Sandwiched between Griffin and Brady, the anger rolling off them both was a tangible heat against my limbs.
“Can we help you with something?” Griffin snarled at Rich when his stare began to drag down my body another time.
Rich snapped his eyes up to meet Griffin’s for a quick instant before grinning down at me. Mr. Charm himself waggled his brows.
Layla commented.
“Don’t want anything from the rest of you,” Rich answered Griffin, “but I wouldn’t mind a little help from Joss here.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, injecting danger into my voice. “And what’s that, Rich?” I practically spat out his name.
“Why don’t you come closer and I’ll tell you?”
Griffin growled and stepped between us. His jaw was clenched hard, and from the corner of my eye I saw Hunt disentangling himself from a reluctant Zoe, preparing for the fight that seemed inevitable at this point.
“What?” Rich asked Griffin. “You’ve got no claim on her.”
“Claim on me?” I repeated just to be sure I’d heard him right, treating me like I was some fucking object to be owned.
Rich ignored me to tell Griffin, “You and Joss are just friends.” He paused as if he might know exactly what he was doing, might know we had feelings for each other. “Right?”
“What we are or aren’t is none of your fucking business,” Griffin barked back in a tone that seethed with suppressed violence. If I were Rich, I would have taken a giant step back.
Rich had no such street smarts.
His hungry gaze landed back on me, and I had to wonder if this was part of his role this time around, or if he just enjoyed perving on chicks and any of us would do.
“Whaddya say, Bryson?” he asked. “Wanna help me out with something?”
Then he adjusted himself.
I waited for one of my friends to cry out a warning through our shared bond. To remind us we had to play it cool. We couldn’t beat the asshole to a pulp. We had to keep up the act if we were ever going to break free of Magnum’s hold on us.
But the group chat was silent.
“Do that one more time,” Griffin seethed at Rich, “and I’ll break off your dick and feed it to you.”
Rich barked a laugh that was purposefully loud, drawing even more attention our way. I spotted a similar crew from the Fischer House party heading our way from both sides of the wide hallway. Slater Moore and Duncan Mills headed in from one direction, Pike Pills and John B. from another. And Wade Jones and Reed Carter eyed us warily. Their dads were the sheriff and deputy sheriff.
Noticing his buddies inching closer, Rich laughed again. “You wouldn’t be able to wrap both hands aroundmydick to get a good grip on it.” Rich eyed me again. “It’s made just to be slick.”
Beside Brady now, Layla crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, sure, Rich. Your dick’s so big it’s round as a fucking hoagie.” She huffed incredulously as she held up both hands, pretending to barely be able to hold said hoagie in the circumference of her fingers. Seen like that, the girth he was implying was laughably absurd. “No wonder you scare all the girls away. You’re just too much man for them.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.
“Watch your mouth, Rafferty,” Rich said.
Instantly, Brady lunged, meaning to wedge himself between Rich and her.
But Layla pushed a hand to her brother’s chest, keeping him at her side. Layla stalked into Rich’s space. “Go find somewhere else to be.”
“I pretty much fucking own this school.”
“Not you, your uncle.”
“Same thing.”
“No, Rich, it’s not the same thing.”
Brady said.
