SHELBY TEXTED ME AT NINE o’clock and told me to head on over since Lexi wasn’t feeling good and needed to go home. By the time I got to her house and parked the truck, all was quiet and the lights were turned off. Both of the front doors were unlocked, so I walked inside and locked them behind me, not too happy that Shelby had the doors unlocked while she was alone in the house. The only light in the room were the candles Shelby had laid out on the kitchen counter and table.
“Angel, it’s not really smart to leave your doors unlocked at night. Anyone could come in.”
“You mean someone like you,” she murmured from the doorway to her room. “Don’t worry, I only unlocked them when I heard you pull up in your truck.”
The second my gaze found her, standing there in black see through lingerie, I wanted to carry her into the bedroom and wrap those long legs of hers around me. Smiling, she glanced down at my pants before lifting her gaze to mine. By the glassy look in her eyes and the empty bottle of wine on the counter I’d say she was feeling pretty good.
“Are you drunk?” I asked.
She laughed, but it was that deep, husky laugh of hers that she always used when we were in bed together. “Actually, I’m not, but I’m feeling good now that you’re here,” she said, rubbing up against me. She nodded toward the empty bottle of wine. “Lexi accidentally tipped over the bottle so most of it went down the drain. I did get two glasses of it though.”
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, and down her neck to her bare collarbone. “What did you girls do tonight?”
She moaned when I nipped the skin on her shoulder. “We ate some pizza and talked,” she replied breathlessly.
Sliding the strap off her shoulder, I pulled her lingerie down, exposing her left breast, and wrapped my lips around her nipple. In between sucks, I asked, “Is … that … it?”
“No,” she groaned, digging her nails into my biceps. “We took some goofy pictures together like we used to do back in the day. Do you want to see them?”
“Not yet, angel. I want to make love to you first. After that you can show me whatever you want.”
Lifting her under the legs, I carried her into the bedroom and gently placed her on the bed. It was my turn to show her a good time.
“SO WHERE ARE THESE PICTURES you took?” I asked. “I have to see what you girls consider to be fun.”
Standing naked in front of her dresser, she fumbled through her drawers and pulled out a little pink T-shirt and a pair of light yellow boyshort underwear. “You’ll have to upload them onto my laptop. I didn’t have a chance to do it because someone was awfully persistent on making love to me the moment he walked in the door,” she added teasingly.
She handed me her laptop and the memory card out of her camera before lying beside me on the bed, yawning. “I was seriously about to upload them right before I heard your truck come down the road. If you want to do it for me that’d be great. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Pulling the covers over us, she snuggled into my side and put her hand on my chest. I shut off the lamp to my left, leaving the only light in the room coming from the laptop resting on my thighs. Shelby’s breathing slowed down almost instantly and it wasn’t long before her hand relaxed and slid off my chest.
Sliding the memory card into her computer, I pressed the button to have all of her pictures imported to her laptop. Since it was going to take a while for them to upload, I checked my emails and surfed around on the internet for a while. Curiosity, however, got the better of me. Searching through her picture files, I wanted to see if I could get a glimpse into her past, to see what she had been doing for the last ten years.
There were tons of pictures, mainly with Shelby, Jace, and Lexi. It was amazing how much she had changed over the years, but yet, her smile always stayed the same. Christmas was always fun with her family because every year they had huge parties with more food than you could ever imagine. I used to take Gabriella with me all the time because it was basically the only time she got to enjoy the holiday. I was prepared to see pictures with Shelby and other guys, but out of all the pictures of Shelby with someone by her side it was never anyone other than Jace. In a way I hated the guy because he’d had ten years with her that I lost. There wasn’t a time in her life when he wasn’t in it.
I had gone through almost all of the folders except the last two, which were labeled ‘Awards After Party’ and ‘Madelyn’ before the downloaded pictures were ready to be viewed. As soon as I clicked on the icon to display the images, my eyes went wide as the first picture popped up on the screen.
Am I seeing this right? I knew who Lexi was, but the girl beside her looked disturbingly familiar.
Not wanting to wake Shelby up, I quietly slipped out of bed and opened the dresser drawer that held the envelope of pictures; the pictures that were supposedly of me and all the women. Was it my mind playing tricks on me or did I actually see what I thought I did? Quickly going through the pictures, I was about to give up when at last I came to the one I was looking for.
There’s no fucking way it’s her.
Surely, it couldn’t be, could it? The more I looked at the picture, the more I noticed the resemblance. She had the same blonde hair, the same colored eyes, and the same damn star tattoo on the side of her neck below her ear.
It is her. It’s the same Hayley.
What made it worse was that the guy who was supposedly me in the picture didn’t have the same body or tattoos, but I sure as hell recognized who they belonged to … Kyle Andrews.
“Holy shit.”
How am I going to tell Shelby this? What I really wanted to know was how someone she’d known for years would want to hurt her. She hated me, that was evident, but it didn’t make sense why she would deliberately cause problems with Shelby. All along it was her when Shelby and I were trying to think of other scenarios, including blaming my own sister.
Back when I met Hayley I had no clue what her name was, just like a lot of the other women I slept with. I had met her about eight months ago at a party when she basically shoved me into a room and stripped all of her clothes off. After that I swore I would never forget her; although, that might have been because the bitch went crazy on me and threw a vase at my head when I wouldn’t sleep with her. Granted, she was drunk because I could smell the liquor on her breath, but I literally had to pry her hands off of me. It also happened to be the last party I ever went to.
