Page 66 of The Merger
He dropped his arm and stepped back from her holding his hands out in front of himself. “Don’t go reading into this, Waverly. You’re a good time, but that’s all this is.”
“Colter!” Waverly screamed and stomped off to find our brother.
Malcolm shook his head as we watched her try to find Colt by the valet stand. “Brina, I don’t want to fight with you. You’re right, we’ve been friends for too long. This thing with Waverly its just sex. You’re the one I care about. I still think we could have a future together. She’s always going to be a party girl, but you are the one who should stand beside me. You’re the one who has the skills to help me grow my business. I know you care about me.”
I shook my head. “The word you need iscared. I didn’t realize how big of a jackass you were before now. I was too blinded by the person I wanted to see, I guess I never saw the real you.”
“I wasn’t. I’ve always seen how big of a jackass you are,” Stryker interjected. His fists were clenched at his sides, and he seemed ready to pounce. The fact that he hadn’t said a lot about the amount of self-control he had.
Malcolm clucked his tongue. “You’ve always thought you were better than me.”
Stryker pulled me behind him and got in his brother’s face. “I am better than you. You’ve had everything handed to you and from what I hear you are barely keeping your businesses afloat. Actually, you and Waverly are perfect for each other.”
Malcolm took another step forward until there was barely an inch between them. “At least I have my own business. I don’t float around living someone else’s life like you do. Someone else’s company,” he turned his head and looked at me, “someone else’s girl.”
“I was never yours,” I cut in.
He sneered at me. “Keep telling yourself that.” A couple weeks ago I would have been surprised how quickly Malcolm turned on me, but I’ve finally accepted he wasn’t who I thought he was.
The urge to scream bubbled up again, but I shoved it down. When I spoke, I was able to do it calmly. “You never cared about me. Our friendship meant everything to me. Why did you push for more if you didn’t even want to be my friend?”
His eyes narrowed, and the smarmy smirk fell off his face. “Mommy ignored you, daddy spent all his time in dusty libraries, so you clung to me. I’m older than you, and for a long time you were this annoying pest I got stuck with when our dads threw us together. Once you got past your awkward dork phase, you were my backup plan.”
I sucked in a breath and held it. It was a moment in time, but I knew the moment I exhaled the memories I’d treasured from my childhood would blow away. When I gathered enough strength I spoke in a quiet voice, even though all I wanted was to scream again. “Your backup plan? All I ever wanted was your friendship.”
Malcolm scoffed. “Tell me you didn’t have feelings for me when you were in high school. And don’t lie, because I saw the way you used to follow me around staring at me like I was your whole world.”
“I won’t lie. I had a crush on you for about five minutes. That was before you turned into a total douche, treating women like they were toys meant to be used and discarded for your amusement. From that moment on I knew we were never going to be anything more than friends. If I wanted to see you in the same way I did when we were kids we could never cross that line. But, you pushed it. I didn’t go out with you because I wanted our friendship to change. I agreed to try and date because I didn’t want to lose you. Turns out I was right in the first place. Crossing that line did destroy our friendship.”
“Give me a break. That wasn’t you trying. You seemed open to the idea of there being more between us until he showed up and you cut me off. I know I hooked up with your sister, but getting with my brother is a bit boring for revenge.”
“You pretentious jackass. I didn’t even know Stryker was your brother. Hell, I didn’t even know you had a brother. Nothing about my relationship with my husband has anything to do with you or the rest of your family.”
“Keep telling yourself that. You betrayed me by marrying my brother. You were supposed to be there when I was ready. I had to speed up the timeline once I found out—”
“Found out what, Malcolm?” I seethed through clenched teeth.
“I kept tabs on him. He’s been gone for most of the last seventeen years, so when he came back to town I had to find out why.”
“And what did you do about it, little brother? No way did you leave it at checking in on me,” Stryker said, his voice deceptively calm.
The nasty smile pulled once more at the corners of Malcolm’s mouth. “Having problems with Easton Corp?” He rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I meanAnderson East.”
Stryker’s patience broke, and he grabbed the lapels of Malcolm’s jacket. “What did you do?”
Malcolm shoved Stryker off of him. “I thought I was just the slacker brother living off of daddy’s money? There’s no way I could be smart enough to pull one over on you, right big brother?”
“What did you do?” Stryker shouted.
Colter ran over with Waverly hot on his heels. He jumped between the brothers, shoving them back from each other. Without looking at her he spoke to Waverly. “Be useful for once and get Malcolm out of here. I don’t give a shit if you go back inside, just get him out of Stryker’s face or I’ll let go of him.”
Waverly gasped. “Colt, why are you being so mean?”
Slowly he turned his head to face her. “Treat people the way you want to be treated. Isn’t that how the saying goes? This is how you treat everyone else, so it must be what you want for yourself.”
Her eyes welled up with tears, but I’d seen her pull this string before. She should have been an actress with the way she could cry on cue. “Sabrina, this is all your fault! He is my brother, not yours. You don’t belong here.”
She spun around, her hair fanning out behind her. In her effort to make a dramatic exit she forgot the one thing Colt asked her to do, take Malcolm with her.