My own frustration burned through my blood. “I asked you not to invite her, Emily. That was my one request, coming here and staying here, and you did it, anyway. Imagine my surprise when I saw her standing across the room. Can you not give me that one ounce of respect?”
“It was my engagement party.” She looked at me in disbelief.
Yeah, and this was our lives.
My head shook in frustration.
“I know that, Emily. But I asked you not to invite one person. One fucking person, and you couldn’t give me that.”
“I’ve been asking you to let me in for years. Beggin’ you to make me understand why you would do this. What you’re going through. I know there’s something there, and after everything? After Cory getting arrested and us being signed with Stone Industries instead? After you know what happened to me? And you still keep me in the dark?”
“Fuck,” I muttered, looking toward the ground like it would afford me patience. Or maybe I could find a hole and bury myself to escape the guilt that was going to eat me alive.
No atonement for what had been done.
Emily and I had gone round and round for the last few years.
Fighting.
Me coming off like a prick at every turn.
But she didn’t understand what was at stake.
That I had always been on her side.
That I wanted nothing more than to make this better.
I hadn’t known the brutality she’d been subjected to because of me.
What that bastard Cory Douglas had held over her, used as twisted manipulation.
I couldn’t wait to see that fucker burn. She wanted answers for those pictures I was in. Problem was, those were answers I still couldn’t give her.
That was what happened when your life was made up of lies. When you’d been cut off at the knees, bartered through blackmail and intimidation.
I took a step toward her, my head angled low in a bid to reach her. “You think I keep you in the dark to protect myself, Emily? Because I’m some twisted fuck keepin’ deranged secrets? I keep you in the dark because it’s the only chance I have of making this right.”
“I know that. I just don’t understand what it has to do with Violet,” she begged. “Why you would treat her that way. She was…”
She trailed off, but I knew.
She was amazing.
Kind and good and genuine.
Every-fucking-thing I’d wanted and had proved I didn’t deserve.
Fuck. I wanted to yank every last hair from my head.
Royce moved to stand behind Emily. He set his hands on her shoulders, and his voice turned soothing, “Emily…come on, baby, take a deep breath. You don’t know what he might be going through. We talked about this, yeah? About everything needing to run its course before it’s revealed. Besides, that’s his ex we’re talking about.”
Emily stared over at me with hurt on her face.
“But this is different. This is Violet we’re talking about.” Her head shook while Royce continued to support her from behind. “I…I just don’t understand you, Richard. She loved you like crazy. Would have done anything for you. You should have offered her the same.”
I surged forward. “Please. Just don’t, Emily. Don’t. She’s in the past. I need her to stay there.”
She had to.
“I love her like a sister. I want the best for her. She needs us, Rich. Her mama and Daisy…” She trailed off with the implication.
She might as well have finished with the way her declaration smashed through my being.
Grief constricting airflow. Throat closing off. Chest squeezing like a bitch.
The words were haggard when I stumbled forward and urged from two feet away, “If you care about either of us, then let her go.”
I climbed the steps, winding around her to head inside.
I had to put an end to this.
Leave that girl in the past where she belonged.
Pretend like it didn’t matter.
I had the screen door open when Emily’s voice hit me from behind. “What if I can’t do that?”
I spoke toward the still closed door, holding onto the handle like it might keep me from getting blown away by this storm I felt brewing. “If you want the best for her then you will.”
“I asked her to be in the weddin’. She accepted.”
Every word felt like a dagger being stabbed in my back.
My teeth ground.
Anger and dread surged.
Overwhelming.
I punched the wall next to the door, roaring as I did it. Pain shattered from my knuckles to my wrist. Anything to divert the fury.
Emily yelped like she was the innocent one in the situation. But the truth was, she had no clue what she was doing. What she was inciting. Thinking she was fighting for the good when she was only going to ruin me a little more.
I turned around to look at her. “Great, Emily. Just fuckin’ great.”
Because I didn’t know how to be in Violet’s space without losin’ my damn mind.
Didn’t know how to look at her without breaking every damn promise I’d made.
Didn’t know how to walk this thin line.
Without looking back, I tossed the door open, stormed inside, and moved into the dining room where I grabbed a bottle of bourbon from my father’s stash in the cabinet.
They say you can’t drink away your problems.
Well, I sure as fuck was going to try.
Five
Violet
Sunlight flooded through the sheer drapes in my room and nudged me from the last dregs of the horrible night of sleep I’d had. Tossing and turning, falling asleep only to jolt awake from the dreams that wouldn’t leave me alone.
My skin still tingled with the phantom vestiges of his touch. My senses still filled with the aura of the man.
I sat up in bed, my knees drawn to my chest, and I rubbed at my wrist that still burned from his caress while my ears continued to ring with the cruelty of his words.
Standing in his presence had made me feel like I was being ripped to shreds by a tornado. Tossed from one direction to another. Lost somewhere between the torment of his eyes and the rejection that had blazed from his body.
I guessed maybe the hardest part of it was the connection that flamed and lapped underneath it all.
Electricity.
That bolt of intuition I’d forever felt whenever he’d come near.
The man like destiny.
A force that could not be denied.
No matter how hard we tried to dismiss it, it was there. Clear where it held fast to the atmosphere.
And if I wasn’t already slugging through the dregs of turmoil, the man had had the audacity to follow me home.
The overwhelming presence steady and unwavering as it’d pulsed through the night.
I’d had to stop myself about fifteen times from pulling over and demanding that he leave me alone. That I couldn’t handle whatever game he played. To beg him to stay.
Captivating and repelling. The refusal in the same second it felt as if he had me caught in a snare.
Hunting me for the sole purpose to annihilate.
I blew out a sigh, when I heard the indistinct chatter of voices and the clanking of dishes that drifted up from downstairs. I refused to allow myself to lie there and waste any more time on a man who didn’t care about me.