“Why the fuck is everyone asking me that?” I snapped. “It’s from the cold,” I explained. Sure, I had also chomped on it in a rage, but it was also true that the freezing cold air had been causing small cracks in my lips since I was a kid. Logan should have remembered that.
“Sorry, I thought one of your girls decided to take a chunk out of you,” he laughed, and I rolled my eyes. I brushed past him, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. “Can I go with you?” he asked. It had been a while since we spent any time together, and I did still need to tell him about everything that had gone down. Still, I didn’t want to freak him out with Player’s latest moves. I was torn.
“Come on, we haven’t hung out in a while. I’m your little bro, your shadow, your—”
“My irritating, pain-in-the-ass Jiminy Cricket?” I finished for him, and he grinned cheerfully, like I had just paid him the nicest compliment. I hesitated for a few more seconds before finally deciding to just give in.
“Fine. Come with me,” I said, realizing I was going to need to tell him the whole story.
From beginning to end.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, I was bitterly regretting agreeing to take Logan along.
On the long drive to Luke’s place, I told him everything that had happened with Selene. Starting with Alyssa’s lie all the way to the night at our mother’s apartment. My brother said I was crazy and over the top and needed to control my impulses, but I shrugged off his criticisms and continued my tale. Then I told him all about how Ms. Martin wanted me to let Babygirl go and how I had promised her I’d do so as soon as I left for my internship because I couldn’t see a future with her daughter. Loganmanaged to resist the urge to smack me, but I think that was only because he didn’t want the car to go off the road.
“That’s total bullshit. Does Selene even know that you’re planning to take the Chicago internship? And now you’ve also promised her mother you’ll dump her, and you’ve done all of this behind her back?” he said in outrage, making me suddenly swerve. “What is wrong with you? You are going to hurt her so bad,” he went on, and I felt a stab of pain in my heart.
Of course I knew that I was playing dirty, but I was determined to enjoy my Tinkerbell for as long as I could, even if it was selfish.
After I left New York, our paths would fork, and that was how it should be. It made me uncomfortable, thinking about how to break that news to her, because I knew that, while it was the best choice for both of us, it wasn’t going to make either of us happy.
But I was the strong one, the only one actually capable of putting a stop to our tumultuous relationship.
To avoid that discomfort, I switched off that topic and moved on to Player.
About him, I spared no detail.
I told Logan everything, particularly why I was asking for Luke’s help.
When we got to Luke’s apartment, Logan greeted the doorman politely while I ignored him. Then we got into the elevator.
“This is nuts. Player seriously hacked Selene’s computer?” Logan asked, troubled. I didn’t answer him, just stepping out onto the landing when the automatic doors opened. I walked down the long hallway, and upon reaching the correct door, I rang the bell repeatedly.
We waited a few seconds before the door opened to reveal Luke wearing a lopsided grin.
“You’re ten minutes early,” he said, looking appraisingly at Logan and me. I gave him a blank look, and he stepped aside to let us in. “Brought the kid brother along, eh?” he said sneeringly to Logan. I shot him a dirty look to shut him up and he backed off.
“We’ve been waiting for you, boss.”
I stepped into the living room to find Xavier sitting on a leather sofa with Alexia. Standing nearby with her arms folded was Jennifer. She lookedbored and lost in thought. Then she spotted me, and her blue eyes lit up. She gave me a provocative smile, which I did not return.
“What are they doing here?” I asked Luke. This was supposed to be a low-key, private meeting, but now…
“We’re the Krew. You got a problem; we got a problem,” Xavier answered, resting a hand on Alexia’s bare thigh. Apparently they had been able to mend fences after he found out I’d fucked Alexia again in an attempt to vent my emotions and shut down my thoughts. I was different, though, and I wasn’t about to forgive Jennifer for telling Selene everything we’d done, all to win some feminine game of one-upsmanship.
She’d deliberately made Babygirl uncomfortable all to try to prove that Selene was different from the other girls I spent time with. I hated those kinds of theatrics.
Plus, Jennifer could not get it through her head that I was not hers. I wasn’t anyone’s.
“So…do you have Selene’s cell? What exactly did Player do?” Luke asked, drawing my attention. So I fished Selene’s phone out of my pocket, accessed her email on the app, and handed it to Luke.
He carefully read the incriminating email and shook his head in obvious concern.
“Selene’s account sent it to herself; did you see that?” he asked, pointing out a detail that had completely escaped me. I leaned over to look at the screen. Sure enough, the message had been sent from Babygirl’s email address, irrefutable proof that Player had indeed taken control of it. I went rigid, giving Luke a speaking look. “This kind of thing is calledsextortion. The technique is always the same: The blackmailer threatens to release some private video or photos of the victim if they don’t do what he asks. He mentions an intimate moment between you two caught by her webcam here, but since he’s not asking for money or making any demands other than not going to police, I think he’s mostly just trying to scare you,” Luke offered thoughtfully.
“Now that’s the good shit. What intimate moments were you filming?” Xavier cut in, his eyebrows raised in surprise. I gave him a furious look and ignored the question. I had no intention of telling the Krew, of all people, about what Selene and I did together. The things I shared with Babygirlbelonged to us alone, though now Player could show them off to the world if he felt like it.
