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I was already in the hallway, but it was too late. He had vanished, the elevator doors sliding closed behind him. Maybe he wouldn’t kill him, but he wanted to fuck him up just as bad, if not, worse, than he’d been fucked up, and there was no changing that.
Instead of following him, I ducked back into his unit, quietly closed the door, and sank down against it. And smiled.
It was just as well. That motherfucker deserved it. If Pierre didn’t teach him a lesson, then I would.
All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door.
I waited a moment, wondering who the fuck that could be. Not Pierre. Not Felix … or could it be? How would he have gotten into the building?
The person knocked again, and I decided to rise to my feet and look through the peephole.
To my surprise, it was Cassidy.
“Hell no,” I muttered, swinging the door open, already feeling my blood pressure rise. “What the fuck do you want?” I said, in the most deadpan voice I could muster. “A favor?”
I dropped the bad bitch attitude as my eyes scanned her face, and I noticed the redness in her eyes, as if she’d just been crying. Please. If anyone was crying, it should’ve been me.
“Look,” she said, sucking in a deep breath. Cassidy raised her chin a little higher, as if to steady herself. “I fucked up.”
Leaning against the doorframe, I crossed my arms, and waited for an explanation.
“I heard about what he did to you. Tommy.”
I raised my eyebrows, and did nothing else. Still couldn’t wait for the part about her fucking up. Oh, was it when she lied about being an innocent saint and decided to leave me alone with a fucking predator?
“I broke up with him.” I couldn’t tell if she was lying. Didn’t know who to trust anymore. “I swear. It’s fucked up, what he did, you know? I’m sorry. Really. The thing is, he was telling me about how you were treating his cousin, and I guess I just blindly believed him. Look, no one deserves what he did to you, regardless of how you treated his cousin. I just wanted to come and apologize.”
“How’d you know about it?” I said. “Did Pierre go to you?”
She shook her head, scrunching her eyebrows together as if she’d forgotten of his existence. Pierre, who?
“Um, no … It was Tommy. I brought the truth out of him. He came over acting really weird … like, he couldn’t look me in the eye. And when I asked him what happened, he just exploded.”
Exploded, huh?
“Anyway. Yeah, that’s all. I’m so, so sorry.” Cassidy wiped the water from her eyes and shook her head. “Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” Her gaze was practically quivering, eyes wide like a deer’s. Sincere, innocent. “Please. I just … I’m sorry.”
Letting out a rough breath, I glanced down the hallway to make sure we were out of earshot from anyone who might have the inclination to gossip. We were alone, and Pierre was still gone. That didn’t make me feel any better.
I could believe her, or not. Maybe it didn’t matter.
If she was offering to help me out, then I couldn’t pass it up.
“Don’t be sorry,” I said through a tight jaw. “You didn’t do it. He did.”
She nodded deeply, as if in great relief for my recognizing the obvious fact. No, she didn’t do it. But she pretended to be nice to me, pretended to like Pierre just to get on my good side.
But the way she explained it to me made it sound like she had acted this way because Vivian had convinced Tommy that I was the evil one. She was just trying to stand by her boyfriend’s side. She had been fooled. She wasn’t to blame.
“Okay,” I said, giving her a small smile. “Thanks for coming to tell me this.”
I thought about what she was offering me. A chance to learn more, a chance to figure out exactly what kind of lies Vivian was spinning. And why.
And then I thought about the text I got on the plane, just before taking off.
“The library,” I started. “Is it open at 10 PM?”
Cassidy tilted her head to the side, confused.
