Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) (16 page)

Nowhere near pleased that she had slept with the man but knowing he had no place to say anything about it; he slumped back in his chair. “Man, I really am sorry for coming at you like that. I
feel like such a tool right now.
” Kris shook his head in embarrassment.

Clapping him on the shoulder, Erias chuckled. “No worries
, man. W
omen can be confusing creatures.”

Kris grimaced as he watched Erias rub the stubble on his jaw where it was red and swollen. “Are you sure you don’t want any ice for that?”

“You have quite a right hook on you there
,
brother, but I’m cool. This here,” he pointed to the tender spot on his jaw, “I’ve had worse. Besides, I’m a quick healer.”

“Cool.” Standing, Kris stuffed his hands into his
jean's
pockets. “I should get back.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you out.”

Once in the hall, Kris spun around. “Still on for breakfast? I know the crew will be interested in meeting you. They never can get enough of history.”

Erias flashed him a smile that reminded him of a rabid dog eyeing his prey. Not pretty. “I’m practically hi
s
tory walking. See you there.”

“I’ll talk to Cheyenne, smooth things over,” Kris called to him as the door shut in his face.

What a peculiar man.

Cheyenne popped up from the bed
like a jack–in–the
–box on steroids, and ran up to meet Kris at the door.

“You’re alive,” she breathed.

Kris gave her a funny look. “Uh, yeah. What else would I be?”

Moving to the table by the window, Cheyenne grabbed a seat next to him and watched as he unlaced his boots and set them on the floor against the wall.

“So…what happened?” she asked, eager for details. “You don’t look too worse for the wear. No signs of being bludgeoned. What did you say?”

“Sadly, the only one who was bludgeoned was him.”

Cheyenne’s eyebrows arched up in surprise. “You hit him? Whatever possessed you to do that? You could have been killed!”

“Well
,
thank you for the vote of confidence,” he said irritably. “I was trying to defend your
honor,
and I succeeded in socking an innocent man in the face.”

“Innocent?” she screeched. “That man is nothing of the sort. He makes Hester Prynne look like a
Catholic
school
girl,
for crying out loud! From the second I met the
guy,
he hasn’t been able to keep his hands or eyes off of me. It’s creepy.”

“Well
,
he apparently he wasn’t creepy enough for you to keep your hands to yourself, was he?” Crossing the room, Kris folded his arms across his chest and gave he
r his back, too angry with her
–
with himself
–to look at her.

“Just what is that supposed to mean, Kristopher A
l
lan Klein?” she snapped.

“Nothing,” he mumbled, afraid of what he might say. “Just forget I said anything.”

“Well
,
I can’t forget. If there’s one thing you can’t take back, its words,” Cheyenne argued. “Now tell me what you meant by that.” When he didn’t immediately answer her, she marched up behind him and wrenched him around by the shoulder to face her.

His face a mask of rage, Kris’s lips pulled back from his teeth as he leaned down
,
bringing them almost nose to nose. “I meant that we’ve known each other our
entire
life,” he
snarled.
“And
out of the whole year that we spent as a couple, the furthest you ever let me get was sleeping in your
bed, but
after meeting some random guy in the middle of nowhere, you hop right into bed with him and give him everything you’ve denied me and everyone else who’s ever been in your life.”

Cheyenne was shocked stupid at his claims. She had never done any of the things he accused her of. Yes, she had shared her bed with him. Yes, she had never allowed it to get further than kissing or touching, but then she had a
l
ways dreamed of giving her virginity to the one man she intended to spend the rest of her life with. The fact that he, her best friend, had been able to hurt her like he had just
proven
that she was right in not giving in to his
pressures.

“I can’t believe you,” she ground out, jabbing her finger into his chest to punctate her words. “I gave you ev
e
rything I had to give. I gave you my trust, my love, and the one thing I wanted to keep for myself, that I would have given
you;
you
couldn’t wait for. No, you had to get it from somewhere else. How dare you try to hold that
over my
head, you
know how much
it
means to me.”

“Oh
,
yeah,” he laughed derisively. “You value it so
much that you just gave it away”—
h
e snapped his fi
n
gers—
“just like that.”

“I haven’t given anything away! I don’t even know where you got that idea from.” Cheyenne moved to look out the window, too upset to face him.

“He told me what happened, Cheyenne. I’m not stupid. I know what a woman looks like when she’s had sex. And with a guy of that caliber, it explains a lot.”

“Yeah, cause you would know wouldn’t you?” she spat, staring out at the
snow-covered  grounds.

“You better believe it.” She flinched at his cruelty, but then Kris was feeling pretty hurt too, so he refused to apologize. “We could have been good together, Cheyenne. All you had to do was trust me.”

She spun on him so fast it was a wonder she didn’t get whiplash. “You’re right,” she pointed at him. “We could have been good together, but you ruined that. All. By.
Yourself.
Don’t you dare try to place that blame on me.”

