Chapter 29
The Bride
I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale audibly. One. Two… nope. I can’t stand listening to another apology.
“Just stop,” I sigh, fighting the urge to laugh when Shelby’s eyes widen. “You’ve apologized five times, blamed your brother and Jack three times each, and basically just talked in circles.”
“But Eve—”
I shake my head and hold up my hand. “Sorry’s cheap,” I bite out, yanking my zipper until the teeth scrape my skin. “Try something else.”
She twists her hands together, mascara smudged, looking wrecked. “Jack wanted someone to keep an eye on you, and he wanted it to be me instead of Ned.”
If this were a therapy session, I’d call out her deflection in a heartbeat. But this is real life— my life.
“Okay,” I relent. “That I can maybe buy. But how come you never told me my neighbor is your fucking brother? Or… I don’t know, you could have hinted at Jack’s plans.”
“But I—”
That does it. Knowing she’s about to deny knowing anything again has my temper flaring hotter than before. “Enough!” I shout. “If you tell me one more time that you didn’t know, we’re done. ”
“Done?”
I nod sharply. “Yes. Done. I know you, Shelby. You’re one of the sharpest legal minds in NYC. Do you honestly think I’m going to believe you didn’t know? Give me a fucking break.”
Her face crumples, tears spilling again. “I couldn’t stand thinking about it. You’re my best friend, Eve. I never wanted to hurt you, but I couldn’t defy Jack. He owns Ned, and I couldn’t go against my own brother.”
Now we’re finally getting somewhere.
“Go on,” I urge as I finish getting dressed. Once I’m done, I finally locate my phone and try to switch it on. Nothing. Dead, despite sitting in the charger for weeks.
I force myself to listen to Shelby as she basically continues to repeat the same explanation and excuses over and over.
Acid twists low in my stomach. God, I hate that I still want to believe her. That part of me is desperate for her to make this betrayal make sense, because otherwise I’ll spiral until I claw my way out of my own skin.
I force myself to meet her gaze in the mirror. “You broke something in me,” I whisper, jaw tight. “And an apology doesn’t glue it back together.”
“I know,” she sobs, wringing her hands. “I just don’t want to lose you.”
Something in her tone makes me falter. She looks wrecked. Small. And maybe, just maybe, we could untangle this mess. But there’s no time right now. Not when Jack’s waiting.
As if summoned by my thoughts, there’s a knock on the door, followed by Jack’s deep voice. “Eve.”
Holding a finger up to Shelby, I say, “I’ll be right back.”
Then I slip into the hall, tugging the sweater straight as I go. Jack is waiting in the living room, shoulders squared. Ned, my neighbor who’s apparently working for or with Jack, is in the kitchen.
“Are you ready?” Jack asks.
My pulse drums hard as I meet his gaze. “I think I should stay.”
His jaw flexes, a dangerous muscle twitch. “Eve. ”
I step closer, tilting my face up to his, voice soft but steady. “I need to stay with her. We’ve barely scratched the surface, and if I don’t—if we don’t—this resentment will eat me alive. Let me do this.”
He stares at me in silence, green eyes burning with the kind of fury that feels like restraint. My breath shortens under it. For a moment I think he’ll pick me up and carry me out anyway, and part of me wants him to.
“Come on,” I whine. “Isn’t it better if I stay?”
His hand catches the back of my neck, dragging me forward into a kiss that steals the ground from beneath me. His mouth is rough, demanding, like he’s imprinting his control into me so I won’t forget it the second he walks away.
I open to him, let him take, let him devour until my knees weaken. And then I return the kiss with everything in me, not letting him pull away until we’re both panting.
He rests his forehead against mine, breath ragged. “Promise me you won’t leave this apartment.”
“I promise,” I whisper, dizzy with heat and the ghost of his mouth.
Behind us, Shelby clears her throat. Both our heads snap in her direction, and for once she doesn’t flinch. She lifts her chin, reaching into the inside pocket of her jacket, and pulls out a small switchblade. The metal glints under the overhead light.
