Melissa: Lol! You’re fine. Everyone’s fine. I just wanted to make sure about the no-Liam invite because tonight seems like a night where he might’ve been invited, but this semester’s been different.

  Bailey: I’m good and thank you! See you guys at Naveah. Matt, we’re waiting for you downstairs.

  Matt: See you in two snaps.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Kash

  “You two seem cozy.”

  That was Matt’s greeting as he slid into the booth beside me. He’d just gone to the bar for another drink, though it was more to flirt with the new bartender, and now he was studying where Bailey was standing with Torie and Tamara. Her friend Melissa was there, too, and there was an uneasy edge to the whole group. It’d been worse when we first arrived. I’d kept an eye on it and it was getting better. A couple more drinks and they’d be laughing like times before Bailey had lost her mother.

  “Bailey and me, or are you talking about someone else?” I nodded in their direction, turning to eye Matt as he continued to eye them.

  He took a drag from his drink before putting it on the table. He slumped a little in the booth, but that was his way. He threw people off with that body language, but he was never not watchful and alert. Or he wasn’t unless he had too many drinks or something else in his system, and so far, I was counting only two drinks.

  We’d been here two hours by now, so that was a tortoise rate for Matt Francis.

  “You and the B Master.” He tipped his head her way. “She’s happier now that you’re back.”

  Well, shit. Here we were.

  I grinned at him, cocking my head back a little. “We doing this?”

  His eyes met mine, and he had his own answering grin. He sat up and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “I guess. I mean, why not? We didn’t get to it before.” He shrugged, his head falling down a little. “I am her brother, you know.”

  “You want to know my intentions towards your sister?”

  Another half grin. “Yeah. I do.” The grin vanished and he leveled a look at me, a hard look. “Don’t leave again, fucker.”

  “There’s a part of her that blames me. I needed to give her time and space to process those emotions, and you know it.” I rested my head against the seat, rolling my head to look his way. He had slid down, mirroring me.

  He let out a sigh. “Yeah. I get it. Sucks.” A beat later, “But it was fun to spend some time with her.”

  I grunted. “If I’d gotten a call that she was arrested because of you, then you and I would be having a different talk.”

  He shook his head. “Whatever, jerkface.”

  I grinned. “Cyclone?”

  He paused a second, then got it and laughed. “Should I say ‘dickface’ instead?”

  “Please no.”

  His grin was there, but it grew more somber. “Just don’t leave my sister like that again. I’m assuming you didn’t get him yet? Figured there’d be a news bulletin out if you had. Did you get close, at least?”

  I shook my head. “I was heading to a meeting when I got the call about you and Bailey. She’s more important than him.”

  A grunt from him this time. “I get it. You had to come back. Your woman needed you.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah.”

  Then we were done.

  The talk was over, and we sat there, watching the woman we both loved as she relaxed around her friends. An hour later she was flushed, and curled up next to me in the booth. The night wasn’t bad, or not as bad as I thought it’d be.

  That was, until now, seeing who’d entered Naveah and was heading our way. I knew the good times were done.

  “Aw, fuck.” Matt sat up, throwing me a look.

  I gave him a quick dip of my head. I saw.

  Bailey hadn’t, but she had heard her brother.

  She lifted her head from my shoulder and looked up, a little drowsy. Then she jerked upright. “What is she doing here?”

  Victoria was walking up the path to our booth. Fleur and Cedar right behind her. Since she was here, I had no doubt that the usual gang was about to follow as well. Chester. Guy. Cottweiler. It wasn’t like Victoria to be in town and not rally support.

  She knew I was here.

  She was here to say something.

  I sat back and waited.

  “Hello, Kash.”

  Bailey

  I was experiencing bad déjà vu.

  I hadn’t seen her since …

  “He fucked me hard. He flew me to Greece, making me come over and over again on the plane. And it didn’t stop there. He was insatiable.”

  I was tasting my own vomit. It jumped up in my throat.

  “What’s the problem, Bailey? Not enough for him?”

  “What. The. Fuck. Isshedoinghere?”

  The end of my question rushed out of me, because I was pissed. I was ready to commit murder, and I was rising up out of Kash’s lap without even knowing I was doing it. His hand clamped down. He held me still, but he was moving for both of us.

  “Torie,” he barked.

  I knew what he was going to do, and I started struggling. “No. That’s not fair.”

  But Torie came over, taking in everything, and I already saw her go from my friend to his employee. She was set, the epitome of a cool professional. “What do you need?”

  “Take her. Keep her in my office until this is done.”

  I was pushed toward Torie, but I swung free. “No!” He couldn’t make me. Torie couldn’t make me. Scott and Drake were closing in, and shit. They could.

  I found Kash, my eyes burning. “Don’t. Do not shove me in a corner for this. I mean it, Kashton. She was there that day. She was taunting me. She’s a part of that nightmare. Don’t make me go away.”

  He wavered, and then Victoria was at the table. Her eyes were on us. She was watching and waiting.

  God.

  I hated her. I didn’t wait for Kash to make his decision. I rounded him and went at her. “You were there that day. I know you lied to me, and I know what really happened, but what you said to me…” I choked off, my entire body feeling like it was squeezing in on itself. “Get out of here.”

