Jaden (Jaded #3)(25)

Another floor. Another memory. A reporter stuck her microphone in my face and asked, with a polite f*ck you smile as she was hoping for blood from me, “Is this because Guadalupe arrived at LAX two hours ago? I heard rumors that she's going to attend Bryce's first Suns game. Does that concern you at all? Is that why you left Spain, because of her?”

My jaw was clenched firmly now, and I circled to head up the next set of stairs.

With that, another image came back to me. I opened the door to the Public Relations room, hoping to surprise Bryce, and instead, I’d been the one surprised. He was holding her in his arms. His. Mother. Fucking. Arms.

The fourth floor. A fourth memory. “He's close to Guadalupe. I know you don't want to hear that, but they're close. They're friends, Sheldon. I know Bryce would be upset if she were upset.” My hand gripped the rail harder, hearing Bryce’s agent’s warning.

I wasn’t supposed to upset her. Her. Upset. He had been warning me away.

That f*cker.

I rounded for the fifth floor. I remembered when I found her at the hotel and had booked myself a room. I followed her down to the lobby, only to hear her praises by the front desk staff. He’d been so eager to gush. “She's beautiful, isn't she? I have a friend of a friend to her makeup girl. They're going to have dinner with Bryce Scout right now. Have you heard of him? He's a big soccer star. They both just moved here. She came for a movie, and he followed her here. She could do so much better.”

Oh yes. I had a good steady boil going as I trekked the sixth set of stairs.

Images of Bryce and her on television. He’d gone to a movie premiere with her. He wore a tuxedo, and she had been beaming on his arm. She had been his date, when I was in the same city. He could’ve asked me, but he didn’t.

He had taken her.

Then at the hospital. I sucked in a breath. The fury raised another notch.

That had been my time, my territory. Corrigan had been in a car accident. Bryce was there with me. It was our family time, not hers. She had come, trying to take him away from me. Like always. I remembered the look in her eyes when I told her to leave. She had sucked in her breath and she had wanted to fight me. I could tell. I always recognized that look in others, then that assistant. She had come forward, casting her disapproval over Bryce and me.

He told them to go. I’d felt so much relief, but then that assistant snapped at him, making sure he would call them later.

Like he needed to check in with her, make sure she was okay. Like she was his girlfriend. He caved, saying he would.

The betrayal had been solidified in me with that one.

They left, but he might as well have gone with them. Now, remembering all of it, that had been the time when he could’ve cemented the separation. He said he ended things later, once his little brother’s trust fund was safe and his mother couldn’t hurt Luca. I remembered the whole explanation. Guadalupe had been a mistake, but he tried to end things right after she had teamed up with his mother, the same mother who hated me with a passion. Holding Luca’s trust fund hostage, Bryce’s mother forced Bryce into a relationship with Guadalupe.

He went along with it, working to find a way where his mother couldn’t hurt his little brother. Somehow he worked everything out. Luca’s inheritance wasn’t held hostage by their mom anymore and that meant Guadalupe had no leverage. He ended things with Guadalupe, but the damage was done. Now, remembering all of it again, hearing his excuses, envisioning her smug look of triumph, how that assistant acted like Guadalupe should’ve been reassured, not me, not Corrigan, not the ones who had really been hurt.

All of it was coming at me in waves as I covered the last three floors. By the time I reached for the door handle for the tenth floor, the flames had formed a nice fiery rage in me.

I almost felt sorry for them.

Rolling my shoulders back, I went to room 1014 and knocked. There was a slight pause, then it swept open and Bryce stood on the other side.

His eyes narrowed, seeing the mask on my face, and he nodded. He knew. He understood what was going to go down, and with that movement, I knew he would stand by my side. No wishy-washy bullshit this time.

“Bryce?”

I heard her voice from farther inside the room. Bryce and I were standing in a small hallway. He said to me, “You ready? It’s just the two of them.”

I nodded and started for where the bedroom was.

He was right behind me.

As we passed the bathroom, the door opened and a different voice asked, this one sharper, “What the hell is going on?”

It was her assistant. What was her name? I stopped and turned my icy stare on her instead. She was the one rumored to have cut the brakes. I couldn’t remember her name.

I sneered at her, looking her up and down. “I can see how you were able to slip under the car.”

For a moment, I saw the guilt there. It appeared for a split second, then it was replaced with her own icy look back at me. She asked, with gritted teeth, “What are you talking about?”

I stepped toward her. Her straight, black hair had been pulled into a tight bun at the base of her neck and head. She was thinner and shorter than I was. Funny. I didn’t remember her being this tiny. Then I continued sneering at her. It was probably because her crazy overcompensated for her height.

“You’re nice and tiny. You must’ve fit under my car just fine, you know, when you cut my brakes.”