BetweenTwoBillionairesCompleteStripped (21 page)

Instead of sitting
on the curb, I start walking towards my house. I need to put as much
distance between me and those boys as I can. I expect Tristan to come
after me, but he doesn't. I can't tell if that makes me happy or not.
The romantic in him should be running after me. Who am I kidding?
Everything was an act. That isn't really who he is.

I wrap my arms
around myself and clench my teeth together, fighting back tears.
They're coming though, and I can't stop them. At least, I'm not
heaving. I'm mewling silently, consumed by my own misery.

Tristan made me
think he loved me. Then he had his brother seduce me. Why? I don't
understand, and I doubt there's anything that could make me
understand.

It feels like a
lifetime passes before I see Ethel's car round the corner. She pulls
over onto the side of the road with a screeching halt. I can feel her
concern and anger radiating through the car.

When I open the
door, she leans across the seat to look up at me. “Who do I
need to kill?”

“
Both
of them,” I reply solemnly, not really meaning it. I'm on the
cusp of hating them, but not quite there yet. Everything is too
fresh. My brain and body and heart are still processing everything
that's happened.

“
Let's
go beat some white boy ass then.” She waits until I'm in the
car with the door closed before she puts it in drive and peels away
from the curb, heading back to Tristan and Shawn's house.

“
Ethel,
no. It's fine. Just take me home.” I buckle my seat belt while
she's driving.

The car slows down,
and she gives me a look of worry that I've never seen before. “Are
you sure? Cause if I need to cut off some dicks, I brought a knife.”
She reaches over to open the armrest console, and sure enough,
there's a knife in there. For some reason, it just makes me laugh.

“
I
appreciate it, sis. For as much as I'd like two dick trophies tacked
to my wall, that won't be necessary.” It's amazing how she can
make me feel better so quickly. I never knew she really cared.

Despite my plea
though, she doesn't turn around. There's a look of determination on
her face that's not going anywhere. I rest against the seat, just
glad to be out of a bad situation. That is, until she pulls up into
their driveway.

“
What
are you doing?” I ask as she parks next to Shawn's vehicle,
grabs the knife from the console, and starts climbing out of the car.

“
What's
deserved. Nobody fucks with my sister.”

I want to stop her,
but I don't. She's not crazy enough to stab one of them. At least, I
hope she's not. Even if she is, I'm too emotionally exhausted to stop
her.

I
sit there and watch as she goes over to Shawn's car and slashes his
tires one at a time.
That's
what he gets for not parking in the garage,
is
all I can think. By the time she gets to the third one, I see her
head shoot up towards the door to the house. One of them must be
coming out. Or both of them. I duck down as if it will hide me, but
they'll know who did it. There's no question.

Ethel makes a run
for the car, and we escape just in time to see Shawn run to the end
of the driveway to scream at us. I can't help but smirk at him in the
rear-view mirror. The prick can afford to buy new tires. We just
created an inconvenience for him.

“
That
was awesome, Ethel.” I turn to her with grin.

“
So,
now that that business is taken care of, are you going to tell me
what happened?” Her head snaps towards me as if I owe her the
story for her courageous revenge.

“
They
were playing me.” It feels oddly relieving getting it off my
chest.

“
They?”
She arches an eyebrow.

I bite my bottom
lip. Here is where I start feeling guilty again. She wanted Shawn,
but I slept with him anyway. Will she get angry if I tell her that?
I'm not sure it's such a good idea, knowing she has a knife in the
car with us. “You know how I told you what happened in the
bathroom.”

“
Yeah.”
She nods.

“
Well,
apparently, that was planned. Tristan wanted me to sleep with Shawn.
I don't know why yet. I didn't give them a chance to explain. I just
heard them talking about it when I came back from the bathroom
earlier.”

“
So
you were eavesdropping on them?” She glances at me out of her
peripheral vision.

“
Yeah.
Tristan said that if I wanted to be with him, I'd have to be willing
to be with both of them.” Just saying it makes me feel dirty.

The car pulls to a
screeching halt. Ethel puts it in park in the middle of the
neighborhood and throws her arm over the back of her seat to twist
around and look at me. “Are you telling me that I just slashed
that dude's tires because his kinky-ass brother wanted to have some
fantasy threesome with you?”

Ut oh, here comes
the anger. I keep forgetting that to her that would have been a dream
come true. “They were playing with my emotions, Ethel, like I
was some kind of toy that doesn't mean shit to them. I don't even
know what they were getting out of this. I don't even know if
Tristan's feelings for me were ever sincere.” I gesture
erratically, trying to show her how upset the situation made me.

Her shoulders slump,
and she turns back forward, putting the car in drive and continuing
down the road. We say nothing to each other for the rest of the ride,
which only hurts me more. Right now, I need support, not dismissal.
This isn't something I can exactly talk to my mother about.

We get back to our
house, and Ethel climbs out of the car and slams the door behind
herself. I want to say something, but I don't. She's upset. Upset
that she acted so irrationally over something that wouldn't have been
a big deal had it happened to her. Or maybe it would have. She
doesn't know what really went down, and I don't feel like explaining
any further. It would probably only piss her off more.

