AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Me? You’re the one fucking her so hard she’s got bruises and bites all over her. Do you know how hard those are to hide from the media?” Elisse snapped.
I winced internally. The thought Chloe would have to wear the opinion of others that she seemed to care about so much and yet hid from frequently bit me right in the heart strings.
“No, I didn't.” I said softly.
Barclay’s attention drifted my way.
“See? You don’t know anything about her,” Elisse goaded. She banged the door hard enough to rouse the entire frat house. “Chloe! I swear I’ll go without you then you don’t get a damn say in what gets printed about you or which pictures they use!”
I opened my mouth, my rage rising ready to rip her a new one, when Barclay moved his ass and stepped forward.
“That’s enough, Elisse. You’re done,” he said, softly but firmly.
“Huh?” She looked up at him with wide eyes, her hand still banging on the door.
He caught her fist and turned her to face him, looking down at her sadly. “It’s over. I tried to want you again, but you’re a shadow of the girl I fell for last year. Now go on, out you go.” He shooed her off like the gentlemen he sure as fuck wasn’t, his British accent thickening with emotion.
“You can’t be serious?” Elisse was aghast as he herded her to the door. “I belong here. With Chloe! She’s my ticket to–”
Her mouth closed with a snap that probably rattled every tooth in her head.
Barclay observed her with a mildly curious expression while my eyes narrowed.
“She’s your ticket to what?” I asked coldly. “You already have all the money you could ever need for a lifetime. I’ve seen you together. She reacts, you demand.”
“Is that so different to what you do with her?” Her verbal slap hit me twice over in the chest.
“Nice deflection, you little narcissist,” Barcly murmured, looking partially impressed. “But the nice man asked you a question. Answer it, and maybe you won’t be barred from this house forever.”
“I– uh–” she glanced wildly between us. “I mean, I like doing all the work for her, setting up media and television and press conferences,” she said weakly, her lie fading fast.
I looked at her closely, studying the perfectly primped hair and makeup, the pastel blue twinset, and rocking Chloe’sDuke it outslogan on her cap. “No, you like the residual limelight that comes with being her sister and manager. How many photos do you appear in, Elisse? How many interviews do you do without her?”
“No, that’s not–” She glanced at Barclay for support but I suspected that door closed long ago. Maybe he only kept her around to annoy the fuck outta Beau in their ongoing war.
“You’ve bullied your sister the entire time I’ve known you and God alone knows how long before,” he murmured, looking her up and down. “I’m not even sure what I saw in you apart from some tits and ass. Get out.” He followed his crass gesture by crossing the room and pulling the door open. “Don’t come back.”
“But you said,maybe–” she wheedled.
Barclay shrugged. “I lied,” he said simply, and shut the door in Elisse’s face.
Offering my roomie a quick thumbs up, I tried the handle on the bathroom and found it locked. My fear spiked and I pounded once on the door. “Chloe?”
“The fuck is going on in here?” Beau roared, shoving the door to our room open. “I was trying to sleep, you motherfuckers. And who's the girl who just got evicted?”
Barclay rolled his eyes; Beau knew everyone in the house on a first name basis and probably their secrets.What happened to ‘she’s my cousin’?
“Chloe. She’s locked herself in.”
Beau glanced at the door then at me and nodded. “Break it down.”
Grateful my fear reflected in my face, I raised my foot and kicked the door in.
The bathroom–all thirty square feet of it–was empty.
No towel, no unconscious Chloe, no throwing up, no body or blood or anything horrific my mind conjured.
A breeze from the plantation shutters that stood ajar brushed my cheek with cold fingers.
