Page 19 of Forgive You

“Are you cool?” Jordan asks against my ear.

No, I’m not fucking cool. I want Jacob to get the fuck out of my life and stay out of it. Send me a fucking card for his funeral so I can celebrate how the world is a better place without him with an expensive bottle of Scotch.

“Jason?” Jordan’s voice lifts a notch, but it still not louder than my boiling blood pumping through my veins like it’s the engine of the fucking Titanic.

Jacob shrugs out of Ford’s embrace, squaring his shoulders and adjusting his collar. His blue eyes hold more silver, though I know how much they look like mine. I resent that I share DNA with him, even more how our features resemble any kind of family connection.

“Jason!” Jordan sounds pissed this time.

“What?”

“Can I let you go?”

Is this a fucking trick question? No, you can’t fucking let me go. Not if you want to keep me out of jail, which at this point, I’m not sure is incentive enough for me to chill and let my brother live for another day.

“If you end up in jail tonight, it will ruin your chances at any new potential clients here tonight,” he whispers, as if he read mymind. “I want to punch him just as much as you do, but he’s not worth it, bro.Calm the fuck down.”

Motherfucking hell. Fine.

I jerk out of my little brother's arm, my jaw set as I glare at Jacob with narrowed eyes, then twist on my heels before I storm off.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Jordan bellows at my back.

He’s right. The last person I should jeopardize my business for is Jacob. It doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

“I don’t fucking know!” I yell back without turning around.

Except I do know. I know exactly where I’m going when I make a turn to one of the halls and straight into the ladies’ room.

De-ja-fucking-vu.

6

This is a fucking shitshow.

I cup the stream of water, then bring a gulp of it to my lips. Anything to get rid of the sour taste in my mouth. The cold liquid soothes just for a second, before the rawness in my throat returns and my lashes fall to my cheeks.

Fuck, someone teleport me to the other side of the world.

Obviously, I hate having Jacob standing next to me like he belongs there, but him throwing out a sexual innuendo like that? I want to throw up. The last time I slept with him was almost a year ago, and it still haunts me to this day.

There is no way in hell I will ever let him touch my body like that again.

It’s worse enough that I have to pretend to actually like the motherfucker since throwing a scene at a business event will probably not work in my favor, but now he’s using me as his secret weapon to piss off his brothers.

Oh, how I fell for the wrong brother all those years ago.

I mean, yeah, I was stupid and young. But for me to be this blind for years? Jason might be mad at me for dating his brother,but it’s nothing compared to the level of rage I have for myself. The way I kept my eyes shut every time Jason begged me to see the truth, but I was dead set on focusing on all the things Jacob did right, instead of everything he did wrong.

There’s so much regret building inside of me, constantly weighing down my back like a pack full of cobblestones, and I have no clue how to get rid of it. How do I fix this?

And Jason bringing Mia?! What the fuck is up with that?

My stomach tumbles like a washing machine.Fuck, are they together?

The door to the bathroom is yanked open, rudely snapping me out of my head, along with my heart bouncing to the back of my throat and my lashes flying to my hairline.

Not again.

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