Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,3

same conclusion as Rann and Kladd. If there was no sign of anyone here but the human demolition crews, that meant one thing, and one thing only.

A trap.

Jacen and Pietro went for the nearest door.

Kladd, Trent, and Iro, the final team member, simply put their heads down and made their own exits through the walls.

Rann gathered his strength and went up, wings sprouting from his back as he burst through the ceiling, desperately trying to escape as the building went up in flames around him. Fire blossomed everywhere, and the explosion reached up to swallow him whole.

It had been a trap after all.

Chapter Three

Gayle

“What the fuck?” she repeated, her voice growing in volume and anger as she switched her astonished gaze back and forth from her boyfriend to her best friend.

The two kept their hands locked together while Mikey shifted uncomfortably, and Karen gave her a sympathetic glance. It was amazing how Karen could both simultaneously destroy her life and look ready to close the distance and help comfort her over the situation. Gayle couldn’t even begin to imagine the thought process necessary that would allow Karen to think Gayle would want her anywhere near her.

One thing had become abruptly clear to her: They were not friends. Not anymore.

“Are you two serious right now?” she asked, her voice dropping to a hiss, like a snake coiled, warning approaching predators that they should back away or get bitten. “This isn’t some kind of sick practical joke that you’re playing on me?”

The body language was giving it away as being real, but Gayle had to ask, to throw out that last ditch attempt life preserver in the hope of saving everything that she’d known up until a few minutes ago. Neither of them took it, of course, and miraculously even Karen looked momentarily uncomfortable. It faded, however, her face softening as she looked Gayle right in the eye.

“Gayle, please, don’t make this any harder than it is for us already,” Karen said. “I told you, we don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want this to come between us.”

Sputtering, trying to formulate a reply to such an audacious and monumentally blind comment, Gayle just shook her head. How on earth could Karen not think this would come between them? How could she not know that it would end their friendship?

Permanently.

There was no more Gayle & Karen.

There’s also no more Gayle & Mikey either.

She looked down at herself, suddenly feeling stupid in her fancy black dress, the weight of her extra makeup weighing her down, making her feel more like a clown than beautiful.

It was over. Everything was over.

“How did it come to this?” she whispered, sinking back into herself, ignoring the other two people in her house.

An hour ago, Gayle had been convinced that tonight was going to be the night. That Mikey was finally going to get down on one knee and propose so that they could start the rest of their lives together. It would be a perfect fairytale that they could tell their children at some point. She’d had everything worked out.

Now, it was gone. In the span of an hour and change, she’d been dumped. No, not just dumped, she’d been exchanged for her best friend, of all people. That’s what it was. Karen was acting like the switch could just happen and they could all still be friends.

“So, the two of you have been going behind my back?” she said, trying to grapple with the news, to understand it.

Karen’s shoulders sagged, and she looked sad. “Gayle, it wasn’t like we were trying to hurt you, girl. We didn’t want to, but we just couldn’t ignore what we have either. It’s too special. It burns too bright for us to just push it aside. We had to see what was there. Can’t you understand that?”

Gayle’s nostrils flared with renewed anger, the fire burning hotter as it seared its way through her self-control. “Can’t I understand it?” she repeated dangerously.

“Yeah. Feelings are feelings, girl, and they can’t be denied. The two of us,” Karen said, looking over fondly at Mikey, who was looking anywhere but at either of the two women, “we’re crazy about one another. We couldn’t hold it back for any longer. We care strongly about one another. We love each other, don’t we dear?”

Gayle watched in open-mouthed astonishment as Gayle leaned in to nuzzle Mikey’s shoulder affectionately.

The big plumber shifted his weight around, nodded, and mumbled something unintelligible that might have been ‘yes dear’, but otherwise,