Page 40 of When the Last One Falls
“She’s one of our charity heads,” I bit out, angry with myself and the entire world. “Her specialty is in antiquities.”
“We know,” she drawled out. “Huntley was kind enough to let us know what a powerful player your date was in the antique world.”
“I’m not the villain here,” I snapped.
“Oh, no?” she huffed. “Well, then…I guess we can all just blame Keris for this mess, then be on our way.”
“After our night together, she should have given me the benefit of the doubt,” I argued. “She should not have automatically believed what my father was saying.”
“You’re right,” Dylan agreed. “And for that, she was going to apologize. Believe it or not, after your brother informed us of your father’s plans, Keris had chosen you over her pride. As hard as that was for her, she’d been ready to take the leap of faith, but, hey…what the fuck do you care? Like you keep telling her, it’s not likeyouneed the money or help or whatever.”
“There’s no way in hell that I’m going to allow my brother anywhere near her,” I spat. “Whether you believe me or not, I didn’t give her back those mines just so that she could become my father’s victim all over again.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I love her,” I admitted, the words sounding right and true. “Pretty sure that I fell in love with her the day that we got married.”
Dylan laughed and the sound sent dark chills down my spine. “You know what? With as stubborn as both of you are, you would have made such a formidable couple.” Dylan shook her head in mock joy. “Well, if nothing else, at least she won’t be sitting home alone and heartbroken while you’re spending the night with your ‘charity head’,” she said, and heat quickly filled my veins.
“Meaning?”
“Had you been payinganykind of attention to your wife, instead of your gorgeous date, then you would have seen her leave with Ares Cormac over thirty minutes ago,” she announced, and she looked so fucking smug that I wanted to put hands on her.
“No, she didn’t,” I argued, refusing to believe it.
“Oh, but she did,” Dylan replied haughtily. “Would you like me to find security, so that they can play the recordings back for you?”
I shook my head in denial. “There’s no way that Keris would leave with him. Not after the way that he treated her, not after the way that he’d spoken to her.”
“That’s the funny thing about rejection, Kingston,” she said seriously. “After being cast aside, most people will do anything to make that feeling go away. After all, isn’t that what you did?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you tell Keris the same thing the night of your fight? According to her, you’d made it perfectly clear that your whores on speed dial were going to be warming your bedthat samenight,” she said, reminding me of the shit that I’d said to Keris during our fight.
“I haven’t been with anyone-”
“Well, there’s no point in denying yourself now,” she clapped back, that smug look back. “Because, by my calculations, Ares Cormac has probably given Keris a good two orgasms by now.”
Forgetting everything else in my life, I left Dylan to her bullshit, then raced out of the building. Handing the valet my ticket, time had never felt like such an enemy before. Pulling out my phone, I unblocked Keris as I waited for my car, but my call had gone straight to voicemail, ruining my entire life.
Chapter 27
Keris~
It wasn’t lost on me how I’d been the star in this scene once before already. I had one suitcase packed, the other one halfway there. However, unlike last time, this time, I planned on taking everything with me. I was going to erase my existence from this house and that meant taking my shampoo, toothbrush, lotion, and whatever else I had here. When Brantley moved back in, he was going to be able to do it without any reminders that he’d been married once.
I’d never paid much attention to the seven deadly sins, but it was clear to me why pride was one of them. All of this shit could have been avoided had Brantley and I not been so prideful. We’d been ambushed with the arrangement between our parents, and we’d both been determined not to let them win at all costs. Only, it didn’t feel as if I’d won. When Ares had helped me into the waiting car, shutting the door behind me, I’d felt like I’d lost something big; something that an honest conversation could have cleared up with ease.
Yeah, I had the mines back, my parents were back to being their self-absorbed selves, and Linsey would be taken care of once I figured out how to mine the caves successfully, but I’d lost someone that I was never going to find again in another man. I’d lost Brantley, and I had no one to blame but myself, rightfully so. There’d been only one enemy this entire time and it’d been my parents. Hell, they still were as far as I was concerned.
Shaking my head of thoughts that didn’t matter, I went to finish packing. I’d grabbed a black trash bag from the kitchen for my toiletries, but it was big enough to stuff some clothes into it. I still had my shoes to pack, but those could be tossed into the bag. I just wanted to clean the room out of my stuff, I didn’t really care what condition it all ended up in. Besides, I had money to buy more clothes.
Forcing the second suitcase shut, I was locking it in place when the night’s silence was broken by a violent roar that had my eyes immediately watering.
“Keris!” The door to the room had been left open, so Brantley’s roar had easily reached the second floor, and I could actually feel my knees weaken. “Keris!”
Hope was a vicious mistress, so I just stared at the top of my suitcase, protecting myself. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. There were a million reasons why Brantley could be here, finally throwing me out of his house being one of them.
