Page 95 of Callous Shot

I scrubbed my hand over my face and then cleared my throat. “Li’s one of my besties, and Nova…” Turning to her, I attempted a smile. “Yeah, you’re one of them too, like it or not. Plus, you’re basically my surrogate sister, since me and King are practically brothers.”

“It’s true,” she said, giving me a genuine smile in return, and it eased something inside of me.

I turned back to Neo. “So. I’m having a fucking crisis here, okay? We don’t need outsiders getting involved, and Wellsy’s one-night stand definitely counts as an outsider.”

“Okay.” Neo sucked his lip between his teeth, shifting on his feet. “Do you, uh, want me to stay?”

“Nah, you’re all good, bro.”

He nodded, already moving towards the door. “Alright. I’m gonna shower, but if you need me, just knock on my door, okay?”

“Thanks,” I said sincerely. When he’d disappeared, I slumped back onto the sofa, closing my eyes. Without the distraction of Neo and Toby, everything was coming back to me. I inhaled shakily, willing myself to keep it together. Why the fuck had Neil sent me back here instead of leaving me to stew alone in my bedroom?

A sudden loud grinding and whirring broke the depressing silence that had descended, and my eyes flew open. “Sorry,” Neo called from the kitchen. “I forgot my protein shake.” Switching off the blender, he decanted the gloopy mix into a cup and disappeared. Again.

When he was gone for good this time, or so I hoped, I turned to Jay. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Good fucking question. Where’s Ryker? He needs to be here for this.”

As if on cue—and honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the asshole to time his entrance for maximum effect—the door burst open, revealing my best friend, standing there with a dark expression on his face. “What the hell is going on?”

“I went to get your answers,” I croaked out, meeting Ryker’s hard gaze. “But what I found was so much fucking worse.”

Ryker exchanged glances with Jay and subtly shook his head.

“What?” I stared between them, instantly on alert.

“Nothing.” At my huffed exhale, Ryker groaned. “Bellingham came to my room last night, wanting to speak to you. He seemed…agitated.”

My heart beat faster. “What did you do?”

“I made him leave.”

“It doesn’t matter now, anyway. Lincoln Bellingham is fucking dead to me. And I’m gonna make sure he pays for every single bit of his betrayal.”

As I gave the four of them a rundown of my situation, the pit in my stomach grew. All the signs I’d willingly ignored hit me, one after the other.

Lincoln picking up my phone in the middle of the night and unlocking it when he thought I was asleep, the first time I’d been to his apartment. Lincoln showing up at a random petrol station in the middle of nowhere after my payback operation at the warehouse with Neil. Lincoln showing up at the offices in an out-of-town deserted business park during a mission. Lincoln having a fucking file on me, and those fucking papers… I couldn’t even think about that part without it feeling like my heart was cracking down the middle.

Lincoln hating me. Always hating me, all my life.

How far had he been willing to go? Far enough to fuck his enemy. Far enough to get me to trust him. To want him. To go against my own fucking friends just so he could turn around and stab me in the back when I least expected it. If I hadn’t broken into his apartment, how much further would he have taken it? I’d put everyone important to me in danger, all because I was completely fucking stupid over someone who’d been stringing me along this whole time.

Fuck Lincoln Bellingham. Fuck. Him.

I rose to my feet. “Put away anything breakable. Tonight, we drink to forget.”

My knuckles were bleeding. I blinked, staring blearily at my reflection. Why was it all jagged?

I stumbled to the side, falling into the wall, and my shoe crunched on broken glass. Shit. I’d smashed the hallway mirror.

I staggered towards the kitchen, collapsing over the sink as I sucked in deep breaths. Groaning, I clutched at my stomach. I felt so sick.

“Oh, Dan. Are you okay? Let me help you,” a sweet, suggestive voice said, running a hand down my arm.

I immediately recoiled. “Don’t touch me!” I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching me, and I hated that Lincoln had ruined it.

The woman’s eyes went from suggestive to hard in a millisecond. “Sorry to bother you,” she snapped, spinning on her heel and stalking away. Immediately forgetting about her, I fumbled for the tap. Why wouldn’t it turn on?