Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Vesper
The morning was surprisingly relaxed. Bellamy fell asleep curled up in Vesper’s arms after they worked out some frustrations from the day before. And fuck, Bellamy had put in work. Not like Vesper could ever forget how good she was with her mouth, but she hadn’t done that in years.
Bel hadn’t even complained about the blindfold.
She’d been so fucking good, so beautiful.
It was odd, Vesper thought, how little this all hurt, how quickly and easily they’d fallen back into each other.
A small, nagging part of her brain screamed at her not to trust it.
They weren’t safe. She wasn’t safe. Bel could still change her mind about them, about this.
Bellamy held so much power over Vesper, it was fucking comical—and terrifying.
Vesper shook her head. No, they were good. She wouldn’t go down that road. Not now, when they were already in a fucked situation. They didn’t need complications, they needed to try to trust each other, especially if they were going to get out of this alive.
“Can you stop fucking pacing?” Bel finally snapped after Vesper had been so distracted in her head that almost twenty minutes had passed of her walking from wall to wall in front of the bed.
“Cedar should be here by now,” Vesper said, sitting on the bed next to Bellamy. “What if something happened?”
They hadn’t heard anything from Cedar yet. She’d even gone to check on Cypress in the morning, but apparently, Cedar hadn’t been by since the night before. And now it was closing in on mid-afternoon.
It wasn’t unusual for Cedar not to stop by with Vesper and Bellamy before she went to work now that she was back in her employers good graces—or decent graces—but she always went to see Cypress.
It was reasonable, she thought, to be a little worried.
Especially the day after announcing themselves in public.
Sure, Cedar hadn’t been visible, but it wasn’t a stretch to connect the sisters.
Particularly with their parents looking for them.
“Why do you even care about her? We’re better off if she does die.”
Vesper groaned, lying back and visually tracing the outline of the twisted glass panes of light on the ceiling. “You know that’s not what this is, Bel. We went outside yesterday—no hiding—trying to draw them out. And now Cedar might be missing? You don’t think it’s a little suspicious?”
Vesper turned to look at her. Bellamy was gnawing on her bottom lip. She was worried too. She just didn’t want to show it.
“I’m gonna go talk to Mazz. Maybe she knows something,” Vesper suggested, but Bellamy grabbed her before she could get up.
“Why is Mazz always your fucking answer to everything?”
Vesper tried not to groan again. Bellamy had been getting increasingly more upset about Vesper talking to any of the girls the longer they stayed there. And their night had been so good too.
“I just want to make sure we’re prepared. What if something happened?”
“You’re worried about her.” Bellamy crossed her arms, eyes narrowed.
“Bellamy!” Vesper cried exasperatedly. “I don’t give a fuck about her. But if something’s happened, then for our own fucking safety, we need to know!”
Bel pursed her lips. “Fine. But I will go ask Cypress first. Maybe Cedar just hasn’t bothered to come see us yet because she doesn’t have anything for us.” Vesper knew Bellamy didn’t believe that. She knew Bellamy didn’t want to talk to Cypress. She just didn’t want Vesper to talk to Mazz.
“Sure,” Vesper sighed. It wasn’t worth a fight. Besides, what if Bel was right and she was worried for nothing?
It shouldn’t be taking Bellamy this long to talk to Cypress.
She could barely stand being around the kid for more than a minute, and now she’d been gone—Vesper checked her watch—for fifteen fucking minutes?
That’s it. She needed to see what the fuck kind of trouble Bel had gone and gotten them into.
Vesper threw the door open. She hoped Bel hadn’t gotten in a fight with the kid. Vesper had promised she wouldn’t leave them alone together.
It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t Cypress she had to worry about.
Bellamy was facing away from Vesper, just past Cypress’s room. Her fists were clenched, and her entire body was radiating anger. Her dark blue curls, pulled up into a bun, exposed how red her neck was as she whispered angrily with Wisp.
“Bel?” Vesper called, interrupting whatever fight they were having. Bellamy whipped around. Her glare was venomous. She stalked toward Vesper without another word to her sister.
“Is it true?” she asked. Her voice wavered, and Vesper looked past Bellamy to see Wisp standing in the middle of the hallway watching them with arms crossed and an unreadable expression.
“Is what true?” Vesper whispered.
