Page 24 of Nothing to No One

“Who the fuck do you—”

“If we’re supposed to be a couple, we have to be comfortable with each other.”

“You some kind of priss or something?”

“There’s a place to be naughty, and it’s not at the dinner table with your family.”

“Who the fuck is she?” Roman demanded of his uncle. “She can’t talk to me this way.”

“Yeah, she can,” Struan said. “People in her world have to believe this too.”

Her world? Hmm, right, yeah, she should probably call her mom back. Wishbone might be at the back of beyond, but they were connected to the rest of the world. Forgetting her phone at the apartment might be her saving grace. The thing had probably melted by now.

“Her world?” Roman scoffed. “Who gives a fuck about her world? Call Priest, ask him to stay here.”

What the…? The guy claimed he wasn’t an addict, but his personality sure said otherwise. Were they talking about Sway and Priest again? How did he swing back to that conversation without missing a beat?

“Why would he want to stay here?”

“Is he with Zairn?”

“I don’t know,” Struan said.

“Is he fucking her?”

“Let me guess, you called and she didn’t pick up.”

Roman ran a ragged hand through his hair. “Yeah, only like forty fucking times. She needs to be here. To come here. If she’s seen the video—”

“She’s celebrating,” Struan said. “Thanking the gods she’s finally fucking free.” His eyes cut to hers. “Sorry.”

That he even thought to apologize was a massive step up from Roman’s attitude.

“So Sway’s your ex-girlfriend, and now she’s with this priest? I thought priests were celibate.”

“Not that kind of priest,” Struan said, leaning a little closer. “It’s a nickname.”

Okay, that story would have to wait.

“We don’t know where she is,” Magnus said.

Quickly followed up by Struan. “It’s not our business.”

“Is she with Deacon?” Roman didn’t let a little thing like reality deter him. “Is she fucking both of them?”

“Yeah,” Struan said. “That’s it, she’s fucking everyone, Priest, Deacon, Zairn, even Logan. The Kintyre wedding this past weekend was a mass orgy. Know how many rich guys were in town? Bet she was screwing all of them. A lot of well-known faces to get down and dirty with.”

Roman thrust to his feet. “We’re going to the house.”

“Have a great time,” Struan said, the only one willing to challenge his brother, to meet obstinance with obstinance. “You think you can get into Knox Collier’s house unseen? You think the guy doesn’t have security? More headlines! Great, brother, Bambi’s off the hook and your career sinks right down that drain it’s circling.”

The standing man’s jaw moved as his lips thinned. Yeah, he was mad, but from what she could tell, he was doing this to himself.

“If she’s your ex,” she asked, “why is it your business who she’s hooking up with?”

Went to show that no amount of money or fame changed that baser form of men with his affliction. Narcissism, in its simplest form, poisoned the blood of people like this, those who believed they were better than others.

Was that the difference? Struan, Roman, from one man to the next, she tried to decipher what it was about them that made their difference in aura so stark.

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