Page 104 of Ricochet
"Stop fucking calling me, Kieran!" I dropped the call. There was nothing he could say to make up for what he did.
Apologies wouldn't cut it out this time. Sweet little nothings he used to whisper in my ear wouldn’t fool me this time. Did he really think I would be okay with all of this?
I threw my phone to the other side of the room, hitting the sofa. Too bad it didn't break. After tomorrow, he would never contact me again. He wouldn't dream of it, because I would end up being persona non grata for both his and my family.
But none of it mattered. What I felt didn't matter anymore, not that it ever did.
For the first time in my life, I knew what I had to do. I had to get out of here, and Storm was the answer to my prayers.
The fucking device started ringing again, and it was the last straw for me. I was going to strangle him.
"I fucking told you—”
"Ophelia," a voice I didn't expect sounded instead of Kieran’s. I moved the phone away from my ear seeing the familiar number.
"Theo?" My brother rarely called me, and during the times he did, it was just to relay messages about meetings with my father. "Why are you calling me? We don't have another meeting for at least a month."
"I'm not calling you about a meeting."
"Why then?"
The rift between the two of us wasn't a secret, and the small chitchat most siblings had, died the day I came back from Siberia. He wanted our father's position, but my father didn't trust him. He was never the one he called for important jobs, never the one included in all the action, and he decided to behave like a spoiled little brat and redirect all of his resentment toward me.
Well, the feeling was mutual.
"Theo?" I asked again after a couple of seconds, since he decided to keep quiet.
"I am driving back to Croyford Bay."Double shit. I didn't want him here tomorrow evening.
"Why?"
"I received a call from Ava."
Ava? She never called him. She hated his guts more than I did, and that was saying something, considering that the little snake on the other side of the phone knew where Maya was. He just never wanted to tell me.
"Why would she call you?" I sat down, not liking the tone of his voice.
"Are you forgetting I am her fiancé?"
"Only in theory, Theo. Both you and I are well aware of that. She never wanted to marry you, never wanted to be anywhere near you, so why the fuck would she call you? What's going on?"
"She seemed distressed. Said there was somebody in the house with her. She was scared, Ophelia."
Scared? But there were at least two bodyguards with her. Why would she be scared?
"That's bullshit. There are guards with her, nobody could get in."
"No? They kept only one guard tonight, the rest of them are with Cillian and Tristan on a job." He let out a long sigh, before continuing. "Listen, I didn't call you to argue with you. Can you go to the house and make sure she's okay?"
"Why, you don't want to lose your golden ticket?"
"Ophelia, for fuck’s sake, that's your friend."
“Yes, and if she was scared, she would’ve called me, not you. So why is that, Theo?”
“I don’t fucking know,” he barked. “I don’t know. But can you stop being a bitch for one minute and check on her? The traffic is a bitch, and I won’t be there for at least another hour.”
I would do anything for Ava, no questions asked, but something in the way he was talking smelled fishy as hell. He was too nice, too concerned. He never cared about her safety, never even cared to check in on her and see how she was coping with everything that was supposed to happen.
