Page 54 of The Brothers Next Door

Darrin tugged on my arm, forcing me to take a step back from the doorway.

“I’ll let her know that Officer…” He leaned a little closer and read my name badge and did the same to my brother. “Officer Striker and Striker stopped by.”

“You do that,” I snarled, allowing myself to be ushered down the hallway and to the elevators.

It was Darrin that broke the tense silence, once we were on the elevators and descending to the lobby. “Look, we have no idea what’s going on.”

“Or if that’s even her fiancé. Maybe he’s keeping her hostage.”

My brother cocked a brow at me and I sighed. “Yeah, okay, that sounded pretty fucking weak to me too. The whole thing doesn’t make a lick of sense unless she was playing us the entire time.”

“Maybe we waited too long and she decided to reconcile with her ex. Maybe she was hurt and he was there for her… It’s not impossible.”

I began pacing the small floor of the elevator as we descended, the infinite number of possibilities whirling through my mind.

“You know, the best way to figure this all out is to just call her. Hell, we’ll just send her a text or show up after our shifts.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact I want to punch him in his smug fucking face.”

“Let’s just get the information before jumping to conclusions.” The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. We stepped out and into the lobby.

I didn’t like this, not one bit. If that asshole was lying I’d give him a beatdown he’d never forget. We should have just gone in and waited for her to get out of the shower and then confronted the situation. She was ours. I knew that I’d be obsessing over this until I got to the truth.

“She shouldn’t want to be with someone else when she has us,” I muttered more to myself than to my brother.

~

*~TT~*~

Layla

Was someone at the door? I froze in the shower, my ears perked, attempting to see if I could hear anything over the sound of the shower and television in the room and through the closed door.

I couldn’t.

I could have sworn I’d heard a knock, though…

Pausing another moment, I continued to listen, but heard nothing. Giving my head a shake, I squirted conditioner into my palm and began to massage it into my hair. Craig would be gone in less than an hour. As soon as traffic eased up a bit, he’d be out of my life for good. As much as I hated him showing up on my doorstep, it had given me one thing I hadn’t known I needed—closure.

After the movie, we’d talked. Though when I say we talked, I mainly mean that I ranted and he listened, chastised like a scorned child. I’d been holding in a lot of emotions and they were unleashed. When I left him on the sofa to retire to the bedroom, I finally felt the relief I didn’t know I needed. I should have said those things when I left, but I hadn’t. I’d just packed up and taken off, deciding it was best to forget it all.

I’d been wrong.

I’d harboured a lot of resentment.

He protested. He tried to justify his behavior, but in the end a cheater was a cheater and that was the end of that. When I looked at him now, I felt nothing. The part of my life he once filled was devoid of any emotion for him. Whether I still had the brothers in my life or not was up for debate, but even if I didn’t, I knew I’d never want Craig again.

Finished with my shower, I stepped out. I’d remembered the bath mat this time. Dripping onto the mat, I grabbed my towels, wrapping one around my hair while drying off my body. I didn’t want to leave the bathroom with just a towel around me, so I had the foresight to bring my clothes into the washroom with me.

Once dried and dressed, I exited and was relieved to see that Craig was ready to go and was sitting in the living room, waiting for me to emerge, I assumed.

But there was something about the expression on his face. I knew the expression—it was the look he got when he was up to something. A cat that ate the canary kind of look. I didn’t like it. But what in the hell could he have gotten up to?

Maybe I was being paranoid.

“Was there anyone at the door?”

He didn’t miss a beat, giving his head a shake. “Nope.”

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