Page 113 of Mad Love

Her brows shot up. “Ryan Cain is making dinner?”

Suppressing a grin, I nodded. “Originally it was Chase, but Ryan pissed him off, so I told Ryan that he’s stuck making it instead.”

“Is it wrong that I kinda want to watch and see how bad he messes up?” Bex’s hazel eyes sparkled with mischief.

I smirked. “Nope. Let’s go.”

* * *

Disappointingly, Ryan was actually handling dinner okay. Nothing was burning, and while he looked annoyed to be stuck as our chef, he also wasn’t bitching about it.

“Hey.” Ryan greeted Bex with obvious caution, eyeing her as she rounded the island to grab one of the barstools. “Everything okay?”

“No,” she replied, her tone curt. “Everything okay with you?”

He lifted a brow. “Not especially. Look, I’m sorry—”

Bex held up a hand. “Save it. If you were sorry, you would’ve told me the truth years ago.”

Ryan winced and nodded. “You’re right. But, Bex, we do care about you.”

“Not enough,” she replied, blunt and unforgiving. “Right now, I’m here for Maddie, and that’s it. As soon as all of this is over, I’m going home, and I want all of you out of my life as much as possible.”

Court, who had been coming in from the garage with Linc and Ash, froze. Linc found his voice first, trying to play it off by moving around his friend and slinging an arm across Bex’s shoulder. “C’mon, B, you don’t mean that.”

She shrugged him off with a pointed glare, ignoring Court completely as he stared at her. “Don’t touch me. And yes, I’m serious.”

Ash sighed and walked over to stand near Ryan. “Bex, please don’t take this personally.”

Her brows shot up. “Uh, what other way is there to take it? You four deliberately kept something massive from me. You’ve lied to me for years. None of you had the balls to tell me the truth. I mean, you still don’t.”

Court made a strangled sound in the back of his throat before storming to Bex and whirling her seat around to face him. “I said I’ll tell you now, Becca. You’re the one who stormed off like a child.”

I winced, because that really wasn’t the right way to handle this.

Bex folded her arms. “Too late. I don’t care anymore.”

“Bullshit,” Court spat. “Don’t lie to yourself, sweetheart. We both know you care, or you wouldn’t be pissed at me.”

An icy mask fell over her face. “I’m not pissed, Court. I’m not anything. Sort of like how I’m not anything to you.”

Growling, Court caged her in against the counter, bracing a hand on either side of her body. “You know that isn’t true. I think it’s time you and I finally had this out, baby girl.”

Her cheeks turned pink, but her mouth was still set in a mulish line. “Fuck off, Court.”

His head tilted to the side. “Fuck off? Or fuck you?”

I jerked my gaze away from where they looked to be a second away from beating the shit out of each other or tearing each other’s clothes off. Ryan met my eyes and smirked a little, but I noticed Ash had wandered out of the kitchen. Only Linc was watching like this was free pay-per-view.

Bex sneered. “You wish.”

Court leaned in more, his tone going softer and darker. “Oh, I really fucking do. You and I have been dancing around this for months now. Why don’t we just get everything out in the open so I can prove what we both know?”

“Which is?” Bex’s breath hitched.

“That you’ve always belonged to me,” he said, his voice like liquid sin.

Ryan cleared his throat, busying himself with staring at the oven timer as it ticked down the last few seconds. I felt like Linc—powerless to look away.

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