Mason and his wife, Claire, were the ones who helped me realize that there was more to life than winning and fucking. A long time ago, I knew there was more to life, but I lost my way. Hayley was the first girl I deliberately turned down, and it just so happened that the first time I tried to do something right, it bit me in the ass. She was the first of many girls who fell in line hating me as well.
The only thing I worried about was what was going to happen to Lexi and Shelby. Lexi had a loyalty to her sister and also to her best friend, but if she picked sides she would lose one of them. I didn’t want Shelby to lose her best friend, but I also refused to let her get screwed around by someone she thought she could trust.
I was going to tell her, but I didn’t want to wake her up when she looked so beautiful and peaceful asleep on the bed. Because when morning came, there wasn’t going to be anything peaceful about her day.
AFTER WATCHING SHELBY SLEEP FOR a couple of hours, dreading every minute of the sun coming up, I finally nodded off and shut my eyes for the last hour of darkness with her in my arms. Her alarm went off and I swatted it so hard that it flew across the room, making her jolt awake.
“Oh wow,” she mumbled groggily.
Grabbing her by the shoulders, I made her lay back down. “You didn’t hear anything, angel. Come back to sleep.”
“Matt,” she groaned, trying to get out of my hold, “I need to get ready for work.”
“No, you don’t. Just stay with me today,” I begged.
She smacked my arm, which was around her waist, and laughed. “What’s with you this morning? Usually you’re ready to go by now.”
Yeah, that was when I had a full night’s sleep and I wasn’t worried about telling her the bad news. “Come on, Matt, let me go,” she ordered playfully.
Finally releasing her, she got out of bed and went straight for the bathroom. She came back out with her toothbrush in her mouth and entered her closet. “I have something to tell you,” she mumbled from inside her closet.
She came out with a set of clothes and raced back into the bathroom to spit out her toothpaste. “Oh yeah, and what exactly is that?” I asked.
After turning on the shower water, she took off her T-shirt and underwear, tossing them at me before marching back in the bathroom to get into the shower. “Well, after everything that happened last night I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about what Hayley told me,” she called out.
Yeah, I can only imagine what that lying bitch told you.
I got out of bed and stood by the bathroom door so we could talk instead of yelling across her room. “What did she say?” I inquired curiously.
“Believe it or not, I never even thought to ask her how she met Kyle in the first place. When I finally asked her last night, she said that one of her dance students introduced them to each other. She said her name was either Mary or Maria. Do you know anyone by those names?”
She peeked at me from around the shower curtain, raising her brows, and waited on my answer. “Yes,” I replied, “I know a couple of Mary and Maria’s, but no one that would pertain to this situation.”
Pursing her lips, she pushed the curtain back in place and continued on with her shower. “Hmm … I don’t know then. She said she would find her records and give us a name in a couple of days. Maybe that’ll help us figure out what all is going on.”
I scoffed. A couple of days?
She was biding time to think up more lies. Shelby turned off the shower and flung the curtain back, dripping wet and naturally beautiful. Handing her the clean towel that hung on the rack, I stepped out of the way. “Thank you,” she uttered warmly.
“You’re welcome, angel.”
Turning on my heel, I walked over to her laptop that I had sitting on the floor, along with the picture of Hayley, and set them both on the bed. “Is everything okay? You’re not acting right this morning,” she pointed out, furrowing her brows.
Reaching for her hand, I pulled her over to the bed and made her sit beside me. “Last night when I uploaded your pictures with Lexi and Hayley, I found out something really important.”
She lifted her brows and waved me on. “Keep going. What did you find?”
I handed her the picture of Hayley and Kyle and showed it to her. Narrowing her eyes, I could tell she wasn’t really seeing it because I knew all she could focus on was the face … my face. “Look at the girl,” I said. “Doesn’t she look like someone you know?”
Holding the picture closer to her face, she stared at it for a few seconds before her eyes went wide when she realized who it was. “Oh my God,” she choked in horror. “It’s Hayley. I didn’t look at all of the pictures, so I had no clue.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “Now take a look at the guy she’s with. Do you recognize the tattoos? They sure as hell aren’t mine.”
Covering her mouth with her hand, she gasped and closed her eyes. “How is all of this possible? When I asked Kyle if it was Hayley who helped him he made it sound like she was nothing to him.”
“And she probably isn’t,” I said, “but she lied to you, angel, and so did he. I’m pretty sure she’s the one who’s helping him.”
“How did you recognize her from the picture?” she asked. “There’s no way you could’ve made the connection.”
Taking a deep breath, I blew it out and nodded. “You’re right, that’s where the other part of the story comes in. You see, I happened to have met Hayley once before about eight months ago.”
Instantly, Shelby stiffened and glared at me. “Did you sleep with her?”
“No,” I replied truthfully, shaking my head. “I didn’t sleep with her and that’s what started this whole thing.”
Her whole demeanor changed, and I could see the fire raging behind those chocolate brown eyes of hers. “Tell me,” she demanded. “Tell me everything.”
As much as I hated to, that was exactly what I did.