Annabella's Oblivion (Hard World Tour #1) (33 page)

“
Yeah,” they both said at the same time, and while Jane tightened her jaw, Drake gave her an amused stare.

“
Care to elaborate?” Ariel raised her brows and folded her arms, probably asking the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.

It didn’t skip my attention that whatever the fuck Jane’s and Drake’s history was, it took the attention off the elephant in the room, so to speak.

“
There isn’t much to tell, really.” She said that too quickly, but her voice was harsh.

“
True,” Drake agreed, and took a sip of his drink. Then he looked at me and smiled, but there was no humor in it. “Nate, brother of mine, I would like for you to meet my wife.”

Fuck.

What just happened?

“
Nick, come on.”

“
No.”

“
Please.”

“
I said no.”

“
What’s bad about her having a little fun with us?” That was really a novelty for me. I mean, I knew my brother loved his girl like crazy, but I never expected him to disallow her from doing stuff, like going on a road trip with me.

“
It’s just a road trip. Girls’ weekend out.” He gave me a hard stare and I relented. “Okay, it is a big deal, but still. What’s bad about it?”

“
Because it’s in fucking Las Vegas.”

“
So?”

“
So I don’t want my future wife to go with you. The four of you go crazy and party hard. I don’t want my girl anywhere near all that.” Wait a minute here.

“
You worry about Megan, but you don’t worry about my safety? I’m hurt.” I put my hand on my chest and made a dramatic gesture, and he just rolled his eyes.

“
I don’t have to worry about you because you’re already crazy. I know you can handle it. She’s not used to this shit. For fuck’s sake, Bella, I don’t even go to clubs with her.”

Well, that was true, but maybe Megan needed to live a little and know what it was all about. She worked so hard with those homeless kids, and took care of Nicky for me, not to mention what her parents did for us all those years back.

I felt like I owed her one, but she kept refusing any kind of help. So when the opportunity for some free time in Vegas came up, I voted to have her with us. She was a sweetheart, and was loved by the gang, so I had no problem convincing them.

I knew Megan wanted to go too, but she was too shy to argue with Nick, especially when he put all that caveman persona into the action. Probably made her so hot she forgot anything else.

Gross, really, to think about my brother in that way. The shudder went through me and I decided to try another tactic.

“
You know how hard she works, and you know we’ll have bodyguards along with us at all times. Like Jeremy would let us go if it was otherwise.”

I loved the guy, I really did, and was grateful for what he’d done for us, but he was a control freak, and sometimes it was a little too much. I still had no idea how he agreed to this trip, but I knew Sam had something to do with it. She always managed to make him listen to her.

Another thing I didn’t want to think about. Jeez, there was a lot of stuff I needed to keep out of my head.

Crazy life.

“
I know you girls well. You would find a way to do something crazy right under their noses.” Okay, now he was starting to piss me off. I put my hands on his desk and made a frustrated noise.

“
Do you take bribes?” I was supposed to use it for desperate times, and it seemed to me like now was the time.

“
No, not when it comes to the woman I love.” If my brother was any other guy, I would have melted at his answer.

“
I have tickets for a football game, bench seats. VIP.” If there was one thing my brother loved more than his girls, it was football. He quit the professional side of it after his injury, but still loved the sport. He froze in his seat and leaned back. His eyes narrowed, and the face of an attorney was presented to me. I smiled smugly.

Now the game was on.

“
You’re bluffing.”

“
Nope. Got them. Was dating a quarterback, remember?” I decided it was safe to not mention the team or anything. And the word
dating
was a really big stretch, considering we had about three dates and two nights of sex. He wasn’t that great, so I saw no point in sticking around.

“
And you just happened to have two tickets?”

“
I never said I have two tickets. I have four. They’re all yours if you let her come with us for the whole weekend, and no phones calls.”

I knew he wanted to take me up on the offer, but his protective instinct over his girl wouldn’t let him agree to this.

“
Nicky, I promise. She won’t get in trouble. She wouldn’t be left alone, and she would only have a little bit of fun. I will protect what’s yours. You can trust me.” All games were off now and his eyes softened as he smiled.

“
Sneaky. Always know how to get to me. Okay, she can go.” I squealed, but he raised his hands. “I want all four tickets and a phone call every day from her to know you guys didn’t hook her up with some stripper.” I laughed and hugged him, because the idea that someone would ever want anyone else when they had Nick was laughable.

He was simply one of a kind.

Annabella

Well, I expected a lot of things from our “official meeting” after shit went down.

