Page 65 of Bound By Threads
Before I can register what’s happened, he stands over me, his chest heaving. His eyes are cold and lifeless. “You don’t deserve her. Hell, even I don’t, but I swore I’d always protect her, and I mean it. Upset her again, and it’ll be more than a fist to your jaw.”
Then, without another word, he turns and walks out, slamming the door behind him.
I sit here, my body trembling. The pain in my jaw is nothing compared to the ache in my gut because everything he said… It’s all true.
Chapter31
Lottie
“We need to talk,” Elijah’s gruff voice washes over me, and I sigh, feeling his presence behind me. The years of stripping stop me from flinching. I’m used to seeing presences randomly appearing behind or next to me, and I would’ve lost my job if I hadn’t found a way to control my reaction.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I say as I turn around, not expecting the two other familiar faces to be standing there. “Not to you, any of you.”
“You owe us answers, Scarlett,” Roman grinds out. I can practically see the tick in his jaw as he stares at me.
I let out a humorless laugh. “It’s Lottie now, and I owe you threenothing.” I sneer the final word, refusing to let them draw out any more truths from me. I can feel the rage coursing through me, not believing that they actually think they deserve those answers. But then again, I’m not surprised. Roman has always felt entitled when it came to me.
The boy who stole my first kiss so Crew and Elijah couldn’t.
The boy who knew I wanted it to go to the one who matched the broken pieces of me, but he couldn’t handle the feeling of not being first.
I almost laugh. How would he feel if hereally knewwhat happened?
“Please,” Crew says, his voice almost a plea, but he can barely look at me. “We just want to speak to you for a minute, then we’ll go.”
He was always the softest of them…
Memories of the torment. The pig’s blood sticking to my hair and clothes. The sneer on his face. The way his eyes lit up when I would rush off, shoulder checking him as I ran to wipe whatever they found to dump on me off. He was the softest until he wasn’t… he became someone I no longer recognized.
And now, as I look at him, I see that he isn’t that boy anymore, either. Nothing about him has changed much, but his eyes look sunken as if they’re shrouded in shadows, and his eyes… once that gorgeous shade of brown, are now almost midnight black. His hands shaking.
A look I know all too well.
“Please,”He pleads again.
I want to say no, but Crew was always the one I struggled to say no to the most. He lost everything to drugs, just like I did. We were both peas in a pod, he used to say, and I would grin, linking my arm with his and telling him we’d always have each other because we just got it.
Now I barely recognize him.
“Fine.”
We endup in a café on campus at my insistence, and I text Oscar to let him know where I’m going and with who.
Sure enough, as we sat down, Oscar was already in a booth, watching me enter, his eyes narrowed on the minuscule space between me and the others.
The soft hum of the café is almost comforting, but the tension racks up between us as the silent questions go unanswered. The three of them sit across from me, and I stare at the boys I once knew and study who they’ve now become.
I can barely recognize them.
The waiter smiles as he serves our coffee, oblivious to the stretched silence between us. “Enjoy.”
I nod. They know me here. They know I don’t normally talk even if I’ve been working on it, but I know I need to now.
“We want answers.” Roman orders, and I roll my eyes, tracing the rim of my coffee cup.
“What you want and what you get are two very different things, Roman. I have answers. Answers you aren’t entitled to — ones you may never get…” I take a sip of my coffee, eyeing them all warily. “I owe you nothing. I’m here because I chose to be. Now ask me what you want to ask.”
“Why did you cut us off?” Crew blurts, but I can see the pain in his eyes. “What did we do?”