  I cringed, hearing myself.

  I sounded like a wounded, feral animal that was backed into a corner.

  But no. That’s how I was feeling.

  She was here. She had come for me, sought me out, and she took a knife to my heart. With her words, she thrust that blade into me over and over again, only to leave, and then he sent them for my mother.

  My mother.

  I was shaking.

  “You vile bitch. You are pathetic. You are hateful inside, and you have to spew that outwards. You have to hurt others so you’re not hurting as much? Is that it? Or was it just payback? Because Kash didn’t want you, so you flew back to damage the one he does want?”

  She was silent.

  Why was she so silent?

  Why was this starting to not feel right?

  No.

  No!

  I would not stop. I had a right to lay into her, and my entire body was writhing in fury. My vision was only seeing red. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted more than that. I wanted to destroy her. But she wasn’t saying a thing. She wasn’t reacting.

  She wasn’t reacting.

  There was no anger on her face.

  Oh, God.

  She was—she was remorseful. I saw it. I saw it in her eyes, and no, no, no.

  No!

  “Stop it,” I growled, advancing on her. My hands were in fists. “Stop. You don’t get to be the good one now. You’re not the victim here. You’re not. You victimized. You hurt me. You hurt me on the same day I lost my—”

  An arm went around my waist.

  I lost it.

  I couldn’t keep—Jesus, why wasn’t she fighting me? I needed her to fight me.

  I needed it to breathe. I needed it to—There was so much pressure inside me. I felt like a balloon ready to pop, and I had to hurt her to make some of it go away.

  That arm wasn’t restraining me.

  That arm was just holding me. A chest came up behind me, and I knew that chest.

  Kash was standing there behind me, holding me, and his head bent. His lips were on my shoulder.

  I was still trembling.

  I hated Victoria. I hated her with everything in me.

  She was the one who did all of this …

  No.

  I stopped, freezing in place.

  That wasn’t me talking in my head.

  I smelled Chrissy. I felt her. I could hear her laughter, and I sagged in Kash’s arms.

  I was done.

  Everything Victoria did to me, I was doing to her.

  Round and round.

  The train never stops. But I was hurting. The pressure was building, building, building. It was going to rip me apart, and right behind it was pain. Just pure and horrifying and paralyzing pain, and I couldn’t feel that. I didn’t want to feel that. I wanted to rip apart my skin, push my hand deep inside, grab that pain, and yank it out of me.

  I wanted it out of me for good.

  Bailey.

  That was my mom again. I was hearing me, and I knew she wasn’t there, but she was. She’d come back to haunt me.

  “Mom,” I broke, my head folding down. My knees gave out, and down I went.

  Kash caught me and he lifted me.

  I curled into him, just needing him, and then he was moving through the crowd.

  “Here.” That was Torie.

  A door opened. We were through it. The club’s music faded.

  Kash was carrying me down a hallway. Then we were in an elevator. We were going up, and then another hallway.

  “Sir.” His guard.

  A door opened, and then I was being lowered onto a couch.

  I looked up, but the room was dark. There were neon lights flaring from a window behind him. He’d brought me to his office.

  I hadn’t been in this room for so long.

  “Stay, okay?” He placed his hand on my shoulder, bending over me. Concern marred his forehead. “I have to go and talk to her. Will you be okay until I get back?”

  Would I be okay?

  I didn’t answer, just lowered my head and curled in on myself.

  I would always be okay by myself. Didn’t he know?

  I was a Hayes. That’s what we did.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Kash

  Victoria had been taken to Torie’s office. I walked in, not caring when she blanched.

  She should blanch.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  That was my greeting to her, with my nostrils flared, and she gulped. She’d been pale already. Some of that was from the state we found her in, the detox, but she was here, and I was regretting my moment of trying to be the good fucking guy.

  “I’m sorry.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “That’s all you have to say?” I took a step closer, growling, “What the fuck are you doing here? I told them to cut you loose and send you to a rehab. Funny,” I clipped out, “my club doesn’t look like the insides of a drug treatment center.”

  “I know. I know.” She held up her hands, backing away a step.

  Fuck that.

  I wasn’t in her space.

  I wasn’t pushing to be in her space.

  I had taken one step toward her, then locked up, because right now the woman I loved was crying in my office and I was down here, dealing with this one.

  “Start talking, Victoria. You’re taking time away from me being with Bailey right now and I’m not happy about it.”

  “Okay.” She edged back another step.

  “If you take one more goddamn step backward as if I’m the aggressor here, I will kick you the fuck out of Naveah so quick, your head will spin.”

  She stopped edging.

  My nostrils flared again. “Out with it. Now.”

  “I’m sorry!” she cried out, her arms flinging outward. The dam broke. All the fearful crap vanished and she was dissolving again. Her chest was heaving. “Okay? That’s what I came to say. I’m sorry for everything. Everything!”

  I opened my mouth.

