Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ilike Lex’s cousin. He’s quiet but the way he openly dotes on his wife is cute. And I can tell that he and Lex have a close relationship, despite what Lex might say about not caring for anyone who isn’t me.
“You want to go with your cousin?” I ask Lex.
He frowns at me. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Your mom messaged me. She wants to catch up. I can just meet her somewhere and you can go and do whatever it is your cousin wants you to do,” I offer. I don’t want to be the reason he doesn’t hang out with his cousin while he can.
“Is it true?” Ares calls out from across the table, looking at Lex.
“Is what true?” Lex asks him.
“You shove a baseball bat up some jock’s ass before slitting his throat?” Ares tilts his head to one side expectantly.
“Who the fuck told you that?” Lex grunts.
“Aurora.” Ares waves his phone in the air.
“Stop talking to my sister, Ares, or I’m going to tell Connor you like her a little more than you actually do.” Lorenzo smiles. “Actually, maybe I will anyway. Could be fun to watch.”
I look to Lex. I have no idea what they’re talking about, but I think I have a pretty good idea about the baseball bat thing. I’m not na?ve. I’ve always known exactly what Lex is capable of. What makes me sick is that he did that for me.
“Are you asking because you want to be the next person I fuck with a bat, Ares?” Lex’s voice is calm, in a really eerie way.
“Fuck.” Lorenzo stands and points to Ares. “You, get the fuck out of my house now.”
“What?” Zara gasps.
“You can stay, but he needs to leave, now, Zara,” Lorenzo snaps.
“Lorenzo, do not snap at my sister. Zara, take him anywhere that’s not here.” Kyla pushes up from the table and walks over to her sister.
“You don’t scare me.” Ares stares back at Lex.
“I’m not trying to,” Lex says. “I don’t need people to fear me. In fact, it’s better when they don’t. Makes their pain, their screams all the more pleasurable.”
I’m trying my best to not react, but this is not a side of Lex I’ve seen before.
He’s not looking at me. His glare is firmly fixed on Ares, as if he’s a hunter with eyes on his dinner for the night.
I, for one, would not want to be on the other side of that stare.
Not that I’m scared of Lex. He’s the only person I’m not scared of. But everyone else should be.
“I’m leaving. For her. Not you. If you want to continue this, you know where you can find me,” Ares says, standing when Zara tugs on his arm.
Lex smirks. “I look forward to it.”
“Lex, cut it out.” Lorenzo points in our direction. “Don’t fucking move,” he says as he walks around the table and follows his wife out of the dining room with her sister and Ares.
It’s not until we’re alone that Lex actually looks at me. And the moment he does, his face drops. “Fuck.” It’s as if he forgot I was sitting here. “Are you okay?”
“Me?” I point to myself. “What the hell was that, Lex? Are you okay?”
“He pissed me off,” Lex grunts. “We’re at family lunch. He shouldn’t be bringing up shit like that at the fucking dinner table.”
“Is it true? Did you really do that?” I ask him.
“Yes.” He nods. “And I’d do it again too.”
“Should have put nails in the bat first,” I blurt out before slamming my lips closed.
Lex smiles wide. “I’ll do that next time.”
“You know you don’t have to hide things from me.”
“I do actually,” he says, and I frown. “Not because I don’t trust you, Addi, but because I don’t want you to look at me differently. I also will never put you in a situation where my crimes could be held against you.”
“Do you think the law will catch up with you?” I ask him. “We could run, right? Become different people?”
“You’d run away with me?”
“Well, I sure as shit am not letting you run away without me,” I tell him. “We just got engaged, remember?”
“You what now?” This comes from Lorenzo. “You’re getting married?”
“You shouldn’t eavesdrop,” Lex tells his cousin.
“You’re in my house,” Lorenzo counters.
“We’re leaving.” Lex stands, takes hold of my hand, and pulls me to my feet.
“It was nice to meet you, Addison,” Lorenzo says. “Sorry lunch went… Well, you’re going to marry him so you should get used to shit going south.”
“It was nice to meet you too,” I tell Lorenzo, ignoring his dig at Lex.
As soon as we’re back in the car, my phone pings with a message.
I look to Lex. “It’s your mom.”
“Tell her you’re busy,” he says.
“I’m not saying that.” I laugh. “She’s coming to the hotel to meet me.”
“Of course she is.” Lex rolls his eyes. “It’s weird how much my parents love you. I mean, I get it. I fucking love you. But I know you. They met you once and decided they were keeping you.”
“You kind of did that too.” I smile, recalling the first day of school. Everyone ignored me, treated me as if I weren’t even in the classroom. Lex stood up, dragged his desk over to where mine was, and sat next to me, declaring us best friends.
“Yeah, I did,” he says. “We need to find a jeweler. You should have a ring.”
“I don’t need a ring,” I tell him. “I have you.”
“You need a ring. Something big, unmissable. Something that says you’re well and truly off the market.”
“I’m not a cow, Lex,” I tell him. “I also don’t need a ring to know I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”