Cash (Sexy Bastard #2) (24 page)

She just stands there blown away by the
avalanche of my story.

“Please believe me.”

“Why now? Why tell me now. You
could have told me at any point, but you choose to tell me now.”

“Because I don’t want to
lose yo—”

“No,” she says quietly.
There’s no anger to her voice. She’s not yelling, she’s
eerily calm about this, and this frightens me more. “You are
telling me this now because you got caught.” She jabs a finger
into my chest, pinning me to the wall of the stair well. “When
would you have decided I could know about this?”

“I didn’t want you to be
burdened with it. My family—they’ve done horrible things
and you—you’re the best thing in my life. I can’t
let them get to you.” This isn’t going the way I planned.
Everything I say only makes her angrier.

“So you would have never told me
about any of this?”

“It’s not like that. It’s
not that simple. You don’t know my family—”

“And now I never will.”

“They screw people up. All I
wanted to do was protect you.”

“I don’t
need to be protected. I need someone I can trust. Someone I can lean
on when I have a bad day. Someone who knows that they can lean on me.
I thought we might be headed somewhere. You don’t get to play
around with me just because you feel it would be fucking
best
for me.”

“Is that what you think we’ve
been doing? Playing around. Just fucking.”

“Wasn’t that you’re
idea? Just fuck someone, you said. It was more important that I get
laid in your mind than anything else. Then I made the stupid mistake
and I trusted you. I let you in. I thought this might be more than
just some fling, but clearly I was wrong.”

She tries to push past me again, and I
have to stop her. Nothing rational is coming out of her right now.
She’ll believe me if I can just find the right words.

“Of course this was more than a
fling. I haven’t been with one person this long in years.”

“So it’s
an extended fling because we’re not on the same playing field.
You played me just like Tanner, telling me exactly what you thought I
wanted to hear.”

“I never broke that trust. I
didn’t lie to you.”

“You broke it the second you
decided to lie to me about your family. I asked you time and time
again to let me in, but you never did. It’s too late, Cash. You
should have trusted in me. Like I trusted in you.”

It takes everything in me to let her
go. She shoves past me, heading down the stairs. I am not able to
hold her here, but I follow her down the stairs. This is not going to
end. I refuse to let this happen.

“Do not compare me to Tanner.”

“You both keep secrets, you both
play around with my emotions. You play me like a fiddle because this
whole thing is all about you.” She ticks each point off on her
fingers. With each strike I can feel her temper rising. “In the
end, both of you want me to listen to your reasons for leaving me in
the dark. Well, I’m done listening.”

“So you just pack up and leave,
because it’s not worth fighting for? That how you do things?
Isn’t that how this went with Tanner?”

“You don’t get to say
something like that to me.”

I give in to the anger and pain that’s
been yanking on me since this whole conversation started. One of
these days, I’m going to slug my father for this. It’s
his fault all of this is happening. If only he’d been a better
human being.

“See, here’s the thing, I’m
not sure what I’m fighting for, because the only thing I know
about you is a lie, and I don’t date liars. Have a nice life,
which I’m sure you will. There’s a bar full of pretty
women just waiting for you every night.”

She slams the door on the way out. It
bangs open giving me the perfect view of her retreat. I sit on the
stairs and for the first time, I want out of this bar. I can’t
make myself go back up to the room where Savannah just was.

I’m fucked, and for the first
time in my life I hate it.

Savannah

I had half a mind to go back to my
apartment when I got out of Cash’s, but the thought of going
back to a place where we’d spent so much time turns my stomach.
Instead, I end up banging on my best friend’s door early in the
morning.

Cassie answers a little bleary eyed,
but once she sees me she opens the door and ushers me in. I’d
been so careful about sharing my problems with her because of her
past, but right now I just want my best friend.

“All right, coffee or booze?”
she asks.

“Coffee.” The alcohol will
have me making bad decisions, like running back to Cash and listening
to his crazy reasoning behind this decision. I bury my head in my
hands and try to block out all of the horrible words I threw at him.

