Shattered: A Dark Romance by Natalia Lourose

Author:Natalia Lourose [Lourose, Natalia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-30T05:00:00+00:00

I spend the next few days ignoring Noah, using space as a defense mechanism. I’m trying to hide in my room like a coward, attempting to read a book. I can’t focus though, my mind keeps going back to that afternoon with him, to my hands bound behind my back.

His story, the things he said to me, all of his words keep replaying in my mind.

He wasn’t wrong, I never thought about what he was going through, what it was like for him. In my mind, Noah is indestructible. I guess I always imagined him not flinching during the whole arrest, probably chuckling while they slapped the handcuffs on him and stuffed him into the back of a police cruiser.

Was he scared? Nervous? Did the arrest finally break the indestructible Noah Bancroft?

Auden infiltrates my dreams. Images of her looking sad, running from something, or to something, play on repeat. I can see the black drips of her mascara as tears run down her cheeks. I can place the dream, not sure if it’s a memory or my subconscious haunting me.

Noah keeps himself locked in his office. He’s still working for his father during this whole ordeal, in between meetings with his lawyer and pre-trial activities. Something only the rich can manage, being on trial and still running a Fortune 500 company.

He must be done now though because I can hear music coming from downstairs and voices floating through the hall. Soft conversations drawing my attention, telling me the boys must be downstairs.

I pad softly over to the door to listen closer.

“Mikaela,” I hear Beckett call, laughter following after.

“She won’t come down.” I hear next, this time from Pax.

“Mik!” Beckett calls again.

Beckett probably has weed, and I tell myself that’s the only reason I’m going down there. I could use an escape, a reprieve from today. It sucked, so I deserve this, right? I open the door, eliciting a soft creak and step out into the hallway. I’m wearing a pair of soft pink shorts and an oversized white sweatshirt with my hair twisted into a messy bun on my head. I haven’t dressed up since the deposition hearing, opting for comfy clothes instead.

“Yes!” Beckett laughs when he sees me at the top of the stairs and immediately he extends a hand toward Pax.

His friend growls as he pulls cash from his back pocket and slaps it in Beckett’s hand. “Fuck.” He slumps back on the couch, crossing his arms and tossing me a glare.

“Ignore them.” Noah says when I falter on the steps. “Come here, baby girl.”

I hate the way my core clenches at the sound of his voice, my body betrays me by responding to him so eagerly. I continue my descent, eyes locked on Pax and Beckett. “Were you two betting on me?”

Beckett chuckles, “Pax didn’t think I could get you to come downstairs.”

The boys are spread out in the living room, Pax and Beckett on the long couch, Vaughn in the chair, and Noah on the loveseat. Each holding a sweating tumbler of hard liquor over ice.

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