Isobel searched inward for the right mask to fortify her, but it was difficult. All these people knew her as the party girl she’d been before. She was Izzy here, not Isobel. Between these walls, she became all the versions of herself she’d tried so hard to let go of. Not wanting to let her discomfort show, she lifted her chin. “I know what you’re doing.”
Lenny cocked his head, his gaze dropping to his brother’s jacket around her shoulders. “It was you,” he said. “In the office.”
Isobel stiffened.
Lenny’s mouth pulled up in a sneer. “So.Youwere what he was so busy doing tonight. Figures.”
Isobel glared to hide the creep of a flush up her neck.
“You Moreaus are all the same, you know,” he said flatly. “You think you’re all sogood.”
To Isobel’s surprise, the words, like a knife, found a chink in her armor and slid beneath. When she tried to answer, the words stopped in her throat, her mind crowding with doubts.
Maybe he was right. She’d done a lot of things she wasn’t proud of over the last eight years.
Lenny came a little closer. “But you know what?” His breath ghosted against the shell of her ear. “You’re just like me.”
“That’s enough,” Priya said uneasily.
Lenny ignored her. “You and I both know what really happened that night,” he went on in a low voice. “And fucking my brotherwon’t stop him from hating you when he finds out you’ve been lying to him.”
Isobel slapped him.
The next few moments happened very fast.
Lenny seized Isobel by the hair and ripped her away from the door. She tripped over an empty chair, knocking a tumbler off the nearest table as she fell. Her knees hit the linoleum, pain strobing through her.
“Hey!” Priya barked.
Isobel’s heart beat hard. She stared at the shattered glass on the floor before her. Only when a carmine drip oozed beneath her knees did she realize she’d cut herself.
“Bitch,” Lenny muttered. He grabbed Avi and the two of them tore into the night, Priya shouting obscenities after her brother. Isobel stared numbly after them. She touched the aching place on her scalp where Lenny had tugged hard enough to pull some hairs out by the roots.
Priya crouched beside her. “Fuck, Iz, I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Isobel said, her voice cracking.
Priya signaled someone over Isobel’s shoulder. “Call the sheriff.”
“No!” Isobel snapped, a lump balling in her throat. She didn’t want to see Dane right now. “I’m fine. Just… give me a minute.” She stood and sank down onto her stool, the room throbbing around her. People were looking at her. Normally she didn’t care, but Lenny had cracked the shell of her mask, making it impossible to pretend she was unaffected. Usually when Isobel felt this out of control, she turned to Dane. But Dane was too busy seeking answers to questions he shouldn’t be asking.
Isobel closed her eyes, letting the world fall away. She wassweating, her skin as slick as her mouth was dry. A shiver of thirst narrowed her world to the taste of whiskey on her tongue.
But she couldn’t taste it. She only remembered.
An out-of-towner sat on the stool nearest her, an amber shot of something good in front of him.
Don’t.It was Dane’s voice in her head, but Dane wasn’t here.
“Pree!” Isobel flushed with conviction. Just one drink. Maybe two. That’s all she needed to take the edge off and get control again. “Double bourbon. Neat.”
Priya hesitated. “Iz, I don’t think that’s a good—”
“Now.” Isobel snatched up the stranger’s glass. “I’ll pay for this,” she promised him, before throwing it back. The liquid burned its way down her throat. Oaky. Warming. Wonderful.
She let out a sigh, already feeling more herself.
Izzy couldn’t help but giggle at the words the strange man spoke into her ear. Not a local. Not a very good flirt either, but his breath tickled the hairs on her neck as they danced to the beat of a song Izzy hadn’t heard in ages.
