Chapter Twenty-One #3
Shit. I forgot I’m the twin who wasn’t cut out of the will. I’m supposed to be the one who was!
“But—but that doesn’t mean you didn’t do it,” I scrambled. “You can kill a person just because you hate them, Micah. She stole from you. She took everything your parents worked for, and then she turned her poison on Lily. That’s more than enough reason to want someone out of your life for good.”
“Sure it is,” he agreed, tipping his head. “But in my case, all I had to do was wait.”
I clamped down hard on my lip, frustration roaring in my chest. We just kept coming back to that. Why kill a dying woman?
My mind suddenly latched on to his previous words. “Yes, all you had to do was wait, but you didn’t want to. I heard you in the video, saying it wasn’t right that Omma would get to drift off peacefully instead of dying like a witch should.
“You didn’t want to wait, Micah. You wanted her to be punished in this life, and there was only one way to do that.”
“Baby”—I squawked when he laced his fingers through mine—“I know that sounded bad, and it’s even worse because I lied to you on top of it. But I never laid a finger on your mother. I could never have hurt her.”
“Why?” I shook him loose. “Why is it so beyond the realm of possibility that you went upstairs and did exactly what you said you wanted to do?”
“Because I love you,” he exploded. “I love you and I could never do anything to hurt you. Especially not in those last few weeks when everything changed between you and Omma... Especially not when everything changed between you and me.”
A band latched around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs. And if I couldn’t breathe... I couldn’t fight him taking me in his arms.
“For the first time in ten fucking years, we were happy. You were happy,” he whispered. “But the look on your face when you walked out of that room that night...
“I could never put that look on your face. Not even for seven billion dollars.”
I put my hands between us, shoving against his chest.
“I love you.”
No, stop. These are just more pretty words. Words I don’t deserve.
“I love you.”
My fists pummeled those hard, inked pecs—thrashing this way and that as he held me tighter.
“I love you.”
“Stop it! There’s nothing happy about this family. There’s nothing real!” Pressure built behind my eyes, fueling the strength in my arms. My blows fell hard, ripping grunts from his lips. “It’s all a lie. I’m a lie!”
“So what if you are?” Micah’s gaze burned into me—into my soul. “You’re my lie, and this is our fucked-up family, and I wouldn’t change a thing because I love you. I love you.” The words sank deep into my heart. “And I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.
“You and me—we’re forever.”
I almost hit him in the face wildly shaking my head. Behind us, the door silently clicked shut on Courtney’s exit. “No! If you knew the truth about me—”
“I’d choose you anyway.”
“You can’t say that.”
Capturing my gaze, he grinned that sweet, perfect grin. “I just did.”
I broke down. Collapsing against him, I did something I hadn’t been able to do since this all began—
Cry.
“SO, LAY IT ON ME.” Micah popped the bubbles covering my boobs, unashamedly revealing my nakedness.
I would’ve rolled my eyes if they weren’t sore and puffy from crying. As wretched as it was to bawl my eyes out on his tie like a little girl, I felt lighter than I had in weeks. Finally, the pit was shrinking.
“What else don’t I know about you?”
I relaxed against his chest—warm and safe in our bubble bath in a way I hadn’t felt for years. Our legs entwined in the soapy water, the two of us blissed and unhurried as I lazily stroked the erection poking my back. “One for one?” I suggested. “I give you a secret. You give me one.”
“Deal.”
“I’m afraid of mascots.”
“What?” he cried, bursting out laughing. “Mascots? You mean like the big suits, or the dancing performer in them?”
“The dancing performer in the oversized, animal suits. They just freak me out,” I mused. “Big reason why I avoid sporting events.”
Micah chuckled without shame. “Well, then if we’re going with irrational fears, I’m afraid of dentists. I take crazy good care of my teeth so I never have to see one... and I haven’t in the last fourteen years.”
“Years? Years!” Giggles floated out of me like bubbles. “You haven’t been to the dentist in over a decade, grown man? How have you gotten away with that?”
“All that matters is that I have.” He flashed me the cheesiest, big-tooth grin. “No one’s complaining about this smile.”
“No one, including me.” I laid a big smooch on him. “My turn. When I was little, I wanted to wrestle crocodiles like Steve Irwin.”
“Really? Why?”
