Chapter 21
Dante
THIS WAS GOING TO BE good.
I mean, shoving his loss and my gain of Serenity in his face was what I wanted. It was why I started hanging out with her in the first place. This moment would be the perfect opportunity to do so.
But instead of excitement over this chance to put Bradley in his place, bitterness encased my insides. No, just seeing him in the same room as Serenity, daring to breathe the same air as her, had my demonic form threatening to come out.
All I could hear were the subtle insults he’d made to Serenity about her body.
All I could envision was the bruise he’d left on Serenity’s mouth.
All I could think about was Serenity and how she deserved so much more than this fucking asshole.
Bradley and his blond lumberjack looking friend slowly crossed from the entrance to the table Serenity and I were at. The blond guy—I was pretty sure his name was John—couldn’t look more bored if he tried, while Bradley’s jaw remained tight, even as he smiled at Serenity.
“Hey, Dollface,” Bradley greeted.
He rounded the table and pulled Serenity into a tight embrace. His blue gaze collided with mine in an icy glare over Serenity’s head, though if he expected me to cower over such a thing, he was going to have another thing coming. I stood taller and notched my chin higher in silent challenge.
“What are you doing here?” Serenity asked once the fucker released her.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked with a strained chuckle.
He reached out to squeeze her hand, and I nearly let some flames of Hell ignite over that limb. The fear of burning Serenity was the only thing that kept that urge in check. How dare he fucking touch her? He shouldn’t even exist in the same world as her.
“I’m here to celebrate your book release,” Bradley finished.
“Oh,” Serenity replied with a slow nod.
An awkward silence descended between the two.
John scratched his beard and murmured something about regretting coming while Bradley shifted nervously on his feet.
The tension made me scoff snidely, and I didn’t bother hiding it.
This bastard really thought his presence would be welcomed, but Serenity’s confused silence spoke volumes.
I relished in the fact that he knew I was witnessing her lack of excitement in his being here.
But why stop there? Why not rub some salt in his wound?
I shifted behind Serenity and feigned dropping one of my new books. “Oops,” I monotoned.
With the guidance of my shadows, which only I could see, the book landed by Bradley’s feet, facing his way, and on the signature page. The note she’d written was scrawled in bright blue ink, impossible to miss.
My Dante -- your Serenity
Serenity saw it too, because she gasped softly and quickly bent down to snatch the book closed. Bradley’s eyes were wide, and he stared at the ground where the book had been, all while Serenity tucked her hair behind her ear and held the book close to her chest.
“Well,” she began nervously, not meeting her ex’s eyes. “Thanks for coming. The signing is actually over. Dante and I were just leaving.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the entrance with a whispered hiss. “Dante.”
I chuckled and leaned down closer to her, even as her face got redder. “What, Star? It was an accident.”
She looked up at me with steel daggers in those gray eyes. “Accident my ass. You—”
“Wait!”
I froze and nearly growled as Bradley’s desperate voice grated on every last one of my nerves.
We looked over our shoulders as Bradley caught up to us, his eyes ping-ponging between us before settling on Serenity.
“Dollface, I wanted to take you out to celebrate your big day. Come to Oakley’s with me and John. The rest of our friends will swing by to congratulate you, too.”
I narrowed my eyes. Was this guy really that brainless, or did he just not care?
Serenity had no friends among his group, so the suggestion to spend her evening with them amplified my hatred for this son of a bitch.
But it also reminded me of my goal in all of this—to destroy this fake man by taking what he wanted most.
“Um,” Serenity started with a glance at me. “I think Dante and I—”
“It’s okay,” I told her. I flashed a tight smile at Bradley. “We can join your friends first.”
Her brow rose, and her lips parted in surprise.
Bradley’s strained worry morphed into hopeful triumph.
He shot me a cocky smirk, which made him look like an even bigger idiot.
He acted like he’d somehow won here, despite the fact that I’d agreed to join them.
Little did he know he was walking right into the gaping jaws of a monster.
Oakley’s Bar was only a five minute drive from the bookstore, which gave my acrimony no time to settle. But I expected nothing less, considering the company I now had to share my time with. The only positive in this was getting the chance to break Bradley’s spirit.
