A quick smile rolled across her lips, then she fussed with a corner of a sleeve on her shirt. She opened her mouth, shook her head, then tried again. “Apocalypse aside, I’ve really liked sharing a house with you these last few weeks. And I don’t mean that sexually, either... I mean I really,reallydo, but it’s not just that...” She let out a long breath. “I like you and me.”
Sweet Jesus, me too. If there was the slightest chance she felt a fraction of the way I felt about her, then I never wanted to do anything to fuck that up. But what if I already had? What if my dissing Hill and the firestorm of messages on my cell had resulted in an explosion outside these perfect hours with Paige? The lies my family hid behind would crumble all around us, and where would that leave Paige? Alone and disgusted with the whole Cleary name, that’s where.
I got out of bed and strode toward her, tilting her face toward mine so she’d know every word I was about to say was the absolute truth, both heart and soul and everything in between. “Stay with me.”
When she opened her mouth, I plowed on before she could protest. “Live with me when you land the job at the Library of Congress. Riley can go fuck himself. Your house and my house. Naked. Because I like you and me, too.”
She was shaking her head before I finished, but the sudden tears didn’t overflow until the end. I didn’t know what they meant, but I hated whatever, or whoever, put them there. Was it Rick? Even if it wasn’t, I vowed never to make her cry because it fucking hurt to watch.
“I’m not getting the job,” she said and inhaled sharply as if realizing this for the first time.
“What did he do?” I didn’t even have to say Rick’s name for the tears to fall harder. I knew the dick had something to do with it. My hands rolled into fists at my sides while I searched her tears for answers. “What did he do, Paige?”
“It’s what I did,” she whispered, backing toward the bathroom. “Please just...” The door closed behind her, but not before I thought she said “understand.”
I was trying to do just that. Even if she didn’t get the job at the library, there were other libraries. She could still be here, with me, unless she was afraid I would change my mind. But whatever she did with Rick, or because of Rick, it wouldn’t change how I felt about her. Possible scenarios wandered through my mind, but all of them just pissed me off with what I already suspected. Paige and Rick had at one time been together. Since she hadn’t been back in D.C., it would have been before she left, when she was sixteen and he was...not. Oh my fucking God, did he rape her?
Rage, thick and hot, shook through my limbs. I leaned my head against the closed bathroom door to get control. Eventually, the cool wood and the rush of water from the other side helped calm me down a little. That and the knowledge I would do anything to protect her from him. Maybe he didn’t rape her. Maybe he did. But if Paige didn’t want to tell me about it right then, I wasn’t about to force her.
Once I was dressed in my jeans, I headed downstairs while scrolling through the fifty or so messages on my phone. Most were from Riley in all capital letters, words I knew he didn’t learn from prep school, and smeared red with anger. The rest were from Hill. But the only one I focused on for more than a second was Rose’s:
There is no debt.
It still smelled faintly of dinner and smoke in the kitchen, which made my stomach turn. I knew what I had to do today, but it terrified me. So much so that I didn’t immediately register a car door slamming out front. Soon after, the front door burst open.
Because I could smell the raging shit storm before I saw it, I rounded the corner into the entryway with unhurried steps. “Please tell me you brought pizza.”
A fist slammed into my eye. Pain exploded up my skull. I reeled backward into the leather couch in the living room.
“How could you, you fucking piece of shit!” Riley shouted.
Through the rush of stars streaking past my vision, my gaze caught on the fallen lamp that Paige and I had knocked over during our wild night. I grinned, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do in the very red face of my attacking brother.
Another hook smashed into my eye, the same one that was almost healed from the last time someone punched me in the face. God damn it.
“Okay. I get it,” I yelled. Blood dribbled from my mouth down my chin to my chest.
“No you fucking don’t, you asshole,” Riley bellowed. “I was fired today because you took a giant shit on our family. How could you do that to Mom? To Rose?” He raked his fingers through his hair, his eyes glassy and wide as if he still couldn’t believe whatever he raved on about.
Though I had a pretty good guess as to what. Hill had leaked some information about Riley, probably to the press, because I’d quit being his dealer whore.
Footsteps sounded from the hallway stairs, and soon Paige rounded into the living room. Her mouth fell open as she took in the scene in front of her—Riley vibrating with anger so much that his eyeballs wobbled, me bleeding all over myself, the wide-open door Riley had hurtled himself through.
“Riley,” she started, her voice accusing. “What did you do to Sam?”
Shit. Now wasn’t the greatest time for her to show any interest in me. A glance at Riley proved it. Somehow he’d gone redder and looked like he was about to blow.
“What didIdo?” he shouted. “Me?”
Oh, that fucking fuck. I charged at him, pushing him up against the living room wall, my forearm pressed against his windpipe, my face inches away from his so he would be sure to understand me. “Don’t you yell at Paige, you hear me? This is between you and me, got it?”
He struggled against me, so I pressed harder until some of the color leaked out of his face. It would serve him right if he passed out, but I might’ve stopped before that happened. Probably not, though.
“Sam, stop,” Paige begged and tried to pull me off him. “What has gotten into you two?”
Eventually, Riley’s body stilled. He gave a faint nod as if he was done having his little tantrum.
I immediately released him and pushed him toward the front door. “Outside.”
