A Shot of Pretty Poison (Pretty Poison Trilogy #3)

by Kelsey Clayton

My mom is dying.

I’m just as angry as I am hurt. There’s no justification for what she did. But my heart will always belong to the girl who made me feel for the very first time.

Can’t be a husband worth staying with. Can’t save my mom. Can’t even keep a bar running that was basically handed to me. My life is a fucking mess.

“The difference between him and me is that he left his family. Mine left me.”

The bike slides out from under me and I skid across the ground before the bike and I both crash directly into the SUV in the middle of their left turn. And the pain doesn’t even register before everything goes black.

NOOOO

But I need to be there. I need him to be okay. For the love of God, please be okay.

“Hayes needs you to stay.”

Rule one: End things with Hayes and leave Calder Bay entirely. Rule two: Zero contact. You’re not allowed to see or speak to him at all. Rule three: Do not, under ANY circumstances, tell him leaving was anything but your choice. If you break any of these rules, I will see to it that Hayes is charged with the murder of Montgomery Rollins and spends the rest of his life in prison. I have enough evidence to guarantee his conviction. If you don’t believe me, turn this over.

“I know you like to think you’re this major hardass, but for the love of fuck, asking for help doesn’t make you weak, H.”

“I’m going to sell the house.”

FUCK NO

That fucking hurt

“That’s the thing, Lai. You had me. I was all fucking in. But you threw that away.”

“Ten minutes?” he asks, and I nod. “See, that’s where we differ. You only need ten minutes with me, but I needed the rest of my life with you.”

“Th-that’s not what I was going to say,” I mumble. “God, it never used to be this hard to talk to you.” “It never used to be this hard to look at you, either.” He takes a step closer. “I used to fucking love looking at you. Craved it. But now, every time I see you, all I can think about is the night we spent together just hours before you left. And the whole damn time, you knew you were going. I thought things were finally getting better. I thought we were going to be okay. But you fucking knew that wasn’t the case.”

“No,” I bark. “Tell me how I broke you. How I ruined you. Now’s your chance. Let it all out.” “Fine,” he sneers. “You want to know? For a while I thought you were dead! And in some sick and twisted way, I hoped you were, because at least that meant you weren’t out there somewhere, living your life as if we never fucking mattered. But that phone call confirmed it. You were out there somewhere. You really had left us behind in your rearview mirror. And that made me want to fucking die! I genuinely considered it at one point because while you may have been able to live without me, there was no part of me that was interested in a life without you.”

You were warned. What happens next is on you.

You had the chance to leave, and you came back. There’s no escaping now. Welcome to your nightmare.

The part that would have killed someone if they were trying to get in between her and I. But before you go thinking that’s what happened with Monty, it’s not. Though I can’t say I would’ve have been willing to do it if I came to that. I would’ve done anything for her.

So wtf really happened?!

“There’s a part of me that still loves you,” I say honestly. “There’s always going to be a part of me that still loves you. But right now, there’s a part of me that wants to hate you, and I’m not sure which is stronger.” She sniffles, wiping away her tears and nodding. “I get that. I do.” I get up from the table and put my fist on it. “Just do me a favor?” “Anything,” she replies, and I know she means that. “Don’t go anywhere until I figure it out.”

“So, that’s her, huh?” she asks. “The girl who made it so you don’t believe in love anymore?”

“I believe in love,” I say simply. “I just don’t believe in it with anyone but her.”

That hurt..

“Pretty sure you’re not allowed up there.” My jaw falls open in disbelief. Did she really just say that? “My brother owns half of this place, and the one who owns the other half was balls deep in my pussy last night. Pretty sure that means I can do whatever the fuck I please.”

Fuck that bitch

She inhales for a second and holds it before letting it out shakily. “Yeah. That was fun. Until you left me there.” Okay, this wasn’t the right thing to bring up. “I did.” “…Left me like I left you.”

“I don’t hate you, baby,” I whisper. “I just hate that I wasn’t enough.”

“Don’t do that,” I say softly. “You did not do this. Some psycho did this.” She shakes her head. “But it all leads back to me.”

“Who knows. Maybe I do,” I say, sounding completely defeated. “Or maybe I’m just mentally preparing for the inevitable day that you leave again.” “Then why don’t you just ask me to stay?” she yells. “Because I don’t know if I want you to!”

Screaming mommy issues

But every day, I feel like I get a little bit closer to breaking down the wall I built to keep her out.

“If Dad were to have come back after he left us, would you have taken him back?”

“Hayes,” Mom says softly. My eyes meet hers and she gives me a small smile. “Laiken isn’t your father.” “No, but she left the same way he did.”

“Your father’s biggest love was the bottle,” she says. “But Laiken’s is you.”

Thank god!!

I won’t lie, it scares the shit out of me, but sometimes the best things are the ones you’re most afraid of.

“Anything else?” I sass. “Yeah, actually.” He drops the cord and the blade to the floor and comes closer, grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder. I kick and punch him, shouting for him to put me down, but he doesn’t care. He carries me into the bedroom we used to share and throws me down onto the bed. “You sleep there!”

It’s him! It’s Finn!

If I have gray hairs, it’s because I married half of this generation’s Thelma and Louise.

She huffs, getting up and grumbling to herself as she goes upstairs to get my laptop. It’s awkwardly quiet as we wait for her to return, and when his eyes move over to Laiken, I cough. “Don’t look at her.”

Beat 👏🏼 her👏🏼 ass👏🏼

Laiken is standing there, facing Cam and Mali, and I walk up behind her. My arms wrap around her, and I kiss the top of her head, looking down to see Cam putting the hair Laiken pulled out of Riley’s head into a bag. Meanwhile, Mali is carefully collecting the skin cells from under Laiken’s fingernails.

Smart ass move here

“Where’s Laiken?” I ask her. Her bottom lip starts to tremble. “I don’t know.” What? “What the fuck do you mean you don’t know?” She’s physically shaking as she starts to cry harder. “I mean I don’t fucking know! Someone slammed into us full force, and I was knocked out. And when I woke up, she was gone!”

“Please, God,” I beg as the tears start to fall. “Please don’t take her from me. Give her back. I just want her back.”

“I can’t lose her again,” I say with a sob. “I can’t.”

“I’ve got you, baby,” I cry with her. “I’ve got you.”

So, I curled into a ball in the corner of the box and I cried, telling myself over and over again that Hayes would find me. He’d stop at nothing until he found me. “Hey,” he says softly as he pours the warm water over my shoulders. “It’s okay. You’re safe, and I’m never going to let her hurt you again.”

“I love you,” he breathes. “I love you so much.”

But while his words sound genuine, I still can’t help but feel afraid. Because I know the look he has in his eyes. The one he’s trying to hide from me. He’s pulling away again.

Oh thank fuck!! I was hyperventilating!

“Baby,” I say softly. “I know you’re scared, but you have to know that I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’ve got you. Okay? But we have to end this once and for all.”

“You left a piece of you there that night,” I tell her. “It’s time we go get it back.”