The first instance of this came when we walked to a table. I stepped into Serenity’s side and placed a hand on the small of her back just as Bradley was starting to do the same thing. I nearly laughed when he basically tripped in his shocked state.
Our weird group got a small square table, and Bradley wasted no time taking the seat on Serenity’s other side and across from me. I was stuck staring at this ugly fucker while also sitting next to his friend, who hadn’t looked away from his phone since we got here. Though, he wasn’t the only one.
Serenity kept checking her phone, scrolling through what I now realized was her social media account as SC Draven, interacting with the handful of posts about her books.
She picked at her thumb beneath the table while her nervous eyes darted over her phone screen, reading what people had tagged her in.
Bradley cleared his throat. “So, uh, congrats, Dollface. Another book down!”
“Thanks,” she replied with a weak grin, which grew smaller as she looked at another post. “I really hope people like the trilogy, especially since it’s complete now.”
I opened my mouth to tell her how fantastic book three was. I’d literally had to force myself to put it down when I noticed the bookstore employee relieving Serenity from the signing. Even now, I itched to slip away with her as soon as possible so I could dive back into Ember and Krail’s story.
But before I could tell her any of this, Bradley leaned closer to her and nodded his head hard while shooting a brief glare my way. “They’ll love it. You’re a great writer.”
Serenity looked up from her phone to frown at her ex. “You’ve not read my books, Bradley.”
That made my brows shoot up, and I fixed my stare across the table. “You haven’t read her books?”
Bradley shifted in his seat and fixed his narrowed eyes on me while grumbling defensively, “No. I’m a busy guy. My job is very demanding, so I have little free time for things like reading a book.”
“It’s not a book. It’s her book.”
Silence descended, and while I hadn’t thought it possible, the tension grew. Even the blondy next to me had abandoned his phone to watch mine and Bradley’s stare-off.
The more I learned about Bradley and how he’d treated Serenity during their relationship, the weaker my hold got on my human guise.
He didn’t like reading? Fine. He was busy.
Understandable. But he’d been with Serenity for eight years.
They’d had plans to spend forever together, yet he couldn’t make the time to read even one goddamn book to support and encourage her?
It wasn’t a random book; it was her book.
These stories were a piece of Serenity, her heart and soul given form on paper, yet he’d dismissed that gift as an unimportant inconvenience.
This man was worthless.
Serenity suddenly cleared her throat and got to her feet. “I sure am thirsty. How about I get us water?”
She was trying to diffuse the tension, but it wasn’t going to work.
I stood to help her, and Bradley immediately parroted me, claiming he wanted to help, too.
Serenity looked at a loss as the three of us went to the bar, grabbing water, before returning to the table where Johnie-boy still sat, playing on his phone. Why was he even here?
I looked at Serenity, who seemed to be growing more and more uncomfortable as she idly stirred her straw in her drink and looked around the bar.
Why were we here?
The reason I’d had didn’t seem good enough anymore.
“Want to dance or anything?” Bradley asked her, pointing at the fairly empty dance floor in front of the stage.
Serenity refocused on her phone with an anxious nibble on her lip. “No thanks. I need to check my sales for today. I didn’t get a chance at the signing, so …”
I studied her face and the hope in her eyes as she pulled up whatever report gave her today’s figures.
Release day sales were huge for authors, especially an indie author like her.
Even I knew that. After finding out that Serenity was one of my new favorite authors, I yearned to see her succeed even more than I already had.
I watched her for any signs of excitement over good numbers, but instead of a cheerful laugh, she froze.
Her lips parted slightly, and I could practically hear her hope breaking and dissolving.
The light left her eyes, and her shoulders slumped.
A knife dug deep into my chest at the sight.
I saw the defeat, the despair, the doubt engulfing her mind, and my gut reaction was to wrap her in my arms to weather that storm with her.
“Will you get off that thing?” Bradley sighed, reaching over to rest his hand on Serenity’s wrist. “It’s clearly just bringing your mood down.”
“Sorry,” Serenity mumbled so softly, I wasn’t sure the two humans at the table could even hear the broken sound in the word. She turned the phone off and put it away.
“We’re supposed to be celebrating right now,” Bradley plowed on. “You don’t seem to have a very celebratory spirit. Come on. Stop being so blah and just be happy. You released a book today!”