Page 20 of Stalked By Axel

“Why? So you can break her heart again?” It’s Ingrid this time. “Haven’t you done enough?”

I blink at the girls in confusion. Moments ago, Brooke was smiling at me, and now I’ve supposedly broken her heart? These girls are making no sense, and I find my patience slipping quickly. “Ladies, where is Brooke? Is she okay?”

“No, she’s not. Thanks to you.”

I clench my jaw and gather the tattered shreds of my composure. “How about you tell me what it is you’re talking about and where Brooke is. I’m sure whatever is going on is a simple misunderstanding.”

“Brooke went to ask if you wanted another beer and overheard you and Gray talking. She came back sobbing,” Ingrid says after a moment, then Jade chimes in.

“She didn’t tell us what she heard, but it was enough to make her cry. We offered to leave with her, but she said she wanted to be alone,” Jade says with another glare. “You really are a jerk, you know that? Brooke is head over heels for you, but you just had to go and break her heart.”

I tune the girls out for a moment, searching my memory for what Brooke could have heard Gray and I say that would upset her so much.

“If you don’t love her, then leave her alone so she can find someone who does!”

Those words send a heavy boulder settling in my stomach, and I turn back to the girls. They must read the fury and possessiveness in my expression because they both back up a step. “Brooke won’t be finding anyone else. The only way someone else can have her is over my dead body.” I turn to look in the direction of the elevator. “She’s everything to me.”

“Well, she seems to believe otherwise,” Jade says, her voice softer now.

And that’s my fault. Fuck, I shouldn’t have waited to tell Brooke how I felt. That what I feel for her is deeper and stronger than just lust, stronger than love even. The thought that Brooke is somewhere second guessing me is enough to have me running after her.

I turn back to Gray, and he motions for me to go. “Get out of here. I’ll see you next week, and when I do, I want to hear that you fixed this. Tell Brooke I’m sorry if something I said upset her.”

Fuck, I have to fix this.

Chapter Ten

Brooke

I shouldn’t have gone over to ask Axel if he wanted another beer. Maybe then, I would have remained oblivious to what Axel felt about us, but no, I just had to overhear something I didn’t want to.

“Do you love her?”

Everything in me had wanted to turn around and run the moment I heard Gray ask Axel that question, but for some reason, I couldn’t make myself move. My feet felt glued to the ground, air stuck in my throat as I waited for his answer. If he had told Gray that he was still figuring it out, I could have accepted that, but no. Axel’s feelings are rooted in a sense of obligation to my father.

“I made her father a promise.”

The tears don’t stop spilling, but I’ve long quit trying to hide them from the Uber driver, a nice older gentleman who keeps tossing worried looks my way. “Are you okay miss?” he asks when we pull up at a red light, and my first instinct is to tell the man that I’m fine, but that would be lying.

No, I’m not fine.

“The man I love doesn’t feel the same about me,” I blurt out, dropping my phone to my lap. He wants me, sure. The attraction between us is undeniable, but “I want more than what he can offer me.”

The driver sighs. “You young girls and your fragile hearts.”

Well, that was unhelpful. What use was it asking me if he was going to judge me for my answer anyway? I sit back with a sigh, sniffing into the sleeve of my sweater as I stare out the window. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to leave, but I couldn’t stay after hearing those words.

“I care about her… I made her father a promise.”

To anyone else, this would have meant everything, but to me, it sounds like a man stuck in the responsibility he was given. It’s the basis of everything he’s done so far. Of course he cares about me. I’m his best friend’s daughter.

I wanted his love, not his obligation.

For years, I’ve craved his love. A feeling exclusive to me, but it seems I’ll never get that. In a perfect world, Axel would have told Gray that he was madly in love with me. Loved me so much that he was terrified by the intensity of it.

“I made her father a promise.”

My thoughts wander, and before I know it, we’ve arrived at my apartment building. My shoulders sag in relief when I see Scarlett waiting outside the entrance holding a bottle of wine. I don’t know how she got here so fast, but I’m grateful she was willing to leave her family to meet me.

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