All Chapters of Entangled With My Cheating Ex And Stepbrother : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

ReidThe moment they disappeared back toward the house, the silence of night felt louder.Tricky, right?It was the kind of loud that crawled under your skin and settled there, humming with things you didn’t want to think about.I raised the gun again and took aim, determined to block out the thoughts in my head and listened, blocking out every sound except the one I was seeking.Somewhere in the trees, wings fluttered nervously.And I pulled the trigger.The shot cracked through the air and missed, the birds flying untouched into the air.I froze.That didn’t just happen. I don't ever miss.I adjusted my stance, rolled my shoulders, and tried to shake off the irritation clawing its way up my spine. It was just a lapse. Nothing more.Another bird dipped too close to the lights.I fired again and missed still.The silence mocked me this time, spreading about me like laughter.I lowered the gun slowly, staring at it like it had betrayed me.“Get it together,” I muttered.My grip tighten

ArlynEveryone had gone up to their rooms. Jane wanted to stay in mine with me, but the head maid in the house wouldn't hear of it. She reluctantly agreed to the guest room.And I was left all alone in the anteroom… with its suffocating atmosphere.Even though I was looking out the window, I didn't seem to be breathing in much air and wasn't really seeing anything. Instead, my mind kept trying to make sense of the tangled web that had become my life of late. Makes me wonder just what fate had in store for me.A part of me itched to seek out Jane and get her to tell me why she never once mentioned Reid, but I already knew what the end result was going to be: she would just shrug and say it wasn’t something she expected to come up. And she’d be right. How could any of us have expected any of this?I didn't want to think about him… or pay close attention to the little things about him, like the way he walks, how his eyes wrinkled a bit at the corners and twinkled the few times he smiled,

ReidSaving her should have been the end of it.A clean, sharp moment of intervention followed by distance. At least that's what I told myself. Step in if necessary. Walk away immediately after. No lingering…But rules are only useful when your body listens to your head.Mine didn’t.From the second I left her standing there, I felt off balance, like I’d stepped off solid ground into a pit. My heart wouldn’t slow, and I developed a constant migraine.I kept reviewing the scene with Arlyn on the way home. Her eyes. The way she said please. The way my name almost slipped from her mouth when she tried to thank me.That was the worst part.Not the boys. Not the confrontation.The fact that she still reached for me instinctively.I locked my apartment door and leaned my forehead against it for a long moment, breathing through my mouth like my therapist once taught me.It didn’t help.My place was quiet in the particular way that amplifies everything you don’t want to hear. Your own thought

JaneI had been sitting in the café for almost forty minutes before I admitted the obvious truth to myself.I had no plan… None whatsoever.I knew this café because Arlyn had mentioned it in passing weeks ago; it was the place Reid sometimes worked when he wanted quiet without isolation.That alone felt ridiculous now, having to stalk an old friend for the sake of another friend without a plan in mind.I wrapped my fingers around my cup of coffee, now cold, and stared at him.Reid Branderton sat three tables away from me, angled slightly toward the window, shoulders hunched in that way men get when they are trying to make themselves smaller than their thoughts. A laptop was open in front of him, untouched for several minutes. His fingers rested on the keyboard, unmoving, while his gaze stayed fixed on nothing in particular.He looked… distracted and tired.Not the kind of tiredness that came from lack of sleep. The deeper kind. The kind that settled into bones.I swallowed.Arlyn’s fa

Ried“Goodnight, Rivers. We'll talk more tomorrow.” I said the petite chipmunk and I had been friends since I started my PhD program. I closed her car door for her, and she smiled up at me.“Thanks, handsome.” She smiled brightly.She was such a ball of sunshine. It both irritated me and intrigued me sometimes. That's why I had easily accepted her friendship.“You're absolutely welcome.” With that, she pulled back and drove off into the night. I watched her go until her car was out of sight, then went back to my apartment.As soon as I entered, the first thing that came to my mind was her.Arlyn.Fuck.I needed to figure out a way to avoid her. She was everywhere, for fuck's sake!I wasn't expecting to see her at Too Hot to Handle today.Hell, I wasn't expecting to go there, but I didn't have a choice.Rivers and I had been working all three days, and she had dragged me there and even offered to pay. I ended up paying after all, but she'd literally say anything just to get me away