Page 36 of Don’t Break My Heart (Secrets of Ravens Hollow #3)

I pull up at The Raven’s Nest, my heart hammering and hands shaking.

I’m alive, just. I turn off my car and suck in a deep breath, trying to get myself under control before I walk into the club.

So much has happened already this morning.

A small part of me knows this is too much to handle in my sleep-deprived state, but I can’t hide in fear.

I have to face my old life and hopefully sneak back in there almost unnoticed, everything falling back into a routine easily.

I glance in the rearview mirror when I hear another car pull into the empty lot, and I find Romeo’s matte-black Maserati GranTurismo pull in, Reef in the driver’s seat.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t even get five minutes to myself to assimilate back into my old life without one of these fuckers around.

I close my eyes and suck in a deep breath, and it’s shaky as fuck. You can do this, Sloane. Face Romeo and Reef then walk into your club like you own the place, because you do. I shove open my door and step out of the car, running my hands over the skirt of my dress to smooth out the fabric.

“What happened to your car?” comes Romeo’s voice from behind me, more playful than I expected after Onyx’s hostility toward me. Maybe they are going for a good cop, bad cop kind of routine to get me to come round .

I wince. I was really hoping no one would notice, but of course he did. I turn to face him as he steps out of his car. “Nothing a little buff won’t fix,” I snip, glancing over the damage. That damn garage wall was a little closer than I expected.

He raises a cheeky brow. “Been a while, hey?” He smirks smugly in a way that makes my hackles rise.

“I know how to drive, Romeo.”

He runs his finger along the very fresh scratch in the side of my car.

“Of course you do, doll face.” He dusts off his fingers.

“I thought the big dude was going to drive you in today. You know, after he gave it to you for taking off in the middle of the night and scaring us all half to fucking death this morning when we discovered you gone.”

Reef steps out of the driver’s side, but he doesn’t move away from the car. He watches me, but it’s with caution, like he’s purposely keeping his distance. Good, he’s on my shit list as well. “Why would you do something so careless, knowing what we have all been through?” His voice is hoarse.

That earns him a bitchy-as-fuck glare from me. “What you have all been through!” I huff out a laugh. Is he fucking kidding me?

“That’s right, it’s all about you, isn’t it, Sloane. You didn’t get what you wanted, so you’re throwing a tantrum. Real mature,” Reef snips back .

I’m so surprised by the words coming from Reef’s mouth and the attitude that accompanies them that it takes me a second to formulate a sentence. “Are you fucking kidding me, you’re pissed with me?” I glare daggers back at him.

He shakes his head as if he’s disappointed in me.

“I get it, we wrecked your big plans in Italy.” His hand slams down on the roof of the car.

“Could you be any more selfish. How dare we put our fucking lives on the line day after day, make every fucking sacrifice possible, and get you out of there when it became obvious it was too dangerous. When all you wanted was to stay and fight for a cause you only just discovered.”

I stare back at him, my face glowing with heat.

What the fuck? Am I completely insane or is he saying I’m the asshole here and not them.

I slam my car door. With my heart in my throat, I stalk toward Reef.

He looks down at me, crossing one arm over the other, towering over me in a way that never intimidated me before, but now, now I feel small and insignificant.

“You drugged me and took away my ability to make the choice to stay or come home away from me.” I poke him in the chest. “You had a choice, I fucking didn’t. You could have come home without me.”

He throws his head back in a sarcastic-as-fuck laugh, and Romeo joins him. “If you think we had a choice, you don’t know us at all.” He takes a step back from me and hops in the driver’s seat of Romeo’s car again, slamming the door behind him. He glares back at me as he starts the engine.

I step out of the way so he can tear out of the parking lot, a look on his face I have never seen before. He’s furious with me. What the actual fuck? What upside-down world did I wake up in today? Onyx confessing his love for me, Cruz siding with him, and Reef hating me.

Romeo’s lips tug up at the sides. “Shall we? Lots of work to catch up on, doll face, and it looks like I have you all to myself for once.”

Yeah, he’s still the same flirtatious, smug motherfucker I have come to know.

I guess at least that’s something I can rely on.

I stalk past him and enter the code to let us in.

