The Bet: A Bully Romance(65)

“That piece of fucking shit.” I might have been on the rocks with Layla, but fuck I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. She was just trying to protect herself, like I was just trying to protect Jules by not saying shit. Detective Garcia’s face hardens as he opens his mouth to speak again.

“Do you know where Cole is? We’ve looked everywhere that we’re told he frequents, but no one has seen him, not since the recording was released.”

“Trust me, if I had a single clue where he was, I would be there in a heartbeat to smash in his face.”

Garcia gave me a small smile. “As a father of two girls, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but as a detective, I advise you against doing that. Let the law do its job. If you can think of anything that could help us find him, please call us right away before doing something on your own.”

If I find him first, then he’ll be praying that the police get there before I’m finished with him. Against the law or not, there isn’t anyone that’s going to stop me from smashing that fucker’s face in. For Jules, for Layla, he will pay for preying on innocent women.

“I can’t promise you that I won’t do anything, Detective, and I’m sure you understand why. As for more information on him, you are more than welcome to check out his old room and ask any of my other roommates if they know about his whereabouts. As far as I know, none of them have heard or seen him.”

“Let’s start with his bedroom, and I’ll see about contacting your roommates.” He gives me a look of relief as if he didn’t expect me to help him in any way, but that’s not me. I’m angry for being wrongfully accused, but I’m angrier that, that sick son of a bitch is out there somewhere doing God knows what.

Getting up, I show him to Cole’s old room, most all of Cole’s stuff is still inside it. Garcia spends close to twenty minutes going through the room before he walks out of the bedroom shaking his head.

He leaves shortly after that, handing me his card, all while leaving me to wallow in my own sorrows once more. I want to thank Jules for talking about what happened, but it seems like such a stupid thing to do. It’s not like she did it to save my ass. All she did is to tell the truth…a truth that probably hurt like hell to tell.

Fuck, she’s so strong, so perfect.

I’m seconds away from going back upstairs and into my room to take a shower and head to bed when a loud knock resonates through the room. Who the hell could that be? I walk back over to the door, pulling it open, half expecting it to be Garcia again, maybe with some more questions, but instead, I find Seb standing there, his hands shoved into his pockets.

“Hey,” he murmurs.

“Hey.” He doesn’t wait for me to invite him in. He just brushes past me, strolling into the living room like he owns the damn place. I close the door behind us and follow him like a lost puppy. When he shoves down onto one of the couches, I do the same.

“I’m sorry I didn't believe you. It’s not like I didn't want to believe you, but the evidence against you was pretty staggering, and without Jules talking, it just made everything that much more difficult to figure out.”

I understand...and I don’t blame him at all. He’s my brother, and at the end of the day, nothing could ever change that.

“I’m not mad at you. I gave you plenty of reasons to doubt me and honestly, in some way I was glad you didn't believe me. I fucked up big time when it came to Jules. I let her down, let my emotions rule my actions.” I pause briefly, wanting to ask if she is okay, how she is feeling, but I don’t.

“I’m just glad she was able to tell them what happened, and that no one else had to do it for her. That was her story to tell and no one else’s.”

Sebastian grins. “She still loves you. Even through all the stupid bullshit that you did, through the mistakes you made, that girl still fucking loves you.” He shakes his head in disbelief, and my pulse quickens at the thought of her being mine again.

“Is she...is she okay?”

“She’s doing okay, smiling and talking, which is much better than how she was before.” That makes me smile, knowing she’s getting back to being her old self. One month. One whole fucking month I’ve gone without her. In the big scheme of things, it’s not long, not when I went three years without her, but it was long enough, after just having got her back.

“I want to go to her, to talk to her, to apologize, to fucking plead, and beg,” I admit.

“I would wait, at least until tomorrow. Give her tonight to breathe, to think about everything that happened today.”

I nod, agreeing. As much as I don’t want to wait, I know Sebastian is right.

“Now we just need to find Cole, make him pay for what he did.”

Seb nods, a darkness flickering in his eyes. “I want him to pay as much as you do. For hurting her, for putting the blame on you. I mean that recording was a dick move, but Cole coming after Jules, trying to…” His jaw flexes, and I know he doesn’t want to say it. Neither of us do, neither of us wants to think about what he almost did.

“He will pay, Sebastian. I might go to prison, but he will pay.”

“Don’t do something that’s going to get you put behind bars. You have Jules, if something happens to you, then who does she have?”

I grin. “You know she said the same thing to me before.”