Page 52 of More Than I Can Bear

“No, I don’t think that’s going to cut it.”

We both turned to see Jack was wearing a tight smile.

“You’re used to the glare of the public eye being on you,” my brother said. “Shit, maybe you even like it, but that doesn’t mean everyone else does. It’s a situation that needs to be fixed.”

“How?” I croaked, reaching for a glass of water and taking a long drink.

“The media wants stories to sell papers or ads on TV,” Jack said with a rueful smile. “And they don’t care much what it is, just that it gets people’s attention. You wanted to try and use the media to fix things?” Her eyes grew hard and glittery, forcing me to swallow hard. “Well, let me show you how that works.”

“I’ll leave the details to the two of you,” Vale said, getting to his feet, then giving my shoulder a squeeze. “Good luck, champ. You’re gonna need it.”

“So what’s going on?” I asked once the president had gone out of the room. I looked over my shoulder to make sure he was gone before confronting the rest of them.

“You’re gonna do everything I’ve ever told you not to,” she said with a catlike smile.

“Like… what?” I looked at Jack, confused, but it was my brother who answered.

“It came to me last night when I saw the girls drunk on Hindley Street. You have to convince the world that whatever was going on with Freya is over,” Kaine said, the muscles tightening in his mouth. “You need to go out and behave like any other young idiot would when he has the world in the palm of his hand.”

“No…” I barely whispered that out.

“If you give a shit about Freya, you’ll do this, brother,” he said, his eyes blazing bright blue. “You’ll go out with those mates of yours to every hot nightclub and pub in town.”

“No…”

“You’ll get drunk, falling-down drunk.”

“No…”

“You’ll be caught vomiting in bushes, making a fucking mess of yourself,” Jack added.

I didn’t bother protesting now, because the two of them were rolling right over me, flattening me out.

“You’ll be seen out on the prowl, decidedly single.”

Fuck.

“People won’t care about Freya when you’re making a spectacle of yourself. You were always their focus, so give the people what they want. Give them drama and a fall from grace, and when you hit rock bottom…”

I shook my head slightly and Jack’s eyes widened as my claws snicked out, embedding themselves into the desk.

“You’ll give the media something to talk about each and every night until the public is sick to death of you,” Jack said finally. “And then you’ll be free. Over-saturated, that’s what we call it. The public is ravenous for more details, right up until they get more than they can handle, then they move onto the next thing.”

“Is this what you want, Freya?”

My voice was ragged, coarse, each word feeling like it tore at my throat, but I needed to hear it from her.

“Jack says—” she started to say.

“No, not what Jack says. What do you say?” I injected all the emotion, all the need that burned inside me into my words, begging her to see it. That no matter how much I’d fucked things up, we could work through them together. “Is this what you want?”

Say no, beautiful, I begged silently.Grab my hand and hold on. We can make it through this if we hold on to each other. Choose me and I’ll make sure you never regret it. Choose me—

“I can’t see any other way.” I felt like I could pinpoint the moment when her heart broke, because mine did at the same time. I swallowed hard but that did nothing to shift the lump in my throat. “I can’t…” Her hands reached for her phone, but she snatched it back, as if remembering the hate being transmitted through it. Hate I’d brought to her door. “I can’t live like this.” She shot me a sidelong look, but when she looked away, all I seemed to see was the fall of her long lashes against her cheeks. “I never wanted to be in the public eye. It’s why I bailed the next morning. I could handle it for a night but no more.”

I took her hand then and she didn’t fight me. I cherished the way it felt so warm and small in my grip as I cradled it against my chest. I held part of her, if only for a moment, and that was all that mattered.

“If this is what you need, I’ll do it.”

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