For some, abandonment issues meant they expected someone in their life to walk away. For Rule, it meant he expectedeveryonein his life to walk away. He lived on borrowed time with those around him. He was always prepared to shut someone out if he got the hint that they were considering leaving him.
I knew, with Laikyn, this was doubly hard for him. He wouldn’t admit it aloud, but he was in love with her. Hell, I saw it when he was with her. I’d known the man since I was a fucking kid. Never had he looked at anyone the way he looked at her. In the past two months, so many of his walls had come down because of her. He was a different man.
Unfortunately, at his core, Rule was the same terrified kid who refused to let anyone get too close for fear they would rip his heart to shreds one more time. It didn’t matter that I’d gone to that prison to pick him up or that I’d spent every single day since with him; he still didn’t trust me completely.
It was true, though. I would never abandon him. Not for anyone.
Not even Laikyn, and God help me, I fucking loved her. It would kill me for those two to go their separate ways. I didn’t want to choose. I prayed to God I didn’t have to. My soul belonged to Rule while my heart was split straight down the middle; half was his, half was hers. If they split now, so would I.
I headed for my bedroom. I needed a minute to breathe. Music helped, and that was usually where I sought solace from the chaos that stirred my anxiety.
When Waldo trotted along beside me, I patted his head. I knew he felt the tension, and he didn’t like it any more than I did.
I unlocked my bedroom door and motioned for Waldo to go in. He hopped up onto the bed when I flipped on the light. As I was shutting the door, Laikyn appeared, her eyes narrowed. I knew she was about to blast me one, but I didn’t want to hear it. I needed a minute or thirty.
I shook my head and tried to shut the door, but she put her hand on the wood and pushed. Since I couldn’t very well argue with her, I gave in.
Only when I took a step back did I realize my grave error.
“Look, Jinx. I can’t be the one who—” Her eyes went wide as she looked at the walls. “Oh. My. God.”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
“You … these…” She spun around and pinned me with a murderous glare. “These are mine.”
Technically, they were mine because I’d purchased them outright. But she was correct in the sense that she was the artist.
“When … how…”
I swallowed and reached for my phone.
“That’s why you didn’t want me in here,” she said through clenched teeth. “You knew who I was before I met you. How did you get those? They were commissioned by—” She gasped, a shocked look on her face. “You had them commissioned for yourself. That gallery didn’t want my work. You did.”
I wanted to type a message, but I was scared to look away from her. I didn’t want her to disappear before I had a chance.
“I cannot believe this! You played me. You both did. What else don’t I know, Jinx? Huh? What else are you hiding from me?”
“What the hell is going on?” Rule’s voice sounded down the hallway.
Laikyn spun when he approached the door. She stabbed him in the chest with her finger.
“You’re a liar. You both are. I hate you.”
Rule looked at me, and I started shaking my head. I didn’t want him to let her leave. If she did, there was a good chance we would never see her again. He could pretend all fucking day that he was okay with that, but we both knew better. Letting her go would ruin us both.
I pointed in the direction she went, but Rule simply shook his head. “I’m done.”
Fuck that. Fuck him.
I shoved past him and stomped down the hallway to Laikyn’s room.
She was pulling drawers out of her dresser and throwing her things into the suitcase she’d brought the first night she stayed here.
“I can’t believe I fell for this. I can’t believe I let myself freaking fall in love with you.”
She wasn’t talking to me, but rather herself, her attention on her task.
