we finally slow down and go back to the table for a drink. All the guys are on another round, and all of them seem a whole lot more relaxed now than they did half an hour ago. Waverly was right, we all needed this.
“We should go to a club,” Briella cries when she slides back into her seat. “I want to dance the night away.”
“Yes!” I yell. “Yes, let’s go.”
Alarick glances at Briella, a small smile spreading across his face. “This is goin’ to be messy later, ain’t it?”
Briella giggles. “Probably.”
“Well then, let’s get to it.”
We all stand and shuffle out of the club. The moment we reach the sidewalk, the fresh air tickles my face and I realize I’m pretty well on my way to being smashed. The truth is though, I don’t mind. I really don’t mind. It feels incredible feeling like this. This is something I never thought I’d experience again.
We walk down the street, chatting and laughing.
Cohen and I walk side by side and as the streets get quieter, I can finally hear him when he talks to me.
“I like this side of you,” he tells me, facing forward as he walks.
“I like this side of me, too.”
“Glad to see it comin’ back.”
So am I, believe me.
“I feel like since I’ve been back, we’ve skipped over so much replacing it with utter hatred. We were friends once, right?”
He side eyes me and nods. “Once, yeah.”
“Can’t we be again?”
“Bit hard when all I want to do is push you down that alley, lift that fuckin’ tiny dress, and bury my mouth in your pussy.”
I’m stunned.
Utterly stunned.
I didn’t expect that to come out of his mouth. I stop walking and look to him, staring up at his handsome face. “You want to fuck me?”
“I want to do more than fuck you, Aviana, I want to fuckin’ devour you.”
Oh.
My.
God.
I bite my bottom lip and give him the most teasing smile I can conjure up. “Well, if you play your cards right, tonight might just be your lucky night.”
Then I keep walking.
He growls and follows me.
“It’s clear there isn’t a Mrs. Cohen, what happened there?”
His jaw gets tight. “Never found anyone that filled the spot.”
“What spot?”
“The spot you left wide fuckin’ open. Nobody matched up to the connection we had. Didn’t even come close.”
He was aching for me, all this time?
My heart feels like it’s going to explode.
I didn’t realize until this very moment that he was likely suffering far more than I realized because he sent me away.
I was so wrapped up in my revenge and my pain that I didn’t stop to think that he was hurting too.
“We did have a great connection,” I say, my voice softer now. “We can have that again.”
“Maybe,” he murmurs.
“You don’t think it’s possible?”
He glances at me, his face blank. “I don’t know if we can ever truly move past the hurt. I don’t know if you’ll ever really get over what I did to you. Don’t want to spend the rest of my life bein’ reminded of the one fuckin’ mistake I made every single time we argue.”
“So that’s it then? You’re not even going to try?”
My voice is stern now, maybe a little snippy.
“I don’t know what I’m goin’ to fuckin’ do, Aviana.”
“Well, if you wait too long, someone else will figure it out for you.”
I walk ahead of him, shame and anger swirling around in my chest. Of course I didn’t expect him to just be my friend again and the entirety of our past would disappear, but I did figure that since we both chose to try and leave the past behind us, that he’d at least try.
I guess I was wrong.
We round a corner and a man steps out in front of us.
I come to a dead stop, my entire body freezing, my whole world stopping.
The air in my lungs stops flowing out and my body turns into a stone, my mind spinning, my heart racing.
There, standing in front of me ... is my brother Manny.
“Manny?” I croak.
How?
It’s not possible.
Manny is dead.
15
NOW – AVIANA
“Hello, sister.”
My brother’s husky voice rings out, and I stand, staring at him, sure I’m having some sort of hallucination. Maybe I got drugged at the club? That’s the only way that this could be explained away. I saw Cohen kill my brother all those years ago. I stared at his dead body. There was absolutely no way that was fake.
“Alarick,” I croak. “Did someone drug me?”
“No,” he growls. “No, they did not.