A knock on the door ended everything.

Gavin, handsome as sin in his tuxedo, and me looking like a perfect bride, couldn’t imagine the horror waiting behind the innocuous door.

We were young, in love, and innocent to the malignance coiled in living flesh going by the name of Patrick Brookstone.

Even now I didn’t know how they found out. What was the fatal mistake?

Was it the last phone call I made yesterday? Did the cleaning woman come a day early and see the movers leaving? Was it Melissa all along?

“Love, can you get the door?”

My instincts, forever on guard until the final “I do”, prompted me to ask, “Are you expecting somebody?”

“Maybe.” His impish grin promised a surprise. “Go check.” Gavin sauntered into the bedroom, whistling as he left.

I shouldn’t have let curiosity and pleasure get the best of me. I should’ve ignored the knock. Or called security. Something.

Instead, I opened the door.

“You!”

Patrick Brookstone shoved his way inside, Melissa trailing behind him like a wan ghost.

“Paige, you’ve gone too goddamned far! Have you lost your mind? What the fuck were you thinking to do this?”

I couldn’t feel my legs.

No! This can’t be happening!

“You really are ten kinds of stupid, you know that? Did you think you could marry your little boyfriend and live the rest of your life without me knowing? Did you think for one minute I don’t know what you get up to in New York? Did you really think I’d let this happen? Get your shit and we’re leaving. Now!”

I wouldn’t move. Even when I saw his hand lift. Patrick could beat me. It didn’t matter anymore.

Gavin ran into the room, handsome face arranged in lines of fury and worry.

My fiancé strode over to my side, ready to fight for me.

“What the hell are you doing here, Brookstone? You have no reason to be here. Get the hell out of my room and take her with you before I put you out myself.”

I was sure he meant me. I took a step away but Gavin’s hand whipped out and locked onto my wrist.

Poor man. He still didn’t understand the viper he’d fallen in love with.

But he would and nothing would ever be the same.  

Melissa’s low cry sounded raw. Patrick didn’t break eye contact with Gavin, but his eyes narrowed. Familiar as I was with his moods, I could tell he was furious at Melissa’s reaction even while he was more furious at Gavin for causing her pain.

The two opposing emotions pulled at him. Patrick needed a focus to direct that intolerable fury and I made a perfect target.

“Paige, get over here. Right now.”

“Paige, stay where you are.”

“Then you have a problem, you little shit, because I’m not leaving without her.”

Patrick reached out for me but Gavin stepped between us.

“What do you want with my fiancé? Isn’t it enough you took one woman from me? You don’t have any reason to be here.”

“The hell I don’t! Not when you’re marrying my damned daughter!”

Gavin’s head rocked back. His wild gaze crashed into mine. He didn’t have to ask the question because the ugly truth was right there in my eyes.

“Don’t fucking think I don’t know you’ve done this on purpose, Gavin! You went after my daughter to get at me!”

I should’ve defended my fiancé. Instead, I was powerless to look away from Gavin, to see the purity of his love for me tarnish. I created all of it. The least I could do was bear the final witness to my reckless destruction.

“I told you to stay away from anything about Gavin! Didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you that you had no right to him? Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I?” Then to him, “Gavin, why? Why her?”

Melissa’s pleas underscored my father’s booms. Gavin betrayed no sign he even heard his mother. But I knew because I’d instantly become an expert in his pain.

He could see the truth in my eyes that I knew who he was to Melissa all along.

“We’re not hillbilly trash! How dare you try to do this to us? No daughter of mine is going to make me look like a fool!”

Gavin let go of my arm. His touch slowly fell away and I’d lost him. One moment I was his entire world and the next I was nothing.

As my life disintegrated into ash I felt a twisted and sick sense of relief. My lies had caught up to me and now I could finally rest.

And that’s when he said my name, setting something dark and twisted in motion.

“Paige.”

Gavin’s low voice held the power of a single shot. Patrick abruptly fell silent. Melissa let out one muffled cry.

I licked my lips. The waxen lipstick lay heavy on my tongue. I didn’t know what to say so I said nothing. But I waited. I waited and hoped that he’d walk away before I lost all control and revealed the timid, broken girl I’d never truly stopped being.

Please leave before I lose it. I don’t want to do that in front of you.

Gavin stalked forward as if Patrick and Melissa didn’t exist. He looked behind and saw me standing in place. He grabbed my hand and pulled me after him.

My feet knew what to do before my brain did. I didn’t even think to pull away. If this was going to be the last time I touched Gavin, then I wasn’t going to waste one millisecond in pretending I wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be.

“Where do you think you’re going?” My red-faced father boomed just as we reached the door. “Let go of my daughter!”

Only I could see the murderous fury flash across Gavin’s face. Watching with bated breath, I wondered what he would do. Would Gavin give into the violence I knew rumbled beneath the outer surface of his calm?

Would I try to stop him?

No. I wouldn’t.

I understood why he was so blisteringly furious with the Brookstones. The injustice that had been done against Gavin could never be forgiven.

Only now I was a part of it too.

My sin against him was a million times worse because I knew how it felt to hurt as he did. But I did it anyways.

My god, what have I done?

Gavin’s expression settled into indifference. He turned around, making sure to keep me tightly against his side.

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“Are you hard of hearing, old man? We’re getting married. Our plans aren’t changing. Naturally, neither of you are invited.”

Gavin took my arm again, neatly turning us both towards the door and away from the tainted tragedy of our combined pasts.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Patrick demanded in a venomous hiss. “Let go of my daughter!”

Gavin kept us moving. I allowed myself to feel happy, hopeful even. Perhaps this meant Gavin loved me more than my lies and more than my diseased bloodline.

“Stop, Gavin!” Melissa’s forceful tone broke on his name.

He jerked to a halt, solid as the hate I felt pouring from Patrick towards us. Gavin popped his jaw and then pivoted. “What is it you have to say?”

She looked down and then lifted her chin. Although her eyes watered, she kept her words soft. “Don’t do this. You won’t just be hurting me or my husband. Or even Paige. You’ll be hurting yourself. It’s not worth it. Trust me.”

“Trust you? There’s not one drop of trust in me for you. I am not your son and you are not my mother.”

There was nothing in his voice to indicate Melissa meant anything to him. As a weapon, it was perfect.

“And let me make one thing clear—Paige is mine. I’m not giving her up. Ever. Not for you and especially not to you, Brookstone. See yourself out or I’ll have you both removed”

My heart would’ve leapt for joy if it wasn’t for the brief look Gavin had given me. 

It was a bone-chilling, life-long, vendetta kind of rage.

Not another day would go by before I learned I’d severely underestimated Gavin’s capacity to love and hate.

 

Continue Gavin and Paige’s story in the upcoming novel “Gavin: Lust”

 

Keep reading for a sneak peek at “Gavin: Lust”