Page 74 of Hers To Keep
“Then just tell me why, why are you throwing away the only relationship you’ve ever cared about!?” I open my eyes to look at her, a genuine question seen in her eyes as she watches me. Worry, fear, resentment. It’s all there in the clear green of her round eyes. And it breaks every piece of my already shattered heart to see her like this.
“How did you know?” I ask, wondering how she already found out I broke things off with Ace. I thought she was here because of the explosion, but it seems news has traveled fast.
“Bass told me what happened with Ace after the explosion and fire at the cabin, but never mind how I found out. What I want to know is what the hell did that fucker Wesley Servite threaten you with now? I mean just look at you, you look like fucking shit, Scarlett.”
I shake my head laughing. “Nobody threatened me with anything. I just came to realize my relationship with Ace was toxic and going to get me nowhere. I mean look what happened to me because we’re together. We almost got fucking blown up. Besides, Wesley has been right all along—we got the opportunity of a lifetime to come here and get the chance to become something more in life. I guess I just finally took him up on the offer of being part of something important, something worth being a part of.” My blatant lies sound ridiculous even to me, but there is no other way to do this. Wesley is a dangerous man, but Franco Marchesi is lethal. I have to keep them both as far away as possible from everyone I care about.
“You mean to be part of his whorehouse?” She laughs maniacally. I look at her confused on how she even knows about The Gallows but realize they must have filled her in on everything. “I get you’re scared, but you have Ace on your side, Scar, you have me, Stella, the guys, hell even Ruby would come to bat for you if you really needed her to.”
“Don’t be fucking naïve, Jade.” I sit up straighter, looking directly into her jade green eyes that watch me nervously. “To think we would even stand a chance going up against him, it’s fucking stupid of us.”
“You know, I don’t even recognize who you are anymore.” She sits on the edge of the tub only a foot away from me, an unrecognizable gleam in her eyes as she looks at me with utter disdain. “I hate my father. I hate him with an insurmountable passion. If I ever see him again, I don’t even know what I’d be capable of.” My body tenses. If only she knew he was dead, and I’ve known all this time. “And I hate him not for the reasons you’d think. I don’t hate him for being a shithole of a father, for being an alcoholic, a criminal. I don’t hate him for leaving, for running off and leaving me behind with your psycho mother. I don’t even hate him for driving my brother, the only family I’d ever known, away from me…”
She stands, heading toward the vanity mirror, placing herhands on either side of the sink as she stares at me through my reflection in the mirror. Tears are visible in the green of her eyes, her eyelids swollen and red. I hate the fact that she’s hurting, that she feels this way because of me, but if I continue to act like I haven’t committed the ultimate betrayal against her, I am only going to make things worse. Her dark blonde hair is tied up in her usual high ponytail, loose tendrils delicately framing her face, and at that moment, my courageous and loyal sister is nothing more than a pile of insecurities and fear.
“I hate him because of what he did, and the effects that came after. Being taken away from the amazing family we found at the Grayson’s, because of some stupid vengeance against him and the woman you call mother. Because of that, I lost the one thing that means more to me than anything in this world, I lost my sister. I lost my sister to the devil himself. I don’t know what sick, twisted game you’re playing. I don’t know whether this is all an act, or you’re trying to protect me once again. I just know that whatever it is, you can’t trust me with, goes to show you were never the person I thought you were. You were that one constant in my life, the one person I knew would never leave. My mother left, she went and died birthing me. My father left. My brother left. Hell, every person in every relationship I’ve ever tried getting into leaves me, but you—” She shakes her head, a look of despair consuming her. “You were the one who was always supposed to be there for me. Because in the end, all we really have is each other, and now I can’t even count on you.” Her words sting, my soul aching in agony, trembling fiercely inside, but on the outside, I’m impassive, indifferent.
I swallow my fears, my sadness, my anger down like a stack of nails choking me as I bite down on my tongue, the metallic taste of blood dripping down my throat. “It is what it is, Jade. That you thought I’d always be there, that you believed things would never change, goes to show how naïve you really are. Roman was right to leave when he did. Hell, maybe he found a better life. He’s notstuck around hoping things won’t change, hoping for things to get better. He was a realist, knew that things for us would never change for the better. That we’d always be who we were born to be and would be destined to make the same mistakes as our parents. He just got out before he did. It’s not too late for you, Jade—to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes as your father, trusting a woman he had no business trusting.”
