Shattered Vows (Midnight Manor Book 2)

Chapter 15

Fifteen

The spark on the lighter flares, lighting the joint in my hand. I take a pull and hold the smoke in for a beat before exhaling. I close my eyes against the sunshine that finds its way through a break in the clouds overhead.

“Pass it over,” Nero says, sitting on the grass to my left.

I take another pull off the joint and pass it over. God knows he has more to want to forget than even I do today.

We’re sitting by the pond, a place I always come when I want to clear my mind. When Nero told me earlier that he’d called off his engagement, I suggested we bring a couple joints and a bottle of whiskey out here and get fucked up together. Forget this day even exists, for more reasons than just his failed relationship.

“You wanna talk about it?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Fair enough.”

I take the offered joint from him, content to sit in silence and consider all the things we’re not saying. Mostly about what went on this day nearly nineteen years ago.

As for the present, I have no idea why Nero would’ve called off his engagement, but he’s clearly pissed and stewing over it. It’s for the best, if you ask me. I never liked Maude. She looked good on paper but… something always bothered me about her. Like she was oily under the calm, serene surface.

“What’s your plan for Rapsody?”

I blow out the smoke and pass the joint back to him. “No plan.”

He scoffs, takes a drag, tosses it ahead of him on the grass, and crushes it with the heel of his boot. “Bullshit, brother. You always have a plan.”

“Whatever.” I pick up the bottle of expensive whiskey and take a swig.

“I don’t know if it’s a special forces thing or if it’s just you, but you always have a plan. So what is it?”

The truth is, my mind is a mess where Rapsody is concerned. One second I’m trying to draw her in as part of my plan to destroy her, and the next, the rage at what she did to me, what she made me feel surfaces, and I’m lashing out and pushing her away.

She was on my mind the entire time I was gone, and the only reason I didn’t tell her I returned Saturday evening was because of what day it was and what I had to do. She surprised me when she confronted me in the gym. Rapsody has a set of claws she’s kept hidden, and I found myself just as enamored by that side of her as I am by her innocent one. I might have been impressed if I wasn’t so pissed off by her questioning me about shit she has no right to know about.

“I don’t know what went down with you and Maude, but if I had to guess, I’d say you might have some idea now how I felt four years ago when Rapsody up and left me.”

I look at Nero, and his jaw clenches while he puts his hand out for me to pass him the bottle.

“So you do have a plan.” He tips back the bottle.

“Of course I do.”

He chuckles and takes another swig.

“I’m going to make her fall for me again. Make her think all is forgiven and that I’m the same man she met back in Atlanta. Show her how wonderful our life together could be. Ruin her, in all the ways that count, and leave her the same way she left me.”

I can do it. I have to do it. I’m convinced the only way I’ll be able to move on and get Rapsody out of my mind and my life for good is if I claim my revenge.

Nero passes back the bottle, but I set it down in the grass. I feel good now that the weed is hitting me, and I’ll just enjoy the high for a while.

“You think you can do that without falling for her?” he asks.

“Of course I can.” I glare at him.

Leave it to Nero to voice my own fear.

“She’s the only woman I’ve ever seen you give a shit about. More than that—you were going to marry her, Kol. You’ve never even bothered to really date anyone other than her. You fuck them for a bit and move on, never even talk about the women with any of us.”

“We can’t all be Prince Charming, kid.” I ruffle his hair, knowing that, coupled with calling him kid, will piss him off.

“Fuck off.” He shoves my hand away. “And nice try distracting me, but it’s not gonna work.”

It was worth a try. “I made the mistake of falling for her once. I won’t do it again.”

He shakes his head and falls to his back in the grass. “For the record, I think your plan is shit.”

“I didn’t ask for your fucking opinion.”

Nero doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I can totally do this. I just have to pull Rapsody in rather than push her away when I think of what she did to me and the anger surfaces. It goes against all my protective instincts, but I can make her fall for me again. She kissed me back after all, and she wanted a helluva lot more than a kiss.

God, that kiss.

No, fuck. It didn’t mean anything. It was just the first step in my plan. And the fact that I enjoyed it—thoroughly—just means that I’ll enjoy stealing Rapsody’s innocence from her. That’s all. It doesn’t mean I’ll fall in love with her.

I have a feeling she’s not going to let go of what she saw on Saturday night. I’ll have to think of some story to tell her that will appease her… unless… my thoughts travel.

Yes, maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s the perfect way to thoroughly destroy her.

The corner of my lips tips into a half smile.

“Do you think we’re cursed?” Nero asks, pulling me from my thoughts.

“What do you mean?”

He props himself up on his elbows so he’s only half lying down. “This family. This manor. Do you think it’s cursed and that’s why we’ve gone through all the shit we have, or do you think it’s karma for all the bad shit or something?”

I pull a blade of grass in front of me. “Most people would say we’re lucky to have been born into a billionaire’s family.”

Nero gives me a cutting look. “They obviously didn’t know our father.”

The mention of our father, especially today, squeezes the air from my lungs. Flashes of images from that day nineteen years ago play like a slideshow in my brain.

“I think some people are just evil, and we happened to be the sons of one of those people. But then we had Mom, and she was… she was everything.” I reach for the whiskey and slug back another mouthful. “Maybe karma is just what balances the scales. We had Mom, and we were born into money, so it gave us Dad. I dunno.” I pass him the bottle.

He sits up to drink some, then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “What happened that day?—”

My head whips in his direction, and I narrow my eyes at him. “We agreed we wouldn’t talk about it. Ever.”

He looks properly chastised, but then a smirk plays on the edges of his mouth when he looks over my shoulder.

“Hey, Rapsody,” Nero calls, waving. “Why don’t you join us?”