Chapter 56: My Dark Prince: Chapter 55

“Damn tailgaters, always up to no good.”

The Uber driver stroked his thick mustache, curling his fingers tighter around the steering wheel. At his words, I craned my neck and peered through the back window. A sporty Fiat surged dangerously close to us, almost kissing our bumper. The driver flashed his headlights, signaling us to stop at the curb.

Nothing but heavy woods and pitch darkness surrounded us. The windy road snaked toward the city, completely empty except our Prius and the Fiat. Pine trees sprouted from either side. If he rammed into our car, no one would save us.

I pulled out my phone, unlocking the screen. “Should I call the cops?”

“What the heck is his problem? He’ll get us all killed.” My elderly driver sped up, both hands tight on the wheel. “Yeah. Call the cops, sweetheart.”

“Wait.” My heart stuttered. “Can you see his face?”

You’re such a masochist, Briar.

I didn’t recognize the Fiat. But on the off chance it was Oliver, I couldn’t bring myself to report him. In fact, the possibility of him chasing after me pleased me.

I seriously needed to get back in touch with my therapist.

“Not really.” The Uber driver squinted at his rearview mirror. “Can’t make much out of his face. He’s wearing a black mask and a baseball cap. His hair is long, though.” He shimmied his mouth from side to side. “Fair hair. Curly, maybe.

Handsome fella. Young-ish. Riffraff, probably. They vacation here from time to time.”

No way.

No freaking way.

“Pull over,” I ordered, my heart cartwheeling in my chest.

“What?” His lips collapsed into a scowl. “Why?”

“Please. Just do it.”

He released a short sigh, rubbing his mouth. “Fine. But I’m counting it as an additional stop. You’re going to have to change it on the app.”

“Okay.”

“And you better five-star me, lady.”

He signaled to the right and pulled up to the shoulder. The Fiat followed suit, parking behind us. I got out of the backseat and slammed the door, rounding the trunk toward the other car. The driver got out, and all the air in my lungs rushed out.

Sebastian.

He left his wing.

He left the house.

“You’ve got some nerve. You know that?” He balled his fists, shoving them into his jacket pockets. “Up and leaving without saying goodbye like that.”

Seb trudged back and forth, refusing to look me in the eye. His entire body quivered, and I knew it wasn’t from the cold.

Oh, Seb.

He reminded me so much of the kid that used to follow me and Oliver around as we played pretend pirates on the jungle gym and raced each other down slides. Before he became the star student athlete, he was the only baby brother I’d ever known.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, meaning it. I hugged myself, feeling the urge to hug him, but he would recoil if I did. “I meant to say goodbye. It was all very sudden …”

“You didn’t.” He raised his hand to adjust the ball cap on his head. No one could see what he looked like. Not that anyone had passed this road in the past five minutes. “How long have you planned this for? How long have you had your memory back?”

“I remembered after I returned from Baylor,” I admitted. “On the lake. It just slammed back into me, and all of a sudden, those scraps of memories I couldn’t make sense of made all the sense in the world.”

He tipped his head back, sighing as he did the math. He and I had worked on a puzzle after I interrupted Oliver’s shower yesterday. I couldn’t go to sleep without checking in on Seb. We’d finished the remaining pieces, drank some beer, and reminisced about our childhood.

Never once had I mentioned getting back my memory.

I didn’t want anything to jeopardize the great surprise I had for Ollie. Not that I thought Seb would rat me out.

It all seemed so childish now. I’d been so caught up with getting back at Oliver, I forgot that Sebastian might get hurt along the way, too.

Seb’s shoulders slumped. “So, you’ve decided to leave?”

I lowered my head, clenching the hem of my jacket in my fist. “I have my own life in LA.”

My driver’s gaze burned a hole in my back.

“Oliver said your next project is not until the summer. You’re still recovering.”

Guilt impaled my chest. He’d gotten attached, and I’d carelessly moved on without so much as a farewell. I knew better than anyone what it felt like to hold on to a memory someone else had already forgotten. The indifference stung as much as the goodbye.

I bit my lower lip until warm blood exploded on my tongue.

“I’m so sorry. There’s no excuse.” I hopped from foot to foot, struggling to find words. “I was selfish and vindictive. I … I didn’t think.”

“You didn’t even achieve shit, you know.” Seb kicked one of his front tires, his hands still shoved deep inside his pockets. “After everything Ollie did to you, these petty parlor tricks aren’t big enough revenge. Your payback’s not done.”

“Hey, lady.” The driver stuck his whole torso out his window. “Are you coming or what? I’m freezing my ass off here.”

I smiled a miserable smile, ignoring him. “The best revenge is to heal, and I think I’m getting there. Breaking him won’t help me fix myself.”

Seb gritted his teeth. “You need the closure.”

His anger surged to life. It looped around us, thick and palpable. Desperate. He’d finally found someone else to speak to other than Oliver, and he didn’t want me gone. Even if it meant tossing his brother under the bus.

I doubted it had anything to do with me or our past friendship. He must’ve been sick of having his guilt-ridden brother as his only companion.

“You have an opportunity to change him.” Seb paused. “To change me.”

