Thomas pushed Tyler out of the way. “Nevvie, we were afraid we’d scare you off.”
“Oh sure, because training a sex slave is a lot better than telling someone the truth from the start. Fuck you, Kinsey.” She jabbed her finger at Tyler. “And especially fuck you, Paulson. You’re a manipulative asshole.”
She reached for the door and Thomas tried again. “Nevvie, where are you going?”
“I’m getting the hell out of here. I’m not sticking around to see what else you have in store for me. I swore after Alex I’d never let anyone control me again, and I was too fucking dumb to see that’s exactly what I let the two of you do to me. Sorry, Master, I’m not asking permission. I’m getting boxes and moving out. Cancel all my credit cards and take my name off all the accounts, I’m done with both of you. I’ll be out of here in a couple of hours. Oh, and by the way, I fucking quit.” She slammed the door.
Stunned, Tyler slumped against the wall. Thomas grabbed him by the shirt. “You were supposed to delete the goddamned file! You told me you did!”
“She must have found a copy on your desktop. I forgot I copied the directory there when I used your computer.”
Thomas slammed Tyler into the wall, hard, then ran down the hall to their bedroom. Outside, Nevvie’s car peeled out of the driveway in an angry squeal of tires.
Thomas returned less than a minute later. He’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt and stormed past Tyler, roughly grabbing his arm and dragging him. “Come on, dumb fuck, let’s go after her.” He turned, glaring, jamming his finger in Tyler’s face. “I never should have listened to you. If we lose her because of your stupidity, I’ll never forgive you.”
He flung the door open and jogged for the Ridgeline. Tyler numbly followed.
Nevvie gave up fighting her tears and sobbed. She loved them, and now it turns out she was a fucking game. They’d planned to get in her pants the whole time.
Reason tried to regain a foothold in her panicked mind. But they rescued me from Alex.
Fuck them. Someone would have called 911 eventually. Or maybe she’d be better off if he’d killed her. That was preferable to the gaping wound where her soul used to be. Her cell phone rang, and she angrily hit the end button, sending it to voice mail.
She loved them, both of them, would have done anything for them. To see Tyler’s meticulously calculated agenda in black and white shocked her. As always, Tyler had planned everything. He’d carefully researched and scripted it. No doubt he’d spent weeks gathering the costume components.
And Thomas going along with it? It must be Tyler’s plan. Thomas was smart, but he didn’t have the sense God gave a box of rocks when it came to shit like that. That was one hundred percent Tyler.
Once again she’d let herself get sucked in. Yeah, they weren’t abusive like Alex, but it boiled down to the same fucking thing, didn’t it?
She didn’t know where she’d go. She had less than fifteen grand in savings. She wouldn’t have that if it they hadn’t paid for everything, so she could thank them for that. She’d need an apartment. Find a job. Maybe ask Eddie and Pete if she could crash there for a day or two.
She bitterly laughed. No chance those two would play mind games with her. They were sweet, but definitely not her type, and she wasn’t theirs.
Her hands shook, her stomach bound up in painful knots. The boys were her world. She saw the three of them growing old together. She loved working with them, having individual relationships with them and their unique triad. She’d never wanted to imagine what it would be like when one of them died, hopefully many long decades in the future.
Both gone, in one day. Worse, the pain and betrayal ripped through her, fracturing her universe into a million pieces. Less than three miles as the crow flies from the rat-hole apartment, but she’d felt a million miles away, safe and secure and happy, her life a fairy tale.
Okay, so an X-rated one, but her happily ever after had happened, times two.
Would she ever feel that joy again? Worse, could she ever trust again? How would she ever find one man who could be to her what those two were—her rock and her soul?
She sobbed at the thought and angrily beat the steering wheel. Then Nevvie spotted a huge pile of empty boxes stacked outside the front door of a liquor store. She pulled in.
Nevvie backed in and started loading the trunk and backseat, still crying and angrily muttering under her breath.
She fit as many boxes as she could carry in the Acura and pulled out of the parking lot, headed for home.
Well, her soon-to-be former home.
Nevvie didn’t realize someone watched as she loaded the boxes.
In her anger and anguish, she never noticed the battered Ford Escort pull out behind her and follow a short distance behind.
Chapter 27
Tyler felt heartsick. When they reached Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Thomas hesitated, finally turning right, muttering under his breath and casting nasty looks at Tyler. He drove for ten minutes. Seeing no sign of her, he turned around and passed the entrance to the development, traveling the other way. After twenty minutes he realized it was useless and turned toward home.
He glared at Tyler. “Why? Why the hell couldn’t you leave well enough alone?” When he was especially upset, Thomas’ southern drawl sounded more pronounced. “You and your goddamned master plannin’. I cannot believe I let you talk me into this. I knew better, and I still went along with you. Fuck. If I can’t talk her into calmin’ down and hearin’ me out, she’s gone, thanks to you. We coulda talked to her in the beginning, been open and honest about how we felt and hoped she didn’t freak out. Oh no. That’s not easy enough for you. God knows you have to play around with her fuckin’ heart.”
“I love her too, you know.”
“Well, goddamn, ain’t that great! You fuckin’ love her, and you can’t do something as simple as be honest an’ tell her how you feel? Why can’t anything be simple with you, Ty? Life isn’t fuckin’ complicated enough, gotta go workin’ people round like they’re characters in your books? You always do this. Shit!” He pounded his fist against the steering wheel and fell silent.
A few minutes later, Tyler started to speak and Thomas steamrolled him. “You know, I shoulda kept my fuckin’ mouth shut about her. I shoulda been happy with what we had. I was happy with what we had. I loved you, you loved me, we had a great thing goin’. No, I gotta be a greedy fuckin’ dumbass and fall in love with her, and let you talk me into thinkin’ that’s a great goddamn idea. Forget that everyone says three’s a crowd, and now I fuckin’ know why.”
He turned to Tyler at the next red light. “I mean it, Tyler. We lose her, you and I might as well say goodbye because I won’t forgive you, and every time I look at you I’ll hate you for it.”
Tyler swallowed hard and nodded. Thomas was right—this was his fault. He was on the verge of losing the two people he loved more than his own life, and for once he didn’t have the slightest idea how to make things right.
Nevvie backed into the driveway. The Ridgeline wasn’t there. Good, that meant at least one of them had left. She opened the garage and angrily threw the boxes in, slinging them toward the back wall. When she had them unloaded she slammed the trunk and doors and stormed into the garage, leaving the big door open. She’d be coming back in a few minutes to start loading.