Page 102 of A Vicious Love

“Car, sir.”

I let him direct me toward the SUV because arguing would give the cameras more footage.

A woman shouted, “Is your engagement ending?”

Another called, “Were you with Arielle Voss tonight?”

The questions stacked.

“Did Weston Crow attend Sienna’s performance?”

I got into the SUV. The door shut hard behind me. Outside, flashes kept cutting through the glass.

Reeves entered the front passenger door and spoke quietly to the driver.

The SUV moved. Security vehicles closed around us as we pulled away from Vanta.

I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes.

The club still pulsed somewhere behind my skull.

I opened my eyes when my phone buzzed, full with notifications. The clip had already moved.

VANTA AFTER DARK: JAMISON CROW CAUGHT WITH ARIELLE.

The thumbnail showed my hand at Arielle’s waist.

Her mouth near my ear.

My smile.

All of it wrong.

Another clip appeared beneath it.

JAMISON CROW DISMISSES FIANCÉE’S SOLD-OUT BALLET PERFORMANCE.

The quote sat in large lettering over footage of me stepping toward the SUV.

ASK A FUCKER WHO WATCHED.

Crow heir caught flirting at Vanta hours after fiancée’s sold-out performance.

Jamison Crow parties while Sienna Bellemere dances.

I turned the phone facedown. My hand went to the whiskey compartment in the car.

Stopped.

Then opened it anyway.

Reeves looked at me through the mirror. I poured another drink while Harlan’s lights moved beyond the tinted windows.

I didn’t care whether Sienna saw another woman against my chest while the city replayed me belittling the thing she had spent years trying to tell me mattered.

I didn’t care… and I told myself that over and over, while I finished the last bottle of the whiskey.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN