With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men 4)

Cora opened the door, wearing Zoey’s nightshirt, the one that liked to slip off one shoulder and expose her perfect creamy skin. I growled at her. And civil went right out the window. But seeing her in Zoey’s clothes made me lose my temper all over again. Plus my skin crawled big-time over the creepy Single White Female thing she had going on. When she pushed out her chest as soon as she saw it was me, displaying the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra, I snorted.

“You really are pathetic,” I couldn’t help but say.

She opened her eyes to respond, but a surprised Ten exploded from behind me. “What the fuck happened to your face?”

Cora glared past me toward him. “None of your damn business.” Then she blinked up at me. “What’re you doing here?”

She was embarrassed by the bruise. I suddenly realized how she’d gotten it. “Zoey gave it to you. Didn’t she?”

When Cora glared in return, I knew it was true.

“Damn,” Ten murmured as if impressed. Then he slugged me in the center of the back. “Blondie gives a better black eye than you do, Ham.”

I ignored him. My icy gaze on Cora made her step back. I couldn’t even imagine what she’d done to sweet, pacifistic Zoey to make her lash out as she had. “I’m getting her things,” I said. “Now.”

When I took a decisive step forward, she dodged out of my way with a squeak. But a second later as Noel, Ten and Asher filed in behind me, Cora sniffed at us as if unimpressed, even though I could see in her eyes that we spooked her. She wasn’t sure how much she could push me tonight. Zoey must’ve really rattled her by fighting back; she wasn’t sure if I would too.

“I should’ve known she’d give you a sob story about what happened so you’d feel all sympathetic toward her,” she muttered.

“You mean, you should’ve known she’d give me the truth,” I deadpanned before I strode past her down the hall.

“Hey!” She snagged my arm. “I didn’t say you could go down there.”

I shrugged her off. “So stop me.”

She didn’t. She merely sniffed as Ten, Noel and Asher followed me.

After seeing her in Zoey’s clothes, I’d been forewarned that she’d been in Zoey’s room, but I still wasn’t expecting what I saw. Shock made my jaw drop as I jerked to a stop in the opened doorway.

All of Zoey’s clothes had been dragged out of her closet and drawers. They’d been slashed with scissors or a knife, something sharp. So had her bedding and pillows. But what dug into my gut the deepest was seeing the shelf above her bed bare. All the notebooks full of stories she’d written were now strewn across the room and torn to shreds, making the place look as if it was covered in confetti.

“No.” I set my hand over my heart, feeling the loss of Zoey’s precious words stabbing me through the chest.

“Holy shit,” Noel breathed from behind him.

Ten stepped around me and entered the room. “What the fuck?” He picked up the metal ring from one notebook, the only thing left of it. When he glanced at me, I swallowed.

“Her stories,” I said. “She wrote stories.”

“Damn. What kind of fucked-up monster would do this?” The surprise in Asher’s voice made me turn just in time to watch Cora straighten her shoulders in self-righteous indignation.

“Well, what do you expect a girl to do when her boyfriend and roommate betray her?”

“You...bitch.” I started toward her without thinking. My hands raised to wrap around her throat, and she backed herself against a wall before I’d even realized what was happening. I stopped myself before making contact though. My rage scared me so much it made my hands shake as I balled them into fists and dropped them at my sides. I’d almost touched a woman...in anger.

My God, what was happening to me?

“Why!” I growled into her f

ace. “How could you do this to her? She was here to save your worthless life!”

Though I’d already stopped myself, I still must’ve scared my friends. Hands grabbed me by the shoulders and yanked me back.

I let them pull me away, glad to know they would’ve stopped me, and then ashamed that they almost had to. Cora whimpered and started crying as she sank to the floor and covered her mouth with shaking hands. I wanted to snort at her innocent, abused act, but guilt and fear assailed me for going as far as I had. I dug my hands into my hair, breathing hard.

“She deserved it,” Cora cried out. “You were mine. How dare she touch what was mine?”

And here returned my rage. “No, I wasn’t. We were over, not that I was ever really yours anyway, not when you had so many other guys on the side.”