by Lily White
“I’m not stalling,” I lie.
His brow arches at that. “Sure you’re not.”
Turning back to the house, I march up the steps of the porch, nervousness trickling down my spine because I’m about to walk inside to greet a group of people wearing only a t-shirt that falls to my knees, while also smelling like an interesting blend of sex, sweat and dirt.
This should be fun.
Gabriel steps around me to open the door, the wood partition swinging open to reveal the empty foyer.
Beyond that small room, I can hear several voices, masculine and feminine, the tone of their conversation friendly as if they’re not all here to corner me for information I haven’t yet admitted to know, much less agreed to give.
All I can do is keep playing stupid, but that doesn’t help the knot in my throat or the way my stomach is twisting. Gabriel might be playing nice right now, but as a member of the Inferno, all bets are off as to what he’ll do when reunited with his friends.
A deep sigh rolls over my lips as I take baby steps through the foyer. I don’t want to face them, and if I could turn around and run away, I would.
Gabriel must sense my thoughts, his hand pressing against my lower back to keep me moving.
I feel like a dead woman walking.
A convict being led to stand in front of a firing squad.
As soon as we step into the living room, everybody turns our direction and falls silent. Emily’s eyes widen to look at me, and Tanner’s dark gaze shoots straight to Gabriel.
“Again with this? Again?”
I don’t know what again is referencing, but Tanner sounds quite pissed about it.
Gabriel never removes his hand from my back. He doesn’t answer the question either.
Tanner’s dark gaze drags to me.
“It’s good to see you again, Ivy. You should sit the fuck down so we can have a little chat.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I glare at him. Tanner’s bad attitude might shove other people to their knees, but it won’t work with me. It’s not like there’s much else I can lose. My father has disowned me, I have no money to my name, no car and no job.
I look away from him to see all the Inferno boys spread out over the couches.
Sawyer and Shane are obviously stoned, their smirks barely hidden as they take in the way Gabriel and I look. Beside them on another couch, Emily sits awkwardly between the twins, the shock on her face mixing with concern.
On another couch, Taylor is kicked back with his feet propped on an ottoman. Mason sits beside him, both staring at Gabe and I like we’ve each grown a second head.
Only Jase looks like he doesn’t give a shit. He’s planted in an overstuffed chair all by himself, his thumb moving as he scrolls through his phone.
When I glance back at Tanner, I see Luca sitting behind him, her eyes locked on Gabriel, a secretive smile stretching her lips.
My eyes meet Tanner’s.
“Actually, I’m going upstairs to get a shower. So you can sit the fuck down and wait to see if I might agree to talk to you when I’m done.”
His eyes narrow as Gabriel’s hand presses to my back a little harder. But then a slow smirk stretches Tanner’s lips, one I’m familiar with since it’s the very same look he gives every person he’s about to destroy.
Tilting his head, his eyes flicker between Gabe and me, the slow dance of attention finally focusing on my face.
“Do you think you’re safe now with Gabe? Is that the bullshit lie whispering in your head?”
Now that he mentions it, not really. I trust Gabriel about as far as I can throw him. I know where his loyalties lie, but I also know I won’t be shoved to my knees by the asshole staring me down.
What can Tanner possibly do to me? There’s nothing else they can strip away. I haven’t done anything -
“I still have it, you know?”
He takes a step toward me.
“I save everything when I do someone a favor. Since you’ve decided you don’t want to pay, and Gabriel won’t let us run a gauntlet on you the way it should be done, maybe I should take over convincing you that giving us the information we want is better than the alternative.”
Except that.
A hiccup of judgment in my past.
A mistake that shoved me to him in the first place.
The fear must be obvious in my expression because his mouth curls more, his eyes darting to Gabriel before landing on me again.
“I also have more information than you know about that. Something I highly doubt-“
“She’s getting a shower,” Gabriel insists, his voice loud enough to cut Tanner off.
The room goes silent. Like a morgue, really, everybody watching the conversation with renewed attention. Even Jase looks up from his phone, a shit-eating grin on his face because Gabriel just chose my side over Tanner’s.
What the fuck?
I freeze in place, not sure what to do now that I’m caught between the two of them.
Tanner’s pissed off stare shoots past me to his best friend. It surprises me again when Gabriel pulls me back so he can step between us.
“Like hell she is, Gabe. Don’t you remember what happened the last time you let her out of your sight? She can’t be trusted by herself for a fucking second, and you’re acting like an idiot again to think she can.”
Okay. I deserve that, so I don’t argue.
Something is being said between the two men that I’m not aware of, some silent argument that I’m not sure I want to hear. It’s scary enough just standing here looking at the way Tanner is glaring at Gabriel.
Gabriel’s voice, however, is oddly calm when speaking directly to Satan.
“She won’t do anything because I’ll go up with her and watch.”
“Like hell you will. You don’t get to stand there and watch her get a shower just because you think she’ll do something.”
We all spin to look at Emily as she shoves to her feet. I smile to know my bestie has my back, but it’s not like Gabriel will see something I haven’t already shown him.