“I can keep her safe,” she says, voice steady. “If anyone comes, they’ll regret it.”
Jack studies her with a look that makes the air in the room heavy. Finally, he gives a short nod, though his hand tightens on me like a leash. “If you fail her, there won’t be enough left of you to bury.”
Shelby swallows hard, but she doesn’t back down.
Jack kisses me one last time, slower this time, and then lets go. I follow him to the door, squeezing his hand one last time. When he walks through the door and disappears down the hallway toward the stairs, my stomach clenches.
I’ve barely shut the door behind Jack and Ned when Shelby drifts closer. She flicks the lock with a soft click.
“There, now we’ll know if someone’s coming, ” she says. “I know you’re pissed at me, and that’s fair. But I have to know what it’s like being with Jack. That kiss didn’t look forced.”
While she talks, we move into the living room and settle on my couch. I pick up one of the throw pillows and hug it close.
“Umm… it’s intense.”
“Yeah?”
I bite my bottom lip, not sure how to describe our relationship. “And complicated.”
“But you like him?”
That’s true. In fact, I’m pretty sure I love him, but for some reason, I don’t want to share that. God, right now I wish it were a therapy session so I could refuse to answer questions. But that’s not how friendship works. And I can’t be pissed at Shelby for holding back if I do the same.
“I never expected to fall for him,” I admit after a pregnant silence. “But I think I have.”
Shelby’s eyebrows shoot up high on her forehead. “Really?”
Needing to do something, I get up and make us some tea while I do my best to explain that things have changed.
“Did you know he kept me in a cage in the beginning?” I ask, carrying two steamy mugs back into the living room with me.
“No way.”
After placing them on the table and sitting back down, I explain my first week with Jack. How cold and cruel he was in the beginning. “He blamed me for Ruby’s death.” My insides knot as I realize I don’t know if that’s still the case.
Shelby runs her tongue along her front teeth and blows on her tea before taking a small sip. “Is that why he wanted to capture you?”
I scrunch my nose up in confusion. “You didn’t know? Didn’t he—”
She interrupts me. “I love my brother, Eve. I really do. But sometimes he acts more like Jack’s lapdog than my only family. He never told me what it was all about, only that I had to get you to the Sanctuary of Shadows for the launch event.”
I stare into my mug, the steam curling up into my face until my lashes dampen. For a second, I don’t know if I’m relieved or furious. If she’s telling the truth, and why wouldn’t she be, then Ned and Jack kept her at arm’s length the same way they did me.
“Ruby was a bitch anyway,” Shelby suddenly says. “She got what she deserved.”
The. Fuck.
I’m so shaken by that revelation that I can’t think of anything to say. So I just say nothing. Minutes slide past, heavy and slow. The heater hums, pipes tick in the walls, each second louder than the last. I sip, swallow, sip again. Steam fades.
The burn on my tongue dulls to warmth, then nothing. By the time I glance down, the tea is already cooling in my hands.
Shelby’s gaze flicks toward me over the rim of her mug. “So… when he kept you in that cage, did you hate him for it? Or did part of you like it?”
My jaw drops before I can stop it, heat flooding my face. “Jesus, Shelby. Who asks that?”
She laughs lightly, tucking one leg beneath her. “I’m just curious. You wouldn’t be the first woman who confused obsession with devotion.”
A prickle starts low in my spine. I grip the pillow tighter. “It wasn’t like that. It was… complicated.”
“That word again.” She tilts her head. “Complicated sounds a lot like excuse-making.”
My jaw tightens, teeth grinding, because if I don’t anchor myself in anger, the disbelief will swallow me whole. “You weren’t there. You didn’t feel what I felt.”
Her phone buzzes softly against the cushion beside her. She quickly checks it before tapping twice. Then she flips it face-down again.
“Hmm,” she muses. “I might know better than you think. My ex once kept me on a leash for an entire month. It was fucking glorious.”
