Disbelief surged through my veins, white hot and dizzying. My feet melted deep into the quick sand that was Reed's nice wood floor. Body immobilized, my mind took off a mile a minute. So you can't give my brother a chance, give your boyfriend a chance, to clear his name? ...Granted all I told you was to hear him out, and then you found a plane ticket in your hand, but still.

After everything, knowing all you do about Nathaniel, everything you've been through together and how he feels about you, couldn't you give him the benefit of the doubt and let him show you his innocence? Allow him a few days of your attention; a vacation to Tokyo with my brother, your boyfriend, to find out the truth from the woman he "cheated" with? The woman who was paid to stage that photo you found while Nathaniel was passed out, drunk?

The door slamming upstairs jarred me from my muddling, buzzing thoughts and my eyes snapped up to the second floor. I steeled my resolve against the grimace that tried to forcibly claw its way onto my face as Reed peered around the corner at me with annoyingly puzzled eyes. Lost and bewildered, he stepped out into view and surveyed my expression carefully.

Sure Zoe, I could have just told you what the Japanese woman told me over the phone (as soon as she received my check in the mail and my promise to never release the photo or this story... But honestly I still don't have her name, so I don't see what good it would do in preventing her from being hired to do this to another couple anyways...). But I wanted Nathaniel to have the time to speak to you without him stealing you away every minute with a wink of his steely eyes and tanned, dimpled cheeks.

I couldn't hold back anymore, my face crumpling in disgust as I pushed upstairs away from Reed, away from the suffocating bubble I was in. This is all your fault Reed. If you weren't here distracting Zoe and planting seeds of doubt in her head, she would have listened to Nathaniel and never would have believed the story. Or would have at least figured out if Nathaniel was telling the truth. Honestly- how could he have cheated on her? How could she have believed it? Why was she so willing to believe it...?

It's all your fault, Reed. And Nat was buying a ring.

The intense hatred surging through my veins- as good as it felt pounding in every single pressure point- it scared me. I reached the landing and padded down the hall to the only closed door. Why do I hate Reed so much?

He took Zoe from Nathaniel.

The answer came quickly and easily. So I knew it wasn't true.

Okay, so, why do I really hate him? Why is there so much hate here? Do I hold Reed responsible for all the time I was beaten around, abused, and broken while being trafficked in the Dolls? ...that would make sense.

But, again, it came too easily.

I stared at the wood grain of Zoe's door, painted white. As disguised and different as it looked from its natural state, somehow the fact that it was truly wood I was looking at screamed in my head. It bounced off the walls of my brain in little stinging shocks, begging me to listen to the warning it was screeching. A rose with no visible thorns, while beautiful, is still dangerous... A gilded cyanide pill, a glittering siren of a snake, glossy red lips covering razor blade teeth. I swallowed the lump in my throat and let my head drop forward.

Knock knock.

Silence.

"Zoe?"

No response. I tried to clear my throat, but the thick lump just swelled up painfully. "Can we just talk for a minute?" I all but whispered.

The silent air felt charged. Empty as it was by sound, it was crowded with meaning and deafening with implications. I couldn't pick apart any of them though; they all swept right over my head.

"Josette?" A soft voice gently prodded from behind me. I flinched just slightly, forcing my body not to give away how much he had startled me, but didn't even bother to keep the distrust off my face when I glanced over my shoulder at the chiseled, angelic face angled up to me. Somewhat hesitantly, the bronze haired Michaelangelo's David cleared his throat and glanced past me at the door.

"I'm sorry, but I think Zoe wants some time alone. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm sure you two can work this out in the morning when things are calmer and heads are clear." Reed stepped onto the landing and opened his arm to gently encourage me. "Come downstairs and wait for Jax?"

"He won't be back for at least another hour. In the meantime, I'll be speaking with my best friend. Thank you though, Reed." I breezed through my words, trying not to look at him as hatred buzzed in my ears like intoxicating bees. The more I listened to them, the more out of control I felt. The better I felt.

Leave, Reed. Just leave. Please.

He obviously didn't hear my silent pleading, because he just took another step towards me. I flinched heavily away from his extended hands, eyeing them sharply and feeling my pulse falter and jolt with fear. I fiercely ignored the look in his eyes as he fell back away from me, and instead turned to the door again.

"Zoe... I'm not taking Nathaniel's side here. You know that... You know me. C'mon... It's me. Just... open the door?" I sighed. The cool, painted wood of the barrier between us just heightened the sweltering discomfort I felt as Jax's brother shifted behind me.

I felt him plucking every bit of courage he had left to step away from the stairs again and start speaking. His voice was low and controlled, resigned and.. upset? "We've had our... You may not trust me, Josette, but your friend does. Respect that? Trust her. Zoe just texted me, asking me to tell you to give her some space. I really think she just needs time."

