I knew better than to ask what was happening with Einstein.
I cleared my throat and shifted against the door. “I caught some of it,” I mumbled, dropping my head against the door as I tried to remember Dare and Libby’s fight.
“Kieran Hayes called because you didn’t show to close out a case last night.”
“Kieran—She was his girlfriend.”
“But this person you’re turning into since Johnny died?”
“I didn’t know Johnny died,” I whispered.
Can’t say I’m sad about it.
He’d been Dare’s best friend and Einstein’s boyfriend. And like Libby said, he was crazy. Batshit fucking insane.
The kind of guy you knew would snap one day.
“Dare did it.”
The fuck.
I don’t remember moving.
But the next thing I knew I was away from the door and in front of Libby.
“Johnny had really lost it,” she hurried to explain. “Worse than ever. Tried to kill Lily numerous times. One night it came down to Johnny or Lily, and . . . Dare had to make the decision.”
“How the hell is this your life?” I whispered.
Her brows drew together and she seemed to fold in on herself. She looked terrified. Like she was afraid that anything that left her lips would be something that sent me in the opposite direction.
“We don’t choose the families we’re born into. This is never something I thought you would know.” She held her hands out pleadingly when a sharp laugh left me. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like you don’t know me.”
I closed the distance between us and pulled her into my arms. “I do know you. But you have to realize how crazy this sounds. I knew . . . but I never thought anything like this. I never thought there was another family living in the same damn town that was killing members of your family, and vice versa. And Kieran?” I asked, bringing up the guy Dare mentioned. “He’s one of the Holloways, isn’t he? You said Einstein worked with them.”
“Yeah, he was the worst one.” When I stiffened, she quickly added, “I mean, he’s good. He’s a good guy . . . but he was their assassin. And he’s still absolutely terrifying to be in the same room with. I don’t know how Einstein works with him.”
I blinked slowly. “You’re not joking, are you?”
Her head shook and mouth twisted in a sad smile. “You’ll get used to the stories and old titles. It’s just different from what you’ve ever known.”
“That’s an understatement, Rebel.”
She relaxed deeper in my arms and whispered, “My world is born of shadows and kept hidden from view. Your world is in the spotlight and on display for everyone to see. To the average person, both seem unbelievable . . . doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
In the spotlight. For everyone to see.
“She’s a Borello by blood . . . When you put her in the spotlight, you put a blinding target on her back.”
Shit.
I trailed a finger down her jaw and back again. “I’ll find a middle ground for us. I promise.”
“You mean in between dealing with my brother?” she asked, defeat and frustration coating her words.
I started walking her toward the bed, my mouth curving up. “Already taken care of.”
I pressed my lips to hers when her mouth popped open in surprise, teasing her tongue and swallowing her moan when I laid her on the bed.
She wove her fingers through my hair, gripping and tugging to break the kiss so she could look at me. Her breaths were rough and her dark eyes were full of excitement and need. “Maxon, are you serious?”
“When are you gonna let me give you my last name, Rebel?”
A soft laugh slid up her throat. “Now.” She pressed her mouth to mine. “Now. Tomorrow. Whenever.”
Maxon
“CAN YOU STOP?” JARED SAID with a frustrated huff. “Fucking hell, you’re making me anxious, and I was chill as fuck five minutes ago.”
I glared at him as I stopped drumming my fingers but didn’t comment.
We’d been in New York for three days doing TV shows and appearances, and I couldn’t get out of here until late tonight. The guys wanted me to stay for a last night of clubs and parties . . . I’d laughed.
I’d been counting down until I could get back to North Carolina and Libby since the minute I left.
One more photo shoot.
One more appearance.
And then I was on a plane.
I started drumming on my legs again.
“I’m starving,” Ledger grumbled from where he was lying in the back seat. “Can we stop for tacos?”
“You want to eat tacos before a shoot?” Lincoln asked him dully. “A shirtless shoot?”
“Fuck yes, I do. My stomach’s eating itself.”
“Jesus Christ, man.” Jared hit my hands. “Stop. If you need to get laid that bad, we’ll find you someone to bang.”
“What the hell’s your problem?”
“You’ve gone a year without her before. Try to go a few days without pissing me off.”
“Fuck you,” I snapped. “What’s with you lately?”
“What’s with me?” He bit out a sharp laugh. “I’m not the one changing our lives because of some pussy.”
My fist connected with his face before I registered the movement.
After I got a second hit in, he grabbed the collar of my shirt and shoved me against the door.
“Fuck me. We need tacos before we kill each other,” Ledger yelled. “Driver, please. Find us tacos.”
“I don’t care that she’s there,” Jared yelled, his face red from my fists and his rage. “I don’t give a shit what she means to you. I left that town and I wanted to be done with it.” He shoved me harder against the door before releasing me and moving across the seat to position himself against his own door. “That town is nothing but bad memories.”
“It’s bad memories for all of us,” I bit out. “But Libby . . .”
“Man, fuck Libby.”
