Page 93 of Cruel Betrayal

“Great, so everyone here is happy to see me and glad I arranged this. Perfect.”

Royce smirks and finishes off the hotdog with a shrug. “You’re the one who arranged your own funeral. Shouldn’t have shown up if you didn’t want to be uncomfortable.”

He has a point.

Jade looks happy, though. She’s making the rounds, talking to her siblings, playing with the kids, laughing with her head tilted back and the sun shining down on her.

Before I have a chance to think about getting myself a beer, Aiden appears in front of me, jerking his chin to the side.

I sigh and follow him, heading off to the side but staying where the others can see us. I don’t trust him well enough to be alone with him. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point with him.

Aiden leans against the side of the house, his gaze drifting past me before coming back. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“What’re you talking about?”

More people start flooding into the backyard. A bunch of cousins, I think.

Jade’s off and squealing with some of the others.

Aiden arches his eyebrow at me. “So, what’re you doing?”

“About what?” I tuck my hands in my pockets, trying to keep track of all the Lyndes in the backyard, but it’s impossible.

“About this fight. It’s a bad idea. I don’t even like you, and I’m telling you that. From what I can tell, Jade does like you, and even if I don’t like it, I don’t think I get much of a say in the matter which meansthis—,” He gestures to me. “—is now my problem.”

“If it was you, would you do the fight?”

Aiden swirls the beer around in the bottle. “Before Zoe? Yes. After? No. You only get one life, and you might’ve been raised a certain way, just like I was, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep being a product of your environment.”

Without another word, he turns and walks away, joining the mass amount of family piling around each other, some of them jumping into the heated pool, others getting some food.

I stand there for a couple of more minutes by myself, watching everything happening around me.

Is this the kind of life I want to be involved in? Are these the kind of people I could one day consider family?

Jade makes her way over to me, handing over a slushie. “It’s spiked with tequila, and probably a lot of it. Skyla poured.”

“Thanks. Are you having fun?” I take a sip, wincing as tequila assaults me.

“Of course.” She smiles, her head tipping to the side slightly as she assesses me. “Why did you put this together? Ellie told me you were the one who arranged it and suggested inviting all the family.”

“You want me to consider a life where I could be part of your family. This is me doing that.” I sip the slushie again without thinking about the instant regret that follows.

As I hand it back to her, she gives me a little smirk and takes a big sip.

I keep my eyes on her. “Look, I don’t know where any of this is going, but the thought of losing you isn’t a welcome idea.”

Her cheeks tint a pale shade of pink. It might be from the alcohol, but with the electricity crackling in the air between us, I don’t think so.

Jade nods to the people gathering around. “You going to get out there and start getting to know my family, or are you going to sit over here and sulk?”

“I’m not saying that I’m backing out of the fight by doing this.” I follow her toward the crowd of people, trying not to let the suspicious stares piss me off.

“I know.” She looks a little disappointed, but doesn’t say anything else, turning to some of the other people and handing out sips of that god-awful slushie.

“Come play with us,” a kid says, tugging on my hand when I look down at him. He gives me a grin, showing off his missing front teeth. “Come onnnnn.”

I’m out of my element, but I follow him. “What’s the game?”