Page 7 of The Burnt Heart

“I hoped they might resist. I suppose money talks. They certainly used enough of yours.” Father sighed, sounding disappointed, which shocked me. He had always disapprovedof my men, trying to dissuade me many times. Harold had found their weak spot. There was tension over me being the breadwinner of the family. Out of their own self esteem I had thought, rather than disapproval of the ill-gotten gains of my family legacy. But they’d never indicated they didn’t love my strength as a powerful woman.

“Don’t pretend you’re not gleeful they threw me over. Not that it makes any difference. I won’t marry Ray,” I sneered, pleased I sounded controlled. Inside I was a tornado. Emotions whirling inside me with flashes of long forgotten memories.

“I know,” father hummed. “Believe it or not, I was thinking of you. Harold was desperate enough to risk anything. They didn’t know who they were dealing with. You kept them too far apart for them to realize who they were getting into bed with.”

I thanked him and hung up, pulling up the timer on my phone. The clock counted down twenty minutes. My iron will faltered and I let the tears fall. The deep wound their words had torn was gaping. The hold I had on each emotion unraveled through my fingers, and I let them overwhelm me. My vision blurred, hands trembled, and my voice shook with rough sobs. Lara peppered me with comfort, but pain had me in its biting grip. Until my timer blared. I jerked out of Lara’s warm arms and blinked at the ceiling. With a competence I had built over the years, I locked away the hurt, the betrayal, and the pain. My eyelashes stung as I sucked in a steadying breath. Then I locked the box with a decisive snap. It was put together once more.

Lara looked at me with narrowed eyes and I knew she was wondering what was lurking underneath my skin. Of course, she would expect me to be a mess. It would devastate any other normal person. But I hadn’t the luxury of indulging emotions. You learn a second spent blubbering is a second that might endanger your life. I hadn’t struggled to push down the pressof emotions since I was sixteen years old. I’d hesitated too long and was lucky to escape with my life. This wasn’t a life-or-death situation, even though my heart felt like it was being torn from my chest.

Tonight, I had to have ironclad control over myself. I hoped the three wouldn’t attend tonight, but something told me they would. In all the drama, my nerves about the Charity Excellence Award had been forgotten. But that was the reason I was going after all. If I won, it would prove I had smoothed the Orazio reputation successfully.

They wouldn’t take this away from me.

“I want them to trip over their tongues when they see me.” I turned and adjusted my hem in the mirror. “What are my chances, do you think?”

Lara laughed huskily, her eyes flashing with appreciation behind me.

“Absolutely. Your bunch of dolts will drool all night long.” She sounded confident. I ran my hands down my body, knowing it was true. They had made the biggest mistake of their lives by playing with my heart. I just had to keep my emotions in check to drive home their stupidity.

“How about a drink?” My lips were stiff as I forced them upwards. “I’m using liquid courage tonight.”

I needed more, but a drink would at least help.

4

Briar

“Ican’t wait to get this over with,” Jesse sighed, sprawled over the couch. Dark smudges shadowed his under eyes. I could feel my bags like bruises. Sleep had been elusive for all of us last night. I slid the silver cufflinks into the crisp, midnight blue dress shirt. Logan burst out from the bathroom, combing his hair back with a scowl.

“Where are you going? We need to leave in twenty to get to the awards,” he barked.

“I’m picking Nicole up, I’ll meet you at the awards.” I cocked an eyebrow, slinging my coat jacket over my forearm.

Logan stiffened, letting out a choke of incredulity. He eyed me like I’d grown two heads. Jesse sat up straight, mouth dropped open like he was struggling to find the words to reply.

“What?” I pressed, confused by their reaction.

“Please, tell me you’re joking?” Logan coughed; his fist thumped on his chest. Jesse cradled his head in his hands, seeing the perplexed expression deepen on my face.

