Page 12 of Real Shadows
“How the hell would I know?” Trevor exclaimed. “I’m not a stalker. How the fuck would I know what goes through a psycho’s mind?”
“Fuck, Trev,” Xander continued, not taking Trevor’s questions seriously, “for all we know, her looks might be part of the problem. She could be doing all this for attention. How do we know this isn’t just some scam she’s concocted? There’s probably a trail of abandoned sugar daddies lining the coast of California.”
“Dude,” Trevor said sounding shocked, “I think you’re being a bit…brutal here.”
“I’m not being brutal,” Xander denied. “I’m being realistic. I’m viewing this from the perception of someone who isn’t emotionally involved with the situation. Karla’s emotionally involved because they’re friends, and you’re emotionally involved because you love your wife and would do anything for her. I’m looking at thefacts.”
“She seems sincere,” Trevor mumbled.
I could hear the insulting arrogance in Xander’s every word. “All sociopaths seem sincere. Narcissists do, too.”
I expected surprise and some wariness, but what I hadn’t expected was flat out nastiness. According to Karla, Xander was supposed to be a good person with an open mind and a kind ear. How could she have gotten it so wrong?
There was a heartbeat of silence before Trevor said, “You’re kind of being a dick, Xan.”
“No, I’m not,” he argued.
No matter what I was feeling, I wasn’t going to let this continue. Karla had done me a huge favor by allowing me to stay in her home and forming a plan to help me. I wasn’t going to repay her by letting her husband and friend become at odds over something that was, ultimately, my problem.
Besides, at this point, I wanted nothing to do with Xander Raynes. I had enough problems without being talked about viciously for no good reason. He could have simply just said no.
I stepped out from the hallway and both men turned to look at me. Trevor looking startled and guilty. Xander looking apathetic. “Yeah, you kind of are,” I said, agreeing with Trevor.
Chapter 8
Xander~
Istared at Fallon, but what could I say? She overheard our conversation, and I wasn’t going to further insult her intelligence by denying what I said.
“Fallon-”
She threw her hand up to stop Trevor from saying whatever it was he was going to say, but she kept her eyes on me. “You know, this wasn’t even my idea,” she informed me, surprising me. “Karla had come up with this idea, insisting that you were a decent person. She swore you were a good guy and a genuine person. But, boy, was she ever wrong.”
“Fall-” Trevor tried again, but she just rolled right over him.
“I don’t need you to believe me,” she bit out, her eyes starting to water. “I don’t need you to agree to this…strange arrangement. I don’t need a fucking thing from you. Mr. Raynes. But…” Her voice broke as her hand waved back and forth between me and Trevor. “But,that?That was unnecessary. I’ve never done a thing to you to warrant you talking so horribly about me.” I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t feeling lower and lower with each word she spewed. “You could have simply said no. That’s it. That’s all. When Karla brought it up, you could have simply told her no, because you and I both know you were never going to help me to begin with. You only agreed to this meeting so Karla wouldn’t see the real you.”
Seeing her, unashamed and vulnerably open, made my heart drop. She was right. I was being cruel because I was in a shitty mood. And all of this could have been avoided by simply saying no. “Fall-”
“Fuck you, Mr. Raynes,” she hissed.
“Fallon!” We had been so focused on Fallon’s rant, none of us had noticed Karla walking in. “What’s going on?”
Fallon turned towards her friend and let out an empty, dark laugh. “Your friend, you know, the one you swore was a good guy, a decent person? Well, I overheard him telling your husband that I had to be either crazy or a narcissist. That I made up this whole stalker thing up as a ruse to land sugar daddies to pay my way through life, didn’t you know?” Karla’s eyes flew to mine, and they were as wide as saucers.
“Karla-”
Fallon’s dark laugh sliced through what I was going to say. “Yeah, Karla,” she sneered. “He didn’t want you to know that he really isn’t a good guy, so he agreed to his meeting, so you’d still look at him through rose-colored glasses.”
“Fallon, that’s not what’s going on,” Trevor said.
Fallon ignored everyone around her and stepped up to me until she was forced to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. “I don’t care if you believe me. I don’t care what you think of me. And I, sure as fuck, don’t care what face you choose to show the world. You can just go fuck yourself, Mr. Raynes.”
She went to walk away, and I don’t know why I did it, but I reached out and grabbed her arm. I couldn’t just let this end like this. “Fa-”
Fallon wrenched her arm out of my hold so hard, she stumbled back. The look she gave me was pure, unadulteratedhate. “Don’t ever touch me again,” she snarled, tears of hate and fury coursing down her face. “Just like no one has the right to…to enter my home without my permission. Just like no one has the right to pry into my life without my permission. Just like no one has the right to control me without my permission. No one has the right totouch mewithout my permission. No one has the right to terrorize me.” I watched as she turned her back on us and storm out of the kitchen, and I couldn’t believe how torn up I was over watching her fall magnificently apart.
“What in the hell is going on?” Karla hissed at both me and Trevor.
