a weapon to hurt Danny.

Still.

“Yes. I told you that. I never understood why you didn’t believe me. Why else would I marry him, Danny?”

He turns around. “To hurt me. He was my brother, Bexley. My fucking blood and I had to watch you two together constantly. Do you have any idea how painful that was?”

I look down as my brow furrows.

“You honestly didn’t think about it?” he asks. “How would you have felt in my shoes? To have the one person you love most in the world share a life with your sibling instead of you?” He walks over to the chair he’s been sitting in for longer than any one person should. “How would you have reacted every time you witnessed that person smile and kiss another right in front of you?”

I don’t say anything.

He lifts the chair only to slam it back down. “Tell me!”

I jump, my mouth falling open as I cross my arms.

His face turns deadly. He leans down with a slight wince. “How about I tell you,” he says. “When my brother first came to me and told me he was going to ask you out, I saw red. I had to walk away from him to keep from hurting him. Did he ever tell you that?”

“No,” I reply.

“He had some balls to do that.”

“We’d been broken up for two years.”