Ryder hands me a cup and retreats out
of the room. Probably for the best, because right now men are likely
to get chewed up and spit out if they come within three feet of me.

“You enjoy the coffee. I’m
gonna make some plans,” Cassie says. I curl up on her couch and
cocoon myself around the coffee. The table Cassie and I found at the
flea market
does
look good in the apartment.

Maybe I should move. Or at the very
least, redecorate. Starting with a whole new bed.

After what feels like millennia, Cassie
comes in a stack of clothing under her arm.

“Get dressed, we’re going
to spoil ourselves rotten.”

Essentials
Spa
could not be a more
perfect place for wallowing. It’s a well-oiled machine meant to
take in the tense and pore-clogged looking women and turn out
beauties ready to make the men of the world bow down to them. I
treated myself to every one of their specialties after Tanner.
Perhaps I should just buy stock if this is going to become a ritual.

Cassie signs us in and comes back with
a list of appointments. “I’ve got facials, massages,
mani/pedi, and a whole lot of cursing men in general. Where would you
like to start?”

“How exactly are you supposed to
curse men? You’re in a happy relationship.”

Cassie purses her
lips. “That’s why I brought reinforcements.”
She tilts her head toward the open doorway that leads to the spa
proper. Shelby, Ruby, and Avery spill out—and bless them,
they’ve got alcohol. Shelby, dressed in her trademark white
shirt and biker jacket, hands out champagne. Ruby is as chipper as
ever. She’s got enough enthusiasm to buoy even my downed
spirits. Avery, who has always been more reserved than either Ruby or
Shelby, gives me a hug and offers to help me hide the body should I
need it.

“Brothers? Boyfriends? Men we use
for sex? Who do we hate today?” Shelby asks, her trademark
smirk twerking at the corners of her mouth and making her green eyes
sparkle. Knowing Shelby, she could rant and rave about any one of
those subjects. The girl never had a loss for words and never failed
to charm the pants off anyone she set her sights on. It’s what
made her a shark in the PR world.

“Men we fuck,”
I say, getting into the spirit of the day. Ruby coughs on her
champagne but regains her composure, giving me thumbs up. A little
dose of liquid courage, and I start in on the words that have been
building up inside me since this morning. “Cash
Gardner—if that’s even his name. Who knew with a
name like Cash, it’d all come down to money.”

I don’t
miss the look that they all share. Most of them have known Cash
longer than me, and in the grand scheme of things I’d probably
think I was crazy too.

There’s no reason for them to tip
toe around me. I can handle this. I can. It’s not like I’ve
never had my heart broken before. I survived Tanner by myself, thank
you very much. If I can get through that, I can get through this.

Ruby is the first to a raise her glass.
“To stomping on men’s balls.”

“In five inch
heels,” Shelby says, accepting the challenge. The rest
of us raise our glasses.

Hours later, I’ve
been pampered to within an inch of happiness. Cash could waltz up to
me and I don’t think I would even blink an eye. I’m too
busy floating in a river of calm.

The five of us have reconvened for a
mani/pedi in a private room in the spa. Glasses of fruit-laced water
and wine have been set out.

“You all are so lucky you don’t
have brothers,” Shelby says.

“Um,” Cassie
chimes in.

“Older brothers, I should say.
Jackson has decided to interrogate every man who comes within five
feet of me.”

“Just let him walk in on you
having sex, it’ll stunt his curiosity real fast,” Ruby
says.

“That’s so gross it just
might work.”

“Okay, so humor me,” Avery
says, taking a huge sip of wine—the champagne was only the
start of the day. I’ve managed to avoid direct scrutiny all
day. The girls have been cool with letting me lead the boy trashing
discussion, but I have a feeling this is the end of that trend. “What
did the sexy bastard do now?”

I’m still picking out colors,
wine in hand. I take a big gulp of wine. Up to this point, I had
been stingy with the details and heavy on the men evisceration.

“It’s therapeutic to let it
out,” Ruby says when I waver, ready to tell him about that
toddler with blond hair and blue eyes who looked so much like Cash.

“He’s giving money away to
people,” I say, unable to go for the full truth.