The animosity, the distance, and the hard stares. I mean, it hurt me to know they preferred to go shopping to avoid this awkward state we were in, but I could understand it; at least I tried.

I violated their trust, and their pain needed time to heal as well, even though inside I was slightly angry at them for turning their backs on me so quickly.

What I didn’t expect was a hug from Jane, and the fact she was married, least of all to my psychologist.

At fucking all.

“
Excuse me, but what?” Ariel asked first, her mouth gaping open. If the situation wasn’t so serious, I would have laughed. The expression didn’t really do any justice to her beauty.

“
What do you fucking mean wife?” Jeremy asked calmly, too calmly for my liking. Usually it was the calm before the storm.

“
Just as I said. We’re married. Actually, a couple of days ago was our anniversary. Two years, but who’s counting, right babe?” He gave her a mocking smile and, for the first time since I had known him, I saw emotions on his face. There was no mask of indifference now.

“
Vegas trip?” I finally spoke, and all eyes turned to me. Jane just nodded. I remembered we had so much fun there, but at some point she disappeared along the way and showed up the next day, looking all kind of weird. We asked her what was wrong, but she never answered, and quite honestly, I thought she had a thing for Jeremy, who was oblivious to her. Wasn’t he the guy she sang that song to?

“
How were you able to keep it a secret for so long?” Sam’s raspy words made me jump a little. I still wasn’t over her words in my head. Our eyes met for a brief second and I thought for a moment I saw regret, but it was quickly replaced with indifference.

Okaaay then.

“
We didn’t try much to make it public.” Drake sounded bitter, and I wondered what the real story was behind this. Maybe he had more reasons to help me than I initially thought.

“
There is nothing to make public. I asked for a divorce.” Jane was in the whole defense mode and I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. She was the one who went on and on about being responsible and shit, and here she was married to someone we didn’t know existed?

“
Which, if I remember correctly, I refused to give you without seeing me first and you were against that.”

“
Yeah, like—” Jane wasn’t able to finish because she was stopped by Jeremy’s roar, and we all jumped from it.

“
Are you fucking kidding me? First, we have to deal with all this shit with Bella. . . .” He pointed a finger at me and I felt Nate tense. I was sure he was ready to say something, but I stopped him with my hand on his thigh. There was no danger here for me. “Then you lose your shit and have a threesome scandal. . . .” Now he was pointing at Ariel, and she shifted guiltily. I felt my jaw drop. She sure loved sex, but I never knew she was into company. There was a slight pause after those words and she rolled her eyes and looked offended.

“
I didn’t have a threesome, but thanks for judging people.” She moved to the couch and sat down heavily on my other side. She turned her head to me and gave me a weak smile. “Hey, girl. Nice to see you.” She gave me a kiss on my cheek, and I squeezed her hand. She wasn’t exactly breezy about all this shit, but I knew her well enough that the time for questions would have to be postponed for later.

Jeremy just shook his head and continued, and now his attention was on Sam. “Then you go and insult Diego Rodrigues, who, may I remind you all, is the CEO of DiRod Corporation and they do not appreciate being insulted, and fuck if I know what problem you have with him.” Well, shit, now I felt Ariel tense beside me as she tried to act as if it was no biggie, but hell. Diego? I was sure, since Sam attacked him, it must be the same Diego that Ariel loved and he left her high and dry. Unaware that his words had brought havoc to our gang, Jeremy finally finished. “And now you, of all people, who I thought didn’t get involved in all this shit, are married? You got fucking married in Las Vegas two years ago and didn’t even bother to inform me?” Shit, but his voice wasn’t really pleasant when he was screaming.

Suddenly, Drake moved fast, standing in front of Jane and giving Jer a lethal look.

“
Don’t fucking raise your voice when you talk to her.”

“
Why? Because all of a sudden you think you’re her husband?”

“
I don’t think. I know. Back the fuck off.” They stood there for a moment and finally Jer backed off and heaved a frustrated sigh.

I just gaped at it all, because I never expected my calm psychologist to go all protective and possessive on someone’s ass.

“
I’m sorry for losing my shit like that, girls, but understand me, too. I have to deal with all this and the media, and I can’t help but feel like all of you have more secrets. Anything else I should know about? Secret babies? Husbands? Heck, maybe wives?”

His question was taken with silence. Well, I was glad there were no secret babies. That shit would have been hard.

“
It’s okay,” Sam said and moved closer to him, and shocked me out of my fucking mind when she put her hand on his arm and tried to smile. “We aren’t exactly the easiest group to deal with.” Was there affection in her usually cold blue eyes?