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I group text my next response, sending it to both Lily and Daisy. What mission? And why the fucking drugstore?
Only Daisy replies.
Girl things. I’ll tell you in a bit. – Daisy
I trust her enough to slide my phone back in my pocket, also trying to shelve my fucking worry, especially since their bodyguards should be following them…
Price. Fuck. Yeah, Price does not make me feel any fucking better.
When I glance at Sam, I’m surprised to see him smiling. “I would’ve said something like that, but I wouldn’t phrase it that way.”
“One less insult,” Lo agrees. “You’re too preciously pure for your own good, Sammy.”
Sam lets out a short laugh, a pretty lighthearted exchange between them. Sam has fit into our group as much as he can. Better than he fucking used to at least.
Lo nods to me. “I’m going to find the girls and eat something.”
“They’re at the drugstore.”
Lo gives me a weird look. “Why?” He rolls his eyes like he doesn’t care. “I’ll go get Doritos or something.” He’s about to walk off, even with the insane logic that chips are somehow better than five-star appetizers here.
Truth is, I think he just wants to see his wife.
Lo immediately spins back towards the cheese table as soon as he sees Connor. Dressed in a tailored black tux and sauntering towards us like nothing and no one can fucking touch him, he never slows or flinches.
He acts like the billions that he’s worth.
I’m not as disgruntled by Connor tonight. Not when we’re surrounded by at least a hundred people willing to stomp on each other to climb the preverbal corporate fucking ladder. At least Connor will flat-out tell you what he thinks of you to your face.
“Don’t look him in the eyes,” Lo says dryly. “Maybe he won’t figure out how much we hate his party.”
I greet Connor with a single head nod. He never returns it, his attention pinned to Lo who glares at the pyramid of cheese puffs—or whatever fancy name everyone has for them.
Connor fixes his cufflink. “I came over to say hello, but I sense an issue.”
Lo spins to me. “Did you hear something?”
Usually they’re ribbing me, so I take the fucking opportunity to bust Connor’s balls. “Nope.”
Connor tells Lo, “Feigning deafness is below you, darling.”
Lo cracks, acknowledging the soon-to-be twenty-eight-year-old. “And lying is below you, love.”
Connor never blinks, but he does turn to me. “It pains me to look to you for a translation, but what the hell is going on?”
“You fucking told us there’d be food here,” I explain.
“And you’re starving me,” Lo chimes in. “Unless there’s a five-course meal in the back waiting for us, I’m going to leave. Watch me go.”
Connor lets an uncharacteristic frown pass over his features. “Are you talking about the New Year’s dinner?”
Lo wears a fucking duh look. “Yeah. And you’re supposed to be the smart one. Don’t change on me.”
“The dinner is on New Year’s Day,” Connor emphasizes. “You were clearly confused. Today is New Year’s Eve. I’d say it’s a common mistake, but really, it’s not.”
Lo sets a murderous glare on the ceiling, realizing we’ve been waiting for nonexistent food this entire time.
“Okay,” I cut in. “Don’t fucking insult Lo. You didn’t make it clear, Cobalt.”
Connor stoically stands his ground. “I made it clear. I said exactly what I’m saying now. If you misinterpreted the meaning of my words, maybe you should buy a dictionary.”
Lo’s cheekbones sharpen. “We skipped dinner.”
“I didn’t,” Sam proclaims.
Lo sets his glare on him.
I’m about there, hungry as shit.
“Obviously we have different definitions of New Year’s Day,” Connor continues to Lo. “Mine lines up with the world, and yours lines up with yourself and…him.” Connor nods his head at me.
“Fuck you,” I snap, just as an unwelcome face zones in on me, about ten feet across the room. When Julian begins to walk towards me, I almost can’t believe it.
“He should’ve left by now,” Connor says, his voice so controlled that I have trouble understanding what’s happening—or what happened.
“You knew he was fucking here?” I almost yell.
“Calm down,” Lo tells me.
“I am.” I’m not even close.
“Really? Then why are your hands in fists?”
