My Stepbrother Wants Me

Chapter 218: Another Fight

Catherine’s POV

My phone buzzed in my hand, the vibration making me jump. It was Kiera. I swiped the screen.

"Catherine? Where are you three? I don’t like the idea that I and Dante are sitting in a dark warehouse waiting for you all."

"We’re coming, Ki. Julian went to convince Gabriel to come with us. He wanted to... thrash things out between them first," I whispered, keeping my voice low even though the door was shut.

"Thrash things out? Now? Of all the times to have a brotherly heart-to-heart, they chose the night we’re supposed to be finding a way to save ourselves from Richard?" Kiera let out an audible huff of frustration. "Fine. Please hurry up already."

"I’ll tell them. We’ll be there soon," I promised before hanging up.

I stood up and started pacing the length of the rug. It had been nearly forty minutes since Julian had left me here. I knew the tension between him and Gabriel was at a breaking point.

I pulled out my phone to text Julian, my fingers flying across the keypad. Is everything okay? Kiera is getting impatient. How is it going with Gabriel?

I hit send.

A split second later, a muffled chime echoed from the nightstand. I walked over and lifted a leather-bound notebook. There it was—Julian’s phone, lying exactly where he had dropped it before heading out.

A cold knot of dread formed in my stomach. If things had turned physical—which, knowing the Vaughn temper, was a distinct possibility—no one would know. I couldn’t sit here anymore. I needed to see for myself if they were actually talking or if they were currently killing each other.

I grabbed my jacket and moved toward the door. I reached for the handle, my mind already rehearsing what I would say if I ran into a maid or, heaven forbid, Richard himself. I pulled the door open quickly, ready to slip into the hallway.

I didn’t even get a step out before I slammed right into something solid. A sharp gasp erupted from the person in front of me, followed by the clatter of a plastic bowl hitting the floor. Chips scattered across the carpet like confetti.

I looked up, my heart nearly stopping.

Lucy stood there, her eyes wide with a shock that was rapidly morphing into something much uglier. She was wearing a silk robe, and her hair was perfectly coiffed even at midnight. She had been holding a huge bowl of chips.

But was she even doing here ???

The huge, smug smile she had been wearing when I first opened the door vanished instantly. Her face contorted, her features sharpening into a mask of pure venom.

"Catherine?" she hissed, her voice low and dangerous. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

I tried to keep my face neutral, but the adrenaline was making my skin prickle. "I was just looking for something, Move aside."

She didn’t move. In fact, she stepped further into the doorway, blocking my exit with her entire body. She looked over my shoulder, her eyes scanning the empty room, looking for Julian. When she realized he wasn’t there, she turned her gaze back to me, and the look in her eyes was lethal.

"Looking for something? In Julian’s room? At midnight?" She let out a sharp, jagged laugh that set my teeth on edge. "You’ve got a lot of nerve. You’re engaged to Dante now, remember? Richard made it official. The whole world knows you belong to that lboy, yet here you are, sneaking around my man’s bedroom like a thief."

"He isn’t your man, Lucy. He’s a contract you forced him into," I retorted, trying to step around her. "Now, for the last time, get out of my way. I have things to do."

Lucy shoved me back. It wasn’t a light push; it was a hard, deliberate shove that sent me stumbling back into the room. She stepped inside and slammed the door behind her, the sound echoing like a gunshot.

"Don’t you dare walk away from me!" she screamed, her voice rising in pitch. "You think you can play these little games? You think you can keep him on a leash while you pretend to be with Dante?"

"I’m not playing games, Lucy. You’re the one living in a fantasy," I said, my voice rising to match hers. "Julian doesn’t love you. He never will. You can wear the ring, you can take the photos, and you can live in this house, but you will always be the woman he was forced to accept. You’re a nobody to him, Lucy. Nothing more."

The slap came so fast I didn’t even see it. My head snapped to the side, the sting of her palm blooming across my cheek like a burn. I tasted blood in my mouth where my tooth had caught my inner lip.

