Page 38 of Winter Ends
“This—this isn’t Daniel.”
The line was quiet for a moment before a laugh filtered across it. “Well, shit. Cock sucker finally found himself someone, did he?”
I pulled the phone away from my head and stared at the device for a moment. This was supposed to be Daniel’s friend, and this was how he talked about him?
“Watch your mouth.”
“Or what? Not like you can fucking do anything to me. Not any worse than being locked up. You want to tell your little butt buddy that he needs to fucking talk to me?”
All I could see was red as my grip on the phone tightened. “Listen here—”
“No, you listen. I don’t know what the hell he’s told you, but he was mine first.”
Something in my chest squeezed. What the hell was this fucker talking about? He’d been making it very clear that he had a distaste for Daniel’s preferences.
Art let out a wicked laugh. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see him like that at all, but it doesn’t change anything. He belongs to me. That asshole wanted me first.”
I sat frozen as what he was saying washed over me.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t? Let me spell it out for you. Daniel wants my ass. Mine. I wouldn’t give it to him, but I sure as fuck shared my girlfriend with him. Dude has seen me naked on more than one occasion, even slept with my girlfriend at the same time as me. Me in the front, him in the back. Mostly because I knew he’d like it like that.”
He was being vulgar and disgusting. “Watch it.”
“Or what? We’ve already established that you can’t do shit to me.”
I stood from the bed and walked out of the bedroom. Daniel was standing on the front porch, leaning against the railing, clouds of steam coming from his mouth with each exhale. He was going to kill me if he knew what I was doing.
“You need to leave him alone. He’s moved on. You need to as well.”
There was that cruel laughter again. “We’ll see about that. I don’t think he’s let go as much as you think he has.”
The call dropped just as Daniel looked up and saw me through the window. His brow creased, seeing me standing there. Maybe Art was right. Daniel certainly wasn’t letting me in all the way and perhaps he hadn’t completely let go. Why the hell would he hold on to someone like that?
“What are you doing?”
I shook my head, lowering the phone and holding it out to Daniel as he came through the door.
“Someone called.”
His brows pulled in further before his expression morphed to anger. Daniel’s shoulders rose and fell as his breathing picked up. “So you answered it? Why the hell would you answer a phone that wasn’t yours?”
“I didn’t think—”
“Damn right, you didn’t think.”
Daniel was across the room, yanking the phone from my hand. He didn’t move from in front of me. We stood there in some sort of awkward stare-off. The anger rolled off him in waves. I braced for the moment he hauled off and hit me again. The sad part was that I wouldn’t even blame him this time. What I’d done had been a major invasion of privacy.
“How often does he harass you like that?”
And there it was. The betrayal was clear as day in those big brown eyes of his as Daniel spun away from me. He didn’t answer me as he walked to the front door again and out on the front porch. There would be no running this time. No. We needed to talk. What was going on between him and this so-called friend wasn’t okay.
“Daniel.”
He stopped as I slammed the door behind me and ran down the steps after him into the snow. The blast of chilly air did nothing to calm me down as Daniel turned to face me again. Maybe coming out here without a damn shirt on wasn’t the best idea and the shiver that raced through me wasn’t only because of the icy breeze, but because of the cold look the other man was giving me.
“It’s none of your damn business. It’s nobody’s business.”
