A low, pissed off growl sounds in the room. He’s silent for a while until he mutters, “Well, she’s a fucking bitch.”
Damn, he really is angry. This is juicy.
“Ooh, tell me more,” I say, leaning back on the bed.
“Urgh, fuck! Can we just focus on your freaky circus gifts?”
He’s all flustered and pissed. I hide my chuckle as much as I can but I’m pretty sure he knows I’m laughing at him. He shoots me an eye over his shoulder. I fall silent.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”
“You better be,” he warns. “And just so you know, when I buy you something, you’ll fucking know I’m interested. I have romance down to a fucking science, Mia.”
“But not your brother?”
“I don’t know what to make of him lately,” Liam says thoughtfully.
“You’ve been talking in parables since you came in here.”
“Yeah, well, there’s something different about J right now. I can’t put my finger on it… but here I am anyway, doing the devil’s mockery work.”
Shaking everything else aside, I stare at the cart, really taking it in. I was trying to change the subject but still, my disbelief at what Julian did lingers over me.
I have no idea how to feel about this...
Julian is not the kind of guy who goes buying chocolates and flowers at all and after what we said to each other, this is the last thing I expected.
“You look like you’re about to throw up,” Liam says. When I look at him, he has a saucer full of chocolate covered biscuits and some sort of short bread or something and a flowery pink cup of fucking tea.
“What the fuck is that?”
“I was told to serve you,” the jerk says with a smirk. “So here I am, serving.”
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
The hits just keep coming.
Have you ever felt like you’re having an out of body experience in a strange situation? That’s me in a nutshell. I can feel myself start to panic as I stare at Liam, not knowing what to do.
“Some tea, my lady Montague?” Liam says sarcastically.
“I… I don’t like tea,” I whisper, looking at the saucer and then back at him. “And I don’t like whatever that is.”
Liam looks like he’s about to burst into laughter, but he holds it in.
“You haven’t even tried it, Mia,” he says instead.
“Uh, why are you being so pushy? Is there poison in there?” I demand. This time, he does laugh.
“I’m not sure. I was actually thinking of a love potion. That dude is fucked up over you.”
“A love potion?”
“What, cupcake? You don’t like any of your gifts?” The bastard is laughing at me, gesturing at the colorful, strange cart.
“Gifts? This feels more like a ridicule to my feelings than it does a gift.”
“Okay, let’s try this.” He puts down the saucer and the tea, then he walks over to the door and opens it and calls out. “I need reinforcements!”
Reinforcements? Over tea and freaking biscuits?
Liam looks back at me, a secretive smile on his face. Then he stands back, opening the door even wider and in comes Cole… pushing another cart.
Unlike Liam’s cart that had candy, balloons and flowers, Cole’s cart is painted pitch black and it’s full of… nothing.
The cart is empty.
There are no colorful balloons. No pot of tea with little flowery cups and saucers with chocolate whatevers or short bread. It’s just a black cart that reminds me of ash.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I mutter. Julian is un-fucking-believable.
Cole throws his head back and laughs. “You have to admit, the guy is a mysterious asshole but when it comes to you, he has no idea what to do.”
Seriously… a cart full of rubbish that doesn’t matter to me, maybe the teddy bear and a black cart with nothing.
“Where is he?” I demand.
Cole looks at Liam, they have a silent exchange of sorts then Cole looks at me. “Discharged a few days ago.”
He’s gone?
After eating me out, leaving me feeling branded and oddly bereft, he left and now after days of radio silence, sends me this… this crap?
It doesn’t matter. I have to be strong. I can’t keep pinning over him.
“Anyway, let me look at you,” Cole says and without a moment’s hesitation, he walks up to me and takes me in his arms, engulfing me in a warm hug. He lifts me off my feet even. Hello beautiful! Fuck, it’s good to see you.”
“Hey Cole,” I murmur as he gently puts me down. He steps back, holding my hands at arms-length as he studies me carefully. “It’s good to see you too.”
“Whoa, whoa, why didn’t I get a hug?” Liam demands.
“Because you need to fucking suffer for what you fucking did to her,” Cole says with a breathtaking smile, his beautiful brown eyes so bright and beautiful.
“Aww, Cole, don’t tell me you’re going to start crying.”
“Excuse me if I do. The last time I saw you in person, the state you were in broke my fucking heart.”
“Oh, you have a heart, your cold motherfucker?” Liam seethes, shoving Cole aside. “I also want a hug.”
Before I can say anything, Liam has me in his arms as well, but he instead of Cole’s gentleness or even Julian’s careful closeness when he held me, Liam apparently woke up today and chose violence as he twirls me around.
“Ouch, I’m still a whole lot fragile.”
“Put her down, Little Liam. She’s still in pain.”
“Oops, sorry,” Liam says, looking like a little boy who’s just been scolded. “And don’t call me that.”
“Cole, I there any news about Kristine and the baby? How are they? Did you see them?”
“I’m sure J told you she’s missing, but we have people looking for her.”
“Did she take the baby with her?” I ask, realizing that I didn’t ask Julian that.
“Well, she didn’t leave with the baby, Mia,” he says, his voice low and soft.
“She left her baby there?”
“Well, the baby isn’t there either.”
“What?”
“Hey, I got the sense that she had a plan on what she wanted to do when I kept her talking so she wouldn’t pass out on the drive to the clinic,” Cole rushes to say, obviously trying to soothe me. “She mentioned an aunt, but she wouldn’t tell me where this aunt was.”
“But… buts he didn’t leave with the baby,” I whisper. “Shane is out there.”
Cole and Liam share a look before Cole looks at me again. “It’s going to be all right, Mia.”
“Oh God,” I mutter, a shudder going through me. “I thought when you took her, she’d be fine.”
“She will be fine, it’s you and what you did that we have to talk about,” he says, his tone now hard and deep, making me grow still with fright.
“What did I do?” I whisper.
“You know what you did and fuck me if I know what to do with you right now,” he whistles. “I mean you scared the shit out of me when you closed that door in my face, effectively forcing me to break my word to Fitz and fuck, Mia, I’ve been paying for that recently.”