This Cruel Love

“Bullshit.” She leant further into me as if to challenge him.

“No, sis, it’s not bullshit. It’s one hundred percent true. Justin’s right. I know because he came for me first.”

I felt ready to call his bluff, make him show his hand.

“You don’t need me to fuck up your life, Travis. You’ve always been selfish enough to do that all by yourself,” I said, with violence seeping through my veins, making me feel like the savage beast I’d become well versed in hiding.

“I might be selfish, but I’m no liar.” He glanced between Ryley and me before delivering what he believed to be his killer blow. “I found Lilly. She told me everything.”

“The girl you cheated on Cassie with? And what exactly did she tell you?” Ryley asked, with a look of pure disdain on her beautiful face.

“That this asshole hired her as some kind of honey trap to seduce me. He wanted Cassie and me to split up. He made it happen.”

Ryley laughed. “That’s ridiculous. No one forced you to stick your dick in another woman; that was all on you, Trav. I mean, do you really believe this Lilly? A woman who sleeps with you, then says she did it for money. She sounds like a real keeper, bro.”

Travis’s face turned to stone. “She told me everything.” He nodded my way. “He paid her to trap me. He gave Cassie the hotel room key card. It was all him. He has some fucked up plan to get to us; you, me, and Nate. I don’t know what he’s got in store for you, Ryley, but you can’t trust him. He used Justin to get to you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got Justin hooked on the drugs himself.”

He was dancing really fucking close to the flames of truth, and if he wasn’t careful, I was gonna burn this motherfucker to the ground. Ryley took deep breaths in, but stayed rooted to my side.

“I dread to think what he’ll do to Nate. He hates our family, Ryley. He has for years. God knows why. He spent almost every day at our house when we were kids.”

I froze, and Ryley tensed too. She turned to look at me, a pleading look in her eyes, begging me to refute his claims.

“Tell her, Jax. Tell Ryley how you grew up with us as kids. Then, one day, when we were about fourteen or fifteen, you just up and left the city. Now you’re back and you’ve been plotting to bring misery to our family ever since. Why is that? Why do you hate us so much?”

My throat was stuck solid, glued shut with fear. I could hardly breathe. But we were a team, Ryley and me. She spoke when I couldn’t.

“I don’t know what you hoped to achieve with this little visit of yours. Some kind of two pronged attack to try and come between Jackson and me? Is it jealousy, Justin? Is this your way of getting back at me for leaving you?”

She looked over at Travis. “And you? Call yourself my big brother, but you haven’t messaged me or called, not once in the last three months. In fact, you don’t bother with me for months on end, and only come round if you need something.”

She reached down to take my hand. “I don’t know what’s going on, and to be honest with you, I don’t really care. So Jackson knew you years ago, what was I? Five, six years old maybe? I don’t remember, and I couldn’t care less what happened back then. All I know is how I feel now, right this second.” She glanced up at me with tears brimming in her eyes. “I think you should leave.”

For a split second I thought she was talking to me, but she turned to look back at Travis and Justin and repeated, “I want you both to leave, now. This is our apartment and you’re not welcome here.”

Travis shot up from the couch, fire-like rage burning through him. “What the fuck, Ryley? Is this some kind of Stockholm syndrome shit? Has he brainwashed you so much you can’t even think straight?”

“Oh, grow up, Trav. There’s nothing wrong with me or my judgement. Not now, anyway.” She sneered over at Justin, making it clear she doubted her previous judgement of his character.

“Isn’t that what someone suffering from Stockholm syndrome would say?” Travis argued.

“The only syndrome I’ve suffered from is blinkers for assholes, and trust me, those blinkers are well and truly off.”

Justin laughed at her admission. “Are you sure about that, princess?”

I hated the way he was using pet names for her. His smarmy character and cocky persona made my blood boil. He better hope he never crossed my path again, otherwise I’d be unleashing the beast I kept hidden from society on his ass.

“Oh, I’m sure.” She smiled back. “I don’t respond to your bullshit anymore, Justin.”

Both men reluctantly made their way to the door, and Ryley turned to watch them leave.

“I don’t know what the hell that was,” she whispered. “But please, give me some space to get my head straight. I don’t think I can take all of this in right now.”

She let go of my hand and walked off in the direction of her bedroom. The room she hadn’t used since we’d finally found our way to each other. My chest felt heavy and my body ached to go to her, but I knew she needed time. I couldn’t give her long though, not with the crippling guilt I felt weighing me down. I was losing her, I could tell, and I had to act fast to stop her drifting away from me forever.

I paced the living room, stalking up and down like a caged tiger. The urge to go to her, to make this all right, bubbled inside me like an active volcano, ready to erupt. The pressure building up inside me was too much to bear and my chest ached with a tension I’d never experienced before.

‘Fuck it,’ I thought, and marched off to her room to lay my cards on the table, and get this whole sorry mess out in the open once and for all.