Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,131
a cage?”
No. But I once made the mistake to believe you were happy to be trapped on a pedestal.
It’s both a relief to see her and maddening. Until we know how to keep her dad from following through with his threat, she needs to stay away from us and do what it takes to keep him happy.
Pissed off that she would risk herself, I begin to storm in her direction to tell her so.
Before I make it halfway across the room, Damon lunges from his seat and attacks Ezra, the two brothers throwing punches, their bodies slamming against a wall by the time any of us have the chance to react.
“What the fuck?” Shane yells as he launches forward, his hands gripping Damon’s shoulders to pull him back as Tanner moves to grab Ezra.
It sucks when the twins get like this. They are so far gone and seeing red that it takes all of us to intervene and tear them apart. By the time three of us are on Damon and the other four on Ezra, blood runs down both their faces, their eyes locked in battle.
From the foyer, I can hear Emily crying. Neither Luca nor Ava are in the room, so they must have run after her.
“Someone is going to tell me right fucking now what the hell is going on with you two,” Tanner demands.
It doesn’t pull the twins out of the death stare they have locked on each other, and I growl because this bullshit is not helping.
The front door opens and closes before Ivy and Luca reappear. Ivy turns to glare at the twins, her lips a thin line of anger that means she’s about five seconds away from making this worse.
“Fuck this,” I snap. “Shane, Jase and Sawyer, take Damon to the kitchen. Taylor and Mason, take Ezra upstairs to a bathroom. Get these assholes cleaned up, and then keep them separated until we can deal with the problem.”
I storm around them to grab Ivy’s arm and drag her through the foyer to the front door before she can jump in to get in the twins’ faces. The tension I feel rolling off her means she has every intention of doing just that.
Ripping her arm from my grip as soon as we’re on the porch, she spins to face me. And being this close finally, I see something else that slams my teeth together, pure rage crawling down my spine.
I close the distance between us with one long step and reach up to brush my thumb over her cheek. “Did your father do this?”
Three faint bruises mar her skin, the discoloration not entirely noticeable unless you’ve spent hours memorizing her face like I have.
She jerks away from my touch, her hand lifting to her cheek. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” I growl, suddenly reconsidering the idea that she needs to go back home until we figure this out.
Now, after seeing that, there’s no way in hell I’ll let her out of my sight.
“I’ll fucking kill him.”
Her eyes dart to mine, a storm of thoughts tumbling behind them. Interestingly, she picks up on the exact accusation whispering through my head, her expression softening.
“You didn’t cause this, Gabe. It’s not your fault.”
I almost laugh because, of course, Ivy would know exactly what I’m thinking. She’s always had the annoying ability to see beyond the mask.
But maybe that’s what happens when you tie yourself to a person either in love or in hatred. Both emotions are so deep and insane that you can’t help but study the person who draws them out of you.
She knows me as well as I know her.
Even if I never believed I wanted to.
“It is my fault,” I say, pacing away. “If I hadn’t set you up to do what you did-“
“Do you think I didn’t know it was you?”
“Of course you know it was me, I told you.”
She laughs, the sound one quick burst of sound before she shakes her head. “I knew before that.”
My head snaps her direction. “I’m not following. You knew after you asked for the favor?”
She shakes her head and wraps her arms over herself. “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier today.”
Suspicion douses me, and I don’t like the way Ivy is looking at me like she has something to hide.
“Tell me what, exactly?”
Her eyes dance away, lips rolling together before she drags that guilty gaze back to me.
“I set you up, Gabriel. The only reason we’re standing here right now is because of me.”