Entrapment (Morelli Family 7.5)

Vince takes a step back, looking a little dazed. “Wow.”

A little surge of anxiety moves through me, having made myself that vulnerable, but I don’t know what else to do. I can’t tell Mateo, because he’ll kill Vince, but I won’t betray him, either. Maybe I can’t let him handle this, but it still needs to be handled.

“It’s not about being against you,” I tell him, wanting to soften that blow. “This isn’t you vs. him. I’m not picking him over you. I would defend you against him with the same fervor, Vince. But this has to stop. This can’t happen again. This is more than I signed on for—and everything has really been more than I signed on for, but this is where I get off. If you’re more interested in avenging your own pride or whatever… whatever you think you’re avenging, you’ll have to chase that alone.”

“You’d leave me over this,” he states, his face twisting with aversion, like he’s tasting the bitter words on his tongue.

“I would. And I will, if you ever try it again. Mark my words. I mean them.”

“You don’t love me.”

“Yes, I do.”

“You love him more.”

I sigh, moving past him to grab my purse. “I’m not doing this all night.”

“Where are you going?” he asks.

“I’m going to spend the night with Meg.”

He scoffs, then laughs a little. “With Mateo. You’re going to go spend the fucking night with Mateo.”

My stomach sinks, just hearing those words together in a sentence, but that’s not why I’m going. Yes, I woke up with him in the same bed last time, but this isn’t a girls’ night, this is just, “I need to get away from my boyfriend before I’m the one committing murders,” and yeah, my best friend just so happens to be engaged to and living with the main source of our problems. What can I do about that?

Vince grabs my arm, yanking me back toward him. “No.”

“I wasn’t asking,” I tell him, looking back at him, then at my arm. “Let go, please.”

“How do you expect me to not blow up when you do shit like this, Mia? How can you expect me to trust you when we fight and you run to him?”

“I’m not running to him, I’ve never run to him, and that’s a bullshit thing to say,” I tell him, jerking my arm out of his grasp and glaring.

“But you are right now. And the same night he just so happened to say, hey, if you have anything you need to tell me, do it tonight. For all I know, maybe you want to go over there and tell on me.”

“I’m not going to tell him anything, Vince. You know why? Because I don’t know anything.” I nod, this idea making me feel much lighter. “You were upset over Joey because you were close. That’s all I know. As far as I know, you had nothing to do with it, no knowledge of Joey’s stupid plan. I know nothing.”

He nods, holding my gaze. “All right. So, you never fucked Mateo, and I never tried to kill him? That’s the reality we’re gonna live in?”

“That’s right,” I say.

I can see the cool fury behind his eyes, but he only nods. “Got it.”

“Good.”

I slide my feet back into the shoes I just took off, but Vince remains in the living room, watching me. “You’re being a shitty fucking friend, you know.”

“To you?” I ask, flicking a glance in his direction.

“To Meg,” he states. “You’re both being shitty to Meg.”

“Again, I’m not going to fuck Mateo,” I tell him, but without much gusto. “If you want to believe that, go right ahead, but I’m not. I doubt I’ll even see him. I want to see Meg, because she’s my only friend, because weirdly enough, no one else understands the unique strain of this goddamn life.” Sparing him a glare over my shoulder, I add, “And say what you will about me as a friend, at least I didn’t almost kill her.”

He’s too pissed at me to show remorse. “Neither did I, remember?” he fires back sarcastically.

I grab my keys off the wall hook and yank the front door open.

“Do me a favor, will ya? At least ask him to wear a condom when he fucks you.”

I’m so tempted to fling back, Mateo doesn’t like condoms, but I resist the urge to be cruel and slam the door shut behind me.

—

Since Vince and I started fighting before I could change out of my dress, Meg has to give me sleep clothes.

“I’m sorry Vince is being a dick,” she calls as I change in her bathroom. “What are you guys fighting about this time?”

Sighing, I close the door behind me and pad over to the bed, climbing up on the edge and meeting her gaze. “Nothing you want to hear about it.”