Page 98 of Stolen Summer
“Then what is it like? Explain it to me. Because from where I sit, what you did was fucked up on so many levels.” I didn’t even know why I was still here. Why hadn’t I stormed out? Nothing either of them could say would rationalize why they had tricked me for weeks.
Crew opened his mouth to say something just as Cole’s gaze moved to the side as if he heard something. And then a head appeared below Cole’s shoulder as someone tried to peek around him inside the room. “I heard a crash. Is everything?—”
She saw me at the same moment I saw her.
Gianna.
I bristled, wishing I had something else to throw. “What the hell is she doing here?”
Gianna shot me a glower of pure hatred when she saw I was naked and the guy she was obsessed with was also very naked. There was no mistaking what Crew and I’d been doing.
Crew leaned over the side of the bed, plucking his pants off the floor and slipping them on as if he realized this was a conversation that required him to cover up his balls.
“What are you doing in Crew’s bedroom?” she fired back, her evil eyes glaring to narrowed slits.
My vision went red. “Fucking him,” I hurled at her with a smug satisfying smirk, forgetting my outrage at Cole and Crew momentarily.
The bitch flinched a second before the viper inside her unshackled. “I’m going to kill you,” she hissed, shoving past Cole, but unfortunately for Gianna, he had quick reflexes and snaked an arm around her waist, keeping her from attacking me.
But no one was stopping me. And my composure unraveled. “You already tried,” I growled right before I lunged for her, eager to rake my nails down her face and rip out her hair.
I made it two steps when Crew grabbed me around my waist. “Cole, get her the fuck out of here before I kill her,” he seethed.
Despite Crew’s strength, I gave him hell, making it difficult for him to keep me from shredding Gianna to bloody bits. I barely made any headway, and I held on to hope he would let his guard down. “Why did you stop me?” I said from between clenched teeth, a bit breathy from fighting against him. “I could have handled her. Have you forgotten she tried to kill me?”
“It wasn’t me,” Gianna refuted, giving me a cold, ruthless glare. “But now I wish it had been.”
Crew’s arms hadn’t eased an inch like he knew I would take the first opportunity to strike out at the bitch. What I didn’t understand was why he didn’t let me. “I know, Killer, which is precisely why I stopped you,” he murmured into my ear, blissfully ignoring Gianna.
I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with her, let alone under the same roof. “She hurt Frankie.”
Cole grabbed Gianna’s arm as she tried to brush past him, but he couldn’t stop her mouth from flapping. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And you think I’m the psycho.”
“Everyone needs to chill. Take a breath,” Cole said, centering himself between Gianna and me while keeping a firm grip on her.
Too much happened at once. I couldn’t decide which problem to focus on first. Not that I cared about Gianna’s outrage. Mine took center stage. Her problems couldn’t compare to the shit I was going through. Redirecting my anger, I pinned Cole with a look of disdain. “You’re twins,” I hurled across the room, stating the obvious. How the fuck did I not know?
My negligence couldn’t be fully accountable for the deception Cole and Crew created. These assholes deliberately took advantage of me and my naivety.
Perhaps they were too arrogant at first to believe anyone wouldn’t know about their birth status. They probably hadn’t counted on me. I made it my business not to care about the rich kids who breezed into town for a few weeks a year. They were an annoying blip in my life and hadn’t been worth my time. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard of the Rileys at all, but my information came from bits and pieces of conversation I picked up while working from the girls who came into the diner for coffee while gossiping about the previous night’s party. Cole’s and Crew’s names were more than often dropped, but I’d never overheard anything about twins.
I tossed my hair out of my face, my nostrils flaring. “Were you ever going to tell me? Or just keep laughing about me behind my back?”
Tension, thick and painful, stretched from my side of the room to the next. “It wasn’t like that,” Crew insisted, still holding me.
It was hard to make my mind forget how fucking wonderful it was to be in his arms. “So you keep saying, but I fail to see how it wasn’t. From where I stand, everything you’ve ever said and done has been a lie. One big, massive lie.”
“Wait. Let me get this straight. You didn’t know they were twins?” Gianna tossed her head back and cackled like the wicked witch. “Oh, this is rich. I can’t wait to?—”
She never finished her sentence. Crew released me and strode across the room, latching on to Gianna’s throat with his large, tatted hands. From where I stood, I saw his eyes flash with malice and genuine hatred for this girl. He pressed her against the wall, Cole’s hand on her arm falling away as he allowed Crew to take over. “Nothing leaves this room. Do you understand? Not a word of this to anyone. I don’t want to hear Arie’s name come out of your foul mouth ever again. If you so much as come within a mile of her, you’ll be trading your golden spoons for dumpster diving in the trash.”
I felt Cole’s eyes on me, watching me, but I couldn’t stop staring at Crew. The night of the hurricane when I’d snuck in to return the borrowed shirt from Cole came back to me, including how I’d been in a similar position Gianna found herself in. I’d had those fingers wrapped around my neck. I’d been backed into a wall.
It had been Crew that night. I’d been locked in the house with Crew for days, not Cole. This situation made me reevaluate every second I’d spent with…fuck, I didn’t even know which one.
Gianna’s fingers went to Crew’s as if she had any chance of prying them off her throat. “What the hell is wrong with you? What makes her so special?” she rasped, her features drawn with a hint of surprise reflecting in her hazel eyes.
I moved forward, unsure what I planned to do, but Cole held out an arm, signaling for me not to interfere, or perhaps he was protecting Gianna from me. I couldn’t decide.