Right on cue, a girl with the same dirty blonde hair grips the balcony railing, leaning over to stare at me from below. “Loren Hale.”
“Julie, go back to your room,” Aaron tells her, fear spiking his voice.
“What am I, four?” she snaps. She wears dark lipstick and a shit ton of eyeliner. She’s his fraternal twin. And a girl I may have fucked once or twice when I was sixteen, depending on the day. The difference between Lily and me is that I actually dated Julie (for two whole weeks) at a time when I wasn’t in a fake relationship with my best friend.
Lily, however, fucks once and then moves on.
And after a long, long struggle, I have finally become her only exception.
“Hi Julie,” I say. “Can you come here for a second?”
“What’s this about?” She looks between Aaron and me, taking in Aaron’s stiff posture. “Aaron, it’s been years since I was with Lo. Seriously, get over it.” But she’s wrong. Our fight didn’t start because I dated her. She was just a bullet in my gun. One of the things I used to hurt him. Fucking his sister—that’s the easiest trick in the book. Something my father would have done. Something that I hate I did. I can barely even stomach the memory.
I just thank God that Julie is as deplorable as her brother and me. She used me just as much as I used her—wanting toget back at her ex-boyfriend. He didn’t care as much as she wished he did.
“Julie,” I snap. “Come here. Now.” I’m not fucking around.Well, I kind of am.But you should see Aaron’s face. He’s about to shit his pants. He has no idea what I’m going to do. Hell, I have no idea what I plan to do either. I just know that his family is his weak spot the same way Lily is mine.
She descends the stairs, barefoot. Her curious gaze lingers on Ryke. “You’re hot.”
“Julie,” Aaron cringes.
“Can I see your phone?” I ask Aaron. Now that Julie is here, he’ll be more willing to hand it over. She’s a distraction and a warning.
His brows furrow. “What for?”
“Just give it to me.”
Julie sighs heavily like this is boring her. “Just give him the phone, Aaron.”
Aaron slips his phone out of his pocket and hands it to me. I scroll through his previous texts, trying to find my number stored somewhere. But the entire thing is blank.
“Why’d you delete all of your texts?”
“I always do,” Aaron says. “My mother likes to check my phone.”
“You’re twenty-two.” He’s not a teenager needing approval to sleep over a friend’s house. He’s an adult.
“Yeah? That hasn’t changed her from being nosy.”
I still don’t believe him. I can’t.
“What’s your name?” Julie asks Ryke, biting her lip as though that’ll drop him to his knees.
“Ryke,” he says.
“Ryke, how do you know Loren?”
“He’s my brother.”
Her brows shoot up. “Wow, I didn’t know he had a brother.”
“Neither did I,” I say, shoving the phone back in Aaron’s palm. “Did you use a fake phone? A disposable?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Aaron says, his eyes wide. “I didn’t do shit to you or Lily. I told you, your father?—”
“I don’t believe you,” I say, not really sure what I believe. He could be lying. Out of everyone I know, he’s the most likely to threaten Lily. If I can end it all right here, right now, that’s what I’ll do.
“You’re out of your fucking mind!” Aaron screams.
