The Avoidance of Love (The Daniels' Sisters Book 2) (28 page)

I did believe him, which brought a whole new set of complications.

“You look like you could do with some lunch and maybe a drink. Can I treat you?”

I wasn’t sure about the food, but I could definitely do with something strong to wet my mouth.

Lunch with Eric was an eye-opener. He explained that what he had intended as a one nightstand with Brielle had only transpired into more because he couldn’t shake her. At first, it had appeared that she was besotted with him, but it didn’t take long for him to determine that she had an ulterior motive.

“When you saw us at Luke’s birthday party, it became apparent then that I was being used as a tool. For whatever reason I couldn’t work out at the time, she wanted to make sure we looked like we were happily in love, which really wasn’t the case.”

He went on to explain that Brielle’s mood swings made a neurotic unstable schizophrenic off their meds look a Zen Buddhist monk. He was glad when his sister had phoned him asking him to visit in France. It had given him a chance to escape her madness, and he’d planned to avoid her without fail once he was back in England.

“Enough about the crazy bitch. What about you? Your sister is forever singing your praises about your success, yet you looked less than happy even before you realized it was me at the door.”

Without intending to, the conversation was once again dominated by Brielle and her antics. We both agreed that it was highly probable that she was the one to trash my office.

Eventually, we moved on to other things. Eric was easy to talk to and took my mind off my current problems. He gushed about his new niece and nephew and showed picture after picture of the twins on his phone. He was funny. I had to hold a tissue over my mouth several times for fear of spraying my food over him as he told me story after story that had me howling with laughter. It felt so good to be laughing.

We finished our lunch and drinks and strolled leisurely back to my office. He offered me his arm to hook onto while we walked and it was lovely. Within minutes, he had me laughing again.

We stopped outside my office.

“You going to be okay, Mara?”

“You’ve made me feel better than I have in the last week Eric. Thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help. If Jace hadn’t already claimed dibs, I think I’d have to make a move on you myself.” He said it half-heartedly with a smile that was more jovial than predatory.

“Well, I have claimed dibs so you can fuck off.” Eric and I both spun around to see Jace standing behind us with a face that screamed murder. Fuck.

“Jace, it’s not what it looks like.” He walked straight past me, his eyes locked on Eric.

“Like fuck it is.” He slammed into Eric before I could blink.

“Jace, stop it.” I screamed at him but he and Eric were going blow for blow. “Jace, please.” I had to get in between them. It was like pulling two rabid dogs apart. I somehow managed to get in the way so that both men couldn’t throw a punch without hitting me. Lucky for me, it looked as though neither of them wanted to do that.

“How could you be with him, Mara? He fucking covered Brielle in bruises. You saw them yourself.”

Now I was pissed. It sounded like he was accusing me of siding with a domestic abuser, which I hadn’t, and Eric wasn’t.

“He didn’t hit her, Jace. He wasn’t even in the damn country. As usual, she’s got you wrapped around her finger and you’re too blind to see it.” I went over to Eric and checked him over. He wasn’t any more injured than Jace, but he had a split lip that seemed to be swelling by the second.

Jace looked over at Eric searching for an answer.

“It’s true, asshole. I wasn’t even in the country. You’ve been fucking her for years; surely, you know what a psycho bitch she is. Everything she does is to get your attention.” I was sure that stung Jace more than me but it burned nonetheless. Who wanted to be reminded of your boyfriend’s last fuck and just how recent it was?

Some of the anger eased out of Jace’s body, and I relaxed when I was sure they weren’t going to brawl again.

“Mara, I’m going to get going. I’m sure you and the douche over there have shit to sort out. Call me when you can. I actually came over here to talk to you about work.” He leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek, resting his lips on mine just long enough to earn a growl from Jace in the background. As he pulled away, I saw him smirk.

I watched him get in his car and take off before I turned to Jace.

“Do you want to explain what’s going on?”

“You heard what he said, Jace. How many times do you need to hear it to believe it? Brielle’s been playing you, but you know what? I can’t even knock her because it’s not as if you aren’t going along with her.” I was fuming now. It had been one thing that Jace was constantly supporting her when they thought she needed it, but now we knew none of it was true.

“I just don’t understand why she would do all this.”

“Well, you know where she is. Why don’t you go and ask her.” I started to walk back into my office but was spun back the way I’d come from when Jace grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward him. He crushed his mouth to mine bruising my lips in a punishing kiss.

“We’ll go and ask her. And then she can leave. She’s caused me enough problems. It’s more than past time this was over.”

I couldn’t agree more.

“BRIELLE!” JACE SHOUTED her name as soon as he stepped through the door.

We hadn’t spoken in the car on the way over and that was fine by me. A good part of me still wanted to throttle Jace. It shouldn’t have taken Eric’s revelation for him to deal with this situation before now.

“BRIELLE!” He bellowed it again.

“I’m upstairs Jace. I’m in your room.”

“Why the fuck is she in your room Jace?” What the hell had really been going on while I hadn’t been here?

“I don’t know. I told you that I haven’t stayed here since you left.” He tore up the stairs, and I followed behind him.

When he opened his bedroom door, I realized two things. Brielle was crazier than I had thought and no amount of therapy could undo what I was seeing.

