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That was crazy. I rubbed my forehead with the palm of my hand and closed my eyes. I loved an insane man, and I had Dovie living under his roof. The things I didn’t know terrified me. What measures would he do to keep me there? What had he already done?
I opened my eyes and looked at Dovie again. Had he been the one to kill Netta? Was that a lie too?
I wanted to scream and put my fist through a wall. I hated this. I hated how it made me feel, like I was being ripped in two.
“Maybe it won’t come to that,” I said.
“Use Dovie’s phone and call me if you need me. I will be there.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Yeah,” I replied.
Then, we ended the call, and I handed Dovie back her phone. This was the end of my fairytale.
• Twenty-Three •
“How was your trip to the grocery store?”
Briar
The nerves, fear, and hurt were all warring inside me as I trembled uncontrollably, standing in the living room. I’d stood, looking out the window in the foyer until I saw Storm’s Jeep come down the drive. Needing to move with all the anxious energy, I turned and went to the living room to wait on him.
Everything I knew and all that I didn’t—it was too much. I wished with all my heart that I could accept it and keep what we had, but I no longer knew what to believe that had been. It was too twisted with lies and deceit. If he loved me, how could he have done those things? Did he even know what love was?
I heard the chime of the door opening, and I forced myself to take a deep breath and try and calm down. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to start. I’d tried so many different things in my head, but all over, it made me want to crumple to the floor and sob. Loving someone this much and realizing you didn’t really know them at all was an unbearable pain.
Storm stepped into the living room. His black hat still on his head. A gray-and-black pearl-snap shirt was tucked into his jeans. Seeing him only intensified my agony. He stopped at the doorway and studied me, saying nothing. There was no smile on his face.
Did he know? Had Maeme told him after all? When I had taken Dovie to her and explained all I had found out, she’d promised me she’d let me talk to him, and she wouldn’t say a word.
“How was your trip to the grocery store?” he asked.
A chill ran down my spine, and I stiffened. There was no happy-to-see-me sparkle in his eyes. They were locked on me with an intensity that made me break out into a cold sweat. I was not scared of this man, and I was tougher than this. I held his steady gaze. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me.
“Did you manage to stalk me there too?” I shot back, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.
A calculating curl of his lips, a smile that did not meet his eyes, made me shiver, but I fisted my hands, refusing to show him any weakness.
“I reckon that answers the question about your call with Pepper,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning a shoulder against the doorframe.
He was not going to throw Pepper into this. None of this was her fault. She was my friend. I’d realized today how true of a friend she was. She didn’t lie to me. But him … I loved him. With all my heart. And he’d lied to me over and over again. Making me believe it was real. This was real. All the misery I’d suffered in the four hours since my world had been ripped apart exploded in my chest.
“YOU TOOK MY MONEY!” I shouted. “You held me while I cried, stood there, and let me believe it was gone. And”—I waved a hand around the room—“cameras everywhere. Do you watch me on the toilet too? How sick does it go, Storm?! Do you listen to every call I have? Read my texts and decide which ones I get to have and which ones I don’t? That’s not a relationship, and it sure as hell isn’t love. It’s.. it’s …” I threw my hands in the air and let out a sob. “I don’t even have a word for it. You had a man shoot at us. SHOOT at us. Just to, what? Get me here? Dovie was in that Jeep, Storm. He shot a gun at US. Do you see how messed up that is?”
Tears were rolling down my face now, and I let out another sob. Just saying all this to him made it sound even worse. Warped. Sick.
