by Lily White
We all wanted a way out of this, but here we are. It’s a show of support for Mason and nothing else. Definitely not for the woman he’s marrying or for her group of friends who have been nothing more than a fucking headache through the years.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate the engagement of my son, Mason Strom, to the beautiful and talented Emily Donahue.
Snorting at the description he gave of Emily, I glance at the twins and think she must have at least one talent to keep them interested. It’s a fair bet that’s not what Mr. Strom meant by his statement.
While he prattles on about how pleased the families are to know they’ll be united through the marriage of their children, I catch sight of Ivy staring at me, her periwinkle blue eyes rimmed red by tears she’d cried earlier.
Hoping to see more of those, I refuse to look away first. It’s adorable to see the hesitation in her expression. To see helplessness where once there had been a deceptive grin just before she ripped the floor out from under me.
It’s almost too delicious for words.
“Again, thank you all for being here tonight to celebrate the upcoming union of -“
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think. Thanks everybody for being here to watch two people forced together who can’t stand each other.
I mentally rush the asshole along because I have a target in sight that just so happens to be injured at the moment.
Thankfully, he ends the speech, releasing us from hell, but just as I take the first step forward to chase down the woman I’ve been gunning for all night, a crowd of mothers descend like doting hens, surrounding Ivy and Emily before I can get to them.
“Do you believe that shit?”
“Shit doesn’t talk to me, and if it did, I wouldn’t believe it,” I answer, not really interested in Mason at the moment because I have something else in mind.
Glancing at him, I chuckle at how he’s already ripping the tie from his neck and unbuttoning the top of his collar.
Our forced charade is done, and we can return to our regularly scheduled programming, at least until we have to pretend to care again at the wedding.
“She literally just got done fucking someone else before standing next to me like she’s excited for the wedding.”
Pushing up on my toes and angling my body to peek around the crowd of women, I can’t spot Ivy among them.
“Why do you care?”
Where the hell did she go? I’m about to storm the fuck over there.
“I don’t. It’s just bullshit. Where are we all headed tonight? I need to decompress after doing this.”
Stepping away from him, I go up on my toes again. “I’ll have to skip your pity party tonight, Mason. I have other plans.”
There she is. I see Ivy as she’s turning to walk off in the direction of another tent.
“Gabe.”
“Sorry. We’ll make it up next time. Braid each other’s hair and shit while talking about your feelings.”
Hauling ass in her direction, I’m almost to the tent when another barrier steps in my way, this one with a pissed off glare and lips pulled into a sneer.
Damn it.
“I swear to everything that’s holy, if you fuck with her again, I’ll personally make your life a living hell.”
As if she could.
Emily slaps her hand against my chest, her stare locking to mine like she’s anything more threatening than a pigeon.
Glancing down with every ounce of disgust I can conjure, I lift my eyes back to her face. “Can you remove your hand from my chest?”
“I’m trying to give you something.”
I smile. “That’s great. It’s just that I don’t know where your hand has been. Or what diseases you’re carrying.”
With two fingertips, I grip one of hers and pluck it from my person. A small piece of paper flutters to the ground, but rather than chasing after it, I look at her.
I’d be a liar to claim the annoyance I see in her expression doesn’t please me. Well, I mean, I am a liar, but not about this. I genuinely can’t stand the fire-crotched sidekick that has helped Ivy for years in her bid to defeat me.
Emily grins, the look anything but friendly.
“It’s good to see you haven’t changed. I’ll be sure to let Ivy know that since she was almost convinced you’d grown up.”
I blink at the comment and smile. “Why are you here again? Is it only to fuck the twins, or do you serve another purpose as well?”
Her eyes narrow.
“To give you Ivy’s phone number. Although, to be honest, I think she’s a fucking idiot for thinking you might help her out for once. I mean it, Gabe. Hurt her and you’ll have me to deal with.”
With that, Emily storms off into the same tent where Ivy had disappeared as I pick up the scrap of paper from the ground.
I dedicate the number to memory and slip the scrap into my pocket. Just as my eyes lift again, Ivy and Emily emerge from the tent, a pair of familiar blue eyes peering over at me.
It’s surprising to see genuine fear in them.
Emily was wrong about my intentions for Ivy, though. Hurting her has never been what I planned to do. It’s too ordinary. Too boring.
Simply hurting her isn’t worth the time it would take to accomplish the task.
Not when my intention has always been to destroy her.
Ivy
“You can’t keep going like this. Eventually, you’ll have to decide one way or another.”
Casting a quick glance at Emily, I slip my hand from the hanger of another dress I don’t want or need. I can’t bring myself to try them on anymore, the constant shopping a distraction that no longer satisfies me.
I know.
I sound like a spoiled brat.
Poor Ivy. All she has to do is shop, go to the spa and take vacations. Her life must be miserable for how hard it is.
But that’s the problem. My life isn’t hard. Which makes it ridiculously boring.
I’d give anything for something to challenge me. I’d love to find myself vulnerable for once, where the only person who can save me is me. My father has never given me the opportunity. He’d rather cover me in bubble wrap to ensure his reputation is never harmed.
