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"It was when he came to see you in Seattle, wasn't it?" he asked. The question was filled with the fire of his temper, warm and awful.
I froze.
"I don't know what you're—" I tried, because when you're just not sure if you're about to set a crazy, jealous ex off into a jealous rage it's always best to lie.
"Save it. I know he came to see you, and that must have been when you found out about the blackmail."
I processed that. "Who told you all of this?" I asked, but I knew. Oh, I knew.
"My mother called me earlier. She's been saving this little bombshell for a while. As you know, Farrah keeps her well informed. Adelaide thinks you and Bastian are sleeping together, and she couldn't be more pleased about it. And of course she wanted to make sure I knew every little detail."
"We are not sleeping together. We never have."
"Not even in Seattle? When you went up to his hotel room. For hours."
His eyes were scary, his hands clenched and shaking on the table between us. If I were anyone but myself, I'd have been worried for my safety.
Dammit. This was all going to end up in Bastian's lap, when all the guy wanted to do was help us.
"Nothing happened," I said, tone as unflappable as I could manage, eyes steady on his. "We did go off together, but all we did was talk. About you. About what your mother's been up to."
"You kissed him at the bar." There was the finest tremor in his voice, but it was a crucial one, like the very first crack in an unsteady foundation. "You were all over him. You rubbed your tits against his chest. She told me everything."
Fucking Farrah hadn't gone easy on the details. FUCK.
I thought of that night, the state I'd been in, and my own temper rose to the occasion. I knew I had to be mercilessly honest to take the blame away from his brother. That, more even than Dante's feelings, was what I needed to salvage here. "I was in bad shape, Dante. Because of you. Yes, I kissed him. Yes, I rubbed up against him. I have no doubt I'd have done more, just to fucking spite you, but your brother had your back. While you're going over the details, go over this: He turned me down. Not because he didn't want me, but because he wouldn't do that to you. He came to see me because he wanted to help us, and that was as far as he let it get."
He wasn't looking at me, his eyes on his fists. They were full of cruel, dark things, not the least of which was anguish.
"We have enough things to hate each other for," I added harshly. Honestly. "We don't need to embellish or invent any. I did not sleep with your brother. And you can thank him for it. Not me. Him."
"Jesus, you never did know how to pull any punches," he said in a voice that ached.
I felt my upper lip tremble, eyes blinking rapidly, stinging with the urge to tear up as I fought to look anywhere but at him.
Because wasn't that the brutal fucking truth.
"It's worse with you," I said when I'd regained my composure, trying hard to make my voice light. "You're the only guy who ever dumped me."
"Don't do that," he said, and there was agony in it, enough to fell us both. "Don't put us all into a group like we're the same. There's me and there's them."
He made a very good point. Moreover, this was a subject to avoid at all costs. Why the hell had I brought it up? I was a mess just then is why. Not thinking clearly, not speaking clearly, though I needed to start doing so in order to get my point across.
I tried to get back on topic. "There's nothing your mother would love more than to keep you estranged from the one family member you have who's worth knowing," I said as reasonably as I could. "The one person alive that shares your blood and wants to help you. Let me guess: She knows you two have been getting along lately. She knows there's been a truce. Stop me if I'm wrong here."
He didn't stop me.
"Don't let her win," I implored. "Have the sense not to let this tactic work for her. Don't turn this on Bastian."
"I don't trust him," he told me bluntly.
My mouth curved sardonically. "I don't trust anyone. What's that got to do with anything?"
He winced and I didn't blame him. I felt the sting of it myself.
"What are you going to do?" I asked him eventually, when I couldn't stand a second more of the silence.
"It was not his place to tell you anything. He had no right to do that. To put you in danger."
"He didn't know that's what he was doing. He's your brother—"
"Half-brother," he corrected stubbornly.
I glared. "He's your blood, and he's trying to help us. Let him, Dante. Please." It was as close as I'd come to begging, because it was a thing worth begging for. We needed any allies we could get, and there was no doubt in my mind that Bastian was a strong one. He was motivated, resourceful. Spiteful. All things I admired. All things I related to. All things we'd need in spades if there was any chance we'd come out on top of this mess.
Also, any enemy of Adelaide's was a freaking best friend of mine.
I couldn't tell if he was still angry, or rather, how angry he was. He was being very quiet, very still, not looking at me.
