Slowly, I looked back at her. My knees went weak.
And the entire world dropped out from under me.
32
Rex
Icould barely see through the fog. Through the haze of my mind.
Clouded.
Confused.
Hurt and hate. They spun through my spirit, a goddamned cyclone that blistered my blood.
I stood at the end of my hall staring at the woman who couldn’t be anything more than an apparition.
A fucking ghost. A demon cast from hell to torment the living.
Or maybe that was just where I’d been condemned.
Hell.
Punishment for giving up and giving in.
Because Rynna stood there, as shocked as I was, her knees going weak when Janel’s name finally tore through my lips like lead.
It might as well have been a bullet.
Rynna fumbled back a step. Her hand shot out to the wall to keep her from falling. Janel stared at her. Shocked. Angry. Jealous. I didn’t fucking know. All I knew was she finally said her name.
“Rynna?”
She said it like she knew her.
“What are you doing here?” Janel all of a sudden demanded, words a harsh breath.
Guessed that was what finally knocked me from the trance. The fact she had the audacity to come into my house and make any kind of claim. I angled forward, head cocked to the side as I stalked across the floor of my home.
My home.
Frankie’s home.
The home I had every intention of becoming Rynna’s, too.
“You really gonna fucking stand there and demand to know who’s in my house? Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”
“Rex.” Janel’s blue eyes found mine. Wide and innocent. The way she’d always looked at me when she wanted something most. Which was usually about all the time. Maybe I didn’t recognize it until then. But there it was, the truth of it glaring back at me.
Three fucking years, and she was going to stand there looking at me like that?
“Get the fuck out.” My voice was grit.
Rynna reeled at my side. Gasping over a breath. She barely caught herself before she fell to her knees, clutching Milo to her chest.
“No.” It was a whimper from her mouth.
Grief.