“He just seemed so fearless,” I admitted, picking up the pace a bit and making Micah tense against me. “And so free. The world and all the dangers in it just didn’t scare him. I wanted to be like that.”
Gentle fingers stroked my hair and brought me in for a sweet kiss on the temple. This was one of the things I loved about Micah. For as many infuriating things he’d say on a daily basis, he still knew when it was time to say nothing at all.
“Rhodes stole for the first time when we took that necklace,” Micah dropped, surprising me. “But by that time, I’d been stealing from his rich friends for months.”
I met his eyes, reading the shame in them even then. “It was hard feeling like you had to keep up with them, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah.” Micah flashed a mirthless smile somewhere over my shoulder.
“Alex and Rhodes are my boys—no question. They never pulled that competitive shit with me, and they never acted like money mattered. But money attracts money,” he said.
“That’s just how it is. When you’re wealthy, you hang out with people who can do all the same stuff you can, and pay for the same toys and events.
And who can watch you do all of that without writhing in jealousy.
“That’s why Rhodes and Alex always ended up in a group of trust-fund babies.” He tipped his head. “Being the good guys they were, they always invited me to join them when they were hanging out with their friends, but unfortunately, their friends were dicks.
“Whenever Alex and Rhodes had their backs turned, they were making some slick-ass comment or digging at me. The first time one of those guys told me I should work off the beer Alex bought me by sucking his dick like a good little leech—”
My jaw fell open.
“—I made up some lie about needing to use the bathroom, and instead went upstairs and stole a fifty-thousand-dollar watch from his room.” He blew out a breath. “And so it went every time those assholes pissed me off. All culminating in me pressuring one of my closest friends into grand larceny.
“If it helps, I chose Max Thompson because he date-raped a girl on campus, then used his family’s money to buy her silence.”
“What! Oh my gosh.”
Micah clenched his jaw—angry at the mere memory.
“Rhodes and Alex didn’t know what he did, but I knew because the vile piece of shit sidled up to me at a party one night, drunk off his ass, and whispered that us poors were so pathetic, all you had to do is throw some money at us and we’ll do anything—even let a man get away with rape. ”
I grabbed my mouth, horror bleeding through my pores. “Fucking hell, that poor girl. Vile monster is right! Why does Rhodes even feel guilty about stealing from that shitstain?”
“Because all I told them is why that guy made an easy target. I didn’t say anything about what he did,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to pretend like I was some kind of hero when I was first and foremost acting for my own ends.
” He looked away. “I was able to track her down later and contact her. I told her that if she ever decided to go through with pressing charges, I’d be a witness.
I’d stand up in court and tell them what he confessed to me. But she never responded.”
“It can be hard to face these things,” I heard myself say. “Hard to talk about. Even harder... to not be believed.”
“I know.” He flicked my nose, teasing my smile back.
“I don’t blame her. I blame that rapist piece of shit.
In senior year, he tried drugging and attacking another girl, but her roommate came in and beat the shit out of him with her hockey stick.
He still slurs his words.” Micah smirked.
“I don’t know what it says about me that I smile whenever I tell the end of that story.
I also don’t know what it says that I got so mad at your mother for stealing from me, when I stole from people for months.
“I guess karma does come for everyone in the end.”
I hummed, reclaiming my place against his chest while my hand reclaimed his cock.
“I don’t know that I believe in karma. Or even justice,” I admitted.
“I believe we make our own. Those rich fuck boys valued material things over decency to other human beings, and for that they lost their precious things. That shitbag violated women and their bodies in the worst way, so he got a taste of what it’s like when someone ignores your screams and hurts you.
“To me, you can only balance the scales in life if you step on them, and there’s nothing wrong with laughing at a raggedy bitch who got stepped on.”
Micah blinked at me.
“What?” Oh shit, did I go too far? “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong? What’s wrong?” Micah grasped my chin and planted a kiss on me so heated, my nipples sprung free of their bubbly cage. “I’m so pissed at you, I can’t stand it.”
“What?” I cried in alarm.
Anger and lust battled for dominance in his eyes. “Why in the hell did you hide the most delicious parts of yourself from me for ten years!”
The world spun and I went flying, splashing down and dumping half our bath on the floor.
“No more,” Micah barked, coming down on top of me. “I’m fucking the rest of your yummy secrets out of you right now. I won’t stop until you’re hoarse.”