Fire And Ice

Chapter 28 - Wasted Apologies

Natalia's P. O. V

"Ah, uh... Ari... I..." Greg stammered uselessly.

I hung up and placed the phone on the table. Wordlessly, I picked our used plates up and carried them to the kitchen, washing them and everything else in the sink quickly before walking back upstairs to my room. As I got ready for bed, I heard Hailey retreat to her room and do the same.

Dressed in my pyjama shorts and tank top, I put some sweats on over them and stepped into my slippers.

'Why are you dressed like that?' Candy asked.

I sat at my vanity and redid my ponytail, 'Now you decide to talk. Oh well, I know you'll tell me what's really going on eventually. I'm dressed like this because I know the brothers are gonna come straight here to apologise.'

'But, I thought you wouldn't want to see them.'

'I don't, but I want to say my piece to their faces before I slam the door on them.'

As I stood, I heard the doorbell ring, 'I'm tired of staying silent.'

I left my room to see Hailey stepping out of her room. We both knew who it was – we could smell all three of them.

I descended the stairs at my leisure, making sure every step could be heard by them. I smiled to myself as I heard their heart rate gradually increase. By the time I reached the door, it sounded like the collective galloping of horses.

I picked the wooden coat rack from beside the door and broke off all the hanging hooks. For each one I broke off, I heard their pulses spike.

"You're toying with them." Hailey noted with a laugh from her crouched position atop the stairs.

I broke the last one off and grinned up at her, "Just a little."

I opened the door.

"Well?" I raised a brow at their deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression.

Keily was partially shielded by the guys, and rightly so. She avoided my gaze as the other two opened and closed their mouths like blubbering fish.

"Ari. I...we... um, uh..."

"Uh, Uhuh. You what?"

I could hear the erratic bump-dump of their three hearts, each to their own beat like a deteriorated marching band. They scrambled to explain and apologise in a way that wouldn't make me want to carry out every creative way of murdering a person on them. Unfortunately, there was no amount of sugar coating or careful wording that would make me any less mad.

They, regrettably, did not know this.

Trevor spoke up, "Ari, I'm sorry. I-I... Keily. She looked so worried. She sai- she said you'd taken Keily, a-and she showed us a typed ransom note. Hailey's phone was switched off. And yours was too. I got so worried and..."

"Tell me, Trev, did it occur to you that, perhaps, Keily was being her usual bitch ass self and lying? Did you think to visit me yourself? Or were you too disgusted by the sadist to go near her home?"

"We didn't think she'd do that... She's not bad enough to..." Greg murmured.

The crazed bitch had lied about me kidnapping her sister, and the ignoramus was defending her?!

My grip on the wooden stick tightened, "Well, clearly, she is bad enough to do that. In fact, she did. AND YOU'RE DEFENDING HER!"

Breathe. Reign in the emotions, they can't know how this affects you.