Chapter 86 Chapter Eighty-six

Chapter 86 Chapter Eighty-six
Bella

It was Saturday, and Gray still wasn’t back. The house felt colder without him. Emptier. Like the walls themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the storm to return. 

I was so distracted by his absence that I barely registered what I was doing in the kitchen. 

By the time I snapped out of it, I had already emptied the entire jar of chili into the pot.

Super spicy dinner it was, then.

I stared at the bubbling red mixture, feeling just as chaotic inside.

“Hey, you’re taking too long with dinner,” my mother’s impatient voice startled the heck out of me. “Chris is losing his appetite.”

She snatched the spoon from my hand and nudged me aside with her hip, taking over like I was some incompetent child. I stepped back, watching her stir the pot with precise, irritated movements.

“That damn boy is finally out of my hair,” she muttered, almost to herself. She sounded rather proud. “Even if it’s only for a little while. I wonder if I could pull some strings and have them keep him locked up for at least a week.”

My stomach twisted painfully. I stepped closer to her without realizing it.

“You can’t do that,” I wasn't just informing her, I was reminding her she was powerless where Gray was concerned. “He’s done absolutely nothing to you. You just naturally hate him, which is such a shame because Gray loves—” I caught myself, swallowing the rest of the sentence before it could damn me completely.

My mother turned slowly to face me. For the first time in days, I actually looked at her. She looked… different. Younger. Prettier. The fine lines on her forehead had smoothed out, and her skin glowed in a way that seemed almost unnatural. 

She looked like a woman who had never frowned once in her life.

Who was this person standing in front of me?

“Gray loves who?” she asked, her voice dripping with mockery. “You? Please. Don’t be naive, Bella.”

I felt my temper rising. “You made Chris believe his own son killed Professor Kelvin. Telling him you have a ‘friend who’s a cop’ that said Gray will likely serve jail time? That was such a pathetic lie. They only took him in for questioning, and you know Chris would’ve been informed if Gray was actually charged.”

My mother’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. 

She stepped closer so we were nearly standing chest to chest.

“Foolish girl. Let me warn you right now, you will keep your mouth shut and only speak when spoken to.”

“No,” I shot back, startled by the calm firmness in my voice. “I’m not a stray dog you can train. I’ll speak when I feel like it. Honestly? I’d rather none of you spoke to me at all. I’ll be upstairs. Chris isn’t the only one who’s lost his appetite.”

I wasted no time marching out of the kitchen and heading straight for the stairs.

“No dinner for you,” my mother called after me. She sounded so petty I forgot to feel hurt.

And, oh, I wasn’t even looking forward to dinner in the first place.

There were so many secrets rotting away in this house, and it was almost tragic that Chris had no idea who he was about to marry in the next two weeks.

Two weeks. In two weeks, Gray would legally become my stepbrother. The thought made my stomach twist as I stood under the hot spray of the shower, scrubbing the scent of soup from my skin. 

I’d already washed my hair and wrapped it in a towel, so the second I stepped out, I skipped my skincare routine entirely and crawled straight into bed, exhausted down to my bones.

Sleep came fast, but it didn’t last. At first, I thought I was dreaming, the faint sound of movement in my room, the shift of shadows behind my eyelids, the stubborn feeling that I was being watched. 

But then my eyes flew open and I sat up abruptly, my heart racing as I scanned the darkness.

There was nothing. Still, the uneasy feeling wouldn’t leave me. I slipped out of bed and padded over to the windows. 

Shit. Had I left them open before going to sleep? I couldn’t remember. There were too many things I hadn’t done properly tonight.

“Didn’t know you were a light sleeper.”

The deep, familiar voice came from the direction of the bathroom.

I spun around so fast I nearly lost my balance. My heart slammed against my ribs.

Gray. He stepped out of the shadows, and the sight of him stole the air from my lungs. He looked… rough. Dangerous. Beautiful in that devastating way only he could manage.

“What are you… How—” I stammered, my voice hoarse from sleep. “It’s not nice to break into people’s rooms. What if I'm one of those people who sleep naked?”

A slow, dark smirk tugged at his lips. “I’ve seen you naked.”

I gulped, instinctively reaching behind me for the windowsill.

“You’re back,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say.

Gray took a slow step forward, his eyes never leaving mine. “You didn’t want me to come back?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I—”

He stepped fully into the moonlight filtering through the window, and I gasped.

His arms were covered in fresh cuts and bruises. Dark marks bloomed across his skin like violent flowers, like a cruel tattoo artist had decided his skin would make a perfect canvas.

One particularly nasty gash ran along his forearm.

“What happened to you?” I breathed, frozen in place. Fear and concern twisted together in my chest. The real reason for my fear, I didn't even know.

“They released me in the evening,” he said quietly, “and then sent some boys after me to teach me a lesson.”

I forgot my fear and took a step forward.

“What the hell? Those fucking cops! I’m so sorry—”

“No need,” he cut in roughly. “I beat them black and blue.”

Those cuts and bruises looked like they hurt like hell. No one would believe him if he said the cops did it. No one.

“We need to treat those bruises. Disinfect them so you don’t get an infection—”

Gray crossed the distance between us and before I could finish my sentence, he was right in front of me, chest to stomach, towering over me, looking down with an intensity that made my knees weak.

He reached down and toyed with the thin strap of my nightie, his fingers brushing my skin.

“Throughout the questioning… during the beating… you were the only thing I could think about,” he confessed. “The only reason I endured it all. I just wanted to come back to you. To touch you… like this.”

His fingers traced lower, slipping beneath the neckline of my nightie, grazing the swell of my breast.

The air between us crackled with heat and unspoken pain.

“Gray…” I whispered, torn between pushing him away and pulling him closer. I woke up alert and ready to defend myself. All the alertness had melted away at the sound of his voice.

He leaned down, his lips hovering just above mine, his eyes dark with everything he wasn’t saying.

“Tell me to leave, Bella,” he challenged softly. “Tell me you don’t want me here right now.”

I said nothing, breathing in rushed gasps and hoping he'd put us both out of our misery.

His fingers toyed with my breasts until they found my nipple and pinched.

“Oh.” The moan I let out was an embarrassed one.

“Tell me to leave, Bella. I'm about to be a big bad wolf.”

“Eat. Me. Whole.” I urged him, looking into his eyes.

Just as he bent to kiss me, we heard a loud thud on the floor outside. We both peered over the window, just in time to see Jeffrey tiptoeing in the dark with his pants loose around the waist.

“She's fucking his younger brother right under his nose.” Gray growled behind me.

I shivered. What would Chris do when he found out?

“Will you tell him?” I turned my head to ask Gray who was now turning to leave. 

“I don't know.” He said flatly before unlocking my door and disappearing behind it.

Fuck. Gray was gonna tell his father.