I turn and examine this hardened version of the man I once shared a bed with.
“I came for my things. You may have taken my pride, but you can’t have my blue jeans.” I shoot him a short-lived snarky smile as only Chloe could muster. “So what’s next? You took a giant shit on everyone who was in your corner. Wes is giving you the finger and so am I. Are you going to try to win Skyla back? Is that the next big strategy on your list?”
Chloe openly gags, but I choose to ignore her. The real reason I brought myself up was so that I could see the look in his eyes when he hears my name. He doesn’t know that I’m lurking under these dark tresses, behind these unknowably dark eyes. He certainly doesn’t know that Chloe is aware that he snuffed my life out like a candle and invited a demon into my body.
Okay, so Rory is no demon, but she’s damn close.
Potato, po-ta-to, Chloe chirps.Kick him in the nuts and let’s collect my things. Hell, let’s set fire to that butterfly room, too. It was their love nest, Skyla. He shouldn’t get to brood in there and jack off to all of those disgusting memories.
True,I say.But I’d rather set fire to his plans to rule the world first. The butterfly room can wait.
“Skyla is set to marry Logan in just a few weeks.” The words croak out of me. “How does that make you feel?” What I really want to know is how can he let that farce happen. How could he sell Rory to Logan for less than a song?
Gage inches back a notch. “Why do you care?” His chest expands with a sigh. “Yes, she is set to marry Logan.” He stares off at some unknown horizon. “I’m sure she and Logan will appreciate the hell out of one another.” He heads for the fridge and offers me a water.
“No thanks,” I say.
Wow, Chloe muses.Gage has never offered me so much as a square of tissue paper to wipe my bottom. I’d take the water. It feels like an olive branch.
I huff a dull laugh at the thought.Don’t get excited, Chloe. It’s probably spiked with poison.
I step over, closing the distance between us in an effort to examine this monster who doesn’t look or feel like a monster at all at close range.
“Something’s wrong with Skyla.” I put it out there in hopes he’ll bite.
His brow flickers as he looks my way.
“So?” He shuts the fridge and downs half the water himself. “I don’t really give a shit.”
My blood boils in an instant—Chloe’s blood—and it feels just as toxic as I thought it would.
“What do you mean you don’t give a shit?”
Skyla,Chloe snips my name out.He thinks he’s talking to me. You’ll have to learn to not take things so personally.
He killed me, Chloe, I say.I can damn well take things personally.
She thinks about it.Point taken.
“What do you care if I give a shit?” Gage tosses the rest of his unfinished water bottle into the sink from across the room as if he were shooting a basket.
“I don’t know”—my eyes flit to a frying pan sitting on the stovetop, and I’m tempted to wield it like a baseball bat—“she gave birth to your kids. I thought maybe you’d want to know she’s running around the island acting like a loon.” Okay, so I don’t know if this is true. But honestly? It’s probably not a far stretch.
“My sons are no longer in her care.”
This borrowed heart of mine wallops against my Chloe-issued chest.
“She has another son—Jaxson,” I remind him softly.
“Logan can worry about him.” He pulls out his phone and scrolls through it.
“Logan?” An incredulous laugh pumps from me. “Logan isn’t checking in,” I thunder. “Nobody knows where he is.” My voice spikes to the ceiling and causes Gage to pause from the task at hand as his gaze flits my way.
His eyes squint over with suspicion. “Since when do you give a crap about anyone, Chloe?” His chest bucks with a silent laugh. “Is this the new and improved version? Because I’m not buying it. Fight for Celestra if that’s what you want to do. You won’t win. Leave Skyla alone. And Logan can take care of himself. You do you, Chloe. In other words, it’s business as usual.”
I suck in a quick breath.
“Really?” I take a few bold steps his way. “You’re just going to sit around and let Skyla fall to shit?” I say that last word right in his face because that’s what I think he is,shit. “While Logan, the one you love like a brother, is God knows where?” A choking sound comes from me in lieu of a laugh. “But you do know where, don’t you? Where is he, Gage? Where did you lock him up? The butterfly room? The magical realm for pussies your daddy gave you—Eversor?” I take another step in, fighting the urge to let myself become hypnotized by those jarring blue eyes. “That’s right, Gage. You are a pussy. You took everything good you had with Skyla, with Logan...”
