“No,” I shook my head. “And I guess, he wouldn’t want to hear it now.”
“Why?” he inquired, walking toward the bed and taking a seat beside me. I lay back, my hands coming to rest behind my head. “I guess I messed up. I sort of kissed Nate—again, and Brantley, when I shouldn’t have wanted them all, all this time, and I haven’t wanted them, but there were times when I did want them all. But I love Bishop, and he’s irreplaceable in all sense of the word, but I also have so much anger toward him with this life, the secrets he has held from me, and for the love of God.” I sat up, resting on my elbows. “He knows something about Tillie!” I’m well aware my imbalanced brother probably didn’t give a flying fuck about my teen drama, but I also knew that he probably didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about.
He visibly stilled beside me, and I turned to face him. “Daemon?”
He shook his head and sighed. “She safe. For now.”
“What!” I shoot off the bed. “What do you mean? What do you know?”
“Too much,” was all he said, absently looking over my shoulder. He laid backward and curled into a ball, and my chest tightened. He was suffering so much, and I couldn’t do anything to help him.
Leaving him to get through what he was battling with, I left his bedroom and walked into mine. He knew something about Tillie too. I needed to see her. She needed to come home and keep Nate on a leash. Flopping down onto my unmade bed, I cringed at how it felt. The sheets felt like betrayal and the pillows smelled of deceit. I quickly flew to my feet and stripped my bed clean. I carried the sheets out my door and dropped them in the hallway, walking to the linen cupboard and taking out fresh pillowcases, sheets and then search for a blanket cover.
“Come on,” I groaned, flipping through the masses of linen but coming out with nothing. I sunk onto the floor, fighting tears again. I majorly fucked up.
“You ok?” Nate asked, coming toward me. “No offense, but you don’t look too good.”
I snorted, wiping my nose and swallowing through the swollen boulder in my throat. “I—I’ll be fine.” Then I move my eyes to his. “I need to go see Bishop.”
“Ah, I don’t think that’s a very good idea right now, just saying…”
Standing to my feet, I shove everything back into the closet and close it. “I’m going to see him, Nate. Whether he wants to see me or not.”
“Er, ok, well, I’ll take you.”
“Fine,” I huffed, scurrying to my room to change quickly. I slipped into some hipster white skinny jeans and a little black strap top that showed a slit of my belly. Obviously, Tatum had been rubbing off on me a lot lately. Speaking of—I swiped my phone from the bedside table and quickly typed out a text to her.
R u ok?
I hadn’t actually replied to her since the party before all this shit exploded. I didn’t even check on her to see if she got home ok. Panic started to set in my gut and my eyes darted around the room.
“She’s ok.”
I turned around to see Nate leaning up against my door frame.
“Jesus. I’m a terrible friend, Nate.”
He shook his head, pushing off the door frame and coming into my room. “No, you’re not. It’s only been one day, and you’ve seen a lot of shit in that one day. Cut yourself some slack.” He flipped his cap backward and his eyes glittered with mischief. “Let’s ride.”
I really freaking wish I had spent more time on my hair and makeup instead of being rushed out the door by my own anxiety. I only managed to splash on some tinted moisturizer and mascara. I leaned up from the plush leather seat, grabbing my cherry lip balm out of my pocket and smothering some on, just enough to make my lips feel kissable. Stupid.
Nate’s matte black 2018 Audi-something pulled to a stop, just outside the front doors to Bishop’s home. I swallowed the memories that this house raised and reached for the door handle. Nate cut off the loud car, halting me with his hand on my other arm.
“Seriously,” I gritted. “How much did this car cost you?”
He shrugged. “Was a present, it’d be rude to not accept.”
“Trust fund brat,” I muttered, just as his door closed. I pushed mine open and got out, noticing Bishop’s matte black Maserati GranTurismo. “Did you make it this low and supped up? Like what is with all of you boys, you all ride in damn near half a million dollar cars and SUV’s, then you guys all modify them to look like something fresh out of Fast and Furious.”
I eyed Nate’s new car. It really was beautiful, even though it was extremely low to the ground. The wheels were splattered with gloss black and the windows were also black.
“Well, dear sister, first of all, have you forgotten we all race?” He quirked his eyebrow, closing my door. “Well, for shits and giggles mostly, and to run shit around town for Hector daddy boss.”
“No, I hadn’t forgotten, I’m just waiting for the time to bombard you all with my millions of questions. I figure if I ask you separately, you’re more inclined to answer me. Whereas if I push all these questions on you all at once, there’s a chance you guys will let a few answers slip and I may not catch them. I’m being thorough.” We were walking through the side gate now, heading straight for Bishop’s pool house. The architecture continued to render me speechless. His pool house was an exact replica of the main house, only smaller, and it was more like a two-bedroom loft, fitted with an open fireplace, a small bar, lush red marble counters, and the stairs that lead to his bedroom were built with glass. Nerves began to eat at me, and I stopped walking, silently freaking out. What if he was in bed with Khales? I couldn’t be mad at him, but I knew it would shatter me. Besides the fact that yes, I had handled things erratically in the past, I didn’t think I’d ever allow another man to physically put his dick in me—no matter how dizzy I may be at the time. Bishop, on the other hand, was a male. And he was—Bishop. Shit.
“Kitty, it’ll be ok. Whatever happens from here, just swallow what you see.”
My eyebrows pulled in together, then I let myself get lost in Nate’s eyes. The comfort of knowing I could trust him eloped me, and I quickly nodded my head. I could do this—regardless, and I needed to do this. I needed to tell him everything and fuck the consequences. We continued toward the pool house and then climbed the little wrap around porch. Adrenaline spiked through me, and just as Nate went to knock (even though I damn well know he never knocked with Bishop or any of the other guys before), I twisted the door handle and pushed open the door. Fuck it. I was Madison fucking Montgomery, and Bishop Vincent mother-fucking Hayes was mine.
There was laughing in the kitchen, then it went silent. Bishop stalked around, my lady parts humming. He looked pissed, and pissed Bishop was always a glorious sight. He was shirtless, the ripples of his tight body on display for me to wander, then my eyes dropped down to his jeans. Slightly loose, with tears and rips in all the right places, bare feet, and then my eyes slowly traveled their way back up again. He had a cap flipped backward, his hair sticking out the edges slightly, a bottle of Jack dangled from between his fingers, and then I zeroed in on his eyes. They hardened on me, and he bared his teeth with a slight hiss, eyeing me up and down in disgust.
Oh shit.
He was way past pissed.
He sauntered into the little room even more, his swagger mixed between a relaxed soldier getting ready to go to war, and a loose teenage boy who gives no fucks.
He was… was he drunk?
“Bishop?” Stupid first thing to say, but it was all I could manage.