Page 51 of Rebellious

Wait, what? Hadn’t she said she might not ever forgive him? How had she gone to never forgiving him?

Johnnie’s stomach turned. Judging by the gleam in her brown eyes, Kendall took pride in tearing him apart.

“As much as I’ve heard what a beautiful big cock he has, I value my marriage vows, Johnnie.”

“But not me. If you did, you wouldn’t destroy me.”

“I’m not taking responsibility for what you did. Tell it to someone who cares. I fucking don’t. I can’t help if you’re at the other end of my marriage vows. That was a stupid mistake on my part. I was proud to be the wife of the man I married. But you? The current you? The motherfucker you’ve become? I fucking hate you. You put the idea of Mortician and me in my head and I cling to that. He’d take care of me. He’d care about me.”

She started to cry again.

Johnnie swallowed, suddenly regretting so much, but especially his behavior toward Kendall.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

She turned and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Woodenly, he walked back to his side of the bed and sat on the edge. His phone vibrated again at the same time Kendall’s phone began ringing. He considered ignoring his device, but he needed a distraction from the deepening hole in his heart, so he picked up his phone and unlocked it. Bailey’s name on his screen worsened his shitty mood. Opening and reading her message multiplied the feeling by a thousand.

Bailey: Would you like to meet later? I have more questions.

Johnnie groaned, still regretting how he’d used Bailey to get to Mortician. At the end of the day, she was innocent. She just had the misfortune of being married to a fuckhead.

Johnnie: Not today, sweetheart.

Bailey: Please? I fell and hurt my thigh. I need someone to distract me from the pain. If I thought Lucas cared, I’d call him, but he doesn’t.

She thought Johnnie did? Wait a fucking minute. He reread the message. Squinted at the text. Was she insinuating what he thought she was? For a moment, he considered leaving Kendall to her bitterness and delusions and going to see what Bailey wanted. Answers he’d give. Dick he would not. Let her fuck over Mortician with another man if that’s what she meant.

Bailey: Please, Johnnie? I’m in pain and all alone. You are the only one who has been honest with me. I need that in my life.

Though Bailey was undeniably beautiful, she couldn’t hold a candle to Kendall. Hell, Megan was even more stunning and she still paled in comparison to his wife. Kendall was the reigning beauty queen of the Death Dwellers, which might’ve been why so many men wanted her.

Johnnie: No. I’m with Kendall right now. You know? My wife.

Well, he wasn’t exactly with her, nor did she want his company, but that was neither here nor there. Besides, the only other woman he’d ever wanted in recent memory was Megan. Bailey did nothing for him.

Bailey: Do you know if Kendall and Lucas have been together again since they went away?

Probably. He just couldn’t prove it.

Familiar rage swept through Johnnie at the memory of discovering they’d left town together. He considered storming into the bathroom to shake the fuck out of Kendall. However, he knew how that story would end. Either in a massive argument, sex that Kendall would claim was rape, or both. With his emotions so jumbled, he wasn’t in the mood for contention or sex.

Tired of talking to Bailey, Johnnie powered off his phone and lay on the bed, closing his eyes as myriad feelings swarmed him, anger—the most prevalent—didn’t completely drown the guilt—the most unwelcome.

He listened to the shower, imagining Kendall’s naked, soapy body under the spray. The spicy scent of her body wash floated underneath the door sill, and he breathed in deep, licking his lips, his dick twitching. Only Kendall’s previous claim of rape stopped him from joining her and fucking her to remind her who owned that beautiful body of hers. Who claimed her heart and soul.

Kendall’s phone rang again. Irritation rose in him, and he wondered if it was Mortician or Christopher, her side pieces. Or Bash, her pathetic admirer.

Grabbing the phone, he answered it without checking the caller ID, ready to give whichever bastard encroaching on his territory, a piece of his mind.

“What?” he barked.

“Er…” A woman cleared her throat.

Johnnie’s brow furrowed.

Pulling the phone away from his ear, he checked to identify the caller, one Anne Phillips with an out-of-town number. Was Kendall cheating on him with a woman, too?