Page 45

‘ You’re Sissi?’

Blake couldn’t believe it. The blonde woman before him with the big blue eyes giving a nervous nod was none other than Sienna Mastrangelo, his brother’s ex. The same woman Astrid had been speaking to from the very first day they’d met. The same woman Astrid had claimed was a friend.

‘Sissi knew I wanted to speak to him,’ Astrid said, trying to tug his focus back to her, but hell, he didn’t give a shit about his father now. How could these two know each other? How could they be friends ?

‘Does she know? Do you know?’ he said, spinning back to Astrid. ‘ Who she is? Her connection to my brother?’

Astrid’s gaze flicked to Sienna behind him. ‘I’m so sorry, Sissi.’

‘What are you apologising to her for?’ He was gonna freaking puke, his gut rebelling as he tightened his hold on her, feeling her slip from his grasp even though she was very much still there.

‘What the fuck is going on, Astrid? You gave me the impression you hadn’t been here before, that you hadn’t met anyone here, and suddenly your friend rocks up and she’s my brother’s ex! ’

But her gaze didn’t shift from Sissi. ‘I have to tell him the truth.’

‘What truth ?’ he blurted.

She swept her tongue over her lips, her nerves putting him further on edge as her eyes finally came back to his.

‘Did you come here before you met us? Did you dish the dirt with the locals, meet Sienna and…’

His voice trailed off at the shake of her head.

‘Then what ?’

‘Hey Mastrangelo!’ The door to the diner across the way opened and a dude leaned out. ‘Hurry up and say goodbye to that friend of yours, I’ve got customers waiting to be served.’

The door swung closed and Astrid’s stricken gaze went back to Sissi. For crying out loud , he was the one needing answers.

‘It’s okay, Sissi, I’ve got this.’

‘Are you sure?’

He turned to look at the girl he hadn’t seen in years…

not since the night he’d kept her company after he’d found her father drunk and messed up in this exact same spot.

Taken him home and stayed with her until he could be sure she was safe because he didn’t trust dads at the best of times.

Drunk dads even more so. But none of that explained why she was looking at Astrid like she would dive between them at any moment and separate them. With force if she had to.

‘I’m not going to hurt her if that’s what you’re thinking?’

Sienna met his gaze, her own glistening in the neon glow coming off the bar. ‘This isn’t her fault, okay. It’s mine. And I’m sorry you got caught up in it.’

How the hell could it be her fault? It was Astrid’s article. His story.

Then she looked back to Astrid. ‘You know where I am.’

Astrid nodded and with one last hesitant glance, Sienna dashed across the road, disappearing into the diner as the air fell silent once more, the music from the bar and the occasional vehicle the only sound. Until her teeth started to chatter and his nerves shattered with it. ‘Get in the truck.’

‘You can’t drive like this.’

‘I’m not suggesting driving anywhere. I want answers but not while we’re both freezing to death out here.’

He headed to the driver’s door and looked back at her unmoving form. ‘Or do you want to stay here?’

She moved without meeting his gaze, joining him inside the cabin as he started the engine and set the heaters to high.

‘Where did you get the truck?’ She was staring at the dash as she said it, her hands twisting in her lap.

‘A guy staying at the hotel loaned it to me.’

‘Really? That takes some trust.’

‘Money, more like.’

Her eyes shot to his.

‘What did you expect, Astrid? You leave me while I’m sleeping, the next thing I know V tells me you’re heading to Ashbury Falls and I knew it was to see him. Dad . I had no idea you knew anyone else here. So that either makes me na?ve, or you dishonest, which one is it to be?’

‘You’re not na?ve…’

‘Then why didn’t you say you’d been here before, that you’d met people?—’

‘I haven’t been here before.’

‘But you know Sienna?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I met Sissi, Sienna, before Christmas. In Chicago. Our flights were grounded, and we got talking.’

His chest tightened. ‘Quite the coincidence.’

‘It’s not a coincidence.’

Though he already knew it wasn’t… he just didn’t know how to connect the dots. And Astrid looked so pale. Fragile and pale. He could only imagine the worst and even then, it made no sense.

‘So why don’t you explain what it’s like before I go out of my mind trying to figure it out?’

* * *

Telling Blake the story of Chicago was the hardest tale Astrid had ever told. The judgement in his gaze, the shock and the… she swallowed… disgust.

Numerous times she had to stop and gather her thoughts, trying to find the right words to justify their actions, but they never seemed enough.

‘You have to understand, we were hurting.’

‘And you think that makes it okay?’

She flinched. ‘No.’

‘You didn’t even love Chase.’