I launched across the seat and was immediately shoved back when his foot connected with my stomach.
“Say that again,” I said through clenched teeth. “I fucking dare you.”
“She was supposed to come with us,” he yelled. “We all thought when your bullshit deal ended, she was coming with us.” He flung his hand toward the back of the car. “Not forcing us back to that damn town.”
“No one’s forcing you anywhere. The three of you can live anywhere. You can choose to live anywhere else.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “I know your home life sucked. I know you wanted to get away. We all did. That’s how we came together, Jared. Jesus.”
“You’re not the only one who had a shitty home life, man,” Lincoln murmured calmly from where he sat in the front. “Maxon and I were beat and went without food half the time. Ledger had it worst of all. But we all got away from it, and those people are paying now.”
“Tacos,” Ledger whimpered.
“Shut up, Ledger,” Jared yelled before turning on Lincoln and me again. “I have dealt with ending tours there. But I can’t live in a place where every street is a nightmare. I can’t act like I don’t hate everyone in that town for pretending not to see what was happening to us.”
“Sometimes you gotta face your demons to live your life,” Lincoln said. “Can’t let the past haunt you.”
No one was closer to Libby than me . . . and I hadn’t had a clue what was really happening to her family. In her world.
Right in front of me.
Right in front of all of us . . . in a town the size of freaking Wake Forest.
“You ever think maybe they really didn’t know?” I asked.
“Uh, Max . . .”
“Shut up, Ledger,” we all said.
“You need to check your phone,” he said hurriedly. “Like, now. Driver, dude, we’re definitely gonna need those tacos.”
All t
hree of us had our phones out, but I only had time to put in my code before it was ringing.
It was Nate.
“Yeah?”
“Have you seen it?”
The way he was talking instantly had my stomach clenching with unease.
“No, Ledger just—shit.” My stomach dropped and heart painfully skipped a few beats when Jared shoved his phone in front of my face.
“Yeah,” Nate said on a sigh. “I’m getting calls from the shows you boys just finished, wanting to know why they didn’t have this scoop. I’m already getting requests . . .”
I didn’t hear anything else he said.
I didn’t hear what the guys were saying to each other or to me.
I could only focus on the pictures loaded onto the celebrity news site, with the headline: “Henley’s Maxon James Heats Up The South.”
The first picture was from last week in Brooks Street Café. I’d kissed her hard and fast . . . but she’d been pinned up against the wall.
The second was the night we left for New York. I’d gone into The Jack to say goodbye one more time. I was leaning over the bar, but the picture clearly captured exactly how long and slow that kiss had been.
“Shit,” I said, cutting off whatever Nate had been saying.
We need to get these pulled.
I skimmed the article, and only breathed a little easier when I didn’t see Libby’s name anywhere on there.
He sighed, then assured me, “We’re working on getting these pulled. But you had to know pictures were going to surface. Especially if you aren’t worrying about public affection.”
I ran my hand through my hair and groaned. “It’s Wake Forest. Public isn’t supposed to matter there, Nate. It’s people we’ve known our entire lives. She knows that this kind of thing will happen, but I wanted to keep us just us for a little longer. That town should’ve been a safe space.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Max. It comes with the . . .” He spoke away from the phone for a few seconds before uttering, “Uh, I’m not sure what, uh . . .”
When I tried to scroll to the top of the page again, it stalled before disappearing completely, leaving the screen with a page-not-found error.
“Was that you?” I asked Nate.
I hit refresh, only to get the same error page.
“No. We’re still trying to deal with legal.”
My furrowed brow smoothed, and I laughed in wonder. “Einstein,” I muttered, then handed Jared his phone.
And then it hit me that if Einstein got the page taken down, then Libby might already know, and I needed to call her. “I need to go, Nate.”
“Uh . . . yeah,” he whispered, still sounding confused by the disappearing page.
I glanced at Jared and shifted lower in the seat. “One more thing. Thought I should warn you before you saw proofs from the shoot. Jared’s face hit my fist. Twice.”
I hung up before Nate could respond just as Lincoln asked, “What happened to the page?”
“I think Einstein shut it down.”
“Badass,” Lincoln murmured.
Jared huffed a laugh. “She is kind of a badass.”
“Dude, that little genius is the shit,” Ledger agreed, then shouted, “Tacos. Finally.”
I rolled my eyes and called Libby, my heart pounding and fingers drumming on my leg.
Glancing at Jared, I said, “Sorry about your face.”
He shrugged. “We’re good. I’ll pay you back later.”
A weak laugh left me just as Libby’s voice filled my ear. “You might want to avoid Dare for a few days. But hey, at least we look good kissing.”
Him
I GLANCED UP, ALREADY GLARING, when my assistant and cousin stormed into my office.
One dropped into a chair, dragging a hand through his hair, the other continued toward my desk.
“I’ll have to call you back,” I said quickly, and hung up without waiting for a response. “Please tell me there’s a reason for—what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I need—you have to—” My assistant held up a trembling hand from where he stood typing on my computer, then begged, “Trust me. This just went live on news sites.”
