It was all shock before a rush of anger came raging in. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here? You know you aren’t supposed to be at my house.”
She strutted right past me like she owned the place, wearing high heels and tight black leather pants, slinking in and taking in my home like she were calculating exactly what it would be worth when it belonged to her.
Probably wasn’t that far off the mark.
She looked back at me with all that innocent wrath. “Hmm…well, I figured since you were breaking the rules, I might as well, too.”
My hands fisted. It took all I had to keep myself rooted to that spot, every part of me itching to drag her right back out. “You’re not welcome here.”
She tsked and wandered deeper, over near the sofas. She picked up a framed picture of me and the rest of the guys, studied it, and caressed her finger over the faces. Then she looked over at me. “It’s such a shame your brother’s not in this picture, isn’t it?”
I ground my teeth. “I’m warning you, Veronica.”
She set it down, so casually. Too casually. I shook, fucking hating that she held all the control as she strolled around my loft. “You know, I’m really not the fangirl type. Living in LA all my life, I know better.”
Right.
Like she hadn’t hunted my brother down.
“But some headlines are just too big to miss, especially when they’re splashed all over the front pages of everyone’s favorite tabloids.”
She sighed as if it actually hurt her and she wasn’t over there doing her best to cinch that noose just a little tighter around my neck.
“I signed into Facebook this morning, and guess what was trending? Zee Kennedy. Sunder prince. The boy who’d always worn the innocent crown, never dipping his fingers into all the…let’s say…unsavory offerings like the rest of his friends.”
Sadly, she shook her head. “And there he was, caught with a lover, right outside the hospital.”
I was at my end. “What fucking difference does it make?”
She turned on me, spewing venom. “What difference does it make? You took him from me, and we had an agreement. You promised.”
“And you’re gonna stand over there and pretend like you weren’t responsible, too? You’re the one who came to me.”
She blinked, feigning offense, like there wasn’t any chance she was guilty of the same goddamned sin. Slowly, she wound back my direction. “We were both hurting.”
Resentful laughter tumbled out. “I wasn’t anything but prey. Just like my brother. As far as I’m concerned, you can go fuck yourself.”
She ran her fingers down the front of my shirt. “I actually prefer when it’s you.”
I gripped her by the wrist, probably squeezing too hard. “You are nothing to me, Veronica. I don’t belong to you. I haven’t in a lot of years. Get out.”
She hefted a shoulder as she passed me by. “Liam says hi.”
That was the thing about Veronica. She knew exactly where to get me. I blew out a breath, trying not to completely lose my cool. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
Scorn rolled from her when she turned back to look at me from out in the hall. “He always has. You want to see him again? It’s going to cost you.” Then she headed for the elevator.
Of course, it had to be at the exact same second Alexis was stepping off.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Alexis
Anxiety twisted through me as I stepped onto Zee’s elevator. He’d been strained since he’d shown up unannounced at my house five days ago. Questions so evident in his eyes. His direction unclear. His path obscured.
The thing was, I could see it shining all around him. Beckoning him forward. Calling to all his brilliance and talent that I felt bleeding from his soul and through his fingers every time he sat in front of the piano.
I wanted him to embrace it. Find it.
I jabbed the button for the sixth floor, maybe a little too eagerly as I waited for it to carry me to him.
The metal doors slid open, and I started forward only to stumble on my surprise when a woman shouldered past me, a grin on her face.
A grin that was pure menace.
Like somehow I’d been caught red-handed and she was all too happy to be the one to bring me in.
I held her malicious glare as she climbed onto the elevator, her smirk widening as she punched at the button and the doors slid closed.
Warily, I turned back to where Zee was standing in his doorway. Every inch of him was rigid, muscles bulging and bristling with throttled rage.
I blinked at him, hating the way my feet fumbled as I forced myself to take a step, the sinking fear that seeped through the surface of my skin as I tried to process the scene.
His jaw ticked beneath his beard when I stopped two feet in front of him.
“You said to come,” I forced out, every emotion I was feeling exposed when the words cracked.
It seemed to snap him from the wall of fury, and he looked down at me.
Grief lashed across his face as he stepped back. “Please, come inside.”
Something fierce and severe climbed into the air.
So thick it made it difficult to breathe as I dropped my head and entered his loft. I swallowed around the thick knot of emotion, moving toward the windows, to the light that poured in like a crashing, ravaging wave.
I stood in the midst of it, panting for the breaths the mood had stolen.
“Alexis.” He whispered it from directly behind me. My hair was up in a high ponytail, and his fingertips trailed the star dangling down the back of my neck.
“Who was she?”
“No one.” It was hard.
Slowly, I turned to face him. To watch his lie. “Don’t tell me she is no one when she’s so obviously someone.”
This had gotten complicated.
Because there I stood, making demands I’d promised him I wouldn’t make. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t change the fact that I’d fallen.
Fallen hard and fast.
I was terrified of hitting the ground.
His jaw tightened. “She’s the past.”
I reached out and fisted my hands in his shirt. “Then tell me I’m the future.”
He flinched. “You know I can’t do that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I already told you I couldn’t do this, Alexis. You already knew this was temporary. Fuck…it never should’ve even gotten started. Told you I couldn’t do this…and here I am.”
“What if this is exactly where you’re supposed to be?”
“And what if it ruins me?”
“What if you’re breaking my heart?”
He edged me closer to the window. Heat blanketed my back and poured into my spirit as he wound an errant piece of hair around his finger, brushing at the side of my neck.
It made the room spin and my breaths heavy. How did one man exert this much control over me? I was supposed to be the strong one.
The brave one.
Instead I was trembling at his feet.
He murmured rough words at the side of my face. “Last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you, Alexis. I was supposed to protect you. Take care of you.”
Right then, I knew the only thing in danger was my heart.