AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry—”
“Neve, I assume?” I snap coldly.
Callie swallows. “Castle, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean it like that. I just—”
“You justwhat, Callie?!” I snarl. “You justdon’t fucking listen?”
“I just want toknow you!” she hurls back, her eyes stormy.
“What the fuck for?”
“Because you’re my husband!”
“No, I’m not!” I spit back venomously.
“You’re stuck with me for a year!!” she barks, out of her chair now, jabbing a finger at me. “So maybe you could take down the wallsa little! I mean are we seriously going to spend a twelve fucking months like this?”
“Trust me, baby girl…”
She shivers, paling a little as I slide off my stool, fury in my face as I loom over her.
“Youdo notwant to see what’s behind my walls,” I hiss.
Her lips purse as her eyes lock with mine. “But I do. I’m asking you—”
“You’re asking questions you do not want to know the answers to,” I snarl.
“I’m asking questions because I’m going to be living with you for a fucking year and I don’t know the first thing about you!! You won’t even tell me who the fuck Loraine and Teagan are! Are they friends? More than friends? Are they women youfuck?!”
Her screams turn into a gasp as I turn on her. Callie shudders, choking on her breath as I grab the front of her hoodie and slam her back against the counter.
“Fine,” I snarl, my eyes turning cold and dangerous as her big blue ones go wide and frightened. “You want to know the dark monsters that lurk behind this face?!Fine!” I swallow, lowering my face inches from hers. “But I fucking warned you.”
“And I’m still standing here,” she throws back.
“Loraine is my best friend’s wife. Mydeadbest friend, by the way. Teagan is theirdaughter, who I’ve known since she wasfive.”
The fury on Callie’s face drops instantly. I’m not done.
“She texted that she was sorry she missed me the other night,” I growl, “because she wasn’t home when I called her mother to check in on them. ‘The big one’ that I owe her is a bighorse, which is a running joke we’ve had since she was seven.”
Callie pales even more as I lean close, my teeth bared and my blood roaring in my ears. “And not thatany of thisis your fucking business,” I growl. “But the ‘big date’ is with a boy her own age, whom she really likes.”
Callie swallows.
“Italk tothem because Loraine’s husband…Teagan’s father…was my best fucking friend in the entire world,” I spit. “And he fuckingdiedin a shithole in the middle of the fucking desert becauseI. Fucked. Up.”
I don’t realize how badly I’m shaking until the room blurs around me. I don’t realize I’m bellowing in her face until I see how terrified she looks.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
“Don’t be,” she breathes.
My teeth grit as my hand releases her hoodie, and I whirl away from her, shoving my fingers through my hair.
“Three of my fucking friends died because of me, Callie,” I growl, turning back to level my gaze at her. “You want to know why I don’t have close friends? Why I don’t have a girlfriend?” I rasp, turning to face her again as she sinks against the counter. “Because Ilose people! Because when women see what’s under my surface, if they have any brains, they run away screaming!”
The silence hums in the air between us.
