Page 5 of Lose to Win: Lost Trilogy: Part 3
I debate for a second if I should ask my next question. I don’t want to stir any unpleasant memories for him, but at the same time, I want to know.
“Did you lose yours? When you found out Arlene was pregnant with Bricks’ baby,” I explain when he’s just staring at me.
A small smirk forms in the corner of Devereaux’s mouth.
“I was ready to burn the world for her and for that baby.”
“But why?”
“Because I loved her,” he stares at me as if the answer would be obvious. “I would’ve done anything for her…”
“Just not marry her,” I remind him in a dry tone.
“That was something that I had no control over at that time, Mr. Puck.” If I was a lesser man, I’d be running for the hills right now because of the way he’s staring at me.
“You could’ve left Alice for Arlene,” I point out the obvious.
There’s a moment of complete silence. Devereaux is thinking things over, and I am staring at him, holding my breath as I wait to see what else he is going to tell me.
“Adam saved my life,” he finally says.
“Who’s Adam?”
“Adam was a very good friend of mine. He worked for me. There was an ambush, and he took a bullet for me. That is something I never forgot or took lightly.”
The words are powerful in their simplicity. I would not have taken Devereaux as this loyal of a person.
“What did Adam have anything to do with you marrying Alice?” Because I don’t get it.
“Adam and Alice fell in love,” Devereaux tells me. “Her parents did not approve, they tried to break them up. They planned to elope, and I offered to be their cover.”
I am so enthralled by this story, I don’t even blink.
“How?”
“I pretended to be Alice’s suitor.”
The way he sayssuitoris making me grin. It sounds old fashioned and, well, old. Like him. I almost tell him that, but then stop. We will become family at some point, and I know he’d hold a grudge.
“Unfortunately, Adam died,” Devereaux continues in his dry tone. “Alice ended up in the hospital where she found out she was pregnant. Her parents would’ve forced her to abort the baby, but I claimed the baby as mine.”
“Wow.” A lump forms in the back of my throat.
“I took Alice away from Texas. Brought her to Montana. Arlene found out. We had a huge fight over it.”
My mind wanders while listening to Devereaux talk to me about the events that led us to today.
“We broke up, and I left,” he continues. “But then decided that, fuck it, I’m gonna get her back, and she’s going to like it.”
“She was with Bricks by then,” I guess.
“And pregnant,” Devereaux confirms. “He had drugged her and raped her.”
My mind is spinning with all this information. I am almost incapable of processing everything when another thought hits me from out of nowhere.
“You said my mother worked with Arlene, right?”
“That is correct,” he confirms.
