Page 106 of Cruel Riches

20

Nate

Fuck.

Adrenaline flushed through my body, making my breath hitch in my chest. I thought Alexis and I were home alone, but I was wrong.

“Colette,” I said, arranging my face into a mildly surprised yet pleased expression. “I thought you were out.”

“I was. I just got back.” She looked between me and Alexis again, eyes crinkling at the corners. “So… are you going to answer my question? Who is this beautiful young lady?”

I grinned and slung an arm around Alexis. “She’s my girlfriend,” I said, leaning down to plant a kiss on the side of her head. Before I pulled my lips back, I muttered in her ear, so softly that only she could hear it. “Go along with this or I’ll go to the city and cut your sister’s throat.”

“Your girlfriend?” Colette said, eyes widening.

“Yup.” I tightened my arm around Alexis’s waist. “Colette, this is Alexis. Alexis, this is Colette.”

I watched Alexis as she bared her teeth in a semblance of a polite smile and held out her hand. I thought I saw a flash of pity in her eyes as she registered who Colette was to me—and Emilie—but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “Nate’s told me a lot about you.”

“Well, I wish he’d told me about you,” Colette said, leaning down to kiss her cheeks. She looked back over at me and playfully swatted at my chest. “Nate, why didn’t you tell me you were seeing such a pretty girl?”

I lifted a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “I thought I did.”

Colette returned to fussing over Alexis. “Such a lovely face, and those eyes… magnifique!” she gushed. She arched a brow in my direction. “Imagine the beautiful babies you two would have together.”

I stiffened. After the nasty pregnancy scheme Alexis pulled on me yesterday, hearing about the ‘beautiful babies’ we’d make together felt like a knife in the gut.

Then again, that could just be pain from the literal knife in the gut I received after the fake news.

It wasn’t like I wanted a fucking kid. But when Alexis told me the fictional ‘news’ yesterday, some primal region lit up in my brain, and reality blurred around the edges before disappearing altogether for a split-second. In that split-second, I saw a different life for us. A different world where we were different people.

I was just a regular guy without a fucked-up past, and Alexis was a beautiful girl with a sweet nature and no murderous tendencies. We met in a normal, wonderfully-boring way and continued our relationship as normal people would. When there was a pregnancy scare, our families—who were all alive in this world—came together and supported us, and everything was fine. Nothing could hurt us or break us. We were blissfully happy through sheer ignorance, and that made us so fucking free.

It was an envious glimpse into a world that had never existed for me and never would. I wasn’t normal. Neither was Alexis. We were sick, twisted fucks with black hearts and blood on our hands. That was the reality we were chained to, and nothing could ever change that.

I thought I was used to living in that darkness, but now the realization that something was missing from my existence was spreading inside me like poison, eating away at the edges of everything. When I blinked, I could still see Alexis smiling with her hand over her rounded belly, telling me I was hers and she was mine. Telling me she could be a different person if I could do the same.

Shit.

It had to be the painkillers. Dr. Paxton warned me they could have some weird side effects, including confusion, delirium, and even bouts of euphoria.

“Colette, I need to talk to you about something for a minute,” I said, pasting on another smile. “Privately.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“I’ll be back in a sec, baby,” I said to Alexis. I leaned down and kissed her again. “Remember what I said about your sister,” I added in a low voice.

She swallowed audibly and nodded. I stepped away and took Colette aside.

“Is everything all right?” she asked, forehead crinkling.

I furrowed my brows. “Not exactly,” I said. “Alexis has had a really tough time lately. Some guys from Blackthorne have been massive assholes to her for the last few weeks. She’s basically on the verge of a breakdown.”

Colette gasped. “That poor girl,” she said, one hand fluttering at the base of her throat. “Who would bully someone like her? She seems so nice.”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “We haven’t figured out who’s behind it all yet, but they’re making her life hell.”

“Poor thing.” Colette glanced over at Alexis. “Tell me her favorite meal. I’ll cook it for us this evening, and we can all have a nice—”

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