Page 5 of You Belong With Me

“I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on,” I say, pleading, trying to play on his trust. “Tell me, Gabriel.”

Instead of answering, he leans in, his hot breath brushing over my mouth. His hand moves from my shoulder to my breast, and he squeezes gently. “Less talking,” he whispers. “More fucking.”

The fact that he thinks he can just pop up after being dead for two months, and not explainanythingtells me everything I need to know about how much he’s “changed.”

Placing my hands between our bodies, I try pushing him off me. “Gabriel, stop?—”

He pulls back abruptly, anger flaring in those blue eyes. “What, I’m not that other guy, is that it?” There’s that anger I remember so well. It’s returned with a vengeance. “You want to tell me why I found you in his bedroom last night?”

Oh, shit.I hadn’t expected that question, so I don’t have a lie ready.

“I-it was nothing,” I say, stumbling over the words.

He grabs me again, but this time there’s no softness. It’s all anger and pain, his blunt fingernails digging into my bare skin. “You expect me to believe that? He was fuckingnakedWyn.” He grabs the pendant Lucas put around my neck last night, and yanks on it, breaking the chain. “Did he give this to you?” He throws it, and I hear it hit the floor, and skid across the thin strip of tile in the kitchen area.

My mind buffers frantically, searching for an answer that will placate him. I could tell him Lucas forced me. Or that I’d just walked in to ask Lucas a question, and he happened to be naked in bed. In the end, I take a gamble and go for the answer that will flatter Gabriel the most.

“It’s just that…” I swallow. “Lucas looks so much like you, and…for a little while, I could pretend…you were alive.”

That literally could not be further from the truth, but I desperately need Gabriel to calm down, and in the past, feeding his narcissism usually worked.

“Lucas?”

I blink. “Your cousin?”

Does he not remember his own cousin’s name?

His grip loosens, and I can see the anger drain from his eyes. “I knew it had to be something like that,” he says, easing back. “Of course, you’d be desperate to fill the void I’d left, even if you had to fill it with a cheap imitation.”

I nod, thankful he bought the lie.

He pushes the strap of my dress off my shoulder and tugs the bodice down. I’m not wearing a bra, so my left breast is exposed. I suck in a terrified breath as he flicks my nipple with the pad of his thumb. “Lucky for you, here I am. Risen from the ashes.”

I desperately want to shove his hand away and pull my dress back up, but doing that might incite his anger. So instead, I hold myself still, every muscle in my body pulled tight like a bow.

“And don’t worry, Pretty Thing. I’ll fuck you so good, you won’t even remember that other guy’s name…”

CHAPTER THREE

Lucas

I don’t havetime for this shit.

I glare down at the asshole from Shadow and Ash. He’s leering at me like the cunt knows something I don’t, and I fucking hate that. I’m used to being the one with the upper hand.

But lately, I’ve been off my game. I blame Wyn for that. The chick is a distraction I don’t need, but quitting her, at this point, would be like asking me to quit breathing. Wyn is oxygen.

And Ifuckinghate that, too.

Raking a hand over my face, I sigh, and pull my brother and Jackson aside. “Gym.”

Jackson and Christian flick their chins up in acknowledgment, following me out of the Panic Room. I close the giant vault door, then turn to them.

“Okay, so this shit has something to do with Tyler,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

After a pounding, Tyler found his way off a cliff known locally as Suicide Point because of the sheer number of people who “jump” off its pointy ledge, into the Pacific Ocean—allegedly.

Christian blows out a breath and leans against the weight machine. “He threatened a Sacred Son’s consort. We were within our rights to do what we did.”

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