“Look at yourself right now. You treat me like your personal punching bag. I have to just suffer your rages, your demands, and your mood swings. What do you want, Neil? A sex slave?” She gestured wildly, and I watched her full lips, the ones I wanted to kiss and bite again, like she really was mine and no one else’s.
“Yeah. If you were my sex slave, that wouldn’t be so bad,” I answered sharply, and she sucked in a deep breath before exploding.
“I hate you. In fact, you know what? I can’t stand to be around you. You are…infuriating, arrogant, controlling, deranged, rude, and disrespectful. Go back to—” But before she could finish her sentence, my phone rang again. Selene stared at my pocket, so with a sigh of resignation, I took my phone out and answered it. If it had been Megan again, I would have told her where she could put her questions in the nastiest way possible. Instead, I saw Logan’s name on the screen. I frowned, answering it immediately.
“What?” I snapped.
“Neil,” he answered breathlessly, and my mood shifted on a dime.
“Are you okay, Logan?”
“You have to come back home. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I can tell you it’s urgent…” My heart began to pound wildly in my chest. I immediately hung up the phone and, consumed with worry, brushed past Selene without giving her another look. She took my arm to stop me, and I looked at her.
She looked terrified.
“I have to go. Something happened, but Logan didn’t say what,” was all I said, shaking off her hand.
“Okay, but…will you call me?” she asked uncertainly. I shook my head as I stepped away from her. I was going to hurt her again because I needed to do whatever was necessary to shatter her illusions.
“I never call a woman after I spend the night with her.” I looked at her lips one last time and breathed in the coconut smell that lingered in the air. And then I walked out of the room without a second thought.
The most important thing just then was getting back home and figuring out what was going on. When it came to my siblings, nothing else mattered.
20
I had a strong suspicion that this was Player’s work and, if that was the case, we wouldn’t have much time to lose.
Neil
“I’m here!”
Hours later, I walked into the house to find Logan standing in the living room. “I hope you’re about to tell me something important because I had to get on the first flight out to get back here this fast,” I said flatly, closing the door with a motion of my heel and peeling off my jacket. Then I spotted my mother pacing anxiously on the other side of the living room while Matt tried to comfort her and Miss Anna offered them cups of tea.
“Neil! Where were you?” As soon as my mother registered my presence, she headed for me with arms outstretched. I stepped back, keeping her from making contact, and Matt glowered at me.
Ever since he found out about the decidedly unhealthy relationship I had with his daughter, he’d despised me. He barely said a word to me.
“Darling, calm down,” he told my mother. I turned to look him up and down. He was in one of his usual perfectly tailored suits, his beard neat and his black hair slicked back with gel.
“Is someone going to tell me what the fuck happened?” I snapped, reaching the limits of my patience. Just then, Alyssa came down the stairs. Despitehis girlfriend’s arrival, Logan didn’t move a muscle. I could tell from the look on his face that something serious was going on.
“Neil, listen… Okay…this all happened just last night. While you were gone, Chloe snuck out to go somewhere. I have no idea where, and she hasn’t come back yet!” Logan blurted out, the words, hitting me like a blast of cold water. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of an earthquake, at the epicenter of a devastating explosion, and my head spun from the sudden rush of blood.
“What?” I’d heard him just fine, but I needed to process the situation; I needed to make it real in my head. The sound of my mother’s sobs and Matt’s soothing words brought me back to the present before I was ready.
“How the fuck did she sneak out? You were in the house, weren’t you? Where the fuck were you when she just walked right out the door? Huh?” With a sudden catlike move, I leaped on my brother and grabbed him by the collar. Everyone winced at the motion.
“I was in my room. I had just seen her. She was lying on her bed reading. She told me she was tired and she wasn’t going anywhere and…” he explained, and my grip slackened. After all, I knew it wasn’t really Logan’s fault. Not even if she’d…
A lightbulb went on in my brain.
The invitation to the masquerade party…
“Fuck!” I shouted, running up the stairs to Chloe’s room. Once inside, I started tearing through everything in my path, searching for that paper with the address of the party on it. A few minutes later, I found it discarded under the bed. With the invite clutched in one hand, I raced over to my own room and grabbed the keys to my Maserati.
“Where are you going?” Logan asked when I got back to the living room, but I couldn’t waste my time answering him. Instead, I ran outside and strode toward my car. Logan followed me, Alyssa trailing along behind him. I didn’t object and let both of them come along with me. I had a strong suspicion that this was Player’s work, and if that was the case, we wouldn’t have much time to lose.
“I told her not to go! Goddammit!” I shouted, enraged.