Seeing the tears in her eyes, Kris went to comfort her only to be faced with a scathing glare. Pushing her hand out in front of her, Cheyenne shook her head. “Just get out. You disgust me.”

Her words cut him to the quick. Nothing she could have said could have possibly hurt more than those three words. He tried to reach for her again
,
only to be slapped away.

His own eyes misting over, Kris left the room fee
l
ing worse than the day they broke up. This time he knew it was permanent. He had basically called her a slut and a
c
cused her of using sex as a tool against men. There was no way he could come back from this.

Cheyenne walked alongside Tabitha with a fire in her eyes. Two women scorned. It was a lethal combination. One everyone seated at the long dining table recognized when they appeared around the corner walking in perfect synchronization. Put them in leather and tool them out in daggers and throwing stars and they would look like Raven and Whisper, two of the most vicious hunters Erias knew.

Licking his lips in appreciation, Erias sat at the
far-reaching 
end of the table trying to blend in. A nearly i
m
possible feat to accomplish when you were the tallest,
bul
k
iest
person among a row of wiry females and whip thin
men. 
 

Yeah
,
there was no blending in for him.

Resigned to what would surly turn into a brawl wo
r
thy of Maury, Erias sipped at his Brandy and waited for the firing squad.

Cheyenne was mere feet from the table when she noticed something heinous and out of place, marring the picture before her.

There they were, Harold at the head of the table sipping at his morning coffee and reading a copy of the l
o
cal newspaper. Hadley, the quiet one of the group, was o
p
posite him taking tentative bites of her scrambled eggs. Next to her, Tim sat looking sheepishly up at
Tabitha,
who was standing beside her and so frigid Cheyenne wished she had brought along an extra sweater. Sebastian was on the opposite side of the table seated next to
Harold; his
hair mussed and wearing the stupidest, and strangely most ado
r
able, smile she had ever seen on a grown man. Which also told her that he was flying high at present. Then
,
of course
,
Kris, who sat next to Bas stabbing his fork into his eggs like he held a personal grudge against them. The heat rad
i
ating off of him scorched her from across the
room.

It
was nothing like the heat that she was experien
c
ing as her own eyes came to a rest on
Erias,
who sat across from Kris like he hadn’t a care in the world. A smug look of superiority playing on is rugged features. To her dismay, Cathy had tucked herself into his side and was cu
r
rently chatting his ear off. Not that he appeared to be
listening.

Smug bastard.

Erias watched from the corner of his eye as Che
y
enne approached him from behind. Her rage was tangible. Wanting to see what she would do, he sat calmly
,
sipping at his drink. He could tell her exact placement by the mov
e
ment of Kris’s eyes as they tracked her across the room. Poor bastard, he didn’t know that he had no chance with the woman.
On the other hand,
maybe he did and that was the reason for the long
face.

Either way, he wasn’t going to lose sleep over triv
i
al matters.

Kris’s eyes widened at the exact moment Erias felt her hand connect with the back of his head. Spilling Brandy down his front, Erias shot out of his seat like a man on fire
,
cursing like a sailor.

Grabbing her up by the arms, Erias got in her face. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growled menacin
g
ly.

“You sleazy, slimy,
no-good 
piece of cow m
a
nure!” Cheyenne growled back. “You dare
to
break bread with
my
friends after everything you did to me!”

“Cheyenne,” Cheryl said worriedly, her hands flu
t
tering in the air. “What are you doing? You’re making a scene.” Her eyes darted around the room to the patrons who were now watching them carefully.

“I don’t care! Let them watch. Let them hear what this slime ball did to me.”

Kris came to a stand beside them and talked in a low, warning tone. “I don’t think this is the best place to be airing
your
dirty laundry
,
Cheyenne. Why don’t you two take this somewhere else and work
things out?"

“What?” she gasped. “I told you what he did to me!”

“I think you were confused,” Kris said in a placa
t
ing tone. “Maybe had a little too much to drink and aren’t remembering clearly. You know how you get.”

“Oh
, my G
od, what is wrong with you people! This man attacked me!” she yelled, panic rising in her chest as Erias began leading her from the room.

Leaning down, he whispered into her ear, “I suggest you watch what you’re saying about me and keep your voice down. I’d hate to see this turn out badly for you.”

“Fuck you!” she spat. Craning her head over his shoulder, she tried to plead to her friends to
listen, but
in the end, they only looked relieved to have her
gone.

Shaking their heads and exchanging words that she couldn’t hear, but that she somehow knew was about her having lost her mind, they returned to their seats and their breakfast, leaving her to fend for herself.

The final jab came when she overheard a woman speaking to her husband. “Poor
girl
, she’s done lost her mind.”

Chapter 13

Behr sat alone on the floo
r with his back against T
he Gate. He hated being here. Would much rather be spending his time somewhere else. With someone else. D
o
ing something else.

After the brief stint of phone sex he’d had with Sasha, the reason for staying here was cloudy at best. Their call had been cut short when Sasha’s husband came home unexpectedly.

The downfall of dating a married woman, he su
p
posed.