Page 70 of Light My Fire Three Times
“What is happening here?” He places his coffee on the counter. “With…”
He nods toward Liv, which makes my blood boil. “She is still staying here now, Leo. I know you don’t like that, but you can’t change it.”
He rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”
I curl my hands into fists. “She’s having a hard time at the moment…”
“With her boss, I know.”
That makes me pause, mid-breath. “How the hell do you know that?”
Leo’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t look away. “She told me.”
“She told you?” I repeat, slow, making sure I heard right. “Since when do you two talk about anything?”
His laugh is sharp, humorless. “Since about an hour ago, apparently.”
The way he says it, too quick, too defensive, sets every alarm bell in my head screaming. I take a step toward him, lowering my voice so it doesn’t wake her.
“What happened, Leo?”
“Nothing,” he snaps back, but his eyes flicker, just for a second, and it’s all I need.
I push closer, fury burning through my veins. “Don’t you lie to me.”
He exhales hard through his nose, trying to keep control, but then he mutters, almost like he can’t stop the words from spilling out, “You wouldn’t get it, Karl. You don’t?—”
“Don’t what?” I demand.
His eyes cut toward Olivia, then back to me. And then he says it.
“We spent some time together today. When she finished work, she—” He swallows, scrubbing a hand over his face as if that might erase the words. “It just… happened.”
For a second, the world tilts on its damn axis. I stare at him, and all I hear is the crackle of the fire and my own pulse pounding in my ears.
It?
“You’re telling me…” I’m shaking with fury. “You slept with her. Today.”
He flinches, and that’s all the confirmation I need.
Something inside me detonates.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I roar, the sound so sharp that Olivia stirs a little on the couch. I freeze until she settles again, then round on him, low but lethal. “You knew about me and her–”
“But you told me you didn’t care.” He throws his hands in the air in frustration. “That it was just a one-time thing, one date. That you were just trying to help.”
Fuck.
I did say that.
But that doesn’t make it right.
“You knew that was bullshit,” I grind out. “Youknew, Leo.”
His jaw ticks. “I knew what you told me. Nothing more. Right now, I know you’re playing the hero, like you always do. Swooping in to save the day, making her think you’re some saint.”
I take a step closer, chest heaving, and for the first time in my life, I want to put my cousin through a wall. “Say that again.”
