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I could even wrap it in a big red bow?—
No, he’d hate that. He’d probably already hate my buying him anything, but too bad.
Without any more hesitation, I clicked add to cart and quickly filled in my information, putting Daire’s name on the shipping address.
I smiled to myself and hit buy, and as the purchase went through, I heard Travis say, “Fuckin’ hell.”
It didn’t occur to me to ask what he was talking about, since they’d all been shooting the shit since we got out of the Sprinter. It wasn’t until I almost ran into Travis where he’d stopped abruptly that I bothered looking up.
Everyone had gone silent and was staring in the direction of a group I knew all too well and had hoped to avoid. When my eyes caught on Joey’s face, though, I gasped and almost dropped my phone.
“Joey?” Horror filled me as I stared at the twisted direction of his nose, and his right eye that was the same gruesome shade of purplish-black that Daire’s was.
Holy…shit.
No. Daire wouldn’t have done this. He couldn’t have done this. He told me last night he hadn’t.
I stepped away from our group, closer to the tight circle gathered around Joey. “What happened to you?”
A cruel smile twisted the lips I’d once kissed as Joey narrowed his swollen eyes on me. “You know exactly what.”
I shook my head, disbelief filling me as the evidence in front of me pointed to one thing and one thing only. But still, I refused to believe it. I’d sat with Daire last night, given him an ice pack as he assured me someone like Joey couldn’t possibly have gotten a hit on him.
“I… No. What are you?—”
“Save it, slut,” Carl snarled. “We know you sent him.”
The horror I’d felt seconds ago got swallowed up by an uncontrollable anger as I spun around to Daire.
This was the last thing I’d wanted, the last thing I needed, and as the bitter taste of betrayal and humiliation crashed over me, the pain felt far worse than anything Joey had done to me.
“You did this?” My body practically vibrated as everyone else in the hall vanished from view and I aimed all of my emotion in Daire’s direction.
“He—”
“Did you do this?” My voice was unrecognizable as I cut Daire off, not wanting to hear any more excuses. How stupid was I to think he’d actually keep his promise? How naïve? I felt like a complete fool, and now everyone at Astor would think I was too weak to stand up for myself. “Un-fucking-believable.”
I shoved past the rest of our group until I was toe to toe with Daire, my chest heaving with barely contained fury as I glared up at him.
“You promised.”
Daire’s dark eyes seemed to map every corner of my face before coming back to land on mine. “I lied.”
Something snapped in me. Those two words were so easy for him to say and so fucking painful for me to hear. Before I knew it, I shoved him as hard as I could in the chest.
Daire stumbled back a couple of steps, the force of my anger catching him off guard. But instead of apologizing, he angled his chin up in stony defiance.
Great. That was just great. The one person I’d trusted turned out to be the last person I should’ve.
I could feel the eyes of everyone on my back. The silence in the hall was deafening, and all I wanted to do was disappear.
So that was exactly what I was going to do.
I stormed past Daire without a second glance, and as I made a beeline for the exit, I could’ve sworn I heard Joey say, “Good luck fucking him now,” and that ache in my stomach returned with a vengeance.
I should’ve known. I should’ve known better than to believe anything that came out of Daire’s mouth. He was a selfish bastard—he was the first to admit that. So why hadn’t I trusted my instincts last night when it came to that damn bruise on his face?
Because you trusted him,an annoying voice chimed in inside my head.