Emily doesn’t seem to mind being in the same boat as me. If it weren’t for getting married to a man she can’t stand, she’d be perfectly content being spoiled.
Ava is the lucky wench whose parents pushed her to find a career and do something with herself. It’s becoming infrequent that the three of us can find time to spend together, so when these days happen, I enjoy them.
Emily nudges Ava with her shoulder and pulls a green wrap-front dress from the rack. “This would look amazing with your skin tone. You should try it.”
“Are you ignoring me?” I ask, intentionally raising my voice to be heard over the blasting store music. Why they turn it up so high is beyond me. Maybe to make you feel like spending money is some kind of blowout party.
Turquoise eyes finally meet mine, Emily’s signature grin tugging at her lips.
“I heard you. And I don’t agree. In less than two years, I’ll be married. It’s not like I can start a real relationship with anyone. So why can’t I keep going like this?”
Ava takes the dress from Emily’s hand, her expression tight as she gives us a fake smile. “I’ll go try this on.”
Immediately feeling like shit for starting a conversation that led to the topic of Mason, I fight the urge to run after her and apologize.
Emily and I glance at each other and back to Ava, both of us feeling helpless to comfort her.
It hasn’t always been this hard, but now that the engagement is official and a three-carat diamond sits on Emily’s finger, the love triangle has become a sticking point in what used to be an easy friendship between the three of us.
I love Ava and Emily like sisters. We were raised together, learned to walk together, went through school together, got in trouble together. You could have surgic
ally stitched our skin together and it would have been fine. We were that attached at the hips.
Until college.
While I was shipped off to an all-women’s college, Emily traveled the globe, and Ava went to Yale.
The morning I received Ava’s text that she’d hooked up with Mason, I knew it was the beginning of the end. I immediately called her to remind her of every reason Mason was a bad idea, yet she assured me she wasn’t falling in love.
Fast forward ten years later, and here we are. Shakespeare himself couldn’t have written a better tragedy. The sad part is, it should have been avoided. Emily and Mason have been promised to each other since before they left the womb.
Ava knew that.
But it didn’t matter.
In a way, I’m almost jealous of her experiencing a love like that. Even if it’s poison and will ultimately destroy her.
I’ve certainly never had it. The only boy who’s ever held my interest happens to be the one who hates me. The same one with emerald green eyes that were bruised and swollen on the day I met him.
Frowning, Emily rounds the clothing rack and chases the image of that boy away, her turquoise eyes replacing his, her voice sliding into my thoughts before I can remember what he’d once said to me.
“I wish I could wrap Mason up in a big red bow and give him to her. Not that I have any idea what she sees in him. He’s one of the most arrogant jerks I’ve ever met.”
“They all are,” I comment while pretending to look through the clothes again.
If the Inferno boys have a claim on anything, it’s the arrogance that drapes them all like a second skin.
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t have given Gabriel your phone number. He’s not worth your time. None of them are. The only thing those men are good for is ripping your heart out.”
I laugh at that. “Says the girl sleeping with two of them.”
“That’s been going on since high school. They started it. Plus, it’s different. With my situation, I have very few options except to have a good time while I still can. No strings, you know?”
Her assessing eyes are on me again a second later. “Has he called you?”
That’s a question I don’t want to answer, not with the way she’s looking at me like I’m an idiot.
And maybe I am.
I’m not stupid enough to believe that Gabriel has changed enough to defend me against his friends. Especially not against Tanner. But if I’m lucky, I’ll beat him at his own game and somehow make the price they want something I can choke down easier.
Why Tanner even asked for the information on my father, I don’t know. The only thing I can assume is that Tanner wants to destroy me. I’ve done a lot to piss them off, our war one that was mostly fun but went a little too far at times. The entire situation is a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and none of it makes sense.
It was insane of me to go to Tanner for help in the first place. But at the time, it was the only option I had.
“He did call you,” Emily snaps, accusation in her voice.
I flip through the clothes faster, taking care not to meet her eyes.
“What did he say to you?”
She gasps.
“Wait, what did you do?”
Why she bothers to ask me questions is anybody’s guess. Emily can read me like an open book.
Thankfully, Ava walks up to us and sets the green dress back on the rack. “Are either of you hungry? I want to get out of here.”
It’s enough to distract Emily and get her off my ass for an answer I don’t want to give.
Gabriel did call me. The night of the party, in fact. It’s been four days since that night, and we’ve been texting back and forth ever since.
The second I tell Emily I agreed to a date with Gabriel this weekend, she’ll ship me off to the nearest mental facility. And maybe it would be what’s best for me.
My history with Gabriel is complicated, to say the least. And Emily has every right to worry. Gabriel’s the reason I was sent off to an all-women’s college. And he’s also the reason my father put me on lockdown with the very real threat to disown me should I embarrass him again.
I’ve been on my best behavior because of that threat. Hopefully, I can stay that way. I have to stay that way, which is why Tanner’s price is impossible.