Jade laughs frantically, tears endlessly flowing from her eyes. She looks like a mess, like what I feel like, deep down inside, under all the wreckage of the last few weeks, under the façade I hold in place shielding everyone from the utter disaster I’ve become. She turns to face me, crouching down on the edge of the tub, her hands splayed out before me.
“I’d rather make his mistakes a hundred times over, then to fall for the devil’s tricks.” She reaches a hand to me, running her soft fingers over my bruised cheek. “You once said we were foolish to believe that anything could come between us. What’s changed?” she asks, her voice soft, and shaky.
I close my eyes, tears pooling in my lids refusing to look up at her and see the solemn look I’m responsible for. My sister, who was once my only confidant, is now just a reminder of what I’ve lost. I whisper softly, not bothering to open them. “Everything.”
Chapter
Forty-One
ACE
When Maxwell and I arrived at the house in Pleasant Hills, I immediately texted Bass ordering him to get Jade out here, no matter what he had to do. If I was going to get through to Scarlett, to get her to listen, I needed her sister's help. There is no one else Scarlett would drop this bullshit act for. Jade Wolfe was my secret weapon.
Of course Bass had no problem following my order. Something’s happened between those two, and if anyone has the slightest chance of getting Jade to do anything, it’s him. Right now I need all the help I can get. If anyone can break through to Scarlett, it’s going to be her sister.
“Fuck you, Sebastian. God, I fucking hate you. Ugh!” Jade shouts, as she stomps through the front door of the house. Her blonde ponytail is swinging fiercely with every flaunting step she takes. As usual, she wears jeans, and a cropped shirt, giving us an eyeful of her toned body and navel piercing Bass can’t seem tokeep his hands off of. “I told you I won’t be fucking you again. Ever.” She jumps back startled, bringing her hand to her mouth as she realizes she’s not alone in the room with Bass.
“It’s good to hear you won’t fuck him again, Wolfe,” I say jokingly, but apparently her sense of humor is lacking today. I look at Sebastian who stands behind her, a deep scowl on his face at my comment. I guess everyone’s lacking. “Wow, tough crowd today. Well, Wolfe, I can’t speak for Sebastian on whether he wants to fuck you, again, but I was the one who asked him to bring you here,” I add motioning for her to come in and take a seat beside me.
“And why the fuck would you do that?” she sneers, crossing her arms over her chest like a brat, ignoring my request. I shake my head realizing this is probably going to be a lot harder than I thought, when Maxwell appears from the dining room.
“Because we need all the help we can get,” he says, walking further into the room.
She gapes up at him, confusion and anger clouding her green eyes. “And who the fuck are you? Wait, no, let me guess, another old fucker who wants in my sister’s pants.” Her voice is deep and filled with rage. Fuck, this woman is fucking difficult.
“God, no,” Maxwell mutters, looking terribly baffled and disgusted by Jade’s insinuation. Now that I know the connection between Scarlett and Maxwell, I can notice the small resemblances they share. Although Maxwell’s hair is like four shades lighter than hers, the shape of their eyes is almost identical, and Scarlett’s physical similarity to her mother may be obvious, but I can’t help but see more of her in his gaze.
“This is Maxwell Smoak,” I say, jumping in and saving Maxwell from the terror of Jade’s wrath. “He’s Scarlett’s father.”
Shock consumes her as she blankly stares between the three of us not knowing what to say or who to turn to. “Wow, cat got your tongue now, Little Wolf,” Bass jokes, draping an arm around her shoulder. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
Scarlett and I have always been an uneven pair in height. Her five-foot-four figure, minuscule compared to my six-foot-two stature. Though Bass looks like a fucking beast standing beside Jade. His whopping six-foot-five, broad shoulders, and muscular physique towers over her five-foot-five slim and toned frame. Not only is he taller than everyone we know, but the girls he’s dated have always been so much smaller than him. I mean he was with Kinsley and she’s like fucking Tinker Bell.
Jade drags her feet over to the couch beside me, where I had previously asked her to join me, dropping onto it with a loud thud. Her face remains impassive and I’m unable to read what she’s thinking. It drives me fucking crazy.
“I’m assuming I’ll need to sit down for what comes next.”
For the next three hours, Maxwell and I catch Bass and Jade up with everything that’s happened since the night of Scarlett’s conception to the night of the cabin explosion when Scarlett broke things off between us. Apparently Bass had already mentioned to Jade that Scarlett had ended things between us after what happened at the cabin, and she’d gone over and gotten into a heated argument with her when she found out it was because she was going to work for my uncle.