CHAPTER 2 #3
While draining my beer, I watch Lara. They’re both smiling, the conversation between them clearly more interesting than I would ever think it’d be. When his head tips back and he barks out a laugh, something snaps inside of me.
Rumble has never even had a conversation with Lola. Ever since my mom tried to trap him, he stopped touching club whores. He basically treats them like they don’t exist, with no engagement at any level. I get it, but he doesn’t have to be so damn cold and dismissive; it’s brutal.
Now he’s laughing with Lara. I think I hear Lola say something, but all I’m aware of is the sound of my heart pounding and the blood rushing through my veins.
I stand up quickly and feel Lola’s fingers graze my wrist as I stride toward where Lara and Dad are talking. I’m locked in on them and don’t pay attention to anyone as I pass. But I feel the eyes.
“How about I go and get you a drink, Miss Lara?” Dad offers, his drawl full of charm which would make me smile in any other situation. Right now, it just makes my scowl deepen. “Is beer okay or would you like something else?”
“Beer is great,” Lara tells him. “I can have one and then I’ll go with soda or water or whatever.” There’s a smile in her voice as she talks to him.
He slips away right before I step close enough for Lara to be unable to ignore me. I don’t glance around to see who else is close by.
All I’m capable of doing is leaning closer to her and dropping my voice, “The last time you were here, I told you that you didn’t belong here. It’s still true.”
Her eyes flash with something but she doesn’t back down. She never backs down.
Instead, she crosses her arms across her chest and looks up at me like she’s daring me to walk away. Hell no. Not going to happen.
“I know what you’re doing and why you’re here,” the edge in my voice is dangerous, but she doesn’t heed it.
Lara simply arches an eyebrow. She doesn’t even press her lips together. Her face is calm, too fucking calm.
“You’re just here to shove your life in Lola’s face because you think it puts her in her place,” I sneer the words.
“Everyone else might be fooled, but not me. You parade your business in front of her. You parade your daughter in front of her. You force her to watch as you play your part perfectly in the spotlight. No one else notices who you stepped on to get there, but I do.” I’m on a fucking roll, the words tumbling out of me, without noticing how quiet everything has gone around us.
My tone turns mocking, “You’re a cruel, fucked-up woman, Lara.
Haven’t you had enough? Aren’t you fucking embarrassed? ”
She takes one, slow step back, her blue eyes hardening with a resolve I’ve never seen in them before. Not even when I’ve said things to her in the past.
“Are you done?” Her question feels like a punch to the gut with how hollow it is.
Her gaze flicks away from me and when I glance over, I find Vanessa making her way closer before stopping a few feet away. She looks between us, but there’s no fear on her face. It’s almost like she already knows what is coming.
That has my stomach dropping for some reason.
“Do you want to, finally, know the truth?” Lara’s question is pure provocation. A dare. A gauntlet. Her voice drops to a whisper, the question broken, “Will you even believe me?”
A laugh comes out of Lara, and it’s a bitter, twisted sound. I don’t like it; it doesn’t match her at all. The thought has me blinking and locking my eyes on her. Only her, even as I feel my brothers shift around me.
I’m not entirely sure who they’re ready to defend. Me. Or her.
“Let me guess,” Lara’s voice rings out strong and sure when I don’t answer her. She taps her chin like she’s really thinking about it. “She told you that she was never loved. That all the attention was heaped on me while we were growing up and she barely got scraps, let alone fair treatment?”
She poses it like a question, but it’s not one.
And she’s not done.
“She whispered in your ear that every time she got into trouble, every time something bad happened in her life, I was really to blame. I framed her. I never let her shine. I resented her. I hated even having the air in my family split between the two of us. I never shared. Never gave. Never allowed.”
She narrows her eyes and the air stills in my lungs. While I know she’s angry, the bite in her words and the strain in her shoulders telling me just how close she is to losing her complete shit, she’s also calm. Too calm.
I swallow hard and nod. Slowly. Uncertainly. Even though I know what Lola told me. I remember every one of her truths because they felt like a confession which she was reluctant to share while being unable to stop her pain from bleeding out.
But I also watched. The way people gravitate toward Lara. The way she absorbed it all and thrived.
Wasn’t it proof?
Could I have gotten it all wrong?
Something in her tone tells me this is my only chance to listen to what she has to say, the disappointment in it sounds sincere, “Playboy. You’ve been lied to.
I don’t know why she picked you out of everyone, but you’re her mark.
If you don’t realize it soon, she’ll rot your life from the inside out. ”