Page 87 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

Rookie move, but he made sure of that.

I groan when I remember that we’re also engaged. How is this even going to work when we’re married?

There’s no way I can keep doing this without getting hurt and a cynical part of me wonders if that’s his goal here.

This final, most terrible way of hurting me – making me fall even harder in love with him and taking all of my firsts, only to leave me brokenhearted and splintered to my marrow.

Sleeping together once is a mistake, twice is a problem, but three times is a pattern and I can’t let him take over any more real estate in my heart, not if he has no intentions of staying there.

I want to promise to myself that I’ll stay away from him and that tonight was the last time but realistically, I can’t. I’m addicted to this part of him as much as I am to every other part of him. But if I’m going to keep sleeping with him, we need to set some clear expectations so that I can guard my heart against further abuse.

***

“Tell me honestly, do you think he’s going to hurt him? And if he does, like, how badly? Are we talking a couple of broken bones, or…?” Thayer trails off, turning away from her bathroom mirror to face us with her mascara wand in hand.

“Historically, Phoenix is the one who’s been known to break bones. No, with Rhys I think you’re safer,” Nera says comfortingly, before adding offhandedly, “If anything, he’d probably just shoot him.”

“Nera!”

“I’m just saying, if we’re talking strictlymodus operandi–”

“We arenottalking strictlymodus operandi,” I say, jumping in with a laugh, “Carter’s going to be fine, Thayer. Rhys won’t hurt him.” I reassure her.

Carter, Thayer’s long-distance boyfriend, showed up at RCA earlier this afternoon to surprise her. He’s currently getting ready for tonight’s black-tie event to celebrate the grand opening of the Mackley Library in memory of Rhys’s parents, and he chose to do that at his house.

Now, he had no clue that that might not be the wisest decision. Rhys has had his wolfish eye on Thayer since the day he met her, so leaving her boyfriend in his home with Phoenix and Rogue is actually like dropping a really cute bunny in the middle of a pack of really,reallyhungry wolves.

“How do you know?” She asks me, mascara wand still in hand.

There’s one very simple reason I know Rhys won’t hurt Carter.

One that also takes into account the fact that Thayer isn’t nearly as immune to Rhys’ charms as she likes to pretend she is.

“Rhys won’t hurt him because of you,” I tell her, honestly, “He could get rid of him, but he doesn’t want to do that. He doesn’t want to force your hand; he wants you to choose him.”

She swallows thickly and turns back towards her mirror, now applying the mascara in quick strokes.Nera and I give each other a quick look before she changes the subject.

“Speaking of death and murder, did you see the news about the two guys that disappeared in Geneva? They went missing the same night we were there.”

“Woah, that’s a crazy coincidence.” Bellamy says, zipping up her dress and walking out into the living room area.

“You think that’s a coincidence,” Nera says dramatically, turning her phone around to show us her screen, “Wait until I tell you that the last place they were seen was at Baroque.”

Ice slithers down my spine as I connect the dots.

There’s no way these are the two guys who made those lewd comments about me when they found us in the alley.

Right?

“Give me your phone,” I say, grabbing it out of her hand and looking at the two photos of the men.

I didn’t make out their faces in the alley so I can’t say for sure if it’s them, but it certainly could have been. Their hair color matches what I remember.

My father is head of the largest weapons company in the world, and I grew up next to the head of the largest criminal syndicate in Europe. I’m not a stranger to violence and how transactional it is in our world.

But if Phoenix did this, it was a risk. He’d been in the club, I’m sure had been captured on CCTV, he’d been seen in the alley where the men had what was probably their final run in before disappearing.

This could be traced back to him. His father and mine could make that go away in a day, but still it was a headache he didn’t need to take on.

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