Chapter 23
All I can do is stand in place, slack-jawed as Rhyann swings and clocks Aubree right in the face. None of us saw it coming, and it did look like Aubree attacked her when she burst through the door. what was she thinking coming back here, and how many times do I have to tell her it’s over before it’ll sink in? I sigh, shaking my head.
“How did she know about the club fire?” my father asks.
“It was a large fire, I’m sure it’s all over the news stations and online by now.” That’s the first time since he got here that I’ve heard the Devereux family lawyer speak to anyone but my father. But I’m not surprised by his silence. The handful of times I’ve met the man, he said little but seemed to observe a lot. Maybe that’s what he’s been doing today.
“But why is she claiming ownership in the club?” Devon grumbles. “No one has signed any papers giving her partnership yet.” I can feel the intense anger in his gaze directed at me. I should never have even put the thought in her head about being a silent partner with us. The twins hated the idea, but it was all I could do to get her to stop complaining about how Devereux was our future. How it’s unfair that my dad runs the company but Rhyann is inheriting it. As if she actually thought my father owned it. The truth is, it’s been Rhyann”s company since the day her grandfather died.
I watch Liam take care of Rhyann”s sore hand, the hand she used to turn Aubree’s face into a faucet. I can only imagine what my father and the other three men in the room must think of whatever it is the four of us have going on. Do we have anything going on? Dev and I spent a good hour just talking last night, while Liam and Rhyann had rough, loud sex. Then the four of us snuggled in that big ass bed upstairs. Them this morning, when it was just me and Rhyann. My dick twitches in my pants just thinking about her naked at the piano and the things I promised to do to her tonight.
Watching the tender moment between my best friend and the woman I love tears my heart into pieces. I should have gone to her, I should have made sure it was abundantly clear to Aubree that things between us were done. “Rhy, I’m so sorry,” I say, getting her attention.
“For what?” She looks at me with a soft sad smile. “Unless you’re apologizing for having bad taste in women, there’s no reason to apologize. I needed to hit something, and Aubree was in the right place at the right time.” That last part has the twins both laughing. When I turn around, Devon”s got the biggest smile on his face. There’s no hiding the pride in his expression. He told me how Rhyann attacked her kidnapper the other night, and how she was the reason the prick crashed the van. It’s no wonder why he is staring at Rhyann now with complete adoration and pride in his eyes.
Rhyann places the ice pack in the sink and walks toward me. I’m ram rod still when she wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head against my chest. Her touch washes away all the doubt, all the questions that have been running through my mind since I fucked her in the bedroom. God, I love her. But can I love her while my two best friends love her? I push the thought from my mind and run my fingers through her hair.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” I tell her softly. “I have to get this shit settled and done with.”
Rhyann looks up at me, sadness mixed with desire swirling in her bright green eyes. “I don’t want you going alone.”
“It’ll be fine. I won’t be long. Promise.” I smile down at her.
“Tate, I don’t think you should go anywhere,” my father speaks up. “I know I told you to handle your club, but Mister Monroe can handle it for you.” I turn to look in the direction of my father and the lawyer. The latter nods his head in agreement. “Son, I’m worried you’re in as much danger as Rhyann is.”
“I’ll get the paperwork together and we can settle everything tomorrow morning.” Mister Monroe says packing the notepad he had been writing on and pulls out a laptop. “Rhyann, I wanted to give this back to you. I hope with the loss of your car, this will give you some comfort.”
“Is that my grandfather’s laptop?” she asks, pulling away from me.
The lawyer nods, his lips pursed and he says goodbye to my father and the detectives before brushing past us and walking out the door. The detectives suggest that we find another hotel, one where crazy ex girlfriends can’t find us, and wait for them to finish the investigation and find whoever is doing all this. My father agrees with them and before the three of them take their leave, my father tells us to be ready to go when he calls.
“Well, everything has gone to shit,” Devon says once it’s just the four of us. “We need to find out who the fuck is trying to fuck with our lives.”
Liam clears his throat. “I think that crazy ass blonde bitch did it.”
“Who?” Dev asks, missing what his brother is implying.
