Zip, Zero, Zilch (The Reed Brothers 6)

“God, I love fucking you,” he says as he pounds out his orgasm.

My nerves are raw and ragged, and I’m glad when he rolls off of me and lands by my side. He pulls the pillow from under me and I curl into his side, laying my head on his shoulder.

He kisses my forehead, tugs the covers up over us, and I fall asleep to the beat of his heart.

Sam

I get up the next morning and gently slide out from under Peck’s sleeping body. She’s wrapped around me so tight that her hand is tucked beneath me. I try not to wake her yet, because she has a bus to catch in an hour and I want her to get all the sleep she can get before leaving.

I get dressed quickly and go downstairs to get her some coffee at the hotel coffee shop. I don’t even know if she likes coffee, but I’m guessing she’ll need something to get her started.

There are tabloids next to the checkout counter and I freeze when I see that one is about the Zeroes. On the cover is a picture of Peck with her lips locked against a man. He has his arm wrapped around her waist and she’s bent backward, he’s kissing her so hard.

Heat travels up my body and floods my face. My hand shakes when I reach for the magazine. I buy it and the two coffees, and I go sit down at a table to read what it says.

Zeroes drummer fires opening act after lovers quarrel.

I flip the page to read where it’s continued. There’s more than one picture, and this one is just as compromising as the other. She was with someone else. Right before I married her. She was in someone else’s arms. In someone else’s bed. My gut clenches.

I thought we were a sure thing. I asked her to marry me, and she agreed. I thought that meant that we were engaged, and engaged usually means two people—not two people and occasionally someone else. And she definitely had someone else. He’s wrapped all around her.

I fold the paper and put it in my back pocket, and then I pick up the coffees and go upstairs. When I get there, I can hear the shower running and she’s singing softly to herself.

I pace from one side of the room to the other. I don’t even know how to ask her about this.

I know that I feel like someone has laid me open. Like all my nerves are raw and exposed. Like I can’t catch my breath.

The shower cuts off and she comes out wrapped in a towel. “There you are,” she says with a smile.

I’m not smiling. “Were you going to tell me?” I demand.

She freezes, the smile gone. “Tell you what?”

“Were you going to tell me?” I ask again.

She stares at me. “No,” she finally says. She blows out a breath. “I wasn’t going to tell you.”

I’m…floored. “Didn’t you think I deserved to know?”

“I did, but I didn’t want to hurt you.” She sits down on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry. If I had it to do over again, I’d do it differently.”

“I can’t believe you did this.”

“Sam—”

“I thought I knew you.”

“You do.”

“I don’t.”

“You do!” she cries. She gets to her feet. “I’m sorry!” She shakes her head. “I can’t say more than that. I can’t undo it. And Logan…” Her voice trails off.

My heart stops beating. “Logan knew?”

Her brow creases with confusion. “What?”

“Never mind. I get it.”

“I knew I should have told you!” she cries out. “I knew it. I should have gone with my gut. I should have told you. And I’ll never make that mistake again.” She walks forward and grabs my shirt in her fists. “I swear to you that I’ll never do that again.”

“I know you won’t.” I won’t give you the opportunity.

Hot tears scald the backs of my eyes.

“Where are you going?” she asks as I walk toward the door.

I walk out without another word. And I can’t go back. She just admitted that she betrayed me. She betrayed us, and to make it worse, Logan knew about it all the while.

I go out the front door and straight to the airport. I don’t pass go. I don’t collect two hundred dollars. And I leave my heart behind, shattered into a million pieces.

Peck

I knock on Logan’s door, banging hard with the side of my fist. Suddenly, it flies open and Emily is standing on the other side. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

I stumble into her room and look around. “Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Sam.”

“Why would Sam be here?” Kit toddles over to me and holds up her arms. I pick her up, because I don’t know what else to do. She pats the side of my face.

“He’s not here?”

“Why would Sam be here?” she asks again, her voice stronger.

“He got mad and left.” I start to pace. Kit doesn’t seem to mind, and she lays her face on my shoulder. “Where would he go?”

“Why was he mad?” Emily is starting to worry. “Did something happen?”

“He didn’t understand why I didn’t tell him about Logan’s surgery as soon as I found out. I knew I should have told him.”

The door opens and I hold my breath when Logan walks in. He closes the door behind him and my heart drops. Sam is not with him.

Logan’s looking at his phone. “I just got the weirdest text from Sam.”

“What did it say?” I ask.