Page 75 of Hold Him Like Gravity

With a shaky breath, I opened the email, finding a long-winded message from Bobby telling me that he’d seen Jake earlier, that he’d stopped by to pay his overdue rent, that he’d picked up some of his stuff and said he was working on a new ‘business venture’ and would be out of touch for a bit.

Me.

I was the new business venture.

A pawn for him and Kyle. Again.

Always, always their fool.

I didn’t realize a growl had actually escaped me until the woman seated across from me wrapped an arm protectively around her son who was distracted by her cell phone in his hands.

I closed out my inbox then turned off my phone, spending the rest of the ride staring out the window, seeing nothing, so overwhelmed with conflicting emotions that I started to go blessedly numb.

By the time I made it back to my apartment and went through the motions of feeding Evander, I had battled back the worst of the betrayal.

In its wake was just pure, undiluted, justified rage.

It wasn’t bad enough that those two men had conspired against me, had tricked me, had manipulated me in the worstway possible. But they’d taken something from me that I’d never thought I would ever find.

They’d taken Rico from me.

And any chance we could have at happiness.

That was the worst part.

Suddenly desperate to set the record straight, to come clean, I rushed into my bedroom, stripping out of my wet pants and slipping on a fresh pair before making my way back into the living room.

I rushed around, grabbing what was left of the money that I’d taken from Rico but hadn’t handed over to Kyle—and, apparently, Jake—yet, and counted it up before stashing it in my purse.

I was going to go find Rico.

I was going to tell him what happened.

I’d give him the money I’d stolen.

I’d clean out my account and give him that as well.

I’d swear to pay the rest of it back. Every single penny. Even the ten grand he’d given me purely out of the goodness of his heart.

I’d apologize.

I’d make this right, damnit.

It was the only thing left to do.

I didn’t have any delusions that it could somehow erase the betrayal, that he could actually forgive me for what I’d done. Not just stealing from him. I did think he had enough good in him to understand the situation I was in and forgive that.

But lying to him.

But letting him hold me and kiss me and make love to me while I was keeping this awful secret from him, while I was screwing him over behind his back.

He couldn’t forgive that.

I couldn’t expect him to.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t owe it to him to confess and make a plan to pay him back.

Decision made, I slipped into my shoes and jacket.

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