AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Blaze reached over to give my arm a quick reassuring squeeze. “She does have a point. She didn’t hide this from any of us. It just… never came up.”
A rush of renewed affection for him washed through me. I’d have kissed him if I hadn’t suspected that’d cause even more explosions around here.
Julius rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. “We didn’t know we needed to bring it up.”
“And you did hide it,” Garrison added. “Lying by omission is still lying.”
“I never once lied,” I spat, poking a finger at his chest. “You never asked if I was with anyone else, and if you had—if any of you had—I would have told you. By that same logic, you lied to your friends by not telling them that we had sex. I don’t know what you’re all so offended about. Is it so horrible that I was with other people you supposedly like and respect?”
For a second, none of them spoke. It appeared they couldn’t fully put into words what their problem with the situation was.
I wanted to feel bad for whatever hurt I’d caused them, and in a way, I did. But I hadn’t done anything in which they hadn’t actively participated. I’d never broken my word with any of them, and I didn’t understand why they were blowing up about this. I wasn’t going to stand here and let myself be lambasted for doing nothing wrong.
“If we knew—if I knew—that this wasn’t exclusive, I may have handled the situation differently,” Garrison said finally.
I looked at Julius. “What about you?” Then I moved my eyes to Talon. “Or you?”
Neither answered outwardly, and I knew it was a different story for them. They’d taken me together, and it had never been exclusive for Julius. I’d never given the impression that it was. He should have been the least surprised out of all of them, but he still reacted as if I’d done something completely shocking.
“I don’t know,” Julius replied. “But that’s why it’d have been good to have the information.”
Talon only shook his head, refusing to verbally respond. Maybe he needed to gather his thoughts first, or maybe it simply wouldn’t have mattered to him at all.
I sighed. “Fine. Whatever. You all know now. I find you all appealing, and I’d happily hook up with any of you again, and I don’t see what’s wrong with that. I’m sure as hell not going to let you force me into a box where someone else is telling me what I’m allowed to think and feel like my whole life before. I don’t belong to any of you. I don’t belong to anyone. I choose who I’m with and when. If you’re up for it or not, that’s the only part that’s up to you. Period.”
That was all I had left to say. I grabbed my bra off the couch and pulled it on without totally removing my shirt in a few hasty movements. Meanwhile, the men all eyed each other.
“I think we should discuss this amongst ourselves,” Julius said in a definitive tone. “Just the four of us.”
He motioned to the others, and they fell in line with him as he stalked to the stairs that led to the rooftop deck. I watched the door shut behind them with a horrible sinking sensation in my gut.
I still didn’t see what crime I’d supposedly committed, but if they decided I’d misled them anyway… What if I’d screwed up the good thing I’d found here? The only good thing I’d had in my entire life? The way Julius had talked, it was like I wasn’t even a member of the crew, only a bystander who’d thrown them off course.
I sucked my lower lip under my teeth and worried at it for a moment before I caught myself and stopped. Instead, I flopped down on the couch and pushed my hands back over my hair.
What were they talking about up there? What were they saying about me?
Would they even want me around after this, let alone want to keep helping me?
I hadn’t done this out of spite or any intention to hurt them. I’d wanted to be closer to them. Because I trusted them. Because I enjoyed their company. Why couldn’t they see it that way?
A loud ping filled the room, and I sat up straighter. It’d come from Blaze’s laptop, still standing open on the coffee table from when he’d gotten it to stream Spy Times. The screen had woken up, now showing a red alert box.
I leaned closer and saw it’d brought up a photograph. The alert contained the words EXACT MATCH.
And it was. The photograph showed a dimpled white wall with the bisected teardrop symbol etched into it, exactly as it’d looked when we’d encountered it before. My hand rose to scratch at the back of my neck instinctively.
Where was this picture from? I tapped on the window it’d appeared in and spotted a geolocation at the bottom. My mind absorbed the coordinates in an instant. That was nearby—right here in this city.
A cab could take me there in less than an hour. Julius had shown me how to surreptitiously leave the apartment building a couple of days ago, so I could handle that on my own. I could check out this lead and maybe even get back before the men even finished their conversation.
Or should I interrupt that conversation and fill them in?
I wavered for several seconds, my stomach twisting, and then strode to the door. I didn’t even know if they’d want to continue this quest that was really for my benefit. I could handle this one part of the investigation on my own. It was probably better if they had more time to simmer down anyway.
I slipped out the door and hurried down the hall, my heart starting to thump harder. In less than an hour, I might have more answers about who I actually was—or at least who had stolen me from the life I’d been meant to have.