“I think he means Aubree.” Rhyann lets me go and walks over to the couch. “I don’t think she’d be able to pull off burning down the club or getting through the back of my property to set fire to Donna, though.”
“No, but she’s got the money, a reason to lash out at both you and Tate, and probably the resources to get some dumb fuck to do her dirty work.” Liam argues and joins Rhyann in the sunken-in living room.
I watch as Devon joins them, sitting on the opposite side of Rhyann. All three of them watch me, the same questioning expression on their faces. I shake my head and somehow find a a way to move from my place in the middle of the floor. Rather than join them on the couch, I walk over to the bar on the other side of the room and grab one of the liquor bottles from the small cabinet under the bar top. Without looking at the label to see what I’m drinking, I crack the seal and drink from the bottle. The taste of expensive gin hits my tongue and it takes a lot for me not to gag at the taste. Gin is disgusting, no matter what you pay for it.
“Aubree is a lot of things, but vengeful isn’t one of them,” I say before taking another swig of the putrid liquor. “Besides, she likes Rhyann. Or she did until today.”
Rhyann coughs and laughs. “Are you serious? She has hated me for a lot longer than she’s known you.”
The twins and I turn our attention to the tiny redhead who has jumped up from her seat between the brothers. “What does that mean?” I ask, the bottle’s mouth hovering centimeters from my lips.
“I first met Aubree at Evangelines,” Rhyann explains walking over to me. “She made my life a living hell when I first got there. Because she thought I was a scholarship kid.” She pauses long enough to take the bottle from me and take a long swig. “Gin, yuck.” She coughs, sticking her tongue out dramatically. “Anyway, when she eventually found out who I was, she tried to make friends with me. But she had already been such a bitch I knew the whole ‘be my bestie’ bullshit was as fake as she is.”
“Wait, how did she not know who you were from the start, and why did she think you were a scholarship kid?” Liam asks the questions that were resting on my tongue.
“Because I registered under my middle name and used my fathers last name. I wanted to blend in, be someone new in a new place. I didn’t want to be the little rich girl who lost both her parents in less than two years.” She gives us a looks, silently reminding us about the media attention her and her grandfather got after Garrets suicide, barely after a year of losing his beloved wife. When rich people die, it’s the biggest news for weeks following, and people will do anything to get their story. Including hounding a young, orphaned girl. “But that’s not even the worst of it,” Rhyann takes another swig, this time she gags when she hands the bottle back to me. “We both applied to the same private college, but I got in and she didn’t. And when she found out I was accepted, she started spreading rumors that my grandfather paid the school off so they would take an ignorant little orphan. Aubree made my life hell for years. She hated me for being beneath her, then she hated me for seeing through her lies. Then she hated me for having what she didn’t. A future that was all my own making.”
It takes me a while to process everything she just said. “WHy would she pretend to not know you until last week then?” I can’t help but ask.
“I don’t know. But she’s been doing everything she can to replace me wherever she can.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
“Friday, she was in your dad’s office when Rhyann and I went to confront Adrian about Rhyann taking over early,” Liam explains.
“What time was that?” I ask, confused.
“It was before we met up to talk about the paperwork for the club.” Devon interjects.
I gasp, thinking back to Friday and everything Aubree and I did, both together and separately. “I met her for breakfast, then she said she was meeting her dad for lunch and after that she was going to do wedding stuff and get a dress for the gala,” I tell them, realization hitting me. “She wore the same dress to the gala that she wore when we went on our first date. She lied to me.”
All three of them give me sad, sympathetic looks, as everything Aubree has told me from the day I met her begins to unravel. “Well, even if she isn’t involved in the fires, she’s been lying to me the entire time we’ve been together. And. I really think she means you harm, princess.”
“Why?” Rhyann asks.
“Because I told her when we first started dating that you were the one that got away.” After that confession, I can’t stand to look at any of them for another second. Their compassion and love for me written all over their features is like being stabbed in the heart repeatedly. So, I walk out onto the balcony without another word and close the door behind me, knowing that the three people who know me better than anyone else in the world will understand that I need some time to myself.