Page 77 of The Spider & the Storm

My gaze widened as my heart plummeted straight to my stomach. “Do … do youknoweach other?”

“Charlie. Trust me. Drop it.”

Then, the asshole walked away, leaving me to stand there alone in the kitchen while my brain raced blindly, and my heart hammered, and my hands began to shake so badly that I could feel the tremors in my bones.

I spun on my heel and hurried after him.

“Luke,” I hissed, reaching out to grab his shoulder the moment he left the kitchen. “What the f—”

“Don't worry about it, man,” he said, adding a dose of cheer to his voice as our respective significant others turned to look at us.

And that was when Jersey's face fell, and her fork dropped to her untouched plate with a resounding clatter.

“What did you tell him?!” she shrieked, her voice shrill and sounding too unlike her to feel right. “Charlie, it was nothing, okay? I swear it—”

“Itwhat?” I shouted back, desperate and panic-stricken. “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“Oh my God,” Luke groaned, scrubbing his hand over his face while the Coke bottle dangled at his side.

“Luke, what's going on? What is she talking about?” Melanie asked, her voice and hands now trembling nearly as bad as mine.

With a sigh of resignation, Luke dropped the hand from over his eyes and placed the bottle on the table. Then, he looked at Jersey and pointed a finger right at her. “For your information, I hadn't told him shit. But now, since you've given me no choice, Iwill. And honestly, he deserves to know sinceyou seem to be incapable of telling the truth,” he spat at her, speaking like the Luke I knew for the first time that night.

Speaking like heknewher.

Then, he turned to me, ignoring the look of wide-eyed shock and growing despair on his fiancée’s face.

“When I was at the bar yesterday, some chick walked up to me and didn't even give me her name before laying one on me. Just”—he slapped a hand against his thigh—”grabbed me and started making out with me like it was totally fuckin' normal to just grab some random dude and shove her tongue down his throat. And I'm sorry to break it to you, man, but that chick, unfortunately, was her.” He jabbed his thumb in her direction. His features softened as he dropped his hand back to his side and shrugged. “I didn't know what to say when she walked in tonight and I got a good look at her. I thought I could get away with saying nothing and just leave it alone, but I can’t. That might be who she is, but it's not me. I'm sorry, Charlie. Seriously, I am.”

He laid his hand on my shoulder, but I shook it off violently. I couldn't be touched right now—Iwouldn’t. Not while I was letting his words settle in beneath my goose-pimpled skin. Not when all I could envision was her mouth on his. Mybrother.

God, how the fuck could she do this to me?

God, please don’t let it be true.

“Is he fucking lying?” I asked Jersey, knowing damn well that Luke wasn't typically one to lie to me. He might've stretched the truth. He might'vewithheldthe truth. But he neverlied.

And Jersey didn't deny it as she stood from the table, looking now like a succubus and less like the angel I'd thought she was.

“It was Mia,” she tried to explain.

I could only scoff and push my hair back with my hands. “Mia,” I said with a snicker, shaking my head. “Miadidn’t fucking make out with mybrother!”

Jersey flinched, and I couldn’t find it in me to care.

“W-we went to the bar after work, and we saw him sitting there alone. We had a couple of drinks, and we thought it would be funny if—”

“So, it's true,” I accused, hardly able to compute the words I was hearing. “You fucking cheated on me.”

“Charlie, I—”

I thrust my hand in the direction of the front door. “Leave.”

Her icy-blue eyes swam in an ocean of tears as she parted her blood-red lips, letting them flop open and closed a few times before saying, “B-but I-I love—”

“No,” I cut her off, shaking my head and sneering at her gorgeous, perfect, horrible face. “Don’t you dare say that you fuckinglove me. Get the hell out of my house.”

Stunned, she blew out a deep breath and turned toward the door, unable to look at me, my silent brother, or his defeated fiancée.

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