“Jesus, Brielle, put some fucking clothes on.” Jace turned to face me and to his credit, he was a shade of red I’d never seen on him before.

Brielle was spread eagled on top of his bed covers, naked as the day she was born. Now that I thought about it, a swimming pool of booze wouldn’t help erase the imprint of this image.

When she finally caught a glimpse of me behind Jace, she scrambled to cover herself up. Too late, love. My mind is scarred.

“What’s she doing here?” Shock clearly prevented her from her hiding her distaste at my presence.

“She? She is my girlfriend, Brielle.” Jace now turned back to face her. “ You need to leave, Brielle. Now.”

“But Jace, I’ve got nowhere to go.” Her fake innocence made me want to puke.

“I spoke to Eric, Brielle. He told me he wasn’t even in the country when he was supposed to have hit you.”

To her credit, she didn’t even try to continue with her lie.

“Jace, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. I just missed you so much. The tears were free falling and my jaw hit the floor. “ I just wanted her out of the picture so we could spend some time together like we used to. You just needed to remember how we used to be.”

Jace’s face was stoic. I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking.

“Brielle, did you break in to Mara’s office?”

I really expected her to lie about this one, but she nodded her head. The desperation in her voice and on her face kicked up a notch.

“She was always around. I just needed her out the picture for a little while.” She really was a class act. All my work and my personal affects destroyed almost beyond redemption so she could try to wrangle her way into Jace’s life. Oh, I had seriously had enough now. Too much talking.

“You almost destroyed my business for a man who doesn’t want you. Are you for real?”

“He will never love you; you’re not his type. I’m his type. You’re a cold bitch. He needs more than you can give him.”

The image of the broken frame with my parents’ picture in shot across my mind and the thin leash of control on my anger broke. I stormed past Jace while shoving him out the way. Fear flashed across Brielle’s face and she had every reason to be afraid.

“Get your fucking clothes on now, you tramp.” I saw the pile in the corner of the room, went over to pick them up, and promptly threw them in her face. She looked over at Jace with a pleading expression. If he so much as opened his mouth right now, I was going to tear him a new asshole once I’d finished with her.

“Move! Now!” When she still looked over at Jace, she sealed her fate. I marched over to her and grabbed her by the hair. She was lucky I didn’t set it on fire.

Dragging her out the room and down the stairs, I didn’t hesitate when she stumbled a few times. As far as I was concerned right now, if she tripped, it was her problem and she had better not make it mine. When we got to the front door, she called out for Jace. He was right behind me.

“I’m done, Brielle. Don’t call me. Don’t come back here. Don’t turn up at races or at my friend’s parties. I want nothing to do with you again.” His tone was resolute.

“You can’t mean that.” Now, she was sincerely desperate. Jace’s voice had been cold and without any evidence that he remotely cared for her.

“Yes, Brielle, I do; you’re dead to me.”

“Jace!” She tried to pull away from me to get to him, but I was not having it.

“You heard what he said.” I opened the door, grabbed her by her arm, and promptly tossed her out. Then slammed it in her face.

Jace opened his mouth to say something. “Shut it.” I went back up stairs and found all of Brielle’s belongings that I could find and chucked them into a bag. I wanted her gone and she was at least going to need some underwear and a phone. Heading back down the stairs, I opened up the front door to find her still standing there stunned. I tossed the bag at her, not caring if she caught it or not then slammed the door once more. Hard enough that the whole frame rattled.

“BonBon . . .” Now I was ready for Jace.

“No. You don’t get to BonBon me. I told you Jace. I told you that I wouldn’t be second. It finally took Eric shinning a light on that bitch for you to do something about it.” I took a deep breath because I knew what I needed to say. “ I’m done.”

“What?” He was stunned. But, I deserved more. I deserved better.

“I said I’m done. I’ve had enough.” I pulled out my phone to send a text to Coops to come and pick me up. Less than ten seconds later, I had a response:
Robin is on his way, Batman.

I sat on the bottom step of steps while I waited. Jace pleaded and argued. With himself. Because I was emotionally exhausted, and I just didn’t have it in me to go over old ground. He’d had more than enough chances to set it right and he hadn’t. My grandparents had always told my sisters and me it was no use flogging a dead horse. I’d concluded that’s exactly what I had been doing with this relationship.

Coops sent me a text when he was parked up outside and I got up to leave.

“Mara, please don’t leave me.” I saw the look of despair and I wondered if it mirrored my own. It didn’t matter. None of this did. In the not so distant future, this would all be a vague memory to him. But not to me.

“Goodbye, Jace.”

TWO WEEKS, THREE failed one-night stand attempts and more hangovers than I can count or remember slowly passed.

Lana and Coops tried their best to help me get over Jace, but nothing worked. I even let them talk me into getting drunk and dancing in my bikini. Okay, maybe that made me laugh a hell of a lot before Jace’s favorite song by Sir Mix-a-lot came on.

I’d fallen back in to my old routine. Work, eat, and sleep. Things got worse when my Dana decided to let the family know that she was moving to America with Deacon. I was happy for her, I really was. It was just that, without her, my existence meant even less. It was two less people to work hard for. Deacon was so in love with Dana, you could see it every single time he looked at her. He indulged her every desire. If she wanted something, he would move mountains to get it for her. And he loved Jacob. I couldn’t ask for more for either of them.