Free Stepbrother Takes (His Twisted Game, Book Five) by Chloe Hawk Page B

bathroom.”
    “And that’s why you ran out of there?”
    “Yes.”
    He sighed and ran his hand through his
hair.   “I don’t tell you
everything, Avery,” he said.   “Are
you going to tell me about all the guys you’ve been with since I’ve been
gone?”   He squared his shoulders,
like the thought of it made him want to beat the shit out of any guy who’d
touched me.
    “No,” I said.   “But if I was engaged to someone I certainly would have told
you.”
    “Just like you told about hanging out
with Jeffrey?” he countered.
    “That’s different.”
    “Oh, yeah?   How?”
    “Because it just is.”   I shook my head.   “It doesn’t matter,” I said.   “You brought a girl you were engaged
with to a photo shoot, Cole.   I had
to watch you put your hands all over her.”
    “It was a photo shoot, Avery.   It’s not real.”
    “It looked real to me.”
    “Do you trust me?” he demanded.
    “How can I trust you when you won’t tell
me anything?”
    “There was nothing to tell!”
    “Forget it,” I said.   “Cole, please, I just… ” I trailed off,
tears welling up in my eyes again.   I hated that he was seeing me so upset, hated even more that I actually was this upset.   “I can’t do this.   I thought I could live by your rules, I
thought I could deal with this wall you have up, but I… I can’t.”
    “Stop,” he said.   “You’re talking crazy.   Go back to my apartment and wait for me
there.”
    “No.”   I shook my head.   Going back to his apartment would be a quick fix, just a way to prolong
the inevitable.   He wasn’t ever
going to let me in.   And I wanted
all of him.   He hadn’t made me any
promises – he’d told me this is how it would be.   And I’d thought I could live with
that.   But it was too painful.   “Please, Cole,” I said.   “Please, just let me go.”
    I could tell he was fighting against his
urge to control me, his urge to never let me out of his sight and protect me at
all costs.
    Tell
me to stay.   Tell me you’ll try to
let me in, tell me we’ll figure it out together.
    But he didn’t.
    Instead he just looked away.
    I pushed past him, moving toward the
door.  
    He didn’t call after me.
    He didn’t try to stop me.
    He didn’t want me.
    Because when you got right down to it,
the truth was, he didn’t think I was worth it.

 
    ***

 
    I walked all the way to Grand Central
Station.   By the time I got there,
my heels were biting into my toes, and the soles of my feet felt as if they’d
been scraped raw.
    I had no money, and no plan for how I was
going to get home.
    When I got to Grand Central, I asked a
middle-aged woman wearing a belt bag if I could borrow her phone.   She gave it to me, but stayed close,
hovering over me, her lips pursed like she was afraid I was going to take off
with it.
    I called my mom.
    As soon as she answered, I started to
cry.
    “Mom,” I said.   “Please, I need to come home.”
    “Oh, Avery,” she said, sighing.
    She paused for a moment, and I knew what
she was doing – thinking it over, trying to figure out the price she’d
have to pay to get Gordon to agree to me coming home.I held my breath.   I didn’t know what I was going to do if
she said no.
    But after a moment, she let out a long
breath.   “Fine,” she said.
    I gripped the phone tight in my hand like
it was a lifeline, almost afraid to let go.   “Can you wire me some money?”
    “Avery!” she said, as if she was shocked
at the idea that I would ask such a thing.   I didn’t blame her – I knew better than to ask for
money, because usually no one in my family had any.   “What do you need money for?”
    “Someone stole my purse,” I said.   “I have no way to get a train ticket.   I’ll pay you back.”
    “How am I supposed to get it to you?”   she asked, sounding exasperated.
    “Can you Western Union it?”
    “Fine.   Gordon’s not going to be happy, Avery,” she warned.   “He’s