Seeing him with another woman—God, it cut, so damn deep, more than it should, but she’d fallen for the asshole hook, line, and sinker. Idiot.
A short time later, they were parked in front of Reid’s house, unloading toilet paper onto his driveway. Since he was currently holed up at the Seascape Hotel screwing someone else, and fences on either side made his place nice and private, they were free to decorate to their hearts’ content.
Alex loaded up with rolls. “I’ll take the back. Piper you get the garden and the garage. Rusty, you take the front of the house and the lawn.”
Piper nodded, a grim expression on her face. “Let’s do this.”
They knew better than to throw sympathy at her, knew how much she hated that. There would be no crying jag while listening to sad songs, and no eating her body weight in chocolate. That was not her, not how she dealt with crap when it was flung her way. The fact that these women knew that, were prepared to vandalize someone’s house for her, with her, and actually came up with the idea just to make her feel better? Well, it meant everything. These women meant everything to her. Always had, always would.
Rusty grabbed some rolls, shut her mind down, and got to work, putting extra effort into the task.
The entire front of his house had a curtain of white toilet paper hanging from it by the time she finished, matching the attached garage Piper had taken care of. She was aggressively hurling rolls over his small patch of carefully maintained lawn when lights hit them from behind, full beam, followed by the deep rumble of an idling engine. An engine she knew all too well.
Piper spun around and her mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.” The roll she was holding, ready to fire over the garage, dropped from her hand at the sound of a car door banging shut. “Ah, Rusty…”
“What. The. Fuck?” Reid’s voice came from close behind her, low and dangerous.
“I’m just…I’m getting Alex,” Piper hissed and tore off around the back of the house.
“Rusty?” he barked.
Ignoring him, she reached down and picked a decent-sized rock off the ground, tightening her fingers around its hard, cool surface. A mix of emotions swam through her, hurt and anger were right up there, but right then humiliation trumped the lot. I’m such an idiot.
“You wouldn’t fucking dare,” he said, coming closer.
Hauling back her arm, she let the rock fly, the sound of smashing glass followed as it exploded through the garage’s side window. “I fucking would.”
She bent to pick up another one, but he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her immobile, and dragged her against his front. “Stop acting like a bitch and tell me what the hell’s going on?”
Fuck him. He did not get to be pissed at her. He was the one screwing someone else, not her. He was the one throwing the word exclusively around, lying to her face. “We weren’t expecting you home so soon. If you give us a few minutes to finish the front, we’ll be on our way.”
He dropped his arms and spun her to face him, staring down at her. Pissed didn’t really cover it, furious was a better description, maybe murderous. “There a reason you’re vandalizing my place, smashing the fuckin’ windows?” His eyes narrowed. “This can’t be because I canceled our plans?”
She laughed, the sound bitter to her own ears. “I’m not that goddamned precious.”
“Why?” he gritted out.
She imitated his stance, but only because she needed some kind of barrier between them. “I don’t like being lied to, and I sure as hell don’t like being treated like a brainless piece of ass.” She shrugged. “I thought you knew that about me—big surprise, I was wrong. You’re just a pig, same as all the other pigs I’ve had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”
Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was in the air, heading for his cheek, but he was faster and grabbed her wrist before it made contact with the side of his face. She tried to pull free. “Let me the hell go.”
“I don’t react well to being hit. I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” he said, voice deadly calm.
She wrenched out of his hold and turned to Alex and Piper, who had just rounded the corner. “Let’s get out of here.” She went to push past him, but one of his hands wrapped around her upper arm and stopped her in her tracks.
“Talk to me, and I mean now, Rusty.”
Alex stormed forward. “Let her go, you cheating piece of shit.” Piper grabbed Alex around the waist before she launched herself at Reid.
“Cheating?” he repeated.
“We saw you with that skank outside a hotel. Don’t try to deny it,” Alex fired at him.
His gaze slid from Alex to Rusty and held. “That skank, though I wouldn’t say that to her face if I were you, was my cousin. She was here for one night on business. We had dinner. I dropped her back at her hotel.”
“Oh, a likely story,” Alex said, struggling to get away from Piper.
Jaw clenched, Reid pulled his phone from his pocket, and holding it up so Alex could see as well, scrolled down to someone named Nina and hit the call button, putting it on speaker phone.
It rang twice, then a woman’s voice sang out into the now deathly silent yard. “Yo. What’s going on? I was just going to bed. I have an early flight, remember.”
Reid held the phone closer to his mouth. “Hey, cuz, just wanted to tell you again how nice it was catching up for dinner.” His eyes were still locked on Rusty’s, and she wanted to shrivel up and die right there on his driveway. “And to make sure you say hi to Aunty Susan for me.”
“Are you high or something?” the voice said. “You already said that when you dropped me off. You going soft in your old age?”
“Obviously,” he muttered. And all the while, those eyes stayed locked on Rusty. Making her squirm. “Catch you next time, pain in the ass.”
“You, too, shithead.” Then the call disconnected.
He shoved his phone in his pocket and tilted his head toward the house. “Inside.”
Oh, shit. She stared up at him, mouth flapping, giving a good impression of a dying fish. “Um…”
“Say good-bye to your friends.”
“Um…” She looked to said friends, and Alex was no longer fighting to get free from Piper. Instead the pair of them were looking down at their shoes, feet shuffling about on the toilet paper coating the ground.
“Now, Rusty.”
“Good-bye?” She stared at them, eyes wide, hoping for some kind of backup. Nothing.
“See you at work Monday,” Alex called, already halfway up the driveway.
“Sorry about the…um, yeah, sorry,” Piper said, then ran after her.
Traitors.
“Let’s go,” Reid said, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck, leading her toward the front door, or where it would have been if you could see it past the white toilet paper curtain.
Ah, crap.
Chapter Fourteen
Reid’s fingers were curled around the back of Rusty’s slender neck, over the rose inked there, hair sliding against his hand, warm and silky smooth as he led her inside. He used those seconds to calm the hell down.
What the fuck?
She was trembling. But it wasn’t from fear. She sure as shit wasn’t afraid of him. If she was afraid, she never would have thrown a goddamn rock through his window right in front of him.
Shoving aside the toilet paper blocking his way, he unlocked the door, letting it swing open. When she stood rooted to the spot, he gave her a gentle push. “In you go.”