“My best friend doesn’t look at me like he wants to fuck me, Rose.”
I stood to my feet. “You won’t use that kind of language with me. You don’t get to cuss at me just because you’re jealous.”
He stood along with me. “Fine, then I won’t. I’ll simply tell you like it is. You can either have your friendship with Caleb, or you can have your life with me. But so long as that man stares at you the way he does, he will never be welcomed while I’m around. I won’t have a predator surrounding the woman that I love just because she thinks it’s nothing but a friendship.”
“Blake, that isn’t even—”
He threw his napkin down. “Come on, I’ll take you home and you can think about it. But, as far as I’m concerned, this is the last date your supposed best friend will interrupt.”
I drew in broken breaths as I recounted the moments after that. The silent ride home in Blake’s car. The multiple missed calls and unanswered text messages that I had gotten from Caleb that night. I sat there alone in my bedroom, watching my phone vibrate and light up with his name.
Over, and over, and over again.
Until he eventually stopped.
“Jesus, what have I done?” I asked myself.
I wasn’t sure how in the hell I had gotten from the front door to the mirror, but as I pulled myself out of the memory that had destroyed me and Caleb for good, I found myself staring at the pathetic reflection looking back at me. My cheeks were red from the tear trails and my eyes were puffy. It seemed like all they did these days was get red and puffy. There was no light in them any longer. No passion. No happiness.
Just an emptiness that I didn’t know how to cure.
You don’t have any other choice. You can’t blame yourself.
I wondered if I was going about this all wrong. Maybe having Caleb act as my fiancée wasn’t the right answer. But what other choice did I have? I didn’t have the money to battle Blake in court, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to convince him on my own to sign those very generous divorce papers.
All I wanted was out.
Why wouldn’t he let me out?
My phone dinged out in my pocket and a smile broke out across my face. I watched my eyes light back up. My lips curled up, igniting a healthy flush in my cheeks that quickly chased my tears away. I knew it was Caleb. It had to be. Maybe he was only telling me that he had gotten to his final destination safely, but even that little bit of communication filled me with hope.
Until I saw Blake’s nickname on my phone screen instead of his.
Don’t Answer: You’re mine, not his. Until this divorce is final, you are still my wife, and that means you’ve cheated. Just like me. You no longer have a leg to stand on. Expect multiple face-to-face meetings to work everything out. And you know I won’t take no for an answer.
9
REAPER
“You know,” Viper said as I closed the door behind us both, “I knew we should’ve kept you in those zip ties and duct tape.”
I turned around and watched my friend stalk around the handcuffed man on the floor.
“So, I think I’ll go ahead and switch these cuffs out real quick,” Viper said as he bent down behind the man.
I quickly withdrew my gun and pointed it right at Wes’s forehead. “Don’t even think about it, either.”
Viper tugged the man around, and every time Wes shifted, he grunted. I cocked my gun, allowing the sound to echo out around us, and Wes kept his gaze trained on me the entire time. I put on my best smile, slowly walking toward him until I pressed the barrel of the gun to the top of his head.
“I wonder if this would come out of his asshole if I pulled the trigger,” I murmured.
“All right,” Viper said as he tossed the cuffs to the side, “got him situated.”
I kicked Wes’s scuffed-up leather shoes. “Do his ankles.”
“Someone help me!” Wes exclaimed as Viper slammed the man down onto his back. “They’re going to kill me! Somebody, help!”
Viper chuckled as he slid the man around on his back. He was just having fun at that point, and I had to admit, it was a sight. Viper propped the man’s legs up onto his pelvis and quickly put zip ties around Wes’s ankles, then he dropped the pair of legs like an overheated Hot Pocket before dusting himself off.
