Trapped by Them novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Stepsiblings, Nothing Else

Larissa walks out on the exam, Tobias drives her home and admits he wrote her four letters and sent none, then stops the almost-kiss with a rule; Lachlan texts that Sunday dinner will have both men at her father's table.

"Out," I said. "Both of you. I'm getting dressed."

Lachlan opened his mouth.

"Now," I said.

They went out into the hall, and the door shut with a soft click.

I climbed off the table with my knees shaking and pulled my jeans on under the gown.

My hands would not do the buttons, so I did them twice.

Then I stood in the empty room, with the torn paper on the table and the light too bright, and I made myself breathe.

I had come here because Lachlan was the one person I trusted to touch me.

He had stood there and lied to my face.

I came out with my bag on my shoulder and my chin up.

Lachlan was leaning on the wall across from the door, and Tobias was at the far end of the hall with his hands in his coat pockets.

"Larissa, let me explain," Lachlan said.

"Did you text him on Friday?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell him I was on the list?"

"Yes."

"Then you knew he'd be in that room, and you told me you had no idea."

"I know what I said." His voice stayed low and even. "I wanted you to have one face in there you knew. I should have told you first. That's my mistake."

It was a smooth answer, and it did not sound like all of the answer.

"I'll find another doctor," I said.

"Larissa."

"Don't."

I walked past him, and he let me go.

That was the part that stung most, that he let me go.

The parking garage was three levels down and smelled like cold concrete.

I was halfway to my car when footsteps came up fast behind me.

"Larissa. Wait."

I stopped.

Those were the same two words as the hotel hallway, in the same voice.

I turned around.

Tobias had pulled off his white coat and he held it balled in one fist.

"No," I said. "You don't get to say that to me twice."

"I'm not asking you to stay. I'm asking you not to drive like this."

"Like what?"

"You're shaking."

I looked at my hand on the strap of my bag, and it was.

"Get in my car," he said. "I'll take you home, and Lachlan can mind his own business."

"You're the one who said wait and then left," I said.

His face changed.

He stood there for a second, and then he said, "Yeah. I know."

Maybe it was that he did not argue.

I got in his car.

It was a gray hatchback, clean inside, with a parking ticket from Chicago still tucked in the sun visor.

He drove out of the garage and did not turn the radio on.

"The pen," I said. "You still click it."

"I didn't realize I did."

"You did on our date. Every time the waiter came."

He let out a short breath that was almost a laugh.

"You were wearing a green dress," he said. "I couldn't think."

"You never called me."

"I know."

"I waited a week, Tobias. I thought it was because you saw our parents' engagement photo online and felt sick."

"Sick?" His hands tightened on the wheel. "Larissa, no."

"Then why?"

He pulled into the lot behind my building and put the car in park.

For a while he only looked at the dashboard.

"I wrote you four times," he said. "I never sent any of them."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd promised something. I can't tell you what yet."

"Promised who?"

"Not yet."

He turned in his seat.

The car was small, and he was close enough that I could smell the hospital soap on his skin.

His eyes went to my mouth and stayed there.

I did not move away.

My heart was going so hard I thought he could hear it.

He lifted his hand slowly and brushed one strand of hair away from my cheek.

His thumb stopped just below my ear.

"Larissa," he said, hoarse.

I leaned in an inch.

He closed his eyes, and then he took his hand back and gripped the wheel with both of them.

"Stepsiblings," he said. "That's the rule. I can't do it to you."

It stung more than the garage had.

"Fine," I said, and I opened the door. "Thanks for the ride, brother."

His head went down against the steering wheel.

I walked up three flights with my face burning.

My phone buzzed before I got the key in the lock.

It was Lachlan.

Sunday dinner at your father's. I'll be there. So will Tobias. Please say nothing to him until I've talked to you.

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