Vicious: A Dark Bully Reverse Harem Romance (Beautiful Tyrants Book 3)

by Vanessa Winters

  Now the only question was who was the father?

  For the first several days here, it had just been me, and the boys, and Sarah. By the time everyone else moved in, I think it would have been too fast and too short a time period for her to have gotten pregnant. That meant that she must have slept with someone outside of The Sanctuary. But since she never went out and never had anyone over; it made it a bit of an unfounded assumption.

  “Look,” I said as I tried to be as civil and unassuming as possible. “I know that you know who the father of this baby is. And I know that the father is not Michael. What I don’t know, is why you’re trying to do this to me.

  “To you?” she shouted. “I’m the one that’s pregnant. Tell your boyfriend to come see me when you’re done yelling at him. I want to talk about how we’re going to be able to have this baby together.”

  Sarah walked from the bathroom and back out into her own bedroom where she promptly slammed the door behind her.

  I was upset, this woman was upset, and the guys were upset. I didn’t know who to believe because even though I knew Michael wouldn’t do something like this, I wasn’t ready to believe that Adam would lie to me and betray his friend.

  17

  Talking to Sarah had gotten me nowhere and taking the pregnancy test didn’t solve the problem behind all of the discord and drama of who the father was.

  “Rob,” I said as I walked outside to where he was working on fixing up an old motorcycle.

  He looked up when I called his name.

  “Where did you get that?” I asked, completely detouring from the reason I came looking for him to begin with.

  “I saw somebody selling it on campus,” he said. “I’ve always wanted a motorcycle. It’s pretty beat-up but I think I can do most of the repairs myself. Then when we move back to Asheville, I’ll be able to ride my new bike around the mountains.”

  “That sounds really cool,” I said with a smile. “I was worried that maybe you wouldn’t be coming back to Asheville anymore.”

  “What, just because you and Michael are going to be together? Nah, I’ll always be around. I still love you and we’re still all friends. None of that has changed. I may not be sleeping in the same bed with you guys when we get there, but I’ll be close by.”

  “Good,” I said, feeling better about that, at least. “Can I ask you to do me a favor?”

  “Depends,” he smirked.

  “On what?”

  “On whether or not this favor has to do with the messed up pregnancy allegation by that girl.”

  I didn’t say anything, and Rob rolled his eyes and sighed at me.

  “Okay, what’s the favor?” he asked.

  “You’re used to doing detective stuff for the police force; can’t you just snoop around a little bit and use your agent skills to try and figure out what’s going on?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem right to me.”

  “Which part?” he asked.

  “None of it, to be honest. Michael wouldn’t have slept with another woman, Adam wouldn’t lie to me, and Sarah hasn’t had any men around here and has barely left her room.”

  “Yeah, I agree that shit is definitely not adding up,” Rob said. “But one of those three people has to be lying. It’s impossible to have all three opposing stories be true. Somebody isn’t telling the truth about what happened.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “The only thing we know for sure is that Sarah is pregnant.”

  Rob stood up and wiped his greasy hands on his jeans. He stood back and admired the bike. It was kind of cool-looking, actually. It was run-down and in need of obvious repair, but the black leather of the seat looked worn and soft, and the metal of the bike was still trying to shine from beneath all the grime. It would be a pretty sweet bike by the time Rob was done with it.

  “Okay,” he said reluctantly. “I’ll see what I can find out, but no promises because this isn’t really the same kind of thing as police investigations.”

  “What’s different about it?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “Well for one thing, two out of three of the suspects aren’t usually my best friends.”

  Point taken. I knew it was a lot for me to ask of him, but somehow or another I had to find out the truth and I couldn’t wait until a baby was born or a paternity test was done. I needed to know now.

  I hadn’t really talked to either Michael or Adam since the other night. I wanted so badly to hold on to the images and feelings of the night in the garden, and I didn’t want to tarnish it with the thought that one of the two men closest to me was lying to my face. I walked back into the house and sat down at a desk in the common room to work on some of the payroll for the staff. It needed to be done and I figured that it was a mundane sort of thing that would help keep my mind off of everything else. Running this place was so much more work than I had imagined. Even with people hired out to do various jobs, it was still an immense undertaking. But it was successful, and we were helping people, and that was all that mattered for now.

  “Hey,” Adam said as he walked over and stood near the desk where I was working.

  “Hey,” I said as I looked up. I was hoping this wasn’t going to turn into some kind of argument. I had questions that I wanted to ask him, details about what he claimed to have seen, but I just didn’t have the energy to get into it or to be disappointed if his story didn’t add up and I felt like he was lying.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “You?”

  Adam knelt down beside my chair and put his hand on my thigh.

  “I can see that’s not true,” he said. “Remember how long I’ve known you? I can tell when you’re not okay, Lisette.”

  “I just don’t really want to talk about it right now,” I said as I glanced back at my paperwork in order to keep myself from getting emotional.

