Page 17 of Filthy Liar

My fingers twitched to call him again, but he’d said he’d call me back when he could.

Zane had left, which made me nervous. Could he do something to Ander at Wet Dreams? Surely Archer wouldn’t allow something to go down in his club.

My phone rang, startling me, and confusion hit me when Diesel’s name popped up on the screen. I answered it, pressing it to my ear and walking towards the bedroom for privacy.

“Are you with him?” I asked without greeting, holding my breath until he replied.

“Yeah. Marco said he called Beckett, so I assumed Beckett told you Ander was here,” he said knowingly, his voice full of tension. “Beckett doesn’t know, but we had a meeting with him and Dante.”

“He was there with you guys? Not the girls?”

I hated how anxious I sounded, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“He arrived with Dante after we did, and he’s been with us ever since. I’m not trying to get involved with your relationship, but I don’t want you thinking he was stepping out on you. I can’t explain a lot of what’s happening right now, but he’s okay. The only money he exchanged with the girls was when he was with me. He apparently likes to help them sometimes, so he gave Peaches some bills to split with the other girls. It wasn’t in exchange for services though.”

My eyes burned with relief, and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Dante?—”

“Later,” he cut in, reminding me we couldn’t talk freely. “Frank’s coming home in an hour, so meet us at the house. Some of the guys are there to let you in.”

“You’ll tell me about what’s happened?”

“I shouldn’t, but yes. It involves you,” he said vaguely, muttering to someone before adding, “I need to go. Don’t worry about Ander though.”

I thanked him and let him go, staring at the phone as it disconnected.

How had he known I was freaking out?

Why hadn’t they told Beckett about the meeting?

“What’s wrong?” Reid asked, my eyes lifting to the door to find him standing there with a worried frown. When I didn’t speak, he closed the door for privacy and walked towards me, not hesitating to pull me against his chest. “Talk to me.”

“Diesel wanted me to know that Ander didn’t touch the girls,” I mumbled, sliding my arms around him to bury my face in his chest. “I hate this. I always gave insecure girls shit for acting like this. He lied to me. To all of us. I should be happy if he’s fucked off.”

“You want relationship advice?”

“From a manwhore? Sure, why not,” I joked, making him chuckle as he gently slid his fingers through my hair to pull my head back so that I was holding his gaze.

“You don’t just stop loving someone who hurt you,” he said, regret in his eyes when I snorted. “I know that’s not news to you, but it’s okay to feel conflicted about your feelings right now. I’m beyond pissed with him, and I don’t trust him as far as I can kick him, but I don’t want anything bad to happen to him either. He’s family.”

“What do we do? Dante obviously fucked him over, so do we go to him?” I asked, chewing my lip nervously. “What if he was in on it?”

Reid stared at me for a second before speaking, his voice low. “Do you really think Ander’s in on it?”

I didn’t. My heart hurt from him lying to us, but I was certain his reasons for it were the truth.

We’d been going back and forth about it all day while we waited for a call from Ander.

“I think he told us the truth yesterday,” I finally sighed.

“Me too. We need to sit down with him and talk again, especially now Dante’s turned on him. Did Diesel say why Ander was at Wet Dreams to begin with?”

I glanced at the closed door, wondering if Beckett was on the other side eavesdropping, and Reid walked me backwards to the opposite wall, seeming to understand my concern.

“Beckett doesn’t know,” I whispered, feeling bad for keeping it from her, but knowing there was a reason they didn’t tell her. “Rory had a meeting with Dante and Ander. That’s why they were all there in the first place.”

“They’re not going after Ander?”

“At the moment, no. Diesel said he’d fill me in tonight,” I replied, giving him a nervous glance. “I want to talk to Ander alone too. About me and him. I don’t want to fight you on it, but?—”

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