Page 98 of Fool Me Twice
“You trust him?” Fix asked carefully, knowing how loaded the question was.
“I don’t have much choice at the moment. He followed the exact same pattern as everyone else around me fucking up, so until we know more, I’m gonna have to take his word for it that it was the curse. And since we’re at a dead end…”
Fix nodded and sighed, taking a sip from his mug and leaning against the counter across from Cane. “So you don’t know Arianna?”
Cane paused, looking at Fix questioningly, the name not ringing any bells. “Arianna?”
“Layton,” Fix said like that fucking explained anything.
“Who’s Arianna Layton?” Cane asked.
The response seemed to throw Fix completely off. He put his mug down with more force than was necessary, coffee sloshing over the edge. Fix fussed over the spill for a second before stilling and clutching the dishrag in his hands. He looked up at Cane with a worried expression.
“Arianna Layton is someone who might have something to do with your curse. The morning before you were attacked, Hart was in a meeting with a cursebreaker from Arcstead who delivered the information to us but had no further context. Just the name and the instruction to give it to Hart.”
The news floored Cane.
Hart had had a meeting with someone about Cane’s case. He’d gotten information. He’d gotten a name. And then he’d come back to Cane, fucked him, and pretended it was all fine while keeping a huge fucking thing from him.
It felt way too familiar. The stab of betrayal. The fog being lifted from in front of his eyes and the person he saw in one light suddenly being someone completely different.
He’d thought he knew Hart.
Fuck, he’d thought he was the only one that did.
“He didn’t tell me,” he said through gritted teeth, gripping the edge of the counter to keep himself from smacking the fucking cup off it and watching it shatter.
He didn’t tell me.
Fix shifted from foot to foot as if sensing the oncoming storm building within him. “Black asked his PUMA contacts to check the name, and we know it’s connected to a case Ash worked a few months ago. We don’t know anything more than that. Hart was supposed to ask you if the name rang any bells.”
“Well he didn’t fucking ask,” Cane snapped.
Fix sighed, running a hand over his face.
“This is getting out of hand,” Fix said, putting his hand down and looking at Cane. “I know we don’t know each other well, but I think it’s safe to say the same isn’t true for Hart. You…know him.”
“I thought I did.” Cane laughed without humor. He walked over to the sink and threw the coffee cup into it. It shattered on impact, and he stared at the ceramic shards, feeling like he was staring at a vision of his own insides. It sated the need for destruction for all of one second before it was back again full force. “But apparently that person has been fucking me over for days.”
“This isn’t him,” Fix said. “Cane, listen, there is something seriously messed up with him lately. You have to have noticed. Ever since you got here—”
“So it’s my fault?” Cane cut him off, turning on him.
“I don’t want it to sound like I’m blaming you.”
“But you are,” Cane said, crossing the distance between them and getting in his face. They were of similar height, but Fix was a little broader. Cane didn’t fucking care. “You want me to be the bad guy so bad, but it’s your brother who has been screwing me over and taking me for a fucking ride.”
“And does that sound like him?” Fix asked, refusing to back down. “Has anything Hart has been doing or saying lately made any fucking sense to you?”
Cane panted through his nose, trying to hold back the rage, the betrayal eating him up. No, it didn’t fucking sound like Hart, but it sounded exactly like everyone who’d ever mattered in Cane’s life. Like a fucking lie.
“He’s not himself,” Fix said. “He keeps saying he’s fine, but something is seriously wrong. I’ve been thinking about your curse, and maybe—”
“Well isn’t this cozy.” A voice came from the entrance to the kitchen, and both Fix and Cane snapped their heads around to find Hart standing there, his expression a studied mask in irritation and annoyance. It pulled his mouth tight. It narrowed his eyes. It made him look like a different person entirely.
“Hart,” Fix said, but before he could say anything else, Hart stormed inside. He forced himself between them so they both had to stumble back.
“Is this what we’re doing now?” Hart asked. He was glaring at them both. “Talking behind each other’s backs? Insinuating things?”