Page 3 of Love Loathe Devotion (Tightrope #3)

I introduce Randy to Rusty and watch the look of excitement on Randy’s face as he grips Rusty’s hand and shakes it with both of his.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve been wanting this for so long, and it’s taken Laney far too long to set up.”

“Uh-huh.”

I roll my lips to hide my smirk as Rusty squeezes Randy’s hand until he winces before letting go.

“Let’s get these forms signed and get started.” Rusty leads us back to his room, passing Kendal’s open door where she sits at her station waiting for me.

“Take a seat, Randy.” Rusty motions to the chair where Randy will get his work done, and Randy grins at me.

“So you understand how this works? Laney has designed something for you and you’re blindfolded until the reveal and then she gets whatever you designed?”

Randy nodded. “Yes.”

This was never something I would’ve agreed to, but for this instance, it works and I have no intention of signing any consent forms. I’m just going to chat with Kendal and wait for the reveal when I can finally let this asshole have it.

Once everything was signed and Randy was in the chair, with his shirt off, and his shoulder and chest exposed, I fitted the blindfold for him.

“I can’t wait to see this, Laney babe.”

“Me either.”

Rusty winks at me and I walk out to wait with Kendal.

“Hey, girl.” She hugs me tight, her petite frame a direct opposite of her huge husband, but she and Rusty worked, they are one of the best couples I know and have been so supportive of Lucas and Sam through Joey’s illness, which is how I’d become friends with them.

It seems the whole family has adopted me and I like it.

Being the only child of older parents has made me feel isolated and alone for so long.

“How’s Joey?”

“Getting there. They might let him home at the end of the week, but he needs a kidney and that’s the reality.”

Kendal purses her red lips and shakes her head. “It sucks that this is happening to him. Sam and Lucas must be beside themselves.”

“It does, and they are, but all we can do is support them and we’re doing that.”

Kendal wipes a tear from her eye, careful not to smudge the heavy kohl lining them. She’s dressed in ripped, skintight black jeans and a Kiss vest, her dark hair long and wild down her back and I want to be her so badly. Not her looks necessarily, but her confidence, her grit.

We chat for a bit about Joey, and how we can best support Sam and Lucas and then she shows me the tattoo Randy had designed for me.

It was his name in a swirling script with his family crest underneath.

It was a brand more than anything and so indicative of him, that I wince at my own stupidity for staying so long.

Kendal asks about my plans for the future, as she tears the design in two and tosses it in the bin. She never would’ve done it anyway, it was her one rule never to tattoo a man’s name on a woman like an ownership tag.

“So, this is gonna blow up in about fifteen minutes. Do you have a plan? A place to live or work? I know you just got your degree in Public Relations, right?”

“Yep, graduated Magna Cum Laude.”

“That’s impressive. Congrats, girl.”

“Thank you. It was hard work, but worth it, I hope.”

“So, what are your plans now?”

“Find a place to stay, I have a friend Christie who might let me crash at hers for a bit Find a job and have both close to Sam and Lucas. I want to be there for them.”

“That's why you stuck it out with pencil dick for so long?”

I giggle at her name for Randy. Kendal has made it clear she didn’t like him from day one, and she’s only met him once.

In fact, none of my friends liked him much, and Lucas and Sam had been relieved when I told them we were breaking up, even though I left some of the details out for Lucas.

My friend would kill him for what he’d done to me, and he needed to be with their son, not in jail.

“I guess it was easy. I could work at the hotel, we shared an apartment, I didn’t want to rock the boat.”

A text comes through on Kendal’s phone and her eyes light up, her lips curling into a grin as she looks up.

“Well, that boat’s gonna rock so hard now it’s gonna capsize. Rusty’s done and ready for the reveal.”

We headed back into Rusty’s room, where Randy is still in the chair with his blindfold on. My eyes met Rusty’s and he winks.

“Laney girl.”

“Laney, are you done too?”

Randy is looking around like a blind bat, his hand reaching for me, but I don’t take it. My gaze lands on the fresh ink on his shoulder and I have to plaster my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing.

“Laney, come here. I need you. Do you know how painful this was? He didn’t use any numbing cream, and it hurt, it really hurt.”

Rusty rolls his eyes and mouths the word ‘Pussy’, and I smirk.

“I know but are you ready to see how it looks?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

I step back and fold my arms over my chest as Rusty yanks the blindfold from his eyes. Randy blinks at the light and then his gaze lands on his left arm and shoulder. It takes him a moment, his face looking pinched and confused before he starts to go red, his hate-filled gaze locking on me.

“What the fuck did you do, Laney?”

“What? You told me to design something that really reflects who you are and that’s what I did. You’re a cheater who likes it up the ass from a slut with a strap-on. That tattoo reflects that.”

I’d literally designed a cheetah being railed doggy style by a woman with a strap-on dick and the word cheater in beautiful script below it. I thought it was ingenious but clearly, my now ex didn’t agree.

“You fucking bitch.”

“Wow, buddy, back it up there.” Rusty lays and hand on his shoulder and I shake my head in disgust that I’d put up with this man.

Randy rounds on him. “I’m going to sue every fucking one of you.”

Rusty chuckles as he moves to stand beside Kendal, slinging his arm over her shoulder. “You can try, buddy, but you signed the consent forms so it won’t stick.”

Randy turns to me then, hatred making him ugly. “I gave you everything, you little slut, and this is how you repay me?”

Rusty growls and my eyes almost pop from my head they go so wide. “Are you joking? I paid half the rent, all the bills, I cooked, I cleaned, I worked, and I got my degree and you couldn’t even stay faithful. You had to fuck my friend in our bed, and don’t think I didn’t find your stash of photos.”

After finding him last week, I searched our apartment for evidence of his cheating and found photos of him and Sloane in various disgusting poses. Messages on his phone from other women too, which showed this had been going on for a while.

“You invaded my privacy?”

“That’s what you heard?” I cross my arms over my chest and glare at the man I’d wasted the last four years on.

“You had no right to do that, Laney, and if I needed a little something outside of the bedroom it was only because you were a frigid bitch.”

“So, you cheating on me is my fault?”

“Yes, you ignored me too much. A man has needs.”

“Yeah, well, so does a woman, and you haven’t met mine since the day we met and still I stayed loyal to you because that’s what you do in a relationship. You talk and, if it’s not working, you tell the other person or end things. You don’t lie and cheat.”

“Oh, grow up, Laney, stop being such a child. These things happen in relationships all the time. You, however, have chosen to assault me and I will be filing charges against you.”

“Unbelievable. You know what, I could defend myself, but you don’t deserve another second of my time. You’re in the wrong, you’re the cheating piece of shit and now every woman will know it. So go ahead and do your worst.”

His face is blotchy and almost purple with rage as he steps toward me with menace in his eyes. A growl from Rusty stops him and I feel my heart rate pick up, as, for the first time, I consider that I might have poked this bear too hard.

“You’re a fucking bitch, Laney, and you’ll be crawling back to me in no time, especially when you have no job and no home.”

I poke him in the chest, angry that he thinks I’m so hard up I’d ever crawl back to him. “I’d rather sleep in a cardboard box than come back to you. We’re done. Don’t call me, don’t contact me, and tell your parents to find another skivvy to handle their marketing and PR. I’m done with all of you.”

I race from the shop not looking where I’m going and slam straight into a wall of muscle. I blink, as big hands curl around my biceps securing my footing, and find the blue eyes of the man who has been my every fantasy since I was fifteen.