Page 100 of Wicked Minds

Page List

Font Size:

I can’t deny that cuts deeply. The sting burns away any arrogance and leaves me pissed.

“But I haven’t shared my good news with you.”

“It better be that you got an STD check and it came back negative,” Logan snarls.

“Logan,” Riley chastises, face burning red.

“Sorry,” he mutters, seeming genuinely apologetic, which makes me roll my eyes.Fucking pussy whipped.

Still, guilt squirms inside me, and my gaze shifts to Riley. She’s already watching me with a shuddered expression. “I’m clean,” I find myself saying. My word probably won’t be enough for her, although at least I’ve satisfied my own contrition.

Bar a marginal softening around her eyes, her expression doesn’t change as she continues to stare at me, and I onlymanage to tear my gaze away when Royce asks, “What did you want to tell us?”

Ah fuck.I blurted that in the heat of the moment, and now I kinda regret saying anything. Here probably isn’t the best place for this conversation.

However, we’re all here, and I highly doubt I’m going to get them to meet somewhere else.

Sliding my gaze to Riley, I watch her closely as I disclose, “My dad is being released from prison.” Her eyes widen, pupils dilating to pinpoints as her face drains of all color.

“He’swhat?” Logan explodes. “When did this happen?”

“Parole board met today,” I answer, not removing my focus from Riley, who is as still as a statue. Her stare is locked on mine, her shoulders shaking with her erratic breathing. Her response isn’t a fleeting startle of surprise… it’s a visceral, bone-deep apprehension that seizes her features and strips away all pretenses.

I watch as her normal shields fold like a pack of cards, leaving her raw and exposed. Her fear resonating in the air.

“Logan,” Royce barks, noticing the same thing.

“Fuck,” Logan snarls, bundling her into his arms at the same time as I’m hauled away from the table.

My view of her is cut off as Royce unceremoniously drags me across the food court to the amusement of those watching us.

I shrug him off and he whirls on me. “What the fuck?” he hisses now that we’re out of earshot. He shakes his head, his hands fisted at his sides and body vibrating with unrestrained anger. “Why didn’t you tell us that was today?”

I scoff. “Because we’ve been all buddy-buddy lately.”

He stares at me as if he’s never seen me before.That makes two of us.I don’t recognize him. I don’t even recognize myself. In the span of several weeks, we’ve all become different people. Perhaps his change is for the better. He looks less consumed byhis demons, more his old self than I’ve seen in a long time so I have to imagine so. I haven’t been so lucky. My change… it’s for the worse.

“You should still have told us,” he states, each word ringing with his anger.

“So you could protect little miss stripper?” I sneer.

His brow arches like he doesn’t know what to do with me. “So we could have been there foryou, you asshole.”

My responding snort is filled with disbelief, and the slight softness around his eyes hardens. “When?” he snaps, all coldness now.

“When what?”

“When is he getting out?”

My eyes bounce back and forth between his as I debate keeping the information from him, but as his hands tighten at his sides, I decide it’s not worth the black eye he’s itching to give me. “Ninety days.”

With a terse nod, he states soberly. “What you just did is not fucking okay.” His gaze skims over me before returning to my face, and the disappointment there slays me. “Get the fuck out of here.”

When I don’t move, he reiterates, “Get the fuck out of here, Grayson.” Except, instead of stepping back, he moves closer, voice lowering. “If this breaks her, we’re done. You’ve gone too far this time.”

He doesn’t wait for a response, not that I had one, before leaving me standing there as he strides back toward their table.

My eyes track him as he crouches down beside Logan, who has Riley burrowed against his chest. I can’t make out anything else from here, but I don’t need to.