“Not me,” Emily answers. “I have somewhere I need to be.”
Ava and I glance at each other and laugh.
“Tell Damon and Ezra I said hi,” Ava jokes.
A shadow darkens Emily’s eyes. I don’t like the look of it. “That’s not where I’m going. You two have a good time, though.”
After giving us both hugs, Emily walks off, leaving Ava and me to stare.
“What was that about?”
Unsure, I shake my head. “Maybe she’s mad at me,” I offer. It’s not a convincing excuse, but it’s enough to appease Ava.
Relieved to walk out of the store and escape the pounding beat of music blasting above our heads, I wait for the inevitable question I know will come.
The words hover over us as we make our way through the food court and up an escalator to the second floor. They’re still there, but silent, as I text my driver, Scott, to let him know where to meet us.
Like a ghost lingering in my shadow, the question I know is in her head trails us relentlessly. My muscles lock as I brace for it.
Really, it’s just a question. Nothing to be afraid of in the long run. But the moment it’s asked, I’ll have to answer it, and that’s what scares me the most.
Not that I’m worried about Ava’s reaction. It’s more that I haven’t yet admitted what I’m doing out loud, and I fear hearing my own words will somehow cement the truth inside me that I’m being stupid.
By the time we hit one of the larger department stores, the question slams down like a hammer against an anvil, the words floating over her lips with an innocence that shatters against the ground as heavy as an angel whose wings are shredded.
“Why would she be mad at you?”
I’ve always hated moments of truth. Not because truth is a bad thing. More that it’s a difficult pill to swallow.
“I agreed to go out with Gabriel this weekend.”
I spit the words out like they’re acid burning my tongue. The instant they’re out, I clearly hear how horrible they are. Gabriel almost cost me everything, and now I’m turning to him for help. Just like I turned to Tanner all those years ago.
Neither Emily nor Ava know the truth of what I’ve done. Tanner never told anybody, and I’ve always been surprised by that. If anything, I’d expected the Inferno boys to take out a few billboards to splash my shame across town. Maybe a parade to commemorate the victory, or an effigy they could tie to a stake and set aflame because the witch had been brought to her knees.
But no. There wasn’t a peep. Tanner quietly did what I needed him to do. He fixed my fuck up, and I’ve owed him ever since.
Ten years. It’s a long time to sit on a ticking bomb, waiting for it to explode. Unfortunately, now the countdown has reached those final numbers, and the force of the blast will tear me to shreds.
The response I know is coming from Ava is even heavier than the question she took forever to ask. It sits on my shoulders as we walk outside and step up the curb. It’s an unwanted passenger as my car pulls up and Scott runs around to open the back door.
She doesn’t need to say it. I already know.
I ask Scott to take us to Sakura, a trendy sushi place up the road. Settling against my seat once he shuts the door, I brace myself again.
It’s coming, the truth perched on the tip of Ava’s tongue waiting to be unleashed.
“Why in the hell would you agree to that? Are you insane?”
Cringing at the stern tone of her voice, I want to tell her the entire story. I want to admit how badly I screwed up. Not just the fact I’d gone to Tanner for a favor on our last day of high school, but also what I did to need the favor in the first plac
e.
Nobody knows. Tanner made sure of it. And now I’m paying for that mistake while using my handy shovel to dig my hole even deeper.
At this point, being chased through the woods doesn’t sound so bad. Sure, I’d probably lose my mind like everyone else who refused to pay their price, but would that be worse than betraying my dad?
That’s the other problem. What Tanner wants, I have. My father isn’t a saint like he makes himself out to be.
We all have secrets.
I have no choice but to beat these guys at their own game. To somehow trick Gabriel into helping me out. Of all the guys, he’s the worst choice for what I need. But he’s all I have.
Maybe it won’t be so bad. The years could have tamed him. He seems different, and I’ve been feeling him out in the texts we’ve exchanged. It’s possible he’s changed.
“He hasn’t changed, Ivy.”
Damn it...
Ava sighs as the car smoothly pulls forward to leave the mall parking lot.
Beyond the windows, the city moves past us in a blur of steel buildings set against small patches of grass, the well-manicured trees dwarfed by the shadow of the looming structures. Above that, the sky is a mottled grey, dappled sunlight breaking through the heavy clouds in shimmering streamers.
I seek out those bright patches, reach for them like the sporadic beds of flowers that add a pop of color to a cement and steel landscape.
A few seconds of tense silence passes between us, Ava’s soft voice breaking it on a confession.
“Listen, I shouldn’t be telling you this, and I wouldn’t if I wasn’t afraid of what might happen if you get involved with them again.”
Turning to her, I run my eyes down the length of her blond hair. It’s darker than mine, more golden, but the perfect shade to pop against the whiskey amber of her eyes. Unfortunately, those eyes are looking out the window instead of at me, and I worry about what she will say.
The car comes to a stop in traffic just as she sighs again and glances at me.
“They’re still running the gauntlets. Except, instead of the stupid games they played in high school, they’re playing for real this time.”
Of course they are. Why would they ever grow up?
