I groan because the sheer masculine drama that's going to unfold when the three dipshits get here will be hard to watch. No way will I be able to hold my men back from kicking sense into Violet's guys.
Cassidy asks me to call her when I know more, but as I open my mouth to ask the same, a car door slams outside.
I'm up and out of my seat in a millisecond, leaving my phone on the ground as I sprint to the front door. Felix bypasses me as I get hung up on my blanket, and when I fling myself out the open front door, I see my sweet girl reach for me.
"MOM!" she cries. My heart completely stops as her forward trajectory does. Her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she collapses into Felix's arms.
No, no, no, no, no! "VIOLET!"
One
JAMIE
About ten hours earlier
What the fuck did he just say?
My attention zeroes in on a few things, like I hit the damn zoom button in an attempt to gather crucial pieces of information right away.
First, Ellis' facial expression screams devastation. His eyes are wide and dripping with tears he has no right letting loose.How dare he act as ifhisheart is broken?Jaw on the ground and his hands clasped in front of his heart, you'd think he was the one who just got stabbed in the fucking back.
My out-of-body experience shifts to Nate, whose eyes are also wide open. Like a stupid fucking fish out of water, his mouth opens and closes. Anger, shock, and fear flicker across his features.
Makes sense. His partner just outed them.
"I knew I shouldn't have felt bad for sleeping with Jamie to get back at her."
For a few moments, or maybe it's longer, we're suspended in heartbreak with Cassidy's sniffles as our background noise. I'm not dense enough to believe Nate and Ellis aren't at least struggling right now. It's written all over their fucking faces—they never meant to tell us. Or at least they weren't planning on it for a long while.
Doubts swirl and latch onto the broken pieces of my heart that really thought we were building something here. Even if we were, even if some of it was real, it's done now. They used me to hurt the woman I love. It worked. Hell, it worked better than they planned because their revenge hurt me, too.
"Jamie..."
I cock my head and crack my neck. Sucking on the front of my teeth and grinding my jaw, I try to calm the fury ripping through me. Closing my eyes, I suck a deep breath in through my nose and feel my throat expand with tension.
"Jamie, it's not?—"
What it looks like, Violet once said when she caught Ellis wrapped around me in my kitchen.
Violet...
She was so fucking brave to allow Nate and Ellis into her heart. I'd bet my entire existence that the journal Nate's gripping like a lifeline holds her thoughts and feelings about our new dynamic.
"We didn't?—"
I don't know who the hell is speaking. I'm totally consumed by the ache in my chest and thundering pulse in my ears. Each time my eyes burn, I clench my jaw to keep the sorrow at bay.
I'll be sad later. Right now, there are two liars in front of me trying to plead their case. Maybe if it were just me, I would listen. But it's not just me.
With murmured thoughts flowing out of me, I shatter my silence. "I was on the phone. I was leaving Violet another voicemail."
Ellis is breathing heavily, and when I look at him again, he looks like he might throw up. It never occurred to me that his immaturity could be so cruel.
Nate inches forward, drawing my attention to him once again. I didn't realize someone so kind, understanding, with natural caretaker instincts had the ability to intentionally hurt someone they love.
I know they love Violet. It's very clear to me that their motives changed. But fucking when? How long was I used as a weapon?
Their feelings for my woman are obvious, but was I always a means to an end? Am I still? Is this where they try to remove me from the picture?Secret’s out. No longer need to lead Jamie on.
