“Nick!” Isabel swiped at him. “Are you kidding me? You’re such an asshole!”
“God – what are you going to cry to Alec now and make this another family drama?” Turning his dark eyes back at me, Nick sneered. “Honestly, you should be fucking honored that any of us even give a shit about you.”
“Oh, really?” I laughed bitterly, knowing exactly where Nick was going with that one. I got up and grabbed my purse. I knew he was baiting me, trying to get me to get sensitive and demand what the hell he meant by that but I wasn’t going to give him the pleasure. “I’m going home. Goodnight.” I slid out of the booth and waited for Isabel to put on her shoes but she was fuming as hard as I was and her fingers were stumbling over the straps. Nick used the time to grab my wrist and yank me away. “Nick!” I cried out as he nodded for his friend to contain Isabel. “Let go of me!”
“Quiet,” he growled, pulling me into a corner and muttering an inch from his face the way his brother used to. “Why don’t we get something straight here, Lake? When I invite you to a nice party and you come and you eat my food and drink my liquor, you should probably have the fucking decency to give something back. You do realize that you’re nobody right? You may be friends with some of us but you’re not one of us, so if you’re here with us, you need to earn your keep.”
“Oh my God – ” I walked away with a true laugh. He caught my wrist and jerked me back.
“Listen to me. I told my brother I had a very big surprise for him and I didn’t mean this party, so don’t fuck it up for me.”
“I’m not some stripper you hired to jump out of a birthday cake,” I hissed, wrestling out of his grip.
“You might as well be – you’ve always been a fucking tease.”
“I was a teenage girl who wasn’t ready to have sex yet, Nick. Grow up.” I tried to push past him but he shoved me into the wall.
“I grew up. We all did. We’re all successful but look at you.” I knew from the way he laughed that he was going to say it. “Lake DePalma. Still trash.”
There it was. Trash. The word rang in my ear and as hard as I tried to keep it from happening, it sunk me back into the dark place I was in every day at Sunstone with that miserable woman and her miserable family. Trash. You’re trash! I squeezed my eyes shut and fought the urge to believe it, to succumb to what so many people had told me. But closing my eyes made me see her. It flashed memories before my eyes – of the day I walked in on her, strung out and naked in bed. I heard the crackle of her smoke-singed voice.
“Like mother, like daughter, baby girl.”
No. No. Never. I shook my head and breathed deep, refusing to let the thought settle into my brain. You’re not like her, I repeated. Over and over. But it was barely working and when I opened my eyes, Nick was grinning at me, reading my face with satisfaction. “Glad you at least know it,” he smirked, walking into me and palming my hips. “Now, come with me and let’s give you the chance to be something special,” he murmured in my ear. “Maybe Theo’ll take you back if you give it to him good enough.” His sticky tequila breath coated my lips. “What do say, Lake?”
I didn’t respond. My head was spinning. I saw Sunstone. The couch, the bed, the needles. Between those vivid flashes and the words leering out of Nick’s boozy mouth, I was feeling nauseous. Sick to my stomach. Still, I tried to muster the strength to push him off me. I needed to. His hands were starting to slide to my backside as he whispered into my ear.
“Who knows. Maybe I’ll bring you to the bathroom and let you do a test run on me.”
He squeezed my ass. My insides lurched.
“Get off!” I shoved Nick so hard to the floor that he let out a cry as he landed. I ran as he writhed on the ground, my wild eyes searching frantically for Isabel.
Instead, I found Callum.
The look on his face took my breath away. He was across the room but the second his stare landed on mine, he had a muscled shoulder angled into the crowd, parting his way to me till he was in front of me, eyes blazing. “Where is he?” he demanded. “Where’s Theo?”
“He’s not here. It was Nick.” I felt a wave of guilt as I watched the switch flip in his beautiful blue eyes. I turned him into an animal and I knew he hated it. Under his fitted suit, I could see his muscled frame expanding, rigid with anger. “Callum, you don’t have to defend me, let’s just find Isabel and – ”
“Follow Oz. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Before I could ask who Oz was, a looming giant of a man gathered me and said “I don’t bite” before parting the crowd for us both. I turned back to look for Callum but he was already out of sight, so I hiccupped and wiped tears the whole way out of the club, down the elevator and out of the building. Oz, a wall of a human being with a full beard and man-bun, watched me in wary silence the whole time.
“Did someone hurt you tonight?” he dared to ask once he had me seated in the backseat of a shiny black SUV. He closed the door and spoke to me through the open window. I couldn’t bring myself to answer. “Whoever did it, they’re in for a world of hurt right now.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Two days back in New York and I’d already returned Callum’s life to chaos. How could I even blame him for being wary of me?
“You good?” When Oz called out, I snapped my head up to see Callum exiting the building with Isabel and Logan, both of them looking rattled to their cores. One glance at their faces and I knew to look down at Callum’s fist. His left. My hand covered my mouth when I saw his knuckles dripping a neat trail of blood onto the sidewalk.
“We’re good.” His voice was tight as he replied to his friend. We made eye contact but he fell back to let Isabel run to the window. Oz opened the door for her and she threw her arms around me.
“I’m so sorry,” she breathed. “I shouldn’t have let you come. I thought it’d be okay for you to see Theo. I swear he’s gotten better, but Nick… ”
“It’s not your fault,” I assured her, albeit shakily. I grabbed her hands. “Isabel, tell me what happened in there.”
“I didn’t see. I only heard the screaming and the glass breaking, but it’s over – the whole party. Security shut it down. We just need to leave now before Nick and them come out. Callum says you’re going home with him tonight, okay?”
I blinked with surprise. “I – what?”
“That’s okay, right?”
“Of course, I just – ”
“I’m going to call you tomorrow. Okay, babe?”
“Okay,” I blinked, letting her kiss my cheek and say sorry a dozen hasty times more before leaving with Logan. Then, in silence, Callum got into the front seat of the car, leaving me alone in the back as Oz drove us away.
Chapter Six
Lake
Oz dropped us off in front of a polished, black building in TriBeCa. It looked at least twelve floors, its penthouse wrapped with a sleek, glass balcony. Through it, I could see peeks of garden flowers and saffron umbrellas. It looked nothing like it but reminded me of the penthouse across the street from the townhouse I grew up in with Callum. It was atop one of those shiny new condos and as kids, we used to stare longingly out the window at it. It had a similar balcony and was owned by some older, obscenely wealthy bachelor. At least twice a week, we’d watch him throw lavish parties with cocktail servers handing out flutes of champagne and beautiful people splashing in his enormous pool. One night, we watched him go into his apartment with two willowy girls and leave the blinds open as they climbed into bed.