Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,141
I was serious about that three.”
“Oh.” I grab my cards and look through them. “Yeah, here.”
Picking it up from the table, he tucks it in his stack. “He didn’t look happy that you agreed to go with me. Should I plan for him to show up here later?”
“Will you beat him up if he does?”
His broad shoulders shake with quiet laughter. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I know I should laugh at that, but it only hurts to hear it. Of course my thoughts race back to those two bruised eyes and his busted lip.
Damn it, Gabe.
“I don’t want to talk about him. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with Emily? And also if you have a nine.”
“Go fish. Nothing’s going on with her.”
“Stop lying. You’re not very good at it.”
Another grin tilts his lips, but the expression is lost as his eyes shadow. “We’re both in love with her.”
Whoa. That was unexpected. I almost slide out of my chair, but attempt to hide my shock by picking up my beer to take a sip.
I guess my eyes give me away because he lifts a brow and sips from his beer, too. When he sets the bottle down again, he correctly guesses, “Weren’t expecting that, were you?”
“Uh...no. Not at all actually.”
“Neither was she,” he grumbles. “Got a king?”
Laying all my cards down, I brace my forearms on the table and lean toward him.
“Am I right to assume you two don’t want to share her anymore?”
A muscle jumps above his eye. “I don’t. And no, I don’t think Damon wants to either. But that’s the fucking problem. She doesn’t want to hurt him, and she doesn’t want to hurt me, so she left both of us. I’m just having a problem staying away.”
Holy shit.
“And that’s what caused the fight tonight?”
Nodding his head, he finishes off his beer. “He wasn’t too happy to see me with her, apparently.”
Frustrated, Ezra tosses his cards down and stares across the table at me.
“I can’t stay away from her,” he confesses, the look on his face making my heart melt while at the same time breaking it apart. “So what the hell should I do?”
A few seconds of silence pass before I answer, “You must really have it bad to be talking to me about this. I’m pretty sure there’s like zero moments in our history when we’ve gotten along for any length of time.”
“Yeah, well, there was one other time,” he reminds me, his amber eyes sparkling beneath the small pendant lights above our head. “How about you help me with Emily, and I’ll help you with Gabriel?”
My chest constricts at the thought of Gabe. I can’t remember what he said to me on Tanner’s porch - the absolute lack of emotion in his voice - without believing that he really has been playing me all along.
“I don’t think you can help me with him. He doesn’t want me. He said as much.”
Ezra’s brow cocks as if to call out what I said as bullshit. “And here I thought you knew him better than that. What did you do to piss him off?”
“Admitted I knew he set me up to start the fire and that I did it anyway.”
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s not the laughter that booms from his chest.
“I always wondered about that. And you’re fucking insane for admitting it. But we’ve always known that. It’s been years of entertainment watching you fuck with him. But that alone should tell you anything he said tonight was a load of crap.”
Confused, I meet his stare. “I don’t follow.”
“If Gabriel wasn’t into you, he never would have taken the time to fight you. He would have made it a quick burial and forgotten your name after that. What you two were doing in high school was a bunch of love taps. We all knew it. Gabriel’s the only one who didn’t.”
“So what you’re saying is-“
“I’ll help you knock his head straight, if you’ll help me with Emily.”
Although the offer sounds nice, I have to remember I’m dealing with a guy people call Violence. He might be serious about knocking Gabriel’s head around.
“Can we do this without actually hurting him?”
That damn grin re-emerges, and I’m starting to understand why Emily is having such a problem denying these guys. One is bad enough, but two of them?
She’s a lucky bitch.
And also the unluckiest woman on the planet for having to choose.
“We can.”
Intrigued, I take another sip of my beer and stare