Reborn Deceit

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Damian

Damian stared out of the window in the dining room, holding the curtain to the side so he could get a good view, watching as Rose stood in the driveway, her eyes focused on Miras black car as it drove off their property with Carter in the passenger seat. When the car disappeared from sight, traveling towards the heart of town, her shoulders sagged. She didn't turn around, just stood there, staring off at where the BMW had just been. With her long brown hair flying around wildly in the night air, the light from the front porch shining on her like a stage spotlight, she looked breathtaking. The slumped shoulders and dipped head, however, made her look really, really sad. Letting the curtain go, it fell back into place, blocking Damians view of what was happening outside.

Damian ran a hand over his face, letting out a burst of air as he did so. He was pissed; no, pissed didn't even begin to cover it. He wanted to wrap his hands around Roses small shoulders and shake some sense into her. But, he knew this wasn't all her fault. He shouldn't have been so naïve enough to believe her when she called him. Looking back at it, it was damn obvious that she was playing him. But then, hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

When he got her call, he was sitting at the café that smelt like a horrible concoction of way too many spices and cheap perfume. He had a headache, and was so pissed off from watching Rose hug that damned guy that he had wanted to march over there and knock the SOBs teeth out. So when she had called, sounding all damsel-in-distress like, he fell for it. He was an idiot.

Rose was hurt, and Damian had been the one to hurt her. Why, then, would she call him and beg him to come and rescue her from a date with a guy who treated her a hundred times better than Damian ever could?

"The boy promised to keep his mouth shut. Do you think we can trust him?" Caius words shook Damian from his thoughts.

With another sigh, Damian turned around and strode over to the dining room table. Bracing his hands onto the back of one of the chairs, Damian leaned slightly forward, then met his brother-in-law's gaze.

"He's crazy about Rose. We made it pretty clear if he ran his mouth she'd get hurt. I don't think he'll risk it." Saying the words left a bad taste in Damians mouth.

"Are you that threatened by the kid?" Caius' words were level, but the slight uptick of the left side of his mouth was all the proof needed for Damian to realize that he was being laughed at. Damian gave him a hard look in return.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He meant for the words to be filled with so much menace that Caius would back down and leave him the hell alone. Instead, to Damians complete aggravation, he ended up sounding guilty.

Caius' hands came up in a defensive manner, but that stupid smirk he wore had grown bigger, and Damian knew he was really laughing at him now.

"Don't bite my head off just because you're pissed that someone else is making a move on your girl."

Despite his defensive hand gesture, Caius' words only worked to piss Damian off more, not because they were accusing Damian off something that was inaccurate, but because they were accusing him of something that Damian knew was the truth. But, he refused to admit that he currently felt like a twelve-year-old who had just watched another kid on the playground ask out the girl he had been eyeing from his spot on the jungle gym. Because, really, he was that kid.

He knew Carter had feelings for Rose. The damn guy practically wore them around like a mask, all but holding a sign that flashed and screamed "I love you!" But hearing him say it out loud, hearing him admit that he loved Rose, made Damians blood boil. He knew Rose would never do anything about it though. No matter how she felt for the guy—and Damian was ninety-nine point nine percent positive Carter was not her type at all—he knew Rose was a smart girl, and that she would make the right decision and not act upon any feelings, especially now that she saw firsthand what would happen if she dragged Carter into the life of Guardians.