‘I trusted him though. I thought I knew all there was to know. But a wife…’

‘You just told me he was getting divorced, that Bella says his wife rocked up and purposefully used you to get to him. You let her manipulate you.’

‘I know. But he didn’t come after me, he didn’t even try to explain…

he let me think the worst of myself for months.

I’d wake with the vision of his wife still locked in my head and want to be sick.

It was like everything I hated about my past creeping into my present.

I wasn’t just angry at Chase, I was angry at my father.

The two of them just merged into this one hateful being.

And I couldn’t get revenge on my father, not without dragging my mother through the hell of her past, and so… ’

His eyes raked over her face. ‘You did the next best thing.’

‘Yes.’ Her shoulders eased from around her ears, the idea that he might get it on some level, that he might not like it, but he might understand and not hate her for it giving her hope.

‘Meeting them in that airport, talking about our experiences, sharing the pain and wanting to fix it for each other. It felt like a way to gain some closure over the past. Nothing too sinister, or serious, just a little messing?—’

‘You fucked with Chase’s career, Astrid.’

She flinched again. ‘I know. I know. But Bella is doing everything she can to fix it. And she will. I know she will.’

‘And her ex in Cornwall with his houseguest Paige, that’s seriously twisted. Having feelings for the guy she’s been…’ He shook his head, staring blindly through the windscreen.

‘Paige is dealing with it.’

‘While her ex… what’s he getting?’

Fire licked through her, fortifying her defences. ‘There can be no justification for what Paige’s ex did to her. I’m only sorry we don’t have the stomach to carry out tit for tat. The man deserves to have his dignity stripped entirely for what he did to her.’

‘I take it Sienna’s still working on him?’

She nodded as silence fell between them, the only sound the truck’s motor turning over…

‘So,’ he said quietly. ‘What was I, Astrid? Collateral damage?’

‘No, Blake! No! That wasn’t…’

His tormented gaze sealed up her throat.

‘You wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. He broke Sienna’s heart, so you came to break his.

That explains the kiss, the clothes…’ His chilling smile sent ice through her veins.

‘It was all for him, wasn’t it? You were trying to get your hooks into him so you could be the one to walk away? ’

Her mouth opened and closed. Because she couldn’t lie to him. And she couldn’t admit the truth.

He gave a soft scoff. ‘And when you realised he wasn’t falling for it, you what, tried to use me to make him jealous? Only he wasn’t, was he? He was pushing us together.’ He laughed, the sound cutting right through her. ‘That must have really put a spanner in the works.’

‘No, it didn’t, it wasn’t – wasn’t like that.’

‘Of course it fucking was. But to sleep with me several times over…’ his voice cracked. ‘You even had me believing all this stuff, you made feel good enough, worthy of… I’m such a fucking idiot.’

‘Don’t say that!’ She reached out and he reared back.

‘Don’t. Don’t touch me. Tell me you weren’t trying to lure Aiden in. Tell me you weren’t trying to break him like he broke Sienna.’

She couldn’t. It hurt like hell, but she refused to lie to him.

And then his head snapped up, eyes wide. ‘You messed with his tan, didn’t you? That was no accident or misapplication, you fucked with it. Just like your friends fucked with…’ He shook his head as her face gave her guilt away. ‘You could have cost us the game!’

‘I didn’t know it would go to his head as bad as all that, that he’d…’

‘Freak out?’

‘You were laughing and goading him just as much as all the rest…’

‘Fuck, I was.’ He gave a cold laugh. ‘You must have loved that. A dim-witted accomplice yet again.’

‘No, it really wasn’t like that. You have?—’

‘It was exactly like that, and more fool me for falling for it.’ He punched the steering wheel, angry at himself now too. ‘Get out of the truck.’

‘Blake, please , let me explain. It’s how it all started out, yes, but it’s?—’

‘I’m done with your stories, Astrid. You can keep your fabricated article, too.’

‘The article is real, I’m not lying about it.’

‘No, you just lied about everything else.’

‘I didn’t, Blake. Everything I’ve told you since the day I met you is the truth. I just…’

‘You just?’

‘I just never told you about this. But I was going to. I just needed to speak to Sissi. I needed her to understand what I was doing first. I wanted to tell her about you, about us. I wanted to tell her that Aiden was a good man, that leaving her wasn’t his fault, th?—’

‘No,’ he scoffed. ‘It was mine.’

‘It wasn’t your fault either.’

‘Save the act, Astrid.’ He leaned across her, his arm hot against her front as he shoved open her door. ‘We’re done here.’

‘Blake, please …’