Page 179 of Creep

“I need to warn you about Leo?—”

She rolled her eyes and made an annoyed sound, cutting me off. “Are you serious?”

“Victoria, Iamserious. There are some things you don’t know about him… about my dad, and you just need to stay away.”

She laughed. It wasn’t a humorous laugh. It was more harsh sounding than anything. I winced. “You wasted my time just to tell me this? I don’t need it, okay? And I don’t need you to try to get me away from him. And it’s rich you’re trying to warn me against them, considering what happened to Brody.”

I frowned.Brody?What did he have to do with anything? I haven’t even texted him in a long while and hadn’t planned on doing so.

I shook my head. “That’s not what this is?—”

“Save it, Lia. Okay? We wouldn’t have been friends in the first place had Leo not paid me to keep an eye on you.”

I blinked, unsure if she really said what she had just said. I could see Theo shifting from the corner of my eye. Her words seemed to bounce around in my head, with no meaning attaching itself inside my brain for me to make sense of it clearly.What did she just say?

“What?”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled viciously at me. “Did you really think I was interested in being friends with you? God, you’re so boring. And if I have to hear any more about your dead mother or dead brother, I might just kill myself.”

I flinched.

“Enough,” Theo said, walking up until he was beside me. He glared at Victoria.

She laughed. “Well, it looks like my mousy Lia found herself a protector.” I watched as her hard eyes moved from Theo to me. “I don’t know what you’ve done with Leo to make him so obsessed with you, but that’s done now. He’s mine. And I’m not staying away from him.”

“It’s not about that,” I said, getting frustrated. “I’m trying to?—”

“Warn me, blah, blah, blah.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “I don’t need it.”

I shook my head. My most enduring adult friendship had turned out to be nothing more than a lie orchestrated by Leo. What else had he taken away from me?

“Leave me alone,” she said. “I mean it.”

I didn’t call her back when she turned and walked away from me. I tried to warn her. It shouldn’t matter anymore, should it?

I didn’t know. Theo wrapped his arms around me and patted my shoulder awkwardly as if he didn’t know how to comfort anyone else. He probably didn’t.

I turned and buried my face in his chest. I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel anything. Not at all.

I was just numb.

46

MAEL

I raced home,trying hard not to lose the rein on my anger.

Fucking hell.

I didn’t know why she decided to warn Victoria in person without me there, but nothing good could have come from it. Now, my girl was hurt, and I didn’t know what to do.

I rushed inside the apartment with the elevator doors open. Theo was sitting on the couch in the living room and stood up when he saw me.

“Where is she?” I asked.

He nodded toward the bedroom door. “She's been in there since we got home.”

“Was she crying?”

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