“He isn’t.” Jesse moaned. “God help us. Are you kidding me? After everything Adelaide told you about Nicole. You think it’s a good idea to roll up with a girl she’s insecure about? Logan hired escorts. Faceless, nameless girls we can explain away. Girls who could be literal cardboard cutouts for all the interest we have in them. So tomorrow when we smooth things over, Adelaide will understand. But Nicole? That’s personal and insulting.”

Logan chested up to me, looking thunderous. My stomach dropped, and I looked to where my phone was ringing, Nicole’s number emblazoned across the screen.

“What were you thinking?” Logan said, teeth gnashing.

I threw my hands up, unsure of how to defend myself. My heart thumped with a steadily rising doubt. I hadn’t been thinking at all. Nicole was like a comfort blanket. She’d been one of the foster kids we grew up with. In a house stripped of any nurturing love, we clung to each other. I’d broken off contact when we left, wanting to forget everything about that place. But she’d reached out a year ago, and we’d rekindled a friendship. Logan and Jesse had never been close with her, but I had. Nicole was my excuse to bow out from spending time with my inquisitive best friends. The excuse I leaned on when I was too low to get out of bed or I needed to recuperate. I’d used spending time with her to cover my depleted, broken energy. She didn’t know how much I’d used her, and guilt raged in me for my duplicity. We were lost kids trying to survive one more day. I felt like I owed Nicole. She’d kept Jesse and Logan from asking too many questions, from digging deeper. I’d used her like a shield. We’d aged out and I’d abandoned her. But I’d been so eager to wipe my life of any reminder, I hadn’t even considered her. Being her friend now felt like repaying my karma. Her life hadbeen challenging since she too aged out, and I understood the terror. I’d lucked out meeting Adelaide. Nicole was still alone.

Adelaide had tried hard to befriend Nicole, but my girl could be jealous. I couldn’t reveal the truth of why I was indebted to her, it would mean revealing the one thing I had never told anyone. Nicole was my friend, despite what Adelaide thought. She constantly mentioned how Nicole looked at me “like she wanted to suck my dick.” More than once, she’d warned me that Nicole wanted to be more than friends with me, I’d laughed it off each time. Adelaide was everything to me, there was nothing that could shake my devotion to her. The moment I’d seen her bursting through the weeds in Calder Place. Torn, lacy white dress, like an angel falling from the heavens. Her confidence was like tiny lightning bolts on the skin. You couldn’t help but be exhilarated and intoxicated by her spark.

“Nicole was with me when you rang about Harold’s ultimatum. I told her about his threats, and she offered to be my date. Honestly, I was grateful to have one less thing to think about.”

Jesse muttered under his breath. Rubbing his face like he could erase my comments if he swiped it vigorously enough. Harold wanted proof that we had broken things off with Adelaide, so attending the awards night with dates was his final stipulation. He was going to spread the news about his new investment. Three handsome bachelors were an easy sell, he’d assured us, and we needed all the support we could get. I latched onto Nicole’s offer, knowing there was no attraction for me there. Now I regretted my decision, the optics were not ideal. My phone screen lit up again as Nicole continued to ring. Adelaide’s twisted expression yesterday impaled my mind. She’d been so cold and hurt, rightly so.

“Adelaide won’t see it that way. She’ll see you showing up with a girl she’d expressly told you she didn’t trust, a day after wetold her we wanted to see other people.” Logan rolled his eyes. “Sometimes you are an oblivious idiot.”

Air suspended in my lungs briefly as I pondered Logan’s comments. But in the end, I shook off my doubts and left to pick up Nicole. She opened the door with a wide smile, her phone pressed to her ear.

“He’s just arrived Alex, I’ll talk to you later.” She’d smiled to whoever she was on the phone too. I turned down the offer of a drink. My chest was too busy aching with a weight I couldn’t shake. My lungs burnt no matter how much air I sucked in. Adding alcohol to that was not smart. Nicole had dressed in an off the shoulder tangerine colored slip with a slit that showcased one pale, slim leg. Two diamond barrettes pinned back her curly dark hair. They looked real, I wondered how she could afford them. Her one-bedroom apartment was bare of anything but the essentials.

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