As soon as a site was up on the screen, he shoved away from my desk and began pacing the length of my office.
I didn’t have to ask what was wrong.
There, on my screen, were two pictures of Elizabeth kissing someone else.
Every dark need surged through me, making me want to lash out at everything and everyone within sight.
She hadn’t been with anyone in well over six months, and suddenly she was on a damn celebrity news site.
My body stilled and ice filled my veins.
“What the hell is this?” I asked on a breath.
“Sources tell us Maxon James has continued to frequent his hometown of Wake Forest, NC since the band first moved to California, all due to longtime love interest, pictured above.”
“‘If you’ve lived here for any amount of time, you know they’ve been together, for like, ever,’ an anonymous source says.”
I slowly looked from the screen to the men in my room.
My chest was roughly rising and falling with each exaggerated breath.
“How did this get past you?”
My assistant stopped pacing and cleared his throat. “We—”
“Christ,” my cousin murmured from where he sat. “You have us watching every move she makes at work, and my assistant tracking any guy she fucks. We can’t—”
I launched the computer across my office, the sound of it crashing against the window was overshadowed by my deafening demand. “How did this get past you? How did a longtime love interest get past you?”
“If he wasn’t someone she picked up at The Jack, how the hell could we have known?”
“It shouldn’t have gotten past us,” my assistant said quickly.
“Every move.” My teeth were clenched, the words sounded like a snarl. “Watch every move she makes from here on out. Not just at that goddamn bar.”
My cousin barked out a laugh. “I have a job that doesn’t involve following a girl.”
“We have assistants for a reason. We have employees and money for a reason. Put them to use.”
He sent me a seething look. “This is what happens when you don’t take care of your belongings. Other people pick them up to play with them.”
I grabbed my keyboard and smashed it across the desk. “I want everything on that Maxon James,” I said, my tone filled with rage. “Everything. And then I want to teach him no one touches what’s mine and lives.”
Libby
MY STEPS SLOWED AND BROW furrowed when I noticed the thick, plain, white envelope taped to my front door.
I stopped in front of it, then turned to see if anyone was watching me.
Everything was still and bordered on eerie in that way only the early hours of the morning could. It was my favorite time—when I got home from closing at The Jack—because there was nothing.
Just you and your thoughts, echoing back to you in the quiet of the night.
It reminded me of the calm Maxon exuded.
I ripped the card off the door and turned it over as I lifted my keys to unlock the door, but my movements turned sluggish and the quiet suddenly seemed too loud when I found my name printed on the bottom corner of the envelope.
My full name.
Elizabeth Borello.
I looked up and my gaze darted wildly around as I hurried to unlock the door. My heart pounded forcefully. It felt like any beat would be its last.
I rushed into my apartment and slumped against the door, my fingers on the deadbolt and head hanging low as shame twisted through me.
I’m Libby Borello, damn it. I don’t back down from anything.
Men. Challenges. Hagglers. Threats. Death.
But two words on an envelope had fear spiking in my veins. Had me running.
I’d never been so ashamed of mysel
f.
A weighted breath fled from me as I pushed from the door, but my steps halted when I looked up and found the Henley boys staring at me with looks of confusion.
Einstein looked horrified.
Maxon was halfway between the living room and me, his hands half-raised like he was approaching a trapped animal. “Are you okay?”
I let the envelope slip from my fingers into my purse. “Of course I am. There was a—” I cleared my throat and gestured to the door. “A, uh, spider. Huge one.”
“Right.” His brows pinched tight and voice lowered. “You look pissed . . . because of a spider.”
“I’m not pissed.” I was so pissed. “I guess I’m tired, or something.”
He roughed his hand over his jaw and nodded. I knew he didn’t believe me. “All right. Well, uh, do you want something to eat?”
I slipped past him and tried to ignore Einstein’s assessing stare. “Yeah, sure. Just let me change first.”
I knew I didn’t convince anyone that I was fine. I didn’t realize until I was almost to my room that I hadn’t touched or even kissed Maxon. But I needed privacy to open the envelope before my earlier fear could return and consume me.
It could easily be nothing.
Could be my mom trying another way of talking to me.
But if it was from who I thought . . . then I couldn’t let the others see it.
Maxon wouldn’t understand. I didn’t want him to have to try to understand. Einstein would involve Dare, and that would only start a war we’d been trying to prevent for so long.
I hurried into my room and snatched the envelope from my bag.
My hands shook and lungs screamed from the lack of oxygen as I stared at the offensive object.
I wanted to ignore it. I wanted to open it. I wanted to burn it. I wanted to laugh at my absurdity over a damn envelope.
Instead, I carefully pried open the lip. My trembling increased when I tried to look inside.
“You’re such a wimp,” I said as I loosed a shuddering breath.
With a frantic laugh, I stuck my hand in and pulled out a Polaroid picture.
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