I stop as soon as I enter the back hall, the smell of bleach hitting my nostrils in a nostalgic way I didn’t think I could ever miss. I inhale deeply. I’m back.

Romeo’s hand comes to the small of my back gently .

“Don’t touch me, asshole,” I snip over my shoulder just so he knows where we stand.

He lets out a lighthearted chuckle. “Just like the old days. This is going to be fun.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes, even though a small smile tugs at the corner of my lips. I turn away from him so he can’t see. I’m not letting him off the hook just because he’s being cute. He destroyed what we had when he sided with his brother.

I scan my swipe card to my office door. It opens quickly, and I can’t help the scream that leaves my lips when I see Asher’s bare ass. “Asher Stryker, you have to be fucking kidding me.” I close the door as quickly as I opened. “For fuck’s sake, now I’m going to have to burn that sofa.”

Romeo bursts out laughing. He must have copped an eyeful as well. Asher with some girl bent over my beautiful jade-green velvet sofa. “Welcome home, doll face.” He laughs even louder, and I know he’s doing his best to lighten the mood, but fuck my life.

“You know what I’m going to have to burn? My eyes. Scratch that, my brain.” I scrub a hand over my face, trying to get rid of the visual now lodged in there.

“That makes two of us,” he agrees.

My office door swings open again, a flustered Asher pulling up his jeans. “Hey, little sis, you’re home.” He throws his T-shirt on over his head and wraps his arms tightly around me, kissing me on the cheek.

“Don’t kiss me with those lips, God knows where they have been,” I snap at him, bitchy as all hell.

He takes my face in his hands and stares down at me. “God, I have missed that smart mouth. It’s good to have you back.”

“Hmmm,” is all I can say in return as a shy-looking brunette comes to stand in the doorway, her red dress now firmly back in place, the color mirroring that of her cheeks. “Say goodbye to your little friend, Asher, we have work to do.”

“The Italian vacation didn’t lighten her up?” he asks Romeo over my shoulder like the two of them are old buddies. Fucking great. Now I’m going to have them teaming up on me.

“Trip was cut short. She’s not happy about it,” Romeo says back to him.

Irritation crawls under my skin, but instead of sticking around so they can make me feel even worse, I shove into my office, leaving them to their banter in the corridor.

I go to the bathroom and find the disinfectant spray, covering my velvet sofa until the can runs empty.

“Fucking manwhore Asher, of course he’s been screwing whoever he can in my office,” I mutter under my breath.

I take a vanilla-scented candle out of my second desk drawer and light it, placing it in the center of the coffee table, helping the fresh vanilla waft around the room.

Romeo joins me, fanning his face and coughing as he walks further into my office. “You really are trying to blow the place up.”

“Fucking Asher, this is your fault for leaving him in charge.” I point at him, pinning him with my glare.

He sighs, offering me a half smile, a hint of sympathy in his eyes. “Sloane, profits are up, staff are happy. He might like to sleep around, but he’s a decent, well-respected manager. He did me proud in your absence.”

“I bet you would have a different opinion if it was Sally who was sleeping round.”

His face grows a little more serious. “I can assure you I wouldn’t.”

I roll my eyes, taking a seat at my desk.

“Hopefully this section is safe,” I mutter almost to myself as I switch on my computer.

The security feed pops up so I can see every space within my club.

It’s quiet at this time of the morning, a cleaning crew still working on the private rooms and a couple of girls I don’t recognize practicing their dances on the main stage with Paige.

Their provocative moves take me back to the night I danced for the twins.

A lump gets caught in my throat, and I have to blink away the tears that instantly well.

Get your shit together, Sloane. You can’t think about Orlando, he’s gone.

It was his choice to stay in Italy and turn into his papa. Fuck him.

I suck in a deep breath and open my top drawer, expecting to see my bottle of pills, but surprise, surprise, all that’s in there is stationery.

I try and shake off the icky feeling sweeping through my insides.

But a little voice tells me I can’t do this.

It’s all too much. Too much has changed.

I have changed. And as much as I know it was me who pushed Onyx away this morning, I don’t know how to do it without him by my side.

I feel empty and lost in a way I never expected.

“Are you looking for these?” Romeo holds up my little bottle of pills.