“Like his tips?” Cassie
asks.

“Try from his trust fund.”
I take a big gulp of wine and continue. “It’s well over
eight figures.” I know this because before my facial, I looked
up Cash on a few databases Briggs, Meyers, & Associates use. He’s
loaded, and his father’s loaded. And the money is about as
legit as Tanner Jakes’ career.

Ruby looks up from her manicure, “Care
to run that by me again? The guys are all loaded, but if he’s
holding out.”

I pull out my phone and toss it to
Shelby so she and Ruby can look at it.

“Holy shit,” Shelby
practically screams, startling the woman working on her toes.
“Sorry. Are you kidding me? Well, that settles it. I will have
to give him major hell for this. The boys have been worried about him
in that apartment for years. All this time, and he’s the heir
to a fucking fortune.”

“Asshole in the making,”
Ruby agrees.

Cassie and Avery are more reserved.
While Ruby and Shelby will burn hot in two seconds flat, the other
two girls are willing to give the information more than a litmus
test.

“And did he ever make you pay for
something? Because clearly this isn’t just about the size of
his wallet.”

“His wallet is fine,” I
say.

“That’s not what I—”
Cassie starts a glare already aimed in my direction.

“There’s someone else,”
I say, reliving that moment in the stairwell. I’ve done my best
to put it behind me, but I can’t stop seeing that woman or that
kid.

One last time, rip the band aid off.
The weight of the secret drags me down, not only because I still see
how much the kid looks like Cash, but also the small nugget of hope
that he’s innocent of all crimes.

“Two someones, actually. He has a
kid.”

We could have been in a graveyard and
the room wouldn’t have been this silent. Whatever the girls
were expecting it wasn’t this. At least I’m not alone in
this shocker.

Cassie’s
the first one to break. “I’m gonna fucking kill him.”

“He has a what?” Ruby says.
“Whatever is left when you’re done with him, Cassie, is
mine.”

“I’ve got plenty of ideas
where to hide whatever’s left,”
Shelby adds.

Avery is the one to be more
circumspect about the whole situation. She drums her freshly
manicured nails against her wine glass. The others are already off
planning abductions and murder, but I’m stuck on Avery.

“As much as I’m
ready to strangle the asshole—Cash isn’t stupid. A
manwhore, definitely, but he goes the extra mile to make sure he
doesn’t have kids.”

“He fed me a stupid line about
his father and a past. It was almost too good to be true.”

“Cassie, what does Ryder say
about Cash? And don’t be fickle here. I know you’ve asked
Mr. Ryder Cole to tell you all about the guy your bestie is sleeping,
with so spill.”

Cassie takes a deep breath and looks at
me.

“Ryder’d
stick by him through anything,” Cassie admits through gritted
teeth. “And trust me, I grilled him about Cash, but he won’t
divulge anything,” Cassie says.

“Don’t you think I want to
believe this isn’t true?” I say. Cassie’s my best
friend, and her doubts have only cracked the hard knot of hate that’s
keeping me together.

“I know this may be sacrilegious
today, but have you thought maybe he was telling you the truth?”
Cassie says.

“Whose side are you on?”
Shelby says, “Look, you want to beat him silly, name a place
and time. The baseball bats are on me.”

“Where would I even start with
him?” I confess, pulling my knees up and resting my head on
them. I know I stepped in it with Cash. But everything came flooding
back. All of the memories from Tanner just came right back to the
front.

After Tanner, I didn’t hope that
I’d find someone else again, but I did. I thought Cash might
have been the final hurdle in my dating life. Then he had to go and
lie. It got between us. It’s a part of him that he didn’t
think I could handle.

“Can I ask you something?”
Cassie asks. She sets her mostly full glass of wine aside.

“Shoot, I’m
just tipsy enough to answer anything you like.”

“Have you thought about asking
him for the truth?” Cassie says.

“What if he lies to me again?
What if he can’t tell it to me? He’s been living this lie
since he met the boys, what makes me any different?” Had I ever
been anything more than someone to get between the sheets with?