Boxed Set: Traitorous Heart Volumes 1-6 (The Traitorous Heart Series) by Breena Wilde Page A

asked me to sit by him. Promised me he would keep his hands to himself.”
    I rolled my eyes.
    “Exactly,” Birdy said.
    Cage looked up. “What’d I miss?”
    I gave him a hard look. “Only that Reid was a fucking prick and it’s obvious he had no intention of keeping his hands to himself.”
    Birdy nodded. “I knew it. Trust me, I’ve known Reid long enough to get the kind of man he was.”
    “Yet you never shared that information with me,” I added quietly.
    “Katie, I wanted to. More than once. But you were so smitten, so sure of your feelings and Reid’s place in your life plan. I didn’t want to take that away.”
    “With a name like Dandelion I would’ve figured you for a non planner,” Cage interjected.
    “Exactly why I go by Katie,” I snapped.
    “Got it.” He tapped his pen on the yellow pad. “Pamela, please go on.”
    “It’s Birdy.” She glared.
    “Man, you two and your names.” He put down his pen. “Fine, Birdy. Continue.” He crossed his arms over his chest. I caught a whiff on his cologne.
    “He talked and cried about how much he missed Katie, about how he wanted her back and that his life wouldn’t be the same without her.”
    I snorted again. From the bits I’d dug up on him one thing was certain, my life would’ve been jacked up with him as my husband. And if we’d added children into the mix? Good god. It killed me to think about it.
    “I listened for a long time and then excused myself to the bathroom,” Birdy was saying.
    Cage picked up his pen. “And how long were you in the bathroom?”

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 5
    Katie
     
     
     
    Birdy shrugged . “I don’t know. I peed, washed my hands, checked my makeup in the mirror, and may have snooped a little.”
    Cage lifted an eyebrow. “What? Like opening cupboards and drawers?”
    “Yep, exactly that,” Birdy admitted, having the good sense to blush.
    “And did you find anything interesting?”
    It dawned on me that never once had I snooped. In fact, I rarely went up to his apartment. We mostly met at restaurants or my place.
    She shrugged. “The usual. Shaving stuff. Razors. Condoms.”
    That surprised me. Hurt, too. It was obvious he was having sex. It just wasn’t with me. Maybe there was something wrong with me.
    “I see.” Cage jotted something on his paper.
    Birdy went on. “I thought I heard a thud, like he’d fallen off the bed or something. He’d been drinking, so—”
    “Wait, he’d been drinking,” Cage interrupted. “This is the first I’m hearing about it. How much had he had to drink? Were you drinking?”
    “He was drinking beer. I don’t know how many he’d had, but while I was there he drank three.”
    “Okay. And you, how many did you drink?”
    Birdy wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like beer. Plus I intended to go out after Reid and I talked. I didn’t drink anything.”
    Cage wrote on his pad: Birdy sober . Reid drinking (at least three beers). Then he looked up. “So you heard a thud?”
    She nodded and I could tell she was upset by what she’d seen. “I also heard his doorbell ring and footsteps. I figured Reid got up and went to the door. When I came out of the bathroom Reid was gone. I walked out of the bedroom and called his name. ’Reid? Who’s at the door?’ When I rounded the corner I saw Brian kneeling over Reid.” She let out a sob. “Reid was on the floor.”
    “Who the fu—Who’s Brian?”
    I didn’t say anything, knowing Brian was Crushed Velvet’s drummer.
    Birdy glanced at me.
    “Go on. Tell him,” I said.
    “Brian is this guy I met… actually knew from high school, even though I didn’t recognize him at first.”
    She pressed her hand against the glass. “I hadn’t seen him or Griffin in eight years. I swear I didn’t know who they were at first.”
    I placed my hand against the glass where hers was. Her fingers were longer. “I figured. It’s okay. Don’t worry about me. Tell Cage everything so we can get you out of here. We’ll talk