I felt myself swaying. Literally. Tilting toward him, hoping he’d take the choice out of my hands and make the decision for me. Maybe even snatch me up and dump me on Ollie’s doorsteps.

The von Bismarck brothers didn’t even a share one whole heart between them. Somewhere in the past twelve years, they’d shattered theirs. I would’ve happily picked up the pieces, but I couldn’t overlook the fact that Oliver cheated on me.

I wasn’t stupid. The timeline of Ollie ghosting me matched with Seb’s accident. But the cheating? It happened before. He’d even left a public comment on her Instagram the morning he took my virginity, inviting her to strip for him on FaceTime.

“Ma’am.” The driver tore open his door and stomped behind me, rapping the roof of his car. “You’re burning my time. I’ve got kids to feed.”

Sebastian clutched the back of his neck, tilting his head down so I couldn’t even see his mask. “I’ve been alone for so long, I don’t remember what it feels like to look forward to anything. In the few days you were here, you made me feel … well, normal. I’ve missed normal.”

“Ma’am.” The driver slipped back into his seat, hammering his horn a few times to get my attention. “Are you coming or what?”

“Your brother wouldn’t want me there,” I said to Sebastian, already considering the absurd idea.

It would just be for a few months. Until I moved on to my next job. It made sense. I didn’t even have an apartment or car to return to. My student loans needed paying off, along with some of the debts my parents had saddled me with. I could save up by squatting at Oliver’s. Look for something nice. Maybe chill for a few weeks.

I’d worked my ass off since I’d turned eighteen. No vacations. Not even paid leave. Even between projects, I gave back-to-back private lessons to aspiring actors who struggled with on-screen intimacy. My friends called me the Thong Whisperer.

In the words of Eliza and Angelica Hamilton, maybe it was time to take a break.

“That would make it so much sweeter.” Sebastian already had his keys in his hands, swinging them by the loop around his finger. He knew I would agree to stay. “You’ll drive him nuts, but he won’t have the guts to get rid of you.”

“Where will I sleep?” I rubbed my forehead, stunned that I actually wanted to go back.

Why not, though? It was free room and board, and I got to help a childhood friend. Pissing off Oliver wasn’t the main goal, but I considered it a welcome bonus.

Sebastian opened his arms. “Any of the seventeen guestrooms available.”

I held a finger up. “Well, okay, but I do have some ground rules.”

The driver lost his patience. He rounded the car, opened the trunk, and tossed my suitcases out with an angry huff. I couldn’t blame him. I planned on leaving a fat tip on the app.

Seb wiggled his keys to get my attention. “Lay it on me.”

“I want us to have one meal together every day. You need to get used to being with people all the time.”

Seb recoiled, gagging. “Don’t be clingy.”

“No promises.” I held up a second finger. “Rule number two, I want you to occasionally get out of the wing during the daytime.”

“Hard no.”

“It doesn’t have to be out of the house,” I clarified, knowing this was a one-off. That Sebastian had no interest in opening up to the world, at least not yet. “You need the sun on your skin. You need to breathe in flowers in bloom. It will be good for you.”

He snorted. “I’m not going to change, Briar. I’d just like a little company for a few weeks. That’s all.”

“Sure.” I nodded, knowing it would piss him off.

“I mean it.”

“So do I.”

“You always were annoying.”

He stomped toward my suitcases, hurling them with frightening ease. With one in each hand, he breezed toward his trunk. Sometime between his master class in weightlifting and my coming to terms with my foolish decision to have a staycation at my arch nemesis’s mansion, the Uber driver disappeared in a blur of profanity.

“You were always a condescending prick,” I offered, making my way to the passenger seat.

We both slid into the car. Seb fired up the engine. As soon as he sat down, I could see it. The tremor moving through every inch of his body. He shook all over. It must’ve taken all his willpower to leave the house.

“Which part is the worst?” I asked as he popped a U-turn, returning to the path we’d come from. “The fear of being seen or starting over?”

Plenty of actors came onto set burdened by shame of their bodies. Actors who’d lost a lot of weight that left them with excess skin. Actresses with large birthmarks, cellulite, and C-section scars. The truth was, no one’s body was perfect. Even my clients, the most gorgeous people on Planet Earth, still struggled with insecurities. But if I’d learned anything from my job worth learning, it was this – a diamond still shines with cracks.

“Shamefully, the former.” Seb sniffed behind his mask, and I knew he wanted to take it off, just as I knew he wouldn’t dare to. It didn’t matter that no one drove on this road at one in the morning. He didn’t even want the darkness to witness his scars. “Don’t get me wrong. Starting over would be exhausting. Going from complete solitude to peopling wouldn’t be fun, but I can handle it. What I can’t handle is the looks. The disgust. The pity.”

He quieted, cruising up Dark Prince Road.

Just when I thought he’d dropped the conversation, he added, “I spent the first half of my life looking like a demigod. The prospect of walking this earth looking like a monster terrifies me.”

Stop using that word.

It never failed to stab my heart.

“A monster?” I snorted. “You’re no monster, Sebastian. You survived something incredibly traumatic, though I still don’t know what it is. I hope one day you’ll tell me.”

“I hope one day I will, too.”

We spent the rest of the drive in silence.

Both of us in conversation with the real monsters.

The ones in our heads.