Rebelonging (Unbelonging, Book 2) by Sabrina Stark Page B

someday."
    "So what happened?" I said.
    "So she hooks up with this friend of mine.
And this so-called friend tells her everything she needs to know –
where I hang out, things I like, things that piss me off. And they
agree to this split."
    "Of the money?" I said.
    "No. He gets the money. She gets the
exposure."
    "Literally or figuratively?" I said.
    "You saw the footage. What do you think?"
    I shook my head. "I don't know," I said. "I
never watched it."
    His mouth tightened. "I saw the disk.
Remember?"
    I didn't need to ask which disk. Obviously,
he meant the one he'd seen lying on the Parkers' kitchen table. The
label on the case, handwritten in big, black letters, was a dead
giveaway – Rastor Sex Tape.
    I was still mad as hell about what he'd done,
but the story he'd just relayed was so sickening that my heart went
out to him.
    My voice was quiet. "Erika brought it over.
You know, for my birthday. She didn't know that you and I were
together. She thought it would be funny." I shrugged. "You know,
because we're neighbors."
    I blew out a breath. "But you and I were together. At least I thought we were."
    "We were," he said. "I still wanna be."
    He was making this so damn hard. His behavior
had been inexcusable, or so I thought. But then what does he do? He
gives me an excuse that, well, actually made a lot of sense. How
would I feel in his shoes?
    Oh crap. He'd asked me about the tape, hadn't
he?
    "Anyway," I said, "it just seemed wrong to
watch it. Plus, well, I guess I didn't really want to watch
you doing that with anyone else."
    At this, he smiled. A real smile. It seemed
like forever since I'd seen one.
    "Yeah?" he said.
    That smile, his voice, the things he said – I
was falling. Everything was happening too fast. I needed time to
think.
    "So with Brandy," I said, "you two ended up
having sex anyway, and she taped it?"
    His smile faded. "Not exactly. This one
night, outside the club, I was supposed to meet her there at
closing time. Get a coffee or something. So I pull up to the back
entrance, and she's already there." His voice hardened. "And she's
crying."
    "Why?" I asked.
    "Well at first, it was hard to get the story
out of her. But from what I did get, a couple of guys jumped her in
the parking lot. Tore at her uniform, and tried to–" He paused.
"Well, you know."
    "Oh my God," I said. "Did they ever find
them?"
    He gave a bark of laughter. "No. And you
wanna know why?"
    I nodded. "Why?"
    "Because they didn't exist."

Chapter 23
    I tried to digest what he'd just told me.
"What do you mean they didn't exist?" I said.
    "It was all a big show," he said. "The torn
clothes, the fake tears. By then, she knows me pretty good.
Especially with this friend of mine feeding her information. And
she knows I can get a little intense when people I love are
hurt–"
    I swallowed. "So you loved her?"
    He shrugged. "I dunno. Not like that. It's
not that she was unattractive—"
    "You already said that."
    "Alright, you want the truth?" he said. "I
didn't see her like that."
    "Why not?"
    "The truth? There was this other girl,
someone I'd met maybe a few months earlier, before everything
started to hit. And I couldn’t get this girl out of my head."
    Another one? God, how many girls were there?
I felt my jaw clench. "You're changing the subject," I said. "What
about Brandy?"
    Lawton hesitated a half second and then
continued. "So that night, after this so-called attack, she
wouldn't let me do a damn thing about it."
    "Like what? What'd you want to do?"
    "Find those guys, take care of it."
    "How?" I asked.
    He shrugged. "I had a few ideas."
    From the tone of his voice, I could only
imagine.
    "So what happened?" I said.
    "So we go back to her place, and I should've
known something was up. The place looked like—" He shook his head.
"Well, let's just say it looked like she was expecting
company."
    "Romantic company?"
    "Yeah. And she asks me to hold her, and
starts kissing on me, and one thing leads to another."
    I snorted. "Yeah. I