Page 14 of Break

I close my eyes, chewing while leaning against the back of the elevator. The door eventually opens to a long hallway. Their suite is at the end, and I take a lifetime to walk there on my own. The guys don’t rush me either.

Kerrington escorts me inside. “Were you planning on staying at Mason’s?”

“Yes.”

“You’re staying with us now.”

His words land like an anvil at my feet, bolting me down. I’ve known these guys for years. Whenever Mason’s friends come to New York, we eventually run into each other because Mason and I ran in the same social circles. I’ve always envied Gage, Landon, and Kerrington because they weren’t from my and Mason’s world. They were outsiders. New money. Young money.

Most of our families looked down on them because of it.

I, however, saw them as idols. Not because they were rich. Hell, I have plenty of my own money. It’s that they don’t care about what others think of them. Landon legit ordered Door Dash ata ten-thousand dollar a plate fundraiser and ate it with the biggest smile ever while the room gawked and talked shit about him.

Kerrington isn’t much better, he’s just more subtle about it.

To live a carefree life and not worry about what everyone else thinks of you is foreign to me. I got a taste of it that night in the club. I danced my ass off, laughing and drinking with two hot as fuck men. I went back to their hotel and submitted to them. Begged for their cocks. Was a whore on my knees. Curled in their laps like a kitten. Rode their dicks like a jockey. Took them both at the same time and let them come all over me. Inside me.

For one night, I wasn’t Nicole Greystone. I wasn’t the good daughter who makes her parents proud. I wasn’t even the friend who put on a mask and acts like everything’s great, like when I’m with my bestie Grace.

I was someone else. Someone I’m scared of. Because if my truth got out, I’d be finished. Ruined. And I can’t claw my way back from that level of destruction. Jesus, even the one-night stand I had with these two wrecked my reputation enough that my parents have barely spoken to me in months.

Do you know how horrible it feels to work for someone who will look through you like you’re fucking cellophane when they used to regard you with pride and joy?

My eyes sting with tears again. You’d think I’d cried all the water out of my body at this point. And it’s clear I haven’t learned my lesson, because here I am, right where I do not belong again.

“Sit her on the couch,” Kerrington orders. “Quick.”

It’s only when I feel Landon hoist me up I realize my knees have buckled.

“Jesus Christ, Nicole.” He carries me over to the enormous sofa and carefully sets me on it. “When was the last time you ate?”

I blink slowly, trying to remember. I come up with nothing because my head is too cluttered. “Maybe… I don’t know… a smoothie… on Sunday.”

Landon’s gaze cuts to Kerrington. His jaw clenches and eyes tighten.

“Sunday was three days ago,” Kerrington says out loud.

I nod.

“Oh my fucking God.” Landon retrieves the bag of food and dumps it all out on the coffee table. Quickly unwrapping a burger, he holds it up for me to take. “Eat this.” When I stare at it, he grows mad. “Now, Duchess.”

It’s the honorific that sets me into action. My arm feels like it weighs a hundred pounds as I reach out for the burger and take it from him. I nibble on it in silence, dreading that this will eventually turn into an interrogation of somekind. I don’t want to tell them what’s wrong with me. I don’t want to admit it.

“Drink.” Kerrington unscrews the cap off a bottle of water and hands it over.

I get down three bites of the burger before feeling nauseous again. “My stomach hurts.”

“Okay.” Landon’s voice is so soft and kind. “Here.” He takes the burger from me and Kerrington quickly grabs a trash can, placing it between my feet in case I puke.

“We’ve got you.” Landon sits down next to me and gathers my hair back. “You’re going to be okay, sweetheart.”

No. I’m not.

Chapter 6

Landon

Never in my life have I felt more helpless than right now. A million horrifying possibilities race through my mind for what could cause Nicole to look and act like this.

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