Page 97 of Pretty Pink Poison
She’d never ever chosen anyone but me.
And, fuck, that destroyed me.
Pink
Rafe’s place—if you could call a limestone estate with its own chapel and hedge labyrinth a “place”—was much bigger than I had imagined, and I’d grown up in what most people called a mansion. Ivy cinched itself around arched windows. Angels and devils held corners with stone hands, their faces smoothed by a hundred years of rich people pretending they were saints.
Inside, cedar and polish scented the air. We passed oil portraits that had learned to look bored, an indoor pool tucked under a ribbed-glass ceiling that collected light like a reliquary, and a ballroom that would be transformed in a day for my so-called wedding.
Rafe told me I could relax in a room he pointed out to me and that’s where I tried my best to wait patiently.
We weren’t getting married but were hoping Bane came to his senses and got his ass here before everyone else from our past did, which was nerve-racking as hell.
It only took my parents and the pahkan, along with his kids, Angela and Ivan, a day to get there along with others who Rafe extended his guestrooms and homes to.
I told Rafe I wasn’t greeting any of them. I’d outgrown that part of my life.
He shrugged, “We probably have too, but it’ll uphold some sort of façade for my brother when he gets here.”
It didn’t take him much longer.
I was walking through the dining room on the way to the kitchen to grab some food when I saw Bane storming through the foyer.
He wasn’t in his normal suit and tie but rather a dark shirt and jeans that fit him just as well. His hair had grown out a little, there was extra stubble on his face, and he had dark circles under his eyes but none of it mattered. If anything, it made him look more dangerous and more volatile. His sleeves were rolled up as he searched the room and when his eyes snapped to mine, I was locked into place, frozen from how every emotion flew through me.
So much passed between us in the moment that I took a step back only to bump into the table where my hand landed on something rubbery.
Something that felt too odd not to look.
And when I glanced down, I jerked back, a sickness rolling through me right as Ez and Rafe ambled in from the other room.
“Whose mask is this?” I asked, my hand shaking as I pointed to it. “Who’s here?”
Bane looked at Rafe and Rafe looked at him before they both looked at Ezra.
“Oh fuck both of you. I’m not wearing shit like that under my helmet.” He gave them a mock look of horror and made a sound of disapproval before he chuckled. He hadn’t picked up on the shift in the air until he turned toward me and saw my face. He must have felt it then because the smile immediately dropped off his face. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Whose mask?”
Ezra shrugged. “I think it’s Ivan’s, bro. He showed me it earlier and must have left it here on the table. Said he wanted tosee if some of the girls still liked it. He’s always going on about some—"
Bane stormed forward but I went after him.
“Bane.” I pulled at his arm, but he kept going. “Bane! What are you doing? What—”
“I listened to your Oracle entries finally, Pink.” His hand went to my cheek. “Fuck, baby girl. I listened to them all just yesterday. I was trying to ignore them, trying to let you go until you and Rafe moved the wedding up. But I listened to every fucking one.”
My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure if he had or hadn’t, but knowing he’d only heard them all yesterday heeled the last part of me that might have been mad at him. He didn’t know what a stranger had done to me…to us until yesterday.
“Okay,” I whispered. “I should have told you—”
“You never should have had to do any fucking thing with regard to that. Don’t ever say that.”
“I didn’t know how,” I told him.
“Don’t explain, it’s not your actions that need an explanation. You understand me? If anything, I should give you a fucking explanation for thinking you would have slept with Rafe in the first place—"
“Hey!” Rafe thew in, and I laughed because we needed the lightheartedness now.
