I held up my hand. “Stop right there.” I moved closer to her. “You didn’t force me to do anything. I wanted you. Right from the start. I could have said no. I could have walked away. But I didn’t. You never should have paid the price for my decision, Remy. If I’d known, I never would have let you. I should have been the one to deal with that douchebag. Not you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want anything to happen to you because of me.”
I closed my eyes and let out a breath, my stomach churning at the thought of everything she had done, thinking she was doing it for me. If I had kept it in my pants like I should have, she never would have been put in that position to begin with. This whole thing was my fault.
“I love you, Shane. It was always you. I never stopped loving you.”
I pulled her into my arms and held her. She was crying, her body wracked with sobs. She was breaking in my arms. And I fucking hated myself. She’d been manipulated and played, treated like shit.Again.
She lifted her face to mine. “Do you hate me?”
I looked into her eyes. Her beautiful ocean eyes swimming with tears.
I hated that douchebag Russell. I hated that asshole who had bent her over the hood of a car. And I hated Tristan Hart. “I could never hate you. But you should have told me the truth. You should have let me deal with Tristan.” There was no point in talking about what should have happened. It was over and there was no taking back what he’d done.
“You have a contract—”
“Fuck the contract. No money is worth that. He’s not going to get away with this.”
“Just let it go, Shane. Let’s forget—”
I stared at her. Was she out of her fucking mind? “Forget? No. We’re not going to forget what he did.”
I strode to the door and jogged down the stairs. She trailed behind me.
“Shane. Wait. Where are you going?”
I didn’t answer. She knew where I was going. I climbed onto my bike and took off before she could stop me.
* * *
I tightenedmy grip on the handlebars. I tried to breathe so I didn’t lose my shit. I tried counting. I tried to find my fucking Zen. But all I could think of was Remy being used by another asshole. Because of me. If I had kept it in my pants, none of this would have happened. My jaw was clenched so tight it felt like it might snap.
“Fuck!” The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.
I wasn’t thinking straight. Not when I rode my bike right across the Harts’ manicured garden, leaving tire tracks, or when I spun out by the pool behind their McMansion. Tristan was making out with some blonde chick in the pool and hauled his sorry ass out to greet me.
“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked, getting right in my face. I could smell the liquor on his breath. Tequila.
“What did you do to Remy?”
He laughed. The fucker laughed in my face. “If you ask me, I did you a favor, dude. She showed her true colors. She was ready and willing to spread her legs. The little slut. Aw, how far she went to protect—”
I slammed my fist into his fucking face before he finished his sentence. I wanted the smug bastard to pay for what he’d done to Remy.
Blind fury surged through me and fueled my punches.
I didn’t even feel his fist slam into my face. From a distance, I heard someone shouting to stop, but I didn’t. Couldn’t.
“That skank’s not worth fighting for. She wasn’t all that either.” He snickered, blood trickling from his cut lip. I lunged at him, and we both went down, my body landing on top of his.
I heard the thunk. A sickening sound as his head hit the rock fountain. And for a few seconds, everything was quiet. So still and so quiet. I released my hold on him and the world came rushing back.
“What have you done?” a woman cried. “Tristan. Oh my God. Tristan…” She was wailing, her body flung across her son’s lifeless one. The girl he’d been making out with was crying, her hands shaking as she fumbled with her cell phone. I heard her asking for an ambulance and for the police.
I looked down at my bloody hands and flexed them.
What have I done?