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“No.” Aithan raised his hand to stop him. “You’re going upstairs to Zel.”
“Dude—”
“Remember what you just told me?” Aithan gripped Drew’s shoulder. “Sheneedsyou.” He gave Drew a little push toward the guesthouse, then strode across the driveway. He called over his shoulder, “Keep count. I’m gonna owe Babcia a lot of money.”
I didn’t move. My ears rang and a nauseating coldness squeezed my lungs.
The guesthouse’s front door opened and closed. The stairs creaked.
Drew came into the room. “Brick.” He reached my side and tried to pull me back from the window as Aithan stopped before Tristan and Greer.
I gripped the sill and shook my head. “I need to hear what she has to say.”
“How long?” The rage in Aithan’s voice was unmistakable. Tristan actually flinched and stepped back.
“Zel.” Drew gripped my shoulders.
“No.” I shook him off. “I want an answer. Ideserveone!”
“Back off, Pretty Boy,” Greer snapped. “This ain’t your business.”
Greer’s Mistake Number Two.
He rounded on her and I swear his rage gave him more mass. “Shut the fuck up. I’m not talking to you. Yet.” He turned his wrath back on Tristan and repeated, “How long?”
Tristan looked past him to me. “Since the Bay Area Heat.”
“Holy fuck, Tristan,” Aithan growled. “That was a year-and-a-half ago.”
“That son-of-a-bitch.” I slowly sat on the window seat. Drew brushed my cheek. I was crying and didn’t realize it. “That’s why he wouldn’t take me to his competitions. Because Greer would be there.” With my back to the window, I wrapped my arms around Drew’s waist, pressing my face against him. “How fucking stupid could I get?”
I looked up. The concern and sympathy on his face shattered something inside me, and my heart tilted on its axis. Pain knifed my stomach. I closed my eyes and breathed through it.
He rubbed my back and his touch was like a balm. “You’re not stupid, babe. You trusted your sister and your boyfriend, as you should’ve. That just proves you’re a good person with an open heart.”
Apparently, Greer found Tristan’s balls — maybe she kept them in a bag around her neck — because she tried to take a bite outta Aithan with her next attack. But she was gonna end up gagging; he wasn’t the doormat type she generally chewed up and spat out. “Listen, you muscle-bound moron, this has nothing to do with you or the porn writer.”
“Oh, so that’s where Douche Canoe got that,” Drew muttered, “pillow talk.”
I nodded. “She told him about us.” With horror, I realizedhetoldherabout Deep Throat.
Aithan ignored Greer’s insults. “Was it all bullshit?” he asked Tristan. “Every mother-fucking trip to the Bay Area for a competition or to visit friends? What you were really doing was fucking Zel’s married sister?”
Tristan was man enough to answer honestly. “Yeah.”
“You’re fired.”
Greer snapped, “You can’t fire him for that.”
Aithan’s reply was swift. “Fuck you, you worthless piece of shit. You’ve crapped all over Zel for decades to make yourself feel superior.” His rage was scary. Drew had said he was holding back a lot of anger, that it would all come pouring out.
I never expected that Greer and Tristan would break the dam.
He wasn’t finished with my ex-dirtbag. “Why the fuck did you put Zel through all that bullshit? Obviously, you didn’t love her. You didn’t want to be with her. You fucked her head up so badly she can’t see herself as anything but ugly. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Greer warned me not to end it. She said Zel couldn’t handle being alone,” Tristan replied meekly. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Oh, fuck me,” Aithan said. “That’s a pathetic joke and no one’s laughing.”
