“Julie,” Aaron cringes.
“Can I see your phone?” I ask Aaron. Now that Julie is here, he’ll be more willing to hand it over. She’s a distraction and a warning.
His brows furrow. “What for?”
“Just give it to me.”
Julie sighs heavily like this is boring her. “Just give him the phone, Aaron.”
Aaron slips his phone out of his pocket and hands it to me. I scroll through his previous texts, trying to find my number stored somewhere. But the entire thing is blank.
“Why’d you delete all of your texts?”
“I always do,” Aaron says. “My mother likes to check my phone.”
“You’re twenty-two.” He’s not a teenager needing approval to sleep over a friend’s house. He’s an adult.
“Yeah? That hasn’t changed her from being nosy.”
I still don’t believe him. I can’t.
“What’s your name?” Julie asks Ryke, biting her lip as though that’ll drop him to his knees.
“Ryke,” he says.
“Ryke, how do you know Loren?”
“He’s my brother.”
Her brows shoot up. “Wow, I didn’t know he had a brother.”
“Neither did I,” I say, shoving the phone back in Aaron’s palm. “Did you use a fake phone? A disposable?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Aaron says, his eyes wide. “I didn’t do shit to you or Lily. I told you, your father—”
“I don’t believe you,” I say, not really sure what I believe. He could be lying. Out of everyone I know, he’s the most likely to threaten Lily. If I can end it all right here, right now, that’s what I’ll do.
“You’re out of your fucking mind!” Aaron screams.
Ryke steps forward to my defense. “Says the guy who spent two hours chasing a girl around a ballroom, terrifying her beyond fucking words.”
“Wow,” Julie says, “you’re sexy when you’re mad.”
“Julie!” Aaron shouts. “Leave, now. Get the fuck out of here.”
Julie rolls her eyes and drops off the tips of her feet like Aaron popped her entertainment. She nods to me. “It’s nice to see you again, Loren. I’m sorry my brother can’t get over our relationship.”
“Yeah, he has trouble letting things go.” If I was him, I would still be full of resentment. I don’t blame him at all. I just hate that I drove him to this place—to a point where he could attack Lily while I was at rehab. I was such a stupid fucking kid. I still am sometimes.
I could be going about this the wrong way right now. But it’s the only thing I know how to do. And it works. I use my words. Threaten the guy who’s threatening me.
Julie walks off to the kitchen, in plain view. Mostly so Ryke can see her bend low as she grabs a pan from the cupboard. She looks back to make sure he caught sight of her ass. He didn’t. His eyes haven’t left Aaron. But as I watch her, Aaron is seconds from imploding, dropping on his knees, and giving me what I want. I can’t take credit for that. I think, partly, my father’s previous threats have already sunk in.
“Where’s your disposable phone?” I ask again.
Ryke puts his hand on my arm, and he whispers, “I don’t think he did it.”
I don’t want to believe that. Because then I’ll be clueless.
I’ll have no idea who else it could be.
Aaron holds up his hands in defense. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m not the only guy who hates you, Loren. So whatever is going on, maybe you should think about who else you pissed off all these years. I can’t imagine college was that pleasant for you.”
Yeah…I may be fucked.
I nod to myself. But if he is the guy who sent me those texts, I’m not just going to leave here without insurance that he won’t do something again. I have to have the last word. So I lean in and I say, “If you scare my girlfriend again, you’ll wish all you had to worry about was working for your fucking daddy.” My eyes flicker to Julie once. “And you should start eating your sister’s makeup. Your insides are fucking ugly.”
He could easily say as are yours. But nothing comes from his mouth. He’s solidified in a mixture of hate and fear—emotions that are floating all around his house right now.
I don’t wait for him to reanimate.
I leave.
And on the way to the car, Ryke says, “You didn’t tell me you’d be fucking with his sister.”