  “I understand that. But I want you to know that you can always talk to me about stuff if you need to. You can ask me anything that you want to, and I’ll tell you the truth. I’m always here for you.”

  Okay, well I couldn’t really ignore that.

  “Are you telling me the truth about Sarah?” I asked point-bank. “Did you really see Michael leaving her bedroom? Adam, I’m not going to lie, if you made this whole thing up then I’m going to be beyond hurt about it. But I’d rather know the truth now, before things get deeper and the damage becomes harder to undo.”

  Adam looked sad and hurt, maybe because he had lied and was getting ready to fess up, or maybe because he was telling me the truth and was upset that I would ever doubt him. But before he could answer me, Sarah walked in with a book to sit and read in the common room. It was weird how she was suddenly more out and about in the house than she had been before. Maybe pregnancy made her finally feel like socializing a bit more, although I’m not sure what that would have to do with it. She gave Adam a strange glance as she walked by and plopped down in one of the soft chairs near the window. Adam stood up and slowly pulled his hand from my thigh.

  “We can talk about this more later,” he said as he turned to leave. “I need to go do something.”

  I watched Adam walk toward the hallway, wondering what that was all about and why he didn’t even seem to want to be in the same room with Sarah. Everything about all of it was weird. When Adam got to the mouth of the hallway, Michael was coming out from the hall at the same time and the two of them brushed shoulders on accident. It was such a small thing, nothing that would make anyone get upset or get into a scuffle over. But both men were so triggered by each other right now, and so on-edge about the situation, that the small touch of their shoulders sent them into an impulsive and reactionary spiral.

  Adam glared at Michael as he looked around the room to see who was here.

  “What are you doing in here?” Michael asked him when he saw me and Sarah sitting in the common room.

  “None of your damn business,” Adam shot back. “I live here, remember? I can do whatever the hell I wan
t.”

  “Not when what you want to do is create lies and deception,” Michael snarled.

  “You’re not one to talk about deception, Michael.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’d say that doing anything just so that you can win Lisette over Rob and me isn’t exactly fair play. You were so insecure in her affections toward you, so threatened by Rob and me and the idea that maybe she might love one of us more than she loved you; that you had to create some sort of forced agreement just in order to share her with us one last time. Well, let me tell you, I don’t agree to it, not anymore. And I’ll be the one to decide whether that time was the last time I make love to Lisette, not you.”

  The look on Michael’s face hardened and I saw his hands ball into fists at his side. I sat on the edge of my chair, ready to jump up and get between them if I needed to. Sarah sat in her chair by the window and I could hear her chuckling under her breath. What the hell was wrong with this woman? How could anyone think this situation was funny or amusing?

  “The agreement wasn’t forced,” Michael snarled. “It was agreed to and you knew what you were doing when you willingly agreed to it. I’m not threatened by you at all, Adam. Because Lisette does love me more than she loves you.”

  Three things happened then. Three things I never wanted to see again so long as I walked this earth. Adam lunged at Michael and the two of them grabbed onto each other’s shoulders in a violent wrestling match where Michael threw Adam to the ground and started to punch him in the face.

  I leapt up from my chair and ran toward them, trying to figure out how in the world I could get between two massive bodies that were tangled around each other and rolling around on the floor.

  And then Rob opened the door as he came in from outside, completely unaware of the brawl that had started until he saw the two of them and ran over to pull Michael and Adam apart.

  “I need popcorn to watch this,” Sarah howled in laughter. “This is better than television.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I shouted at her as I flipped my head around to face her.

  I had enough of this woman, resident or not.

  “I’m mental, remember?” she asked sarcastically.

  I couldn’t tell if there was truth in her words or not. At the moment, I didn’t care. I ran up to where Rob had just managed to pull the two guys apart and was holding Adam’s arms behind him to keep him from lurching at Michael again. Blood was dripping down his face and off the tip of his chin. Michael had managed to get a few good shots in, as was apparent both by Adam’s face and by Michael’s knuckles which were already starting to turn a bluish-purple as they bruised and started to swell.

  “You guys need to stop it,” Rob said.

  “Tell him that,” Michael said as he rubbed his sore knuckles.

  “He threw the first punch,” Adam said as he spit blood onto the floor. “As usual, he will claim that he didn’t do it.”

  “Oh no, I fully claim the fact that I hit you first,” Michael said with a look of vehemence on his face. “You were being an asshole and you deserved it.”

  Rob shook his head as Adam tried to wrangle out of his grip.

  “Let go of me for fuck sake!” Adam yelled at him.

  “Not until you calm down and promise not to keep this fight going,” Rob said.

  Michael snorted.

  “His promise isn’t worth anything,” Michael said.

  “How were the two of you ever such good friends?” Rob asked. “Because damn, you both sure seem to hate each other now.”

  That was it. I needed to get this figured out. We couldn’t keep going on like this with a tension that was making everyone go crazy. Apparently, Michael was feeling the same way because he walked straight past Adam and Rob, and over to where Sarah was sitting and pretending to read in her chair.

