Page 28 of Play With Me

“She fucked my family over.”

“She was trying to save her mother’s life. That van blew up and destroyed the warehouse because of a stupid asshole who didn’t know that he shouldn’t smoke near a fuel tank.”

“She’s the reason Cortez put a target on my family’s back. And you! Why didn’t you tell me it was Kate who blew up the warehouse? How could you betray me like that?”

“Betray you? We agreed to keep our jobs separate. You told me that you could handle it. But now it looks like you’re just a pussy.” If he wanted to play this game, I could definitely play. “You call yourself a bounty hunter? You should have figured out it was Kate a long time ago. You’re a weak little man who can’t handle the idea of a woman who won’t bow to you just because you’re this handsome and charming and adoring man who’s just so confusing!”

“I’m the one who’s confusing?”

“Yes, you are!” I was afraid my voice would carry back inside the condo. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want our issues, and I wasn’t even sure where they were coming from, to become this family’s issues. I didn’t want any issues, period! I should have known that straying into a relationship was a mistake.

“Argh, you’re so frustrating.” He left me standing in the hallway and stormed back inside the condo. “Where is she?”

“She’s locked herself in,” Brook’s brother replied. As my head pounded with one of its hardest throbs today, I marched toward Cameron and pointed my finger at his nose.

“You’re an asshole, Cameron Madden. You make a girl fall in love with you and then treat her the way you do? Seriously? I didn’t know you were related to Manson.”

“You’re not Mother Theresa yourself, Lola,” Brook added from behind me.

I turned around, my hand flying toward his cheek, but he caught my wrist before it connected. I threw him a dirty look just as a deep voice cut through the fight.

“Cameron, Brook, stop!” Mr. Madden’s tone rose above us all, and just like that, silence overpowered the room, with an occasional echo of the last word bouncing and then fading somewhere between the walls.

“Both of you, sit down.”

“This looks like a family matter, and I need to catch some z’s,” I announced.

I didn’t do drama. I didn’t do families. It was all so complicated, and that’s why I always preferred to work alone. All this chaos was messing not only with my head but also with my hormones. “You better not fuck this up, Cameron.” I pointed my finger back toward Brook’s brother, then rushed out of the condominium.

“Lola, wait!” I heard Brook’s voice follow me.

He had to have known that he was the last person I wanted to be near at the moment. Not after the way he treated me.

He called out again, but I didn’t stop. I ran down the hall and took the staircase, skipping down each flight in two to three leaps. I needed to get away from the chaos. I had to leave before all the pain of life’s betrayal returned. Just thinking about the life that had been stolen from me, brought back anguish, darkness and I could barely breathe.

Life was full of assholes, and it seemed I’d made a mistake and run into one ten months ago at a bar. Giving Brook Madden a chance was an oversight on my part and I needed distance.

A pounding migraine was beginning to fill the back of my head. I jumped into my car and sped out of my parking spot, double-checking whether Brook was following me. He wasn’t, and that made the sudden misery I felt in my heart that much more painful.

By the time I realized where I was, it was already too late. I parked the car near the front gate, and let my legs lead me to the graves. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I felt a need to be here. As I crossed between the tombs, I realized that I might never understand why I’d been given this second chance. This journey was slowly draining me. It was sucking the life right out of my broken heart.

I sat on the bench underneath the willow tree and stared at the graves. It was never easy to do so. They represented everything I’d lost. They represented every ounce of happiness I’d had in my life — every ounce of happiness that could never be replaced. Happiness that had once filled my whole heart and was torn away from me in an instant. I thought I’d felt a spark of that when I was with Brook. He managed to see through my tough exterior. He was the first man capable of catching a glimpse of the real me, because I let him. But being vulnerable had a price — he definitely showed me that tonight. For me, that price would always be pain and heartache.

“I need to regroup,” I said to myself, or maybe to someone else who I wished was listening. “Life was easy with you. You made it easy. Always so easy.”

I waited, silence filling the space in my mind. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for. An answer, perhaps? Any kind of answer. A whisper of support that I still had a purpose would have been nice. I had to have a purpose, didn’t I? If all I ever felt was constant disappointment and pain, what was the point of living? I didn’t want to be that person who got a second chance and blew it. Was connecting with Brook a mistake?

Fucking asshole.

They were all assholes. Cameron for lying to Kate; Brook for one minute wanting me then talking to me like I was a piece of trash on the curb. No one deserved that.

That’s why I couldn’t do people. If I’d just concentrated on my job and no one else, everything would have been fine.

No drama.

Was Brook stealing my attention?

Yeah. He was making my work more difficult because I cared about him more than I should have.

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