This is one of the few times Shelby’s talked about her ex. I know he died back in February, but I don’t know how or why. Apparently, their relationship was a secret, so no one really knows much about it.
“Do you still miss him?” I ask softly.
“I’ll love him until the day I die.”
Wow… that’s deep. De finitely not just a fling then. So why did I think it was just that? Or maybe a tad more serious, but I definitely never thought it was epic love.
“So when did it stop feeling like captivity?” she asks, changing the subject back to me and Jack.
“What?”
She runs a hand through her hair. “I mean, when did you start spreading your legs willingly?”
The words punch the air from my lungs. My fingers go slack on the mug and I nearly drop it. “Ex-fucking-cuse me?”
She tilts her head, expression open, almost innocent. “I’m just trying to understand. You were terrified at first, right? But now you look at him like he hung the moon. Something must’ve changed.”
My cheeks heat, pulse stuttering. “That’s not how I’d put it.”
Her smile sharpens as she takes another sip. “How would you put it then? That you’re special? That he sees something no one else does? Because I’ll be honest, Eve. All I see is a girl who’s always been too eager to be filled. Too eager to be needed.”
The words land like barbed wire tightening around my ribs. For a heartbeat, I just gape at her, mouth dry, because I can’t believe they came out of her mouth. Then I set my mug down with a sharp clink. “Why are you talking to me like this?”
Shelby leans back, crossing her legs, phone balanced loosely in her lap. “Because someone has to. You sit here pretending this is love, when it’s just another man using you. Different collar, same leash.”
My throat works, but no words come. Her eyes return to mine, glinting now, nothing soft left.
“Tell me, Eve. Do you even know who you are when there isn’t a man holding your throat?”
A knock rattles the door.
I flinch so hard I nearly spill what’s left of my tea.
Shelby doesn’t move. Doesn’t even blink. She only smiles, slow and cruel. “Right on time.”
There’s no hurry in her movement as she rises, and sets her mug neatly on the table. She gives me a smile that’s all teeth before walking over to the door, unlocking and swinging it open and i n walks… Caleb.
His eyes flick past me without interest before settling on Shelby. She steps into him, and his hands are on her in an instant—fisting her hair, dragging her mouth to his.
The kiss is slow and brutal, all teeth and tongue, wet and noisy in a way that makes my stomach lurch.
“Are you two together now?” I ask, not sure why that surprises me.
Well, actually, considering what she just told me about her ex, it is surprising. Sure, I thought I saw him with her at the Sanctuary. But this… this is definitely not what I expected.
“Surprise,” Shelby sing-songs after pulling back from him.
Her eyes are colder than I’ve ever seen, sharp with triumph. I barely recognize her. “Restrain her,” Shelby orders flatly, jerking her chin at me. “We need to be gone before Jack and Ned come back. It won’t take them long to figure out the fire is bullshit.”
“What?” My voice cracks, half-whisper, half-scream. I lurch to my feet, heart battering my ribs.
Caleb doesn’t hesitate. He crosses the space in three strides, his good arm a steel band around my waist before I can even blink.
“No,” I scream, swinging the mug like a weapon.
“Now you’re just making me hard,” he sneers, batting my makeshift weapon away.
I thrash, claw, kick backward, but it’s useless. Even with a broken arm, he’s too strong. The mug that did little impact slips from my hand, shattering against the floor, tea spraying all over.
“Let me go!” My nails rake his forearm, teeth bared, but he doesn’t even grunt. My feet lift off the ground as if I weigh nothing at all.
Shelby watches, arms folded, her mouth curved in a faint, satisfied smile. “Hurry up,” she snaps. “Jack’s not stupid.”
Caleb hoists me higher against his chest, pinning my wrists with one hand as he heads for the door. My pulse hammers in my throat, my scream tearing raw as the hallway tilts around me.
Before we step into the elevator, I look back just in time to see Shelby cut her hand, smiling evilly at me as she lets some of it drop onto the floor.