“Who’s that fucker that was all over you?” he demanded, inching forward. I backed up against the cold tiled wall. “Who was that little blond prick? You fucking him? Why the fuck were his lips on yours?”
“Who is he?” I whispered incredulously, anger lacing my voice at his attitude. “Who is he?” I shrilled louder. “He’s an old friend! Someone I haven’t seen in years!”
Axel’s lips ran over his teeth, visibly shaking. I stepped forward as he stared me down, his eyes blazing with anger. “Who the fuck are you, Elpidio?”
“Don’t,” he warned, icily.
“Don’t?” I snapped, “Don’t? You’re Axel Carillo! Axel fucking Carillo! Jesus!” I ran my hand over my forehead when Axel didn’t say a word. “You’re the reason my friend almost lost his scholarship with the Tide. You ran away and left him to deal with everything on his own. You left him to deal drugs just to make money for your family! You threatened to ‘shut up’ my best friend who was battling Anorexia! And you hate my cousin, like you’d kill each other if you got the chance, hate each other! And…”
I choked on the sob which was working its way up my throat.
“And what?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Don’t fucking stop now when you’re laying all this shit at my feet.”
I met his expressionless eyes and said, “And you’ve been in prison! Shit, Elpi! What we’ve shared these past weeks… what we shared last night… and you’re fucking Axel Carillo! You were meant to be Elpidio! You were the only guy that I’ve ever felt that fucking bolt of lightening in my heart with, and you turn out to be… him! You!”
Axel reared back as if I’d slapped him and my breathing stuttered at the amount of pain etched on his face. “And you’re Ally Prince,” he said tightly, but I could hear the hurt radiating in his voice. I’d hurt him. Really hurt him.
“I’ve heard of you, Ally. I know your fucking cousin, remember. I know what family you come from. Your rich-assed oil family.” I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him he knew shit about me, when he said, “You were meant to be Aliyana Lucia… the woman that I tried to push away, but you kept coming back anyway, fucking melting me. You were meant to be Aliyana, the only woman, no, the only person who knows what I’ve been doing with my life for the last few years while inside, trying to keep my head down and not fucking suffocate under my guilt. You were meant to be the woman who claimed to feel my work. And you were meant to be the woman that told me that I was worth my weight in gold even though I told you I had a fucked up past. I’d warned you! I’d told you I was less than scum.”
My heart sank as he spoke those words, because I did say that. I was that person. But all this time, we were both pretending to be someone else. I wasn’t sure at this point if any of what we shared was real. I was so damn hurt… so shocked… so confused that I’d lost my heart to a criminal. A man I’d been led to believe was a ruthless, soulless prick.
Our heavy breathing filled up the bathroom. And, after a stabbing expression flitted across Axel’s face, he turned on his heel and stormed toward the door, turning the lock.
Suddenly panicking that he was leaving, my heart overrode my head and I called out, “Elpi!”
He stopped dead in his tracks, glanced back, and with pure pain in his eyes, said, “Turns out I was right, Aliyana. No fucker can forgive my past, no matter how hard I try to move on. Ain’t no redemption for me. You lied when you said I could be forgiven, Aliyana. You lied to my fucking face. Worst part is, I believed you. I believed you might be my light in this whole fucking mess.” Eyebrows pulled down, his facial expression became severe. “That’s what fucking hurts most.”
He opened the door and left, before I could even summon the words to beg him to wait, to talk this out.
Sliding slowly down the wall I slumped into a messy heap. I couldn’t holdback the heavy flow of tears.
Chapter Thirteen
Axel
“Who the fuck are you, Elpidio?”
Aliyana’s, no, Ally fucking Prince’s words haunted my mind. No, they had taken possession of my goddamn mind as I drove my Camino like a damn bat of hell toward my studio. I’d bailed on Austin and Levi. I hadn’t told anyone I was leaving. I couldn’t. I couldn’t face everyone in that damn rich-assed suite, everyone who wished I wasn’t there. The people who thought I was trash, looked at me like they wanted nothing more for me than to disappear… Aliyana and Molly looking at me like I was gonna walk up to them, pull out a gun and fucking murder them.
Aliyana! Christ, how could she fear me now? Now that I’d shown her the real me?