One would think the fact I’m standing here wearing his shirt would be the first hint of that.
I clear my throat to ease the knot choking me from this insanely tense conversation.
“It’s fine, Emily.”
She stares at me, not understanding, the rest of the Inferno grinning because they have a pretty good idea without my saying a word.
Rolling my eyes when she doesn’t back down, I admit on a rushed voice, “Gabriel may need a shower, too.”
I mean, how else am I supposed to say it without coming out and just saying it?
Her eyes widen, lips parting just a touch to tell me she finally figured out what really went down in the woods outside her cabin.
“Oh,” she says. “Wait, does that mean-“
“It means they banged,” Tanner barks, his outburst dragging my eyes his direction as Emily slowly lowers herself back down to the couch in my peripheral vision.
I guess that’s one way to say it.
His dark gaze stays locked to my face for all of ten seconds before it lifts to Gabriel.
“Ten minutes. Any longer and I’m coming up there to drag you both out.”
I open my mouth to argue, but Gabriel clasps my hand and pulls me along toward the stairs.
Not speaking again until we’re stepping into the bathroom, I turn to face Gabriel as he shuts the door.
“Did you just take my side over Tanner’s?”
Because...no. Not even in my wildest dreams would something like that ever happen, which means they somehow drugged me without my knowing it, and I’m still running through the woods tripping balls. I’m probably caught in some net hanging from a tree. Or tied to a spit slowly being cooked over an open flame.
Gabriel’s green eyes meet mine before he rushes forward and begins peeling the shirt off my body.
“You should shut up right now.”
“What? Why? Answer my questi
on.”
I’m being backed into the shower as he pulls off his clothes. He leans down and his mouth claims mine, his hand slamming on the handle to turn on the water.
Pulling away from him, I yelp when cold water hits us. “We have ten minutes, Gabe. And this is not the time.”
Judging by the look in his eyes, it is.
“Ten minutes is plenty of time. Just don’t make a sound, and they’ll never know.”
He spins me around and directs my hands to the tile, his cock sliding inside me as he covers my mouth to muffle my moan.
Gabriel
It didn’t take the full ten minutes to get her off. That beautiful body trembled with an orgasm within a few minutes of me being inside her.
Once again, I hadn’t intended for it to go there, but it was the only way to get her to stop questioning my decision to go against Tanner.
Watching Ivy while she wraps a towel around her body and shoves her white-blond hair away from her face, I’m beginning to worry that I’m letting her get too close.
She’s still the same game player that I am. Still the sneaky bitch who wrecked my house and flattened our tires.
But I can’t help myself.
Even now, I’m staring at her like she’s a three-course dinner and I’m a starving man, my gaze running down her body with the intent to shove her against a wall and take her again.
Fucking her...again...did nothing to ease the anger I’m feeling, though. Not that I’m mad at her, she did nothing wrong this time.
But when I get Tanner alone, I’m going to kill him.
He was so close to admitting something Ivy doesn’t know, and it was either get between them right at that moment, or admit her current problem is entirely my fault.
Not wanting to deal with the questions I knew would surface, I chose to get between them, which means Tanner wants to kick my ass just as much.
“So, I have a slight problem.”
Glancing up from where I’m leaning against a wall with just a towel wrapped around my waist, I meet her eyes in the mirror.
“That is?”
“I have no clothes. They’re all packed in my bags that I left on the porch.”
My head falls back against the wall as I grin. “Are you asking me to be your errand boy again?”
She smiles. It’s the one lined with sugar, just as fake as the lies she tells.
“I’ll give you a raise in pay and also give some consideration to updating the benefits package.”
She hasn’t yet dropped to her knees in front of me, but I’m starting to figure out there’s plenty of time for that. I’m not done extracting payment for what she did to my house.
If you’d asked me ten years ago if I’d be standing in a bathroom with Ivy discussing the benefits she can provide, I would have told you to lay off the drugs.
On the last day I saw her with my car sunk in a pool, I’d stared up at the smirk on her face knowing that the time would come when I’d get even. I just had no idea that this would happen.
For years, I’ve waited patiently for Tanner to call in the debt. But now that the time is here, I’m not sure I want it anymore.
Which makes Tanner and his bullshit a problem. One I need to deal with before this entire thing blows up in my face.
“I’ll run down and grab them.”
Leaving the bathroom, I run downstairs and rush past the guys where they’re waiting in the living room. Ivy’s bags are near the front door, and the second my hand lands on one, an angry voice sounds behind me.
“This is a joke, right? You’re fucking with me.”
Turning at Tanner’s voice, I lock my eyes to his.
“No, actually. I’ve fucked enough for tonight, but if you give me twenty minutes to recoup, I might be able to squeeze you in.”
His lips thin as his gaze drops to the designer pink bag I’m carrying and shoots back to my face.
“Do you want to explain what’s going on? Because I feel like I’m fighting according to one battle plan, while you’ve switched to the other team.”
“About that...”
