He visibly paled and held up his hands in surrender. “It’s not like that.”
Izzy chose that moment to walk by and go. “Oh, it’s exactly like that.”
“She’s lying!” he roared. “We haven’t even—”
“Kill him, Ash.” She batted her eyelashes. “Do it for your fave sis.”
I reached for him.
He stumbled back and shot her a glare. “Grow a heart, Jezebel!”
“Grow a bigger penis, small fry!”
Junior grabbed Maksim by the collar and shoved him in the opposite direction. “I swear the hormones just make it harder to deal with them.”
Izzy opened her mouth to most likely yell, but Serena clapped a hand over it and whispered. “Just walk away, yes in that direction, oh look, wine!”
“Shit, they’re worse than you guys used to be,” I grumbled. “And that’s saying something, and who the hell asks for oral sex tips when screwing my sister?”
Junior barked out a laugh. “It’s not like they’re together anymore.”
“Thus the animosity.” I shook my head. “He’s just pissed I made Dad cut down the tree by her window.”
Junior held out his fist. “I approve of this cock block.”
I hit his fist with mine. “Thank you, I do try.”
He glanced over his shoulder and leaned in. “So a little bird—”
“Cut the shit, we both know King’s the bird who told Valerian who probably told you…”
As if hearing his name Valerian sped over to us, sat down, and leaned in. “You went down on her in the rain?”
Junior smirked. “Nice.”
“No, not nice! She could have caught a cold… holy shit, just tell me to stop talking. Am I turning into an old man now? Is that what being boss has done to me?” Valerian grumbled.
“Saw a gray hair, didn’t wanna freak you out.” Junior shrugged.
“Son of a bitch.” He shot to his feet and stomped out of the room, most likely in search of a mirror where he’d find out he had nothing but perfect hair, then come back and try to pick a fight with Junior, which, let’s be honest, ever since he’d become a boss could be a tough fight for Junior to win.
Not that I’d ever tell Junior that.
“He’s gonna punch you when he comes back.” I leaned back into the leather couch and put my hands behind my head.
Junior grinned. “I sure hope so; we don’t want the Petrov boss getting soft.” He was quiet a minute and then, “So you and Annie…”
“Saw that coming…”
“Yeah, well…” His eyes searched mine. “Can I ask a question and not get punched in the dick for it?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Depends on the question.”
“Are you just… oh shit, I’m gonna get hit, I just know it—but are you fucking with her?”
“The hell?” I shoved his chest. “No!”
He exhaled. “Good, because I heard it was you behind all those horrible tweets, not that I blame you for wanting whatever retribution or revenge you could get. I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t being a sadistic asshole.”
My stomach churned. “You’re right, I was responsible for the tweets, but—”
A gasp sounded behind me.
Junior’s eyes widened. “Annie…”
“Fuck.” I jumped to my feet only to have her slam her hands against me, sending me sailing backward.
“YOU!” she yelled. She never yelled. Her face was red, tears were already streaming down her cheeks. She was never supposed to know. “You did that? To me?”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “But you don’t understand—”
“Fuck you!” Serena moved to stand behind Annie. “How could you be such a prick!”
Junior slowly moved away from me.
And when I looked up, it was to see my entire family backing Annie.
Not me.
“I had my reasons,” I finally said.
“Nothing,” Annie yelled. “And I do mean NOTHING excuses that level of bullying. God, I can’t believe we just—” She covered her mouth with her hand and choked out a sob. “You’ve been lying this whole time, haven’t you? Playing me? Playing my emotions. I trusted, I thought, after that… after…” She stumbled forward.
I caught her before she collapsed against the floor.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong.
The night before I needed her to hate me.
Well, at least my dad got that part right.
She would go into the next evening wanting me dead.
I just hoped this conversation wasn’t a bad omen.
I picked her up in my arms, ignoring the protests from everyone around me. As much as I wanted to take her back to the pool house, I knew that my chance was gone.
Tonight I could have been the nice guy and still failed at that given the chance.
And now I was the monster again.
The monster she needed me to be tomorrow.
Maybe that was my curse.
My cross to bear.
That in life, I’d never be the hero.
Always the villain, no matter what choice I made or who I tried to protect—hell, the one time I’d tried to protect someone, to truly take care of them—she’d been killed.