Page 80 of Trustfall

Am I sure of that? No. But I don’t want Nate to end up in jail for murder, which is where things are heading right now.

“I let him go once already. I’m not making that mistake again,” he says as he moves his hand up and covers Jaxon’s throat, squeezing.

“Nate, please,” I beg, but he doesn’t even flinch.

“I should have done this years ago.”

“Years ago? As in…” And then realization slams into me like a tidal wave.I told you what would happen if you came back. I let him go once already.

Nate sent Jaxon away.

After graduation. He didn’t want to leave without me. Nate threatened him.

“You knew,” I spit out. “You knew about me and Jaxon.”

“Yes,” Nate rasps, still gripping Jaxon’s throat. His eyes are bugging out and he’s gasping for air.

“But how…” It’s a split second. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I wasn’t laser focused on everything happening around me. But I do notice it. I see the second Nate’s eyes stray to where Allie stands.

“Allie?” I ask, turning around to look at her.

“Emory. He was killing you,” she pleads. “Every time you cried yourself to sleep in my arms. Every time he made you think you were worthless. He took a piece of you every single time. There would have been nothing left if you had gone to California. We never would have gotten you back.”

“That was my decision to make. Not yours.”

“I know.”

“You promised me.” Of all the people in my life, Allie is the last person who I thought would ever betray me.

We are family. Not the kind you are born with—the kind you choose.

It hurts so much more coming from her.

“I know,” she says again, her blue eyes flooding with tears.

“You know?” I snap. “Allie, you sat there rubbing my back while I cried my eyes out. You carried me out of the bathroom when I couldn’t get off the fucking floor. And the whole time, youknew? You fucking knew Nate made him leave, and you didn’t tell me.”

Allie lets out a soft sob and Jaxon makes a strangled noise, his hands grasping and clawing at Nate. I clamp my mouth shut. Even on the verge of death, Jaxon doesn’t get to hear any more about how much he affected me back then.

That’s when I realize something. My brother is going to kill my ex-boyfriend with his bare hands. And there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

27

LUKE

I tip my glass up,the remaining brown liquid sliding down my throat. I wince at the burn. I’ve never understood people who just sip whiskey neat. I’ll take a cold beer over this any day. But I decided twenty minutes into this thing that I needed something stronger than champagne, so now I’m on my third whiskey. This night is turning out to be nothing like what I imagined in my head when Emory first asked me to go with her. She wasn’t ready to tell Nate. Fine. I was disappointed, but I’m a big boy. I can handle it. But she’s been ignoring me all night, and now she’s completely disappeared. I swear to God she’s gonna regret this little stunt when I’m edging her to the point of madness later.

People start to file into their seats as I get up from mine. Dinner must be starting soon, and I’m gonna need another drink to survive two more hours here. I look down at my phone to see if Emory has texted, not paying attention to where I’m going when I run smack into something hard. I look up and none other than that prick who had his hands all over Emory at Nate’s birthday is standing in front of me.

“Excuse m—” he starts to say but then realizes who I am. “You,” he says with a smirk.

“Me.” I shoot back.

“Are you here with her?” he asks pointedly, and now I’m really fucking pissed. This guy keeps popping up inmylife, and he has the balls to ask if I’m here with my own girlfriend?

“Emory? Of course I’m here with her. She’s mine.”

“No, not Emory. Alexandra,” he clarifies.

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