Page 1 of Setting Limits

Chapter 1

ThingswithShayhavebeen off all summer. For months, if I really think about it. She’s taken a lot more time off from the store, which I think is good for her, but what is she doing with that time? She’s not spending it with me, that’s for sure.

After I get annoyed with my boyfriend Brendan again, I decide it’s time I find out.

Something feels amiss the moment I get to her house. Like there’s some sort of unsettledness in the air, giving my skin a prickly feeling.

I let myself into her house, like I’ve done for years, and I immediately know what the disturbance is.

Loud moans ring out from upstairs as well as deep grunts, clearly from a male. Shay’s having sex. With whom, I’m not sure, since I know she broke up with John months ago.

But I have an inkling, and it’s been nagging at me for too long to let it be ignored.

Autopilot kicks in, and I make my way upstairs, not even thinking about what’s awaiting me behind the door as I throw it open.

The sight in front of me all but knocks me on my ass. Every molecule of air leaves my lungs, and my blood crystalizes. Before it starts to boil as absolute rage takes over and explodes.

“What the fuck is going on here?!” The words erupt from my mouth as my brother finally stops fucking my best friend. And not only does he stop, but he lowers himself to cover her, to hide her, as though he could. We’re in her house, so while he tries to shield her, it’s not as though I wouldn’t see her.

“Get out!” Lochlyn hollers at me, louder than I’ve ever heard before, and with a touch of something that seems like protection.

He’s protecting her…from me. My body trembles with anger as I stare him down, but I turn on my heel and walk out the door, slamming it shut behind me.

While they may think I’m leaving or going downstairs to hash this out, I’m not. I’m standing right fucking here and waiting for one of them to come out. To face me head on and tell me how long this has been going on.

This thing that I have been against, that I have made very clear to both of them that I am against, foryears.

How long has this been going on? How long have they been fucking behind my back?

Before I can ponder it too long, the door swings open. I turn around just as Lochlyn finishes pulling a shirt over his head, and he jumps back.

“Fuck, Chels, you seriously just stood here?”

I brush right past him and into the middle of the room. It’s a space I know so well, almost like my own, yet right now it all feels off kilter, different, foreign. Frantically, I look between the two of them, eyes wild, nostrils flaring. “Whatis going on here?”

Time is of the essence, and I don’t give them any, as I turn on Lochlyn, finger in his face. “Are you fucking her? Mybest friend?”

Utterly out of control, I spin to Shay. “And you. How many times have I told you? Lochlyn’s my fucking brother, Shay. Mybrother. You can have any guy you want; they all come around you. And you go after my brother?”

“Chels, I—” She doesn’t get to finish, and I hold up my hand to stop her as my eyes fill to the brim, ready to spill over with the next blink. The sting of betrayal is so strong it tingles through my entire body.

“I’ve told you. I’ve told both of you, thatthis”—I wave my hands wildly between them—“was not something I was okay with. Not ever.”

We all stand in silence. Nobody knows what to say to me. There are a million things running through my head, but I have no idea where to start. I need something to take the focus off the pain.

“How long?” It’s barely above a whisper, but I need to know.

They both turn their gaze in my direction.

“Huh?

“How long?” I ask again, this time through gritted teeth.

Shay can’t seem to figure out an answer, how to tell me what’s surely only going to dig the knife in deeper.

“Since Thanksgiving,” Lochlyn answers for them both.

Eyes searing, I turn on my brother. The one person I had left in my life who I knew would be there for me no matter what, the last blood member of my family I have left. “You’ve been hiding this from me since Thanksgiving? You’ve been screwing her since then?”

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