She’d already started walking towards the front door and yelled out over her shoulder, “Promise.”
I followed her out, with Mum, Jamison and Carla on my heels. Even though I didn’t believe her promise, I kept my mouth shut. There was no way she was going to agree to what I wanted so I simply decided to follow it up at some point during the week and sort the asshole out myself.
As she said her goodbyes to everyone, I received a text message.
Gabriella: Happy Mother’s Day, asshole.
Fuck.
The red rage blinded me again. It reached into my chest and threatened to squeeze the life out of me. At the same time, the pain engulfed me. Ten fucking years and the pain never left. It tore through me, lacerating my heart; the cold, patched together heart I still had even though I’d done my best to rip it out and throw it the fuck away.
“Nash!” My attention was drawn back to my family around me.
“What?” I snapped, looking wildly at them; my mind unable to focus clearly on what they were saying as it tried to process jumbled thoughts and the relentless anguish that wouldn’t let me out of its grip. The anguish that on most days I dealt with, but on this fucking day, I struggled with. No fucking thanks to Gabriella.
My mother looked at my phone and then back at my face. “Gabriella?” she whispered.
My voice was caught somewhere in my chest so I simply nodded.
“You need to change your phone number,” she suggested, her kind eyes watchful over me. Hesitation was clear in her eyes too; she knew from experience that I wasn’t good at taking advice.
I fought the urge to ignore them all, jump on the back of my bike and get the hell out of here. That would be a lot easier than dealing with this shit. Again. I blew out a long breath. “No.” I was emphatic. I’d never do that. As hard as it was to negotiate this pain, I needed to remember what we’d done; what I’d done.
Annoyance flared on my mother’s face. “It’s been ten years since Aaron -”
“No!” I roared, anger pumping furiously through my body. That was it; I was done. I pushed past them all and stalked to my bike. Voices floated through the air but I had no idea what was being said; the only thing that mattered to me in that instant was getting the fuck out of here. Getting the fuck away from the memories and the pain, and finding a reprieve from the living hell I was in.
Chapter 3
Hard To Love ~ Lee Brice
Velvet
“See how that colour brings your eyes out?” I asked.
Harlow leaned forward and assessed herself in the mirror as I packed up the eyeshadows and makeup I’d used on her. She smiled and I knew I’d achieved my goal. “You’re right!” she exclaimed, and eyed me with excitement. “I’m not sure why I’ve never experimented with that colour before.”
“It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with your makeup; we all do it.”
“Thank you so much for forcing me to let you play with my makeup.”
“You make me sound like a bossy bitch.”
A voice boomed from behind us. “If the shoe fits.”
I turned and glared at Scott.
He shrugged. “What? You are a bossy bitch, Velvet.”
“I have to be where you and the guys are concerned, but I’m not usually bossy with Harlow.”
Harlow backed me up. “Yeah, she doesn’t boss me around but I’m glad she did on this because I love what she’s done with my makeup.”
Scott walked to where Harlow was and grabbed her around the waist. He kissed her and then murmured, “I’m heading out but I’ll be back at the end of your shift to pick you up. You all good?”
I tuned them out; watching lovestruck couples together was not something I enjoyed doing. Instead, I packed away my makeup and finished getting ready for work. It was a longer shift than usual tonight because one of the other strippers was sick, and Cody had asked me to cover for her. Fortunately for Cody, I liked him, so I’d said yes. Hell, in the four years I’d worked at Indigo, Cody was the best manager they’d ever employed so I was doing everything I could to make sure he stayed.
Scott’s voice pulled me back into their conversation. “Nash is out front, Velvet. Something’s pissed him off. You got five minutes to check on him?”
“Christ, Scott, Nash is always pissed off about something lately. I doubt there’s anything I could say that would help him.”
Scott’s eyes narrowed on me. “What happened between you two? You’ve been good mates for years and now you’re hardly talking.”
“Nothing, unless you count the fact I told him a little while ago to clean his shit up, and stop fucking every chick he sets eyes on.”
Harlow sucked in a breath. “Really? You said that to him?”
I scowled at the memory. “Yes. Someone had to, because seriously, I’m concerned his dick will need resuscitation soon. Surely that thing has had enough pussy to last it two lifetimes.”
Scott snorted. “Make that three lifetimes and you’re getting close.”