Page 9 of Black Lace

I kick his door twice, but it doesn’t do anything other than give me a satisfactory outlet for a tiny speck of my anger.

“You don’t deserve her,” I snap, then spin on my heel and head back to the staircase.

By the time I’m back inside and pick up my phone, the latest message on my screen gives me zero satisfaction.

Ben Littrell has left the chat.

I click the latest message before that, one from our friend Emily, and check who’s seen it. I scroll the list, and nearly everyone in our group chat is there, but notTiff. I frown, concerned because Ben said he’d spoken to her.

I open our messages and smile at the last one she sent me. It was a joke about how she was going to take a pillow and blanket to the office so she could just sleep there to save time.

Dec: Are you okay, Sexy?

I pace back and forth in front of the windows displaying New York City as I look down at my unlocked phone approximately every five seconds. Tiff hasn’t seen my message, and after an interminable five minutes, I send another one.

Dec: I’m worried about you.

There’s no response, and my heart aches as I think about Tiff alone and hurting. I turn to stare at the city we grew up in, one where everyone knows everyone else’s secrets. This will be hot gossip, that’s for sure.

I stride into my bedroom and pull out a weekend bag, stuffing clothes into it with little care for what I put in there. I only take enough for a few days because I know Tiff, and I know that even with her life blowing up, she won’t want to be away from Carter Group for long.

I’ll consider it a win if I can convince her to comeaway with me for even a day. I just want to give her a chance to escape for even a little while.

I grab the keys to my family’s Hamptons house and the ones for my Ferrari before I head down to the garage underneath my building. It’s only a short drive to Tiff’s, and I type in the key code on the pad to enter her secure parking area.

As I pull into one of her parking bays, my stomach is in knots. I still haven’t heard from her, and a part of me is worried that somehow she’ll blame me for this. Mostly, I feel guilty that I’m glad their relationship is over.

I’m about to turn the car off when my phone rings, and Daisy’s name is displayed on the screen. I press the button on the steering wheel to answer her call.

“Hey, Daisy.”

“Oh my god, can you believe Ben cheated on Tiff?”

She sounds astounded, but as much as I’ve seen the cracks in their relationship over the years, it’s only because I’ve had a vested interest in looking beneath the veneer they present of being a perfect couple.

“Sadly, I can. I took the picture Jazz sent,” I admit.

“Holy shit.” She gasps loudly. “Wait, isthatwhy you got kicked out of the club?”

“Pretty much. Ben and Ashley didn’t give a fuck about him being a cheating asshole.” I grind out the final words, gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turn white. “I wish I’d put him in thehospital. At least then he wouldn’t have had a chance to cheat on Tiff.”

Daisy sighs. “Beating Ben up would only have caused issues, Dec. Violence isn’t the answer.”

“No, but it’s what he deserves,” I scoff.

“What he deserves is for Tiff to break up with him, which Jazz told me she did.”

Despite myself, my heart beats faster in my chest. I’ve had plenty of women in my bed and even had a couple of relationships, but no woman has ever held a candle to Tiff. She was always with Ben, but now she isn’t. I know there is no way I can hook up with her, though. What she’s going through is too fresh, and I would be a complete dick to take advantage of her at a time like this.

“Hmm,” I say, hating that she’s right because it still feels like Ben hasn’t suffered enough for what he did to Tiff.

“Want to come over and hang out tonight? I can make waffles,” she says in a singsong voice, and I laugh.

“As enticing as that is, I’m actually at Tiff’s right now. I want to check on her.”

“Bring her with you,” Daisy says quickly. “She can drown her sorrows in maple syrup.”

For a second, I rethink my plan for the Hamptons. It’s probably safer to take Tiff somewhere other people will be. I remind myself that I’m just her friend. At the same time, I know Tiff too well, and I know that asmuch as she loves my sister, I’m pretty sure she’ll want to be alone tonight.

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