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He blows out a deep, frustrated breath. “Stay, Love. Big Dick Love will haunt me if I toss you out. I will not disrespect him like that.”
What he means is like I disrespected him by not giving him a chance to deal with the whole Christian Dakota thing. For hiding it from him. Trying to control everything. “I’m sorry, Adira.”
“I can’t right now.” He holds up a hand that has me shutting my mouth as the wheels of the suitcase squeak across the floor. “I’ll be gone for at least a week. I’m just so angry with you. I need time. I need to sort my head out.”
“Big Dick Love?” Rebel asks when the front door shuts with a finality that makes me cringe.
“Richard Love. My dad,” I explain, dragging my gaze from the door.
“I get it.” He pulls out a stool and settles onto it. “Actually, I’ve been curious for a while… when did you change it to Love?”
“Almost two years ago. Christmas Eve. Dad made it legal for my birthday. I never made sense as a Hawthorne. I’m not like them.”
“No, you’re not.” He puts his hands together in fists, rests his chin on them. “You told him the truth?”
“All of it.” I swallow. “Almost all of it. I didn’t tell him about you. Or trying to get Alec to confess. I did confront him. Alec, I mean. On the phone today. When you and Summer arrived.”
“I eavesdropped,” he admits. “For a minute. Then figured I better run interference in case…”
In case Rogue had decided to return to the bedroom while I was trying to eke a confession out of Alec. It’s the whole reason T-Swift—or I should say Rebel— and I came to our uneasy truce in the first place, weeks ago, after he’d followed me home to confront me, only to find Alec threatening me on my doorstep.
He’d searched me up online. Barely found anything, because before two years ago I hadn’t been Ivy Love. There were no pictures of my face. No articles about me. Most of that time I was out of the public eye. Just having lost my father and then spending a stint at the facility before moving in with Adira and trying to find my own way.
Alec had come up in his search once or twice. And wasn’t that interesting? Not the type to sit still, Rebel had been prepared to warn me off his brother, only to find a much better advantage in my being related to his enemy. And I’d jumped in willingly. How could I not? My brother is a monster. He should be stopped. “He didn’t confess.”
“You shouldn’t have told Rogue.” He angles forward as though to push his point. He’d warned me that Rogue could be unpredictable, but not how. Then Rogue had talked about killing Alec. He’d threatened to go after my brother too, and he hadn’t known they were the same person. “We could have found a way.”
“I couldn’t keep it from him any longer.” I’m appalled at the way I’ve acted. Horrified at the lies and secrets I’ve kept in the name of love. When all I ever wanted was to get away from that kind of behavior. Be real. Be with him. “I couldn’t lie to him. He knew I was keeping things from him. It was hurting him.”
“He’s hurt now,” he bites back. “Cut up about it.”
“He hates me.” I can feel the wetness welling up in my heart.
“He’s angry. He’s in pain. He doesn’t hate you.”
“I wish I could believe that.” My voice is broken. If I could take it all back I would. I’d tell him about Alec right from the beginning. Even if that meant he never looked at me the way he has these past few weeks. My heart squeezes. I can’t bear the thought of never having meant anything to him.
“I’m going to talk to him,” Rebel says softly. “Not today. He’s too worked up. It won’t help. But soon. Give me a couple of days.”
“Do you really think it will make any kind of difference?”
He stands and comes over. Grips me by my shoulders. Sincerity shines in his eyes. “You tried to help us, Ivy. You were scared, but you still wanted to help. That means something to us.”
“To you,” I whisper.
“All of us. Rogue too. He’ll see that when he’s had time to think about it. Trust me.”
The tears prick again. Hope tries to rise, but reality pushes her down. Rebel didn’t see the way he reacted or the pain etched in his face or the way he looked right through me like he never knew me at all.I want to curl up in the fetal position and fall apart. When he leaves I will.
“Trust me, Ivy?” Rebel repeats like he needs hope as much as I do. “Please?”
“Okay.” What will it hurt to humor him for a few seconds anyway? He’ll leave and that will be that. The Maddoxes will be out of my life. And that hurts too. Even Rebel has grown on me. We’ve begrudgingly grown on each other. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make him confess. But I think he’ll back off. There was this kid in high school. I think he planned to hurt him. I worked it out. He wouldn’t admit it, but he freaked out when I confronted him. On the phone. That was what we were talking about. He acted like I was off my medication, like I was… crazy. I warned him I’d go to the police.”
“Hollywood Juicecomes out in a few days,” Rebel says. “He’ll be toast anyway. Publicly. His reputation will be ruined. Ro’s bodyguard arrived this morning too. Used to be military. I trust this guy to have her back and keep her safe.”
“I wish we could have proved it.” Maybe Rogue would have been able to forgive me then.
“Maybe we’ll get another chance at some point. I don’t think it’ll be any time soon though. Hawthorne’s a coward. You scared him today.”
