Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
We were beyond that now.
It wasn’t lost on me it was intense and going fast. We each had our lives, but when the time came, we didn’t like to be apart. I was rarely at home anymore. I had a ton of stuff at Core’s—in his bathroom, his closet, his dresser.
We were practically living together.
And it worked.
It didn’t just work.
It was right.
And the only time we fought outside that Saturday afternoon that seemed forever ago, was when he tried to pay me back for the things I did to his living room (he won).
And the disagreement we were now having about Bree.
In other words, the only pall during this time was that Bree was giving us the silent treatment. No texts, no calls.
I didn’t know what to think about this except it was bullshit. I hadn’t said whacked things, she had.
I’d been trying to contact her for weeks, telling her I had what Core got from the Greeks. And the operative words were, Core put his ass on the line to get them from the Greeks.
Still no go.
I didn’t know what to do, because I wanted her to have her things back if what I had contained what she lost, but I couldn’t leave them outside her door.
Incidentally, this unnerved Kyra, but it pissed off Core and Marcy.
Which led to now, me heading to his after spending some time in the office and hitting my place to get ready to meet Core’s brothers, but I was going to pop by her apartment to give her the stuff.
Core was adamantly against a drop by. He didn’t want me around her unless I knew how she would receive me, and however she did wouldn’t upset me.
But what was I supposed to do?
“It’s going to be fine,” I assured. “If she’s bitchy, I’ll leave the jewelry with her and tell her to call me when she’s gone through it. Then I’ll swing around and pick it up.”
“Don’t want you leaving thousands of bucks of jewelry with that woman.”
Bree had become “that woman” to Core because, a) she was jacking me around and he could tell it hurt me, and b) she was jacking Marcy and Kyra around, he liked them and it hurt them too.
“Okay, then if she’s bitchy, I’ll just give her the money and tell her I might have her necklace and earrings, but if she can’t be civil, we’ll wait until she can and try again.”
“Don’t even give her the money. If she’s a bitch, leave.”
I was not going to do this. It was her nest egg. I was her friend. Sure, we were in a rough patch that might end with us drifting away from each other, but she needed it. I had it. Core put his ass on the line to get it for her. I was going to give it to her.
“Okay,” I lied.
“And she lies to me,” he muttered.
Eerie how well he knew me already.
Totally going fast and being intense.
I was pulling up on the curb outside Bree’s house, so I said, “I’m here. And I’ll be at yours in half an hour. Tops.”
“Better be,” he grunted. “Love you. Later.”
And he hung up.
I sat in my idling car, frozen.
Love you. Later.
Was that throwaway?
He’d never said it before.
Oh my God and what the fuck!
I was going to kill him for dropping that on me when I was about to confront Bree. Of course he’d know I would hear that and want to get to him ASAP.
Hot, sexy-as-fuck, biker schemer.
Argh!
I switched off the ignition, grabbed my purse, which had the jewelry pouch and money in it, got out of my car and headed up to her apartment.
I considered covering the peephole after I hit her doorbell so I had a better chance of her opening it to me if she didn’t actually see it was me, but I didn’t.
Surprisingly, the door opened quickly.
My heart lifted.
Then it fell right to my feet.
“Yeah, I want mayo,” Bryan called over his shoulder, not looking my way.
Then he looked my way, his face lost all color, and he grew statue still.
“Pringles?” Bree yelled from somewhere in her house (obviously, the kitchen) and then, “Who is it?”
Bryan moved out, right into me, so I had no choice but to move back.
This nearly made me fall over the step that led up to Bree’s door, and he reached out and caught me.
I tore my arm away from his hold and took another step back, this time carefully.
He shut the door behind him, not taking his eyes off me.
“Hellen.”
My name was strangled. Agonized. And that was when I knew this wasn’t just a friendly thing. Such as, they knew each other and regardless of our breakup, they liked each other enough to hang out together.
I knew it even before I read in his eyes the guilt and shame and love and regret, and so many awful, ugly things, all of them washing over me, it felt like I was about to be swept away by them.