  She kept going, “I’m sorry for being with you, knowing that if you fell in love with me that I would actually try to control you for your grandfather. I’m sorry that I never told you. I’m sorry that I was so scared of him and what he would do that I put my family and him first. I’m sorry about all the insanely bitchy moments I’ve had. I’m even sorry about little cutting comments I made to Seraphina. I’m sorry that I knew Quinn was a monster and I never said anything. I’m sorry that I cosigned with Quinn, using her and not even thinking about who she could hurt. I’m sorry Bailey was hurt by your grandfather. I’m sorry for what I said to her. But, I’m not sorry that I fell in love with you and I’m not sorry that I still love you, but I know that you’ll never love me back.” She stopped, breathing hard. The tears had left black makeup streaks over her face.

  I closed my mouth.

  Her head hung, but not before I saw the agony flash in her eyes.

  She was sniffling, dabbing at her nose with a napkin. “You saved my life, and you didn’t need to do that. I would’ve died.” She looked up; that agony was there. It was right on the surface, and it was enough to dissipate some of my anger. “Calhoun told me to go to that house and hide there. I did. But he also sent me the drugs. He sent enough for me to overdose on, and a part of me knew it. I had it lined up. I was going to take it, and I knew I was going to die. You got there in time.” More sniffling. Her voice grew hoarse, to a faint whisper. “You saved my life, and then you further saved my life by helping me detox.”

  “Go to a treatment center.”

  “I am.” A tear slid from her eye, but she let it go. She didn’t wipe it away, and resolve flared at me from her gaze. Her chin firmed. Her shoulders straightened. “I came back to pack my things and I have a car waiting for me. I didn’t come in here to upset anyone. I truly didn’t, but when Fleur said you were here, I came to say thank you. And…” her chin wobbled now. She blinked rapidly. Her throat moved up and down as she swallowed. “And … and I know what your grandfather intends to do with you.”

  I grew still.

  “I know that you have a twin brother. I know that you know about your twin brother, and I know that he’s supposed to watch you because he’s supposed to replace you.”

  What …

  I blinked. Once. “Say again?”

  Her mouth pressed together, but that chin was firm again. She lifted it. “Your twin brother is supposed to take over your life. He’s been studying you this whole time, observing you, and when he’s perfected you, he will kill you.”

  She paused another beat before she finished.

  “He’ll take over your life as if you never existed.”

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Bailey

  “Bailey.”

  I’d fallen asleep. Crap. How had I fallen asleep?

  A hand smoothed up my arm and he leaned over me. “Bailey. Wake up.”

  My heart spiked.

  It was Kash, but it wasn’t Kash.

  That hand wasn’t Kash.

  The lights in the office were off, but there’d been a lamp on. I knew Kash left it on.

  What was he doing? No.

  “Bailey.” A bit more insistent. His hand shook my shoulder harder. “Come on.”

  “What are you doing?”

  I winced, hearing my voice. It was raspy and barely there.

  “We have to go.” Now his voice was more clear, louder.

  He sounded like Kash.

  His head moved closer, and my eyes were adjusting. He looked like Kash.

  But he wasn’t Kash. I knew it. I felt it.

  “Who—” I stopped. There was a nagging in my mind, in the back of it. This guy … I knew him.

  My heart dropped.

  This was the twin.

  Was it?

  Wait …

  No.

  But.

  This wasn’t Kash.

  He looked like Kash. He was speaking like Kash.

  He was acting as if he was Kash.

  But he was not Kash.

  The realization hit me hard, in my chest.

  I started breathing hard.

  Sweat ran down my back, chilling me at the same time.

  This was him.

  The twin. I knew it. I so knew it.

  Oh my God.

  What should I do?

  Kash! Where was Kash?

  I froze, my entire body locking up.

  “What’s wrong?” he clipped out, impatient.

  I had to try it. “Raccoon.”

  And I waited.

  Nothing. No reaction.

  Sooo not Kash.

  So seriously not Kash,

  But there was another thing bugging me.

  It was in the back of mind.

  It was there …

  Something about this guy. Something else about this guy.

  Who … What?

  An alarm was blaring inside of me.

  Screw all that.

  What do I do here?

  Lie. Be fake. Act.

  I felt the answer as sure as if it’d been Chrissy speaking in my head. I even heard a hint of her voice in the air. My stomach still locked up tight, I tried to sound drowsy. “What’s going on?”

  “We have to go, babe.”

  Babe.

  Kash called me that, but not like this. Not now. It would’ve been in a casual way, not in a way that he knew I would be alarmed. Or baby. He called me that, too, but in the throes, as he was moving inside of me.

  This guy was really truly and ridiculously not Kash, but he pulled me up.

  I didn’t want him touching me.

  I didn’t want his hand on me.

  He took my hand—but he didn’t lace our fingers. Thank God.

  Kash would’ve laced our fingers. And he was pulling me from the office. His head was kept low, but as we stepped into the hallway, the guards didn’t say anything.

  He was dressed like Kash.

  Fitz was there, pushing the elevator button.

  He glanced over Kash’s brother, to our hands, and then to me as the doors opened.

  I looked hard at him, and he frowned, but followed us inside.

  Then there was that nagging in my head. Again.

  I knew him, but I didn’t.