We go our separate
ways. I head to my bedroom and close the door behind myself, throwing
myself onto the bed for a long bout of crying and restless sleep.

***

I wake up feeling
numb and broken. There's an emptiness inside of me that I never knew
could exist. It goes beyond my injured heart, straight into my soul.

I go to work like a
zombie. Forcing a smile is especially hard today, and I can't keep my
mind focused on much of anything. Take an order. Make a coffee. Check
a customer out. Do they want a pastry with that? Crap, I forgot the
whipped cream. And oh yeah, I slept with brothers who were totally
playing me. I hate life. I wish I hadn't been born. Dramatic, I know.
But nothing makes sense anymore, and who wants to live in a world
that doesn't make sense.

Maybe this is why
Kelly killed herself. Perhaps Tristan pulled the same crap on her,
and she couldn't handle it. If that was the case, then I can't blame
her. This was mind-fuck advanced level. Make the girl fall in love
with you. Chase her into your brother's arms. Don't tell her what's
going on. Just make her so insecure about things that she doesn't
know whether she's coming or going.

My phone rings in my
pocket. I look at the caller ID. It's Shawn. I push reject. I'm sure
he's pissed about his car. That's between him and Ethel though. Not
me.

He leaves a voice
mail, and I delete it. If he wants to come after Ethel for
retribution, he knows where she lives. Our parents will be so pissed,
but I'll stick up for her. It's the least I can do. Then we'll have
to explain everything. Just thinking about that makes me want to cry.
I'll be tarnished in my mother's eyes. One more heartbreak to add to
the list.

When I get home, I
debate telling Ethel that Shawn called. It's something she'd probably
want to know. Then again, I'm not sure if she's over being angry at
me yet or not, so I decide not to bother.

I wallow in
self-pity for the rest of the night, wondering if I'll ever be whole
again. My online friends offer little support. Everyone is so caught
up in their own lives. That's how it should be though, I suppose.

The next day, Shawn
calls again, and again he leaves a voice mail, which I delete without
listening to. He leaves a text message too. “We need to talk,”
it says.

No, we don't.
Delete.

Apparently, he gets
fed up with being slighted, because two days later, he shows up at my
work. If I said I was starting to recover, that would be a lie. The
numbness is still there, and the only thing it's tempered with is
anxiety that this is about the car. He doesn't look happy. Then
again, he never does.

I force myself to
the register to serve him, feeling like the souls of my shoes have
suddenly turned to led. I'd kill to have my co-worker wait on him
instead, but the guy I'm working with today is manning the
drive-through window, so no such luck.

“
What
will you be having?” I ask without emotion.

“
You
haven't been returning my calls.” He doesn't bother to hide his
disapproval.

“
What
happened to your car is between you and Ethel. It doesn't involve
me.” I stare straight forward at the navy blue silk tie he's
wearing. If I look at his face, my heart will break. I need to keep
the numbness. It's the only thing holding me together.

“
That's
bullshit. This is all about you, and you know it.”

“
Sir,
if you're not going to order something, I'm going to have to ask you
to step aside. There are other customers.” I glance at a woman
standing behind him.

“
What
time do you get off?” his voice is laced with agitation.

“
Sir,
there are other customers,” I sigh.

“
I'm
not leaving until you agree to talk to me.” He stands there
like a statue, unmoving.

I'm starting to
sweat. The customers behind him are getting irritated. This isn't
good. I don't need to lose my job over this crap too.

“
I
don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to Tristan.” My eyes
flit up to meet his finally, and pain courses through me.

“
Tristan
isn't ready—”

“
I
don't care.” I shake my head. “I talk to Tristan or—”

The lady standing
behind Shawn huffs and starts stomping away. I look past Shawn in a
panic. “Ma'am, I can serve you now.”

“
It's
about damn time.” She spins on her heels, glaring at Shawn.

I give him a
pleading look, and his expression softens a bit. “Tristan will
be here when you get off of work. Text him so he'll know what time
that is.”

I nod, and he
thankfully leaves. The customer is none the happier, but at least I'm
able to serve her and move on to everyone else who was waiting. These
guys are going to kill me yet. Why can't they just leave me alone?

The rest of my night
is filled with sickening anticipation. I don't want to see Tristan. I
don't want him to know where I work. It makes me feel like I can't
escape him and Shawn. Maybe I can ask for a transfer to another
store, so they can't find me. Perhaps I should pretend to be sick and
leave early to spare myself from tonight. That's not really an option
though. I need this money for college. And I have a feeling that I'd
have to face them sooner or later. Even if I transferred to a
different store, they still know where I live. They'd find me, one
way or another.

Grudgingly, I text
Tristan to let him know when I'm getting off of work, then I watch
the minutes and hours tick down like I'm waiting for my execution. I
was wrong when I thought the day I eavesdropped was the death of my
relationship with Tristan. Tonight is. Tonight will be. I'm going to
make it abundantly clear that I never want to see him again.

At promptly fifteen
minutes til eleven, I hear the rumble of a motorcycle pulling up in
front of the store. When I look out the window, I know it's Tristan.
He takes off his helmet and walks up to the door, trying to open it.
I want to grin, knowing it's locked. I would blatantly ignore him,
but he taps on the glass, forcing my attention away from the sweeping
I'm doing.