“Is that why you’re here, then? To check on me?” I chuckle at the thought. “Come on, Orion, are you a softy?”
“Fuck you. Not that you’ve answered any of my texts since the last time I saw you.” He shoots me a nasty look, but what was I supposed to say to his psychotic ramblings? “I’m knocking because of the goddamn noises.”
I shake my head. “Noises? I’ve been out running all morning,” I lie.
I couldn’t hear anything over the sounds I’d been making myself, but now that he mentions it, there is something. He points at the door leading to the Offering’s room before I can place what direction it’s coming from.
“Someone is in there!” he says. My eyes go to the door for only a second, and I think he’s right. My heart kicks up and drops out. There’s no way it’s Sable. It’s probably just the cleaning crew, yet I couldn’t fully stop the stupid hope before it formed.
“Sable is not back,” I say to both of us.
“No shit,” he replies, rolling his eyes like I’m the insane idiot rather than him. “But I heard something.” His eyes flash to the door. “I went in, and I couldn’t find anything out of order but?—”
“It was probably the cleaning crew.” I interrupt him, not having the heart for this conversation. I don’t care who’s in there or why.
“Yeah, but why if there’s no one staying in there?” he says.
Two plus two suddenly equals four, and my heart sinks. “Do you think they sent a new Offering?” I ask, finally understanding what he’s trying to say.
“They always do.”
CHAPTER 30
PARKER
My shoulders drop,finally feeling the weight of this conversation. “Yes, but they don’t come randomly like this. We’ve chased off Offerings in the middle of the year before, and they’ve never sent a replacement.” I don’t say it out loud, but there are a lot of things we did this time that never happened with any of the others when they left. A sick nervousness fills my stomach alongside everything else.
“They fucking know Sable is gone. Maybe they want to fuck with us after everything we did last month. You know neither of us is in our fathers’ good graces,” he says, echoing my thoughts. It’s actually scary how much he and I are on the same page and how well we get along. I had gotten used to having Soren as a best friend before he betrayed us all. He’s such a measured and thoughtful person. I never assumed I’d also like his impulsive brother. Now here we are, and only one of them is even my friend anymore.And it’s this one.
“Some more so than others.” I raise an eyebrow at him to remind him that I told him to stay the fuck out of his father’s office. Going there and making a scene about her was absolutely the wrong call, but it’s true that crashing my car didn’t help things with my father.
“There is someone in there, and I’m going to find out who.”
A chuckle comes out from me, hollow and dark. “It doesn’t fucking matter. I don’t want anyone.”
“Is that why you think I’m here, dipshit? To ask if you want to fuck some girl with me?”
Rage fills me at the mere suggestion. Visions of that cursed video start to flash through my mind. I should have killed Soren when I saw him in the hall that day. Instead, I let him go, so angry I was locked inside my own body with it. Suddenly, I don’t see the difference between Orion and his brother anymore. So what if Soren is covered in tattoos and Orion isn’t? They may as well be the same. Maybe it doesn’t matter which one of them pays. That’s the face that ruined my fucking life. I’m exhausted from searching the woods, my side screams from what I did to myself, and now he’s here in front of me telling me there’s a new Offering and calling me a dipshit? What’s he going to say next? He wants to fuck Arabella too?
“You have a lot of nerve coming into my fucking room and talking shit to me, Soren.” I know it’s a low blow to call him that, but I don’t care. I’ve wanted to fight with him from the moment he started pounding on my door like the damn police.
His face drops like I’ve slapped him. I almost regret saying it until I get exactly the reaction I was looking for. “What the fuck did you just call me?” he asks, taking a step toward me.
I step forward to meet his challenge, grabbing him by the throat rather than responding. He’s well above average in size, but he’s small compared to me. All rational thought has left my mind as I push him toward the wall and start to lift. All I can think about is my hands on another woman, betraying Sable just like they did. I’m fucking crazy from the mere suggestion, and I might kill my friend right now. He doesn’t even raise his fists, maybe because I’m choking him, maybe because he doesn’t want to fight me the same way I want to fight him.
“I’m the one who needs to face the mirror everyday,” he gasps. It takes a second for me to think it through, for the adrenaline to fade enough to put myself in his shoes and really think about how bad that has to fucking hurt. My hand loosens a fraction. “I’m not happy about it either,” he says a little more clearly. “I would love to look like anyone else. I would even beugly,” he says it like a filthy word. I slowly but surely loosen my hands the rest of the way and release him.
“You’re already ugly,” I tell him, “but I can escape your ugly ass. You can’t.” I think about how hard it must be to wear the face of the man who ruined everything. I know that I often find it hard to look at him.
“I may look like the biggest piece of shit on earth, or several of them really, but I amnotugly.” His air of haughtiness is hilarious, given that I choked him a minute ago.
“I don’t want you here. I don’t want to think about fucking Soren. You didn’t even give me a chance to ignore you. Please, get out of my room.” Everything is starting to pile up a little too heavy, and I think I need to sit down before I fall. Hell, maybe Orion actually had a chance of winning this fight.
He rolls his eyes, like he couldn’t care less, and plans to do it again. “Funny, I thought you were besties, and I was just providing a surrogacy service.” An undercurrent of sadness lies behind the words, and of all the things we don’t have in common, this is one we share. We are spare sons. Our fathers have, and like their heirs, they don’t particularly like us. At least I have football and a father who likes a feather in his cap. Orion doesn’t even have that. Glancing over my shoulder, I find him massaging his neck, and I pierce him with a look.
“Soren is not my best friend, and you are not a surrogate. If anything, your brother was boring by comparison.” I actually enjoyed his calm, thoughtful nature and the way he approachedproblems, but it’s true that Orion is a more exciting person to be around.
“You mean it? You think I’m exciting?” he asks.