In the silence following Reed's deep voice, reminiscent of Jax's voice when he is worried and just trying to calm me down- nothing happened. Not a thing.

I didn't move. I didn't look over at him. Reed definitely didn't try to touch me again. I didn't knock again. He didn't speak. And Zoe didn't open the door.

Eventually his decency got the better of him, and he couldn't stand staring at my frozen back any longer. Reed gave up and drifted downstairs, having expressed and stood up for Zoe's wants, but- as all the Logan men seem to do- the gentleman in him took over in him allowing Zoe and I to make our own decisions on what we wanted to do. Yet still, I didn't move.

So when I drifted out of my hazy state, thoughts swirling around Reed's choice of words, coming to attention in the tomb silent house, the flapping of fabric in the wind was more than obvious.

I barged into the empty room and rushed to the window thrown wide open, misty numbness still dancing behind my eyes. Just two shaking, shuddering breaths later, I threw myself across the room and let the numbness leak from my eyes and sear down my cheeks in fiery streams. The house flew by in unrecognizable, blurry images as I grappled with the tears strangling my vision and fought my way to the kitchen and to the one person that ruined everything.

Reed had his back to me, mixing something in a bowl as I slowly turned the corner. One foot sluggishly placed in front of the other, I dropped my chin and let the last of the tears singeing my eyelashes fall onto my ice cold cheeks.

"Where is she?" I uttered.

Reed didn't turn around, his shoulders raising slightly and his broad shoulders tensing. I took that as a sign to continue. My voice wavered with unbridled rage, quivering strangely. "Heavens help me, I am trying to give you a chance here. Reed Logan... Where. Is. Zoe? I swear-"

"Then do it. Do whatever you're about to threaten. Because I can't tell you that. Josette I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that." Reed broke. His voice shattered my resolve and I recoiled, my back pressed to the wall and mouth stunned open. Utterly devoid of emotion, Reed turned to face me and dropped the wooden spoon he was holding. With slow steps, he closed the distance in between us. "Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you. Even if I thought telling you might somehow make you hate me less, I couldn't tell you. So go ahead. Just say it."

Reed was a breath away from me, his deep chest uncomfortably close and barring me back against the wall. I felt the air broiling between us and I licked my lips. My heart stumbled under the seductive, commanding gaze of fear. Enchanting, alluring, petrifying, and shockingly grotesque, I faltered and tried to squirm out from under Reed's steely gaze. He kept me locked in place though, not budging an inch and letting me escape.

"I'm going out to find her." I mumbled under my breath, praying that Reed would look away. My neck prickled as his pupils just dilated, swallowed with inky blackness. I started to sweat, my palms slick with apprehension and stomach flopping uncomfortably. Back. Up.

Reed just shifted his weight. His low voice came out soft, melodic almost. "Just say it. Lay it on me Josette. I can take it. I know my little brother is making you feel guilty about having feelings for me, so do us both a favor and forget him for right now. He isn't here- let's be adults- let's speak clearly and settle this? Say it. Tell the truth." He breathed.

I snapped, barely holding back my reaction as I blanched inside. My head spinning drunkenly, heat radiating off every inch of my body in sheer embarrassment, I focused on narrowing my eyes and controlling my voice. "Feelings?" I shoved out.

He nodded and let out a huge chestful of air. "For Jax's sake, you seem to be dealing with my presence. You forgave me. But it's obvious you loathe me. There's no hiding that. But don't make me out to be the villain... I want to get Sebastian just as much as you do- and I can't do that alone. I need you, and you need me. I'm still a welcome face at Sebastian's table. You can't get close to him without me." Reed reached up and placed a hand on my upper arm, urging me to look into his eyes.

I slid away and squirmed through the open doorway, stopping when I was a full three paces from him and could think again. Fear was still tingling through my veins in electrifying jolts, cheeks aflame with disgusted humiliation. How... How dare he?

"Villain? Don't give yourself that much credit. You don't mean anything to me. You're right- I don't like you. Not for my sake, but for my brother's. Nathaniel doesn't have the heart to dislike you so it's up to me to set you straight. Our personal history aside, dead and buried, I can assure you I've long since moved on, I still don't like you. I think you aren't being honest with Zoe. I don't know how things happened the way they did with Nathaniel in Tokyo, what part you may have had in that, but-"

"Tokyo? Wait, what do you think I did?" Reed stepped closer to me again, eyebrows furrowed and hands raised in surrender.

I skipped backwards again, backing up before he could corner me against the wall and sweet talk me into believing whatever tale he had spun for Zoe. No thank you, the defense will not be called to the stands. I don't want to hear it.

"Tell Jax I went out looking for Zoe." I murmured as I crept backwards and all but ran to the front door.