I knew him well enough to know he was doing this for Doug’s benefit, but I played along.
“So, you going to get me proof or what?” I asked Doug, leaning forward in my chair.
“Yep, but you’ve got to stay away from her.”
“Bexley?” I asked.
I imagined what he saw when he looked at me, with my cocked eyebrow and a smirk, but it was way different from what was happening on the inside. Anger roiled deep inside me—dark red anger, hot and violent. Toward my dad, and Doug, and even Bexley.
Doug nodded.
“No way,” I said. “Keep your enemies even closer and all that. You know the saying?”
He just didn’t know I was referring more to him than to Bexley.
Bexley
“Bexley, let me in,” Aston yelled as he pounded on the back door.
I sat with my butt firmly planted on the kitchen floor, my spine against the door, feeling each of his blows vibrating in my back. Thankfully, the kids were at school.
“I know you don’t work today,” he shouted.
How?
“Please,” he said. “I had to look into some shit last night about the case, and now I’m making a scene. I can’t afford to have a scene.”
I couldn’t let him in.Shouldn’t let him in. And I wouldn’t, because if I did, we’d sleep together.
Allowing him to come inside wouldn’t help anything. It would only make things worse. Somewhere deep in my heart, I’d known Aston and I were on a collision course, and the only place we collided and worked was in bed.
“Come on, Bex,” he called through the door. “I’m embarrassing myself, and I don’t do that.”
“Pretty sure when you got arrested, you did that,” I mumbled.
“I heard that. Come on, you never used to make me wait.”
My head clunked back against the door. I never made him wait. Maybe that had been the problem. No one ever made the great Aston Prescott jump through any hoops, except for his dad.
It quieted, and I could sense him on the other side. Somehow, he knew I was crouched down on the floor. The pounding ceased, and I closed my eyes.
“I’m sitting right behind you. I can hear you shifting around the floor through this cheap piece-of-crap door.”
That does it.I stood up and swung around to open the door, and the ass fell backward onto my feet.
“Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,AP.” I spat out his nickname as he scrambled to his feet. Looking him in the eye, I said, “You never used to call me cheap or make fun of my stuff. That was always your dad.”
Aston stood with his arm braced against the door frame. “Bex,” he whispered, “I didn’t mean that. It’s just that you could have had better with me, and this pisses me off.” He flicked his finger against the siding.
“This ...” I mimicked him, plinking my finger against the siding, “is far better than anything I ever had before.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to marginalize that. It’s just ... my head is so messed up. I’m being accused of something I didn’t do, and the more I look for answers, the more I’m not liking what I find.”
“What does that mean?” I stared up at him.
“Can I come in?”
“Why? So you can get me back in bed?”