I grab Ivy’s second bag and pull the strap up over my shoulder.
“I seem to remember it being you who almost shot off at the mouth about why we have this battle plan in the first place.”
“What the hell do you care? You hate her anyway. It’s not like her getting pissed that you set her up to run to me in high school will make much of a difference.”
I say nothing. Not that I have to when the look on my face says it all.
Tanner straightens his posture, crosses his arms over his chest and lets out a bark of laughter.
“Unless it does make a difference.”
Pursing my lips, I attempt to hide my thoughts on the matter, but considering I’m standing here with pink baggage while wearing nothing but a towel, I think it’s a bit late to claim I still hate Ivy as much as I used to.
And that thought scares the hell out of me.
Tanner runs a hand through his hair and laughs.
“Holy shit. I can’t believe this is fucking happening. Have you lost your damn mind? She’s not to be trusted.”
“I’ll keep her in sight.”
“Right,” he says, another burst of laughter shaking his shoulders. “Just like you did at your house the other day? Or should I expect your body to be dumped on my lawn again? She’s playing you, Gabe. She has always been playing you. And while it was funny as fuck in high school, you have too much to lose now.”
He has a point.
Except what Tanner doesn’t know is the reason for our war. I never told him about the first day I met her, or about what she witnessed outside my house. Those are secrets that only Ivy and I know.
“The longer you keep me down here, the more time she has to sneak out a window.”
“She has no clothes,” he argues, his hand gesturing to the bags.
He doesn’t know Ivy like I do.
“And you believe that will stop her?”
“Damn it. Just get up there. But we’re still cornering her on the shit with Luca’s father. I’m not letting that go.”
Nodding my head at that, I don’t argue.
“Given that it’s Luca, I won’t let it go either. But when it comes to what happened in high school, Ivy’s not supposed to know.”
I move to step past him, but he grabs my arm. I turn to look at him.
The smile on his face does nothing but piss me off.
“Is this the part where I tell you to be honest with her because she might forgive you if she knows?”
Chuckling at that, I answer, “No. That advice was crap, and I did it to fuck with you. I was genuinely surprised you went through with it.”
His eyes narrow on my face, and I shrug.
“Unlike you, I’m not a fucking moron.”
I flash him a grin and then hurry off. I can feel his eyes burning holes in the back of my head, the rest of the guys staring me down and snickering as I run through the living room and haul ass upstairs.
Stepping into the bathroom, I drop Ivy’s crap on the ground as soon as I notice the bathroom is empty and the window is wide open, every muscle locking over my shoulders as I imagine the amount of damage she’s caused now.
Son of a bitch...
Tanner will never let me live this down.
“What the hell has she done now?”
My teeth are grinding as I cross the room on a ground-eating stride, my foot sliding in a puddle that sends me slamming into a wall.
Catching myself, I look outside to see a straight drop to the ground and a fluffy, bright, white towel laying over the dark shadow of grass.
“Crazy bitch,” I mumble, wondering how the hell she managed to jump down without breaking her legs.
Spinning back to run from the bathroom and chase her crazy ass down, my foot catches the puddle again, my leg flying out from under me as my body falls, and I crash on my back.
My head hits the floor tile as my teeth
clack together, and I open my eyes to stare at the ceiling.
“I’m going to fucking kill her.”
Laughter erupts to my right, and I roll my head over the ground to see Ivy standing at the bathroom door.
“You should have seen your face,” she says, barely able to speak between the snorting laugh that’s practically doubling her over.
Her face is bright red, and her eyes are watering, tears slipping down her cheeks from how funny she finds this.
“Are you okay?”
More laughter, before she takes a deep breath in an attempt to stop. “Did you actually think I jumped?”
The look on my face must be hilarious because she busts out laughing again.
Wiping a few tears away, she tightens the towel around her and walks over. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to fall.”
“You didn’t?” I ask, my brows shooting up as I grimace at her.
She shakes her head, but can’t stop laughing.
Rolling my eyes, I can’t help but laugh with her.
“Whatever.” I lift a hand. “At least help me up.”
She reaches for me, but rather than letting her pull me up, I tug her down instead.
Ivy squeaks as she falls on my body, her palms braced on my chest as my hands grab her ass.
We stare at each other for a few seconds, and I watch the remaining tears slip down her face.
“We can’t happen,” I finally say, seeing something in her eyes that resembles hope.
Her brows crash together. “Are you talking about us? I’m shocked.”
Scoffing at that, she looks away and back at me again.
“You took that seriously, too, didn’t you? I only brought it up so you wouldn’t follow me around when I was grabbing your keys and a knife. It was nothing serious.”
Except it was.
And even if she won’t admit it to herself, I know it’s true.
It’s always been true.
Since the day we met and I shoved her to the ground for being special.
We hurt each other because we can’t have each other...because it’s the only way we can hold on.
Reaching up, I trace the shape of her lips, our eyes locking as her breath beats over the tips of my fingers.
“This would be a lot easier if you hate me.”
She blinks, her face angling down into my touch when I palm her cheek.