I roll my lips. Fuck, why does he have them?

“Onyx thought you might need them today.” He smiles, way too pleased that he has something he knows I want.

“Did he now.” I wonder when they had that conversation, after I kicked him out of my apartment or when they woke up and discovered I had taken off.

He leans his expensive suited ass on my desk. “Pushing us all away isn’t going to make you feel better, Sloane. We’re here to help you. We can do this together.”

“Together. Fuck that,” I huff. Is he kidding me?

His hand comes to my arm gently, forcing me to look up at him. “I know we hurt you going behind your back, but you have to understand, we did it for you. We couldn’t lose you. ”

“Then you did it for you, not for me. And Reef thinks I’m the selfish one,” I murmur. “All you had to do was come to me and tell me how dangerous it was, tell me how you all really felt, and I would have listened.”

Disappointment flashes in his eyes. “Can you honestly tell me you believe your own words right now? Come on, Sloane, we all know you better than that. You’re stubborn as fuck and think you’re invincible.

You would have refused to leave so you could save those girls and help Daisy.

Orlando has a mess to fix, and he couldn’t do it worried that something would happen to you the whole time.

None of us could. This was the best solution, you have to see it’s true. ”

My brow props up as irritation eats its way into every one of my muscles, and I stiffen under his hold on me. “You broke my trust for the last time, Romeo. There is no coming back from this.”

“I know you don’t believe that.” His eyes roam over my face.

“Why, are you going to feed me some bullshit line about how wet I am for you and if you checked my panties, you would be able to prove it?” I snip back.

He raises a brow, and I know he’s considering it.

I shake my head, my glare hardening. “Don’t even think about it. I’m not a fucking toy for you all to mess with. I could have made a difference over there.”

His fingers brush over the side of my face, and I flinch away from him.

“Doll face, you still can. It will just be from here. I have loads of ideas to run past you in relation to our family clubs. You can do it all, just from safety. From a place where we hold the control, not Valentine and the likes of Dante.”

I stare back at him. Is he serious? “Give me my pills.” I hold out my hand a little more aggressively than I probably should. But right now, I need something to numb this pain .

He places his empty hand in mine, closing his fingers around it.

His touch is electric and sends a warmth through my body I wish would fuck off.

He knows what he does to me. And I hate myself for it.

“I’ll give them to you if you can promise me you will talk to Onyx and Reef and fix things.

They only want to keep you safe because they love you. ”

“Fix things.” I blink back at him. Is he kidding me! He thinks I need to apologize and make things right between us all. “I don’t need them that badly.” I try to pull out of his grip, but it tightens.

“Yes, you do. Not only that, but you need us. Blocking us out is going to do nothing but make you more miserable than you already are.” He pockets the pills, his other hand coming to my waist as he tugs me closer to him.

So close I can smell his intoxicating aftershave.

I try not to breathe, try not to look directly into his dark eyes.

I can’t be pulled back into his vortex. “You need us like we need you.” His head dips to my neck, and he inhales deeply.

“I know we hurt you, but you have to see we did it for you. We love you too much to see you suffer at the hands of evil.” His words skate down my neck, sending goosebumps in their wake.

I suck in a breath, my heart hammering wildly in my chest. I know what he’s saying is true, and he’s right, I wouldn’t have listened to them. But they went too far this time. “Give me my pills, asshole,” I growl, not even recognizing my own voice.

He shifts just slightly, then his lips are on mine, kissing me so damn passionately I feel it right through to my toes.

And fuck, I kiss him back because I can’t help myself, having him for just a moment of peace. Then my hands move to his chest, and I shove him off me with as much force as I can.

He takes a step back, pulls the pills from his pocket, and places them on the desk. “Think about what I said, sweetheart. You know there is something real here. Don’t push us away now. ”

I snatch up the pills and throw two down like I was desperate for them. Really, I was just desperate for anything to pull me out of my Romeo fog so I can think straight again.

My office door opens abruptly and Asher strides in. “What did I miss?” He grins, looking between us.

I turn away from them both, knowing my cheeks are red as hell. Fucking Romeo. I stare at the wall of women who have influenced my life in so many ways. My fucking life falling apart, Asher, that’s what you missed.