I can’t untighten them. Lo has been confronted by Lily’s past hookups before, but this is different for me—I knew Julian. I fucking watched him date Daisy and try to take advantage of her when she was underage and practically passed out drunk.
We fought constantly, and it escalated into a fistfight in the end. Or not the fucking end…now he’s here, approaching me.
“We need to talk,” Julian says the minute he stops in front of me, camera phones flashing. We haven’t been around each other since the reality show was cancelled. Years ago.
“No we fucking don’t.” I have nothing to say to him that hasn’t already been said.
Connor interjects, “When I told you to leave now, I meant the present moment. I didn’t think I’d need to delineate a word that my one-year-old understands.”
Julian ignores him, fixated on me. “You have to tell Daisy to call whoever to settle this video thing, dude. It’s not my fault we were filmed.”
I see fucking red.
Julian continues quickly, “I was mailed some letter by a court, inquiring about what happened. It looks fucking bad for me, and I need her to fix this. It’s her fault that I’m in this mess to begin with. I didn’t ask for any of it.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl. His words claw at my skull.
Connor says something calmly to Julian about needing to leave, and I tune it out.
Lo glares. “Hey, Julius, how about you go stand in a corner for the next ten years. That way only the wall has the painful experience of staring at your shitty fucking face.”
I’m glad my brother is here.
Julian wears a familiar pissed and dumbfounded look, but he’s not done talking to me. “Daisy told me to call her lawyer, but I think she can clear my name with one statement—”
“You spoke to Daisy?” I step forward, and Lo puts a protective hand on my shoulder. I fucking fume in place, knowing exactly how she feels about him. If she was scared—
“Tonight, yeah,” Julian says, a short smirk attached. “By the bathroom.”
I’m about to fucking hit him, but Lo clutches my bicep, stopping me. My brother fights with words, but I’m a lot less verbal and a lot more impatient. “Don’t ever fucking corner her again,” I growl and jerk out of Lo’s grasp.
“You think you’re the good guy?” Julian
practically shouts, so everyone can hear. “The entire time I was dating Daisy, you were all over her, dude. If anyone should be in jail for rape, it’s you.”
I fucking charge. Lo and Connor hold me back. I thrash in their arms and point at Julian, cursing up a storm. “You motherfucking piece of shit! Fuck you, you fucking—” I go on and on, not even registering what the fuck I’m screaming. Veins protrude in my arms, and I yell until my head pounds with excess fury.
Julian presses his finger to his chest. “I did nothing wrong. She’s the slut who couldn’t keep her fucking clothes on.” I’m going to fucking kill him. “I’m not going to be punished for the worst blow job I’ve ever received—that cunt can rot in hell.”
Both Connor and Lo let me go.
I clock Julian in the jaw, and before he regains balance, I slug him again and again, my ears ringing shrilly. If rage has a frequency, I’m listening to it. Security seizes my arms first, giving Julian enough time to land one fucking punch. My lip busts open, and I lunge towards him only to be yanked back.
“Go marry that slut!” he yells with a mouthful of blood, eye swollen and cheek reddened. One guard has him by the arm.
“Fuck you, you motherfucking—” Security smacks the back of my head and threatens to cuff me. My nose flares, and I barely listen to their orders: settle down, you need to leave now, you’re out of control.
“You can release him,” Connor says calmly. Like I didn’t just try to cripple one of his guests.
“We can escort him out.”
I breathe deeply through my nose, my knuckles burning. Lo has a hand on my shoulder, asking me if I need ice. I rigidly shake my head.
“That’s unnecessary.” Connor holds the main security guard’s befuddled gaze and has to add, “He’s my friend. He’s staying with me.”
The subtext beneath his declaration hits me harder than it could anyone else. Connor is vouching for me after I punched a man at his party, meaning that he values me above his reputation.
Above these people.
His company.
His money.
I never, not in a million fucking years, thought I meant that much to him.
I thought he would’ve made a Rottweiler joke and pushed me out of the door beside Julian, not stood beside me.
