“Oh, boy.” Jude hooted. “Here we go. Captain White Knight has found another cause.” He waggled his eyebrows and sat forward. “Please. Fill us in. We’re all ears.”
As much as I loved his irreverence most nights, on this one he could very much fuck off. “This cause is a good one.”
“Aren’t they all?” Austin sat back, beer in hand. “Right until they aren’t anymore.”
Izzy patted my arm. “Come on, guys. Give his hero complex a break. He can’t help it.”
I didn’t need a break. I needed everyone to understand what happened to Evie so they could get on board and start solving this problem with me. That dickhead Stephens needed taken down, and Evie? She needed…lifted up? Put back together? I didn’t know what she needed but I was determined to find out and had no doubt our friends would rise to the occasion.
“Imagine this.” I scrubbed a hand over my mouth. “A talented woman works her butt off to create something amazing. Something that would absolutely change her life and launch her career when it got noticed.” Evie’s eyes widened in a warning, but I barreled forward. “Now imagine someone she trusts steals that thing and claims it’s his, then leaves her in the dust of the fame he creates off her blood, sweat, and tears.”
Austin made an appraising face. “Sounds like the plot to one of your books. If it’s not, it should be, ‘cause I’d read that.”
“You mean you’d wait for it to become a movie.” Jude smirked.
“I mean read it, asshat. Especially if the woman goes all psycho and gets epic revenge on that douchebag. Slowly. And with much deliberation.”
“It’s not fiction.” I ran a hand through my hair. “It’s what happened to Evie.” With the fire of injustice spurring me on, I spewed the entire story to my friends. They were properly indignant, right up until the moment Evie pushed her chair back from the table and covered her face with her hands.
My words trailed off.
When she looked up, her eyes swam with pain and betrayal. “I…” She closed her mouth and shook her head. “You know what? I think I’m gonna go.” She stood and marched for the door.
My friends stared at me, all the indignation they’d aimed at Jerkface Stephens now targeting me. Jude gestured toward the exit. “Go after her, asshole.”
The rest of the crew bobbed their heads in agreement.
With a sigh, I pushed back from the table and jogged out of the bar. When I stepped into the crisp evening air, I found Evie striding down the sidewalk, hands shoved in her coat pockets as she stared at her feet, the wind fluttering her hair around her face.
I caught up to her halfway down the block. “Evie…” I put a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off.
I reached for her again. “Evie. Listen. I’m sorry...”
She paused but wouldn’t look at me. “That was not your story to tell.” She spoke so quietly, the wind nearly stole her words.
“Maybe your story needs telling—”
Evie turned, slowly letting her gaze find mine. “But that’s not your choice, Alex. It’s mine. I’m incredibly private. Until tonight, two people knew what Drew did to me. Two.” She stared with watery eyes until the weight of the revelation smacked me in the side of the head.
“And I’m one of them.”
She glared at the sidewalk, shifting away from me. “I trusted you with that information and you just tossed it out there like it doesn’t mean anything.”
“But don’t you see? It doesn’t mean anything…”
Evie’s jaw dropped. She blinked in surprise before she whirled, her feet clicking a sharp staccato against the ground. I caught up to her and grabbed her wrist. “Hear me out, please. It doesn’t mean anything…about you. About who you are. It says a shit ton about what a creep that guy is, not you. That’s all I’m trying to say.”
Her gray eyes swam with unshed tears. “It says I’m naïve. I’m gullible. I’m an idiot who can’t tell real love from fake….”
“That’s not what I thought when you told me the story. I guarantee Izzy, Austin, and Jude weren’t thinking that, either. You were taken advantage of by a dickhead. An asshole who couldn’t cut it on his own. A failure of a human being, Evie. That’s what Drew Stephens is. I want to help you heal so we can take that imposter down. Darkness can’t survive in the light. You need to bring all of this out in the open to process it.”
Evie huffed a laugh. “You sound like Amelia.”
“Then Amelia must give good advice.” I took her hands. “I didn’t mean to share your secret without your permission. I honestly thought talking about it was the right choice, especially with those three. They’re ridiculous most of the time, but they’re also really smart. I mean, they do hang out with me, after all.”
Evie stayed silent, but at least she didn’t pull her hands from mine.
“I don’t want you to be very, very mad at me.” I leaned down, desperate to meet her eyes, hoping she caught the callback to the night I was drunk.
Her smile said she did. “I am very, very mad at you. I also forgive you. But Alex? This is the second time I’m forgiving you for doing something presumptive and selfish. I’m not comfortable sharing that much of myself with people, but if I do, it needs to be on my terms. Not yours. That kind of stuff…I’m better off if I hold onto it myself.”
“I’m genuinely sorry. It never occurred to me that you wouldn’t want our friends to know.” I cupped her face, caressing her cheeks with my thumbs. “But, and I’m just putting this out there, you don’t have to hold it all by yourself now. I’d be