I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t think about Richard, or the boys, or the "Vaughn honor." I lunged at her.

I tackled her into the dresser, the impact sending perfume bottles and watches crashing to the floor. Lucy screamed, a high-pitched, shrill sound of pure outrage, and grabbed a handful of my hair. She yanked my head back, her nails digging into my scalp, but I ignored the pain. I grabbed her wrists, twisting them until she was forced to let go, and shoved her back toward the center of the room.

"You bitch!" Lucy shrieked, her face flushed a deep, ugly purple. She grabbed a heavy glass carafe from the nightstand and hurled it at me. I ducked, and the glass shattered against the wall behind me, shards spraying across the bed.

"Is that all you’ve got?" I yelled, my blood singing with a wild, reckless fury. "You want to fight for a man who hates the sight of you? Go ahead!"

We collided again, a messy, violent scramble of limbs and desperation. We hit the floor, rolling across the expensive rug. Lucy was scratching and kicking, her movements were so undisciplined. I managed to pin her shoulders down for a second, but she arched her back, bucking me off. We crashed into the bedside table, sending the lamp tumbling. The bulb shattered, plunging the room into a chaotic half-light.

"I’ll kill you!" Lucy screamed, her voice echoing off the walls. "I’ll tell Richard! I’ll make sure you and your pathetic mother are on the street soon enough!"

"Try it!" I shot back, catching her arm as she tried to claw at my face again. "Richard only cares about the alliance. He doesn’t give a damn about you or your hurt feelings!"

The noise was deafening. Between the screaming, the breaking glass, and the heavy thuds of our bodies hitting the furniture, the silence of the mansion was officially dead. I heard heavy, hurried footsteps in the hallway but they didn’t stop me. All the suppressed rage of the last year was pouring out of me in every strike.

The door to the suite suddenly got banged on.

"What in the name of God is going on in here?"

Richard’s voice boomed through the room, in a cold and terrifyingly sharp voice. He stood in the doorway, his silk robe billowing around him, his face held absolute fury. Behind him, my mother stood with her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror.

Lucy and I froze. I was sitting on her chest, my hand raised to strike again, while her fingers were still tangled in the collar of my shirt. Both of us were a mess with our hair ruined, clothes torn, faces flushed and bruised.

"Get up," Richard commanded, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl. "Both of you. Now."

I scrambled off Lucy, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. Lucy stayed on the floor for a second longer, letting out a theatrical, jagged sob as she pointed a shaking finger at me.

"I found her in Julian’s room, Richard! I found her sneaking around his bed! She attacked me when I asked her what she was doing!" Lucy wailed, the tears starting to flow with a fake ease.

Richard didn’t even look at her. He walked into the center of the room, his eyes scanning the destruction; the shattered glass, the broken lamp, the scattered chips. His gaze finally settled on me, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of something that looked like genuine hatred in his eyes.

"Catherine," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "I gave you a chance to be part of this family. I gave you a path to security. And this is how you repay me? By brawling like a common street thug in my son’s bedroom?"

"She provoked me, Richard," I said, my voice trembling but holding its ground. "She blocked the door. She attacked me first."

"I don’t care who started it!" Richard roared, the sudden volume making my mother flinch. "You are never supposed to drag your hair. You are not supposed to be fighting here. What the hell is wrong with y’all? First it was Julian and Gabriel, now you too!"

Just then, two more figures appeared in the doorway. Julian and Gabriel.

They both looked like they had been through a war of their own. Julian’s lip was split, and Gabriel had a darkening bruise over his eye. They froze as they took in the scene; the trashed room, the sobbing Lucy, and me standing in the middle of the wreckage.

Julian’s eyes immediately went to the bruise forming on my cheek. His entire posture shifted, his hands fisting at his sides as he took a step toward me. "What happened to you?"

"Stay where you are, Julian," Richard snapped, not even turning his head. "I am dealing with this."