  “Come with me,” he said in a demanding tone that prompted her to stand right up as if she were following a command.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “I want to talk to you,” he said.

  The three of us stood and watched as Michael led Sarah out of the room. I couldn’t remember ever seeing Michael talk to Sarah alone before. As far as I had ever seen, the two of them had only said a couple of words to each other.

  “That’s not surprising,” Adam shouted after them. “He’s probably going to try to con her into covering this whole thing up now.”

  I looked at Adam and he didn’t look the same. Maybe it was his bloodied and battered face, but something seemed off about him. He looked calculating and severe, and not at all like himself. Rob let go of Adam once Michael had left the room. The three of us stood there together and stared at each other for a solid minute.

  “Anything you want to say or admit to?” Rob asked.

  Adam shook his head with a giant huffing sound and stormed out of the room to go clean up his face.

  “Aren’t detective agents supposed to be a bit more subtle than that?” I asked Rob, once it was only the two of us left in the room.

  “Thought I would give it a blunt try first,” he said with a shrug before heading back outside to finish working on his bike.

  I knew that I should probably just stay in the common area and keep working on the payroll ledgers, but I couldn’t help but want to know what Michael and Sarah were talking about. So, I crept silently toward the hallway until I could hear their voices talking quietly at the end of the hall. I stayed hidden around the corner and pressed my ear as close to the edge as I could so that I could try to make out what they were saying.

  “Whatever it is that Adam has promised you in order to keep up this lie, I would double it in order for you to just stop lying and tell the truth,” Michael said.

  There was a desperation in his voice that I had become familiar with. It was the tone that he had when he was earnestly trying to make things right against all odds.

  He was telling the truth.

  That baby didn’t belong to him.

  “Adam didn’t promise me anything,” Sarah said.

  Michael continued with that tone of voice. “Then why are you doing this? You’re hurting people’s lives.”

  “Because,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe it would be fun if you were the father. I don’t really get attention from anyone anymore. I think I’d like to believe that you are the father of my baby. Then maybe you and I could live happily ever after together.”

  “Sarah,” Michael said slowly. “You know that I’m not the father, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I remember the guy that I had sex with, and he wasn’t you. But I think that now I’m going to decide that you are. This is all much more fun than I thought it would be.”

  “You can’t just decide that I’m the father. That’s not how it works,” Michael said with disbelief and frustration at how crazy Sarah was acting.

  I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said she was mental. She really was certifiable, and this proved it. All of a sudden, I started to feel like I was in way over my head here. What was I thinking when I thought I could run this place and help people without actually knowing what I was doing or having any tangible experience in the field of mental health? This was a disaster.

  “Sarah, please,” Michael said as his tone changed to one of compassion.

  He was still angry and frustrated, but I think he knew that Sarah was ill and that she had been manipulated without the cognitive ability to realize it. I was so angry at Adam, not only for lying to me, but also for using this poor woman. Granted, I was angry at her too. I was angry at everyone; everyone except for Michael. I owed him an apology. I shouldn’t have doubted him for even a second.

  “You need to stop lying about this. We can get you all the help that you and your baby will need,” Michael offered.

  “I don’t need help,” she said. “I need a father for my baby, and I’ll choose you.”

  Michael was silent. I don’t think that there was really
anything he could have said to her that would have made a difference at this point. Sarah was confused and she saw the opportunity to try to get the attention she needed and the affection that she wanted. She wasn’t going to budge. The only way to get this all cleared up was to get Adam to tell the truth. After what I just heard, I didn’t think there was any that Adam could continue to keep up the lie. I needed to talk to him and find out why he would do something like this; why he would lie to me and betray Michael. Surely, he should have known that the lie wouldn’t be able to be kept up forever. And surely, he would have known that when the lie came due, it would come crashing down gloriously. I was so angry with him, but also so sad.

  Adam must have really been hurting to do something like this.

  That night in bed, things are beyond awkward and uncomfortable. I was truly surprised that all three guys actually came to bed with me. After what happened today between Michael and Adam, I thought that at least one of them, if not both, would sleep in one of the other bedrooms rather than in the same bed with each other. But neither wanted to leave my side and neither would concede to be the one to leave, so here we were; all curled up together to sleep as if the things that happened during the day didn’t carry over into the night. Maybe we all deserved to be in this group home. Maybe we were all slowly losing our grip on our sanity.

  In the middle of the night, Adam had a nightmare that woke me up. I opened my eyes and saw him twitching in his sleep and I rubbed the side of his temple and the spot right at the top of the bridge of his nose until he settled and calmed. Rob was sleeping soundly and didn’t seem to have even noticed Adam’s fretful sleep. I looked over my shoulder when I didn’t feel Michael’s body pressed up against mine as it usually was, and I noticed that he wasn’t there. He had probably gotten out of bed to take a walk because he couldn’t sleep; something that the two of us still had in common, maybe even more so now. I got up to go see if I could find him.