As I put the first load of jeans in, my fingers brushed over a pair of soft panties and everything inside of me went white-hot and my body hardened. Muttering a curse under my breath, I tried to ignore the hard-on that was making it uncomfortable to walk—just from touching Annabelle’s fucking underwear, and helped to finish packing up her clothes.

Devlin produced a few boxes and he started tossing in the few things on top of her dresser and nightstand before taking the pictures off the walls. It took less than twenty minutes to pack up the room with the three of us working together while Wroth stood guard at the door. I grabbed the suitcase and the duffel bag while Wroth and Devlin each took a box and Chelsea had the small overnight bag she’d used to pack up the things Annabelle needed from the bathroom.

As we walked through the house, we found Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm sitting on the couch with a full cup of her fruit punch and vodka mixture, watching a rerun of a sitcom. She didn’t lift her eyes from the television as we left. We loaded everything into the back of my truck and headed to Noah’s apartment.

It took less than five minutes to get to the garage. Wroth pulled up behind me and he helped Chelsea and Devlin unload my truck. I just sat behind the wheel for several long minutes. I needed to man up and go up to the apartment and face Annabelle, let her have her pound of flesh for going behind her back the way I had.

Knuckles knocking on my window forced me to lift my head to find Devlin standing beside my door. He had Annabelle’s suitcase in one hand and her duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He didn’t say a word, but the look in his eyes said he had my back. Scrubbing a hand over my face, I stepped out of the truck and took the suitcase from him as he led the way up the back steps to the apartment that took up the top floor of the garage.

Wroth had left the door open for us and I swallowed hard before entering the apartment behind Devlin. The sound of the television greeted us and I quickly glanced around, searching for Annabelle. Noah was in the kitchen, pulling out slices of pizza from one of several boxes and loading it onto a plastic plate. Wroth was already sitting on the couch, but there was no sign of Chelsea or Annabelle.

Devlin dropped the duffel bag on the floor beside the old recliner. “Got any beer?”

“Yeah, there’re a few left over from Wroth’s last visit.” Noah grabbed a paper towel and folded it in half before picking up the paper plate. “Thanks for getting Annabelle’s things, guys. There’s plenty of pizza, so make yourselves at home. I’m gonna take this in to Annabelle. She’s not up for company right now. We can watch a movie or something.”

I dropped the suitcase beside the duffel bag and held out my hand for the paper plate. No way was I just going to sit out there when the only person I wanted to be around right then was in another room. “I’ll do that.”

Noah lifted a brow at me but didn’t say a word as he relinquished Annabelle’s plate of pizza. Clenching my jaw, I moved across the living room to the bedroom door and knocked twice before opening it. Annabelle was lying on the bed with her back to the door. The TV that sat on top of an old dresser was tuned to some old sitcom that I knew she liked, but from the way her head was pressed into the pillow I knew she wasn’t watching it. Chelsea was in the connecting bathroom, putting away Annabelle’s things but stuck her head out when I entered the bedroom. Like Noah, she lifted her brows when she saw me standing there but didn’t say a word as she pressed her lips together and left the room.

I waited until the door was closed behind her before stepping farther into the bedroom. As I stepped closer, I could hear her sniffling, and my stomach twisted.

She was crying. Fuck. Her tears were like daggers slicing through my chest.

Her back was still turned to me when I sat down on the edge of the bed and placed the paper plate on the nightstand. Her shoulders tensed and I knew she knew it was me and not her brother, but she didn’t lift her head to look at me as I kicked off my shoes and lay down behind her. A small sob left her when I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her back against my chest.

“I’m sorry, Anna.” Another small sob that left me feeling like I was being shot with a fucking machine gun escaped her and I tucked her closer. “Don’t hate me, baby. Please don’t hate me. I had to tell him. If anything happened to you I would lose what little was left of my fucked-up mind.” I pressed a kiss into the hair at her temple.

She moved so quickly I didn’t have time to react. One minute I was facing her back, the next I was assaulted by the bluest eyes in the world. Tears were pouring down her beautiful face, but she wasn’t glaring at me. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders and she buried her face in my chest.

“I c-couldn’t hate you, Z. Not ever,” she whispered brokenly.

Some of the tightness around my heart eased at her confession that she didn’t hate me and I stroked my hands down her back. “Don’t cry, Anna. Please, don’t cry.”

“I want to be m-mad at you, but I c-can’t.” She rubbed her face against my shirt. “I was so hurt that you broke your promise, but I understand. Really, I do. You’re tired of having to take care of me so much, and I’m sorry you’ve had to. If I’d known it would be so simple to just tell Noah and let him take care of everything, I would have told him months ago and you wouldn’t have had to deal with my crap.” She lifted her head, pushed away from me and finally sat up. A small, sad smile lifted the corners of her lips. “You can go back to doing whatever it is you do, Z. I promise not to bother you again.”

If her tears had been like knives and bullets, her words were like fucking grenades, eviscerating my heart with each syllable that left her perfect mouth. So that was what she thought? That I’d broken my promise to her by telling Noah because I was tired of taking care of her? Was she out of her fucking mind?

“Anna, that isn’t why I told him,” I began, but she shook her head, offering me yet another sad smile as another tear spilled from those baby blues.

“It’s okay, Z. Really.” She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood, leaving me lying there, unable to find the words to tell her she was wrong. “I need a shower. Thanks for helping the others bring my things. I swear it’s the last time you’ll ever have to do anything for me.”

“Anna…”

She opened the bathroom door and glanced back at me over her shoulder. “I owe you so much, Z. I’ll never forget that. Maybe one day I can repay you for all the help you gave me.” She gave me another sad smile that made my stomach roll with nausea, and then she was stepping into the bathroom, leaving me alone.

All day I’d been stressing over how to deal with Annabelle’s anger, her possible hate of me for breaking my promise. Never once had I thought she would think I’d done it to get away from her. This… I didn’t know how to deal with this. She was beyond hurt. It was almost as if I had broken her heart.

And that just wasn’t acceptable to my fucked-up mind.

Annabelle

I waited for several long minutes until I heard the bedroom door close behind him. Then and only then did I let go of the tears I’d been desperate to hide from him. I’d been helpless to keep some of them at bay, but I’d be damned if I’d let him see me completely break down. That would be the ultimate humiliation.

I heard the soft click of the bedroom door finally closing and rushed to turn on the shower to drown out my broken sobs. I dropped down beside the tub and pressed my forehead against the cool tiles as the scalding tears flooded out of me.

I only had myself to blame. I’d pretended that Zander had let me climb through his bedroom window because he secretly loved me as much as I loved him. The night before had only driven that hope home for me. The way he’d treated me all evening and then held on to me so tightly as I’d fallen asleep… All of that hope had crumbled into a pile of ashes that morning when I’d realized that he was probably only trying to let me down easy.