“You and Mazz,” Bellamy was still glaring, but her voice was insecure, small. Vesper scrunched her face, looking down at Bel. What? Bel knew she hadn’t touched any of the girls since they got back together.
“We haven’t done anything since we’ve been here,” Vesper said. She wasn’t going to lie about the past. Bel knew all that very well.
“Come on.” She reached out to pull Bellamy back into their room. She didn’t like Wisp just fucking watching like this. Especially not when she was the one who’d been pissing Bellamy off so much.
“That’s not what I meant!” Bellamy yelled, yanking her arm away and taking a step back. “You and Mazz dated! You were never just a fucking client,” she hissed, her anger heightening and Vesper’s confusion intensifying.
“Bel, that was years ago, and you knew we were together?” She said it more like a question than a statement. “I thought that was why you tried to kill her.”
Bellamy hesitated, opening and closing her mouth a few times before she finally settled on an answer. Her anger had dissipated almost as quickly as it had come on, replaced now by a sadness that Vesper almost thought was worse.
“Did you love her?” Bellamy whispered. She sniffled before looking up at Vesper, her eyes shining.
“Does it matter? Bel, it’s always fucking been you for me! No one else. Mazz understood that even before I did. That's why we broke up.”
Bellamy swallowed, flinching away when Vesper tried to wipe the tear off her cheek. She shouldn’t have raised her voice, but fuck. Did they really have to talk about this now, or at all? Vesper was starting to understand why Bellamy hated her sister so much.
She knew it was Wisp who told her. She and Mazz both agreed not to tell Cypress, and only the girls who worked there at the time knew. Vesper already knew they loved to talk. She was going to find out who the fuck told Wisp.
“But you still fucked her. You still like her. You still talk to her.”
Vesper huffed, frustration and guilt all swirling together. “She’s my best friend. Our business relationship was over the second you and I made up and she knows it.”
“Business relationship,” Bellamy scoffed. “You’re still friends with her.”
“We were friends before everything happened too! I’m not gonna stop being her friend, but I’m also not having sex with her again, so you don’t have to worry!”
“Did you blindfold her too?” Bellamy asked.
Vesper opened her mouth, not really sure what she was about to say.
Bellamy shook her head, cutting her off. “Why’d you blindfold me?” Her voice was a whisper, barely audible against the hum of the fan in the room behind them.
Vesper had known it was too good to be true that Bel wouldn’t be upset about that.
It was selfish of Vesper to do that. to take when she wasn’t truly ready to relinquish that control.
But fuck, she’d missed it—craved it. And the way Bellamy had taken her fucking time getting Vesper over the edge, she knew Bel had missed it too.
That wasn’t a good excuse. She still shouldn’t have done it.
Bellamy knew how hard it was for Vesper to let people in, to trust someone enough to give herself over completely. Vesper, in no words at all, had admitted that she still didn’t trust Bellamy. They just weren’t there yet.
After Vesper didn’t respond, Bellamy asked, “Do you even love me anymore?” Bellamy shook her head, scoffing in disbelief and not waiting for Vesper to answer before she shoved her and stormed back down the hallway, shouldering past her sister, who was still fucking watching.
“Fuck. Don’t do this! Bel!” Vesper called, starting to follow her. Fucking of course she still loved Bellamy. How was it not obvious? She’d told her… right? The illusion holding the wall together shimmered an incandescent white and Bellamy disappeared.
As soon as she’d vanished into the vast expanse of hallways beyond, Wisp finally spoke up. “Nice.”
“Fuck off,” Vesper growled, shoving past her too, trying to follow. But Wisp reached out and yanked her back. Vesper ripped her arm out of Wisp’s grasp and glared at her. “What do you want?”
“She’s my sister. Don’t fucking hurt her.”
Vesper huffed a laugh. “You’re the one hurting her here. Leave us the fuck alone.”
“I’m trying to help her,” Wisp snapped. She looked Vesper up and down, folding her arms over her chest and leaning back to examine her properly. “You know, Ro told me you were good for her, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Stop lying to her.”
Vesper pulled her away, frowning. “I never lied to her. Now I have to go stop her from trying to kill Mazz. Again. Thanks for that, by the way,” she bit out, turning on her heel and moving quickly toward Mazz’s office.