“What the fuck are you talking about?” Barber hissed, the playfulness dissipating. “Why are you pissed at me, Shaw?”
Ren winced. “Don’t fucking call me that. I’m not Shaw to you. I’m nothing to you.” He lowered his voice. “Do you remember her? Andrea? Do you remember her face? Her smile?”
“Andrea?” Barber’s cheek dimpled as he raised the corner of his mouth in confusion. “Your babysitter? What the fuck does it matter?”
The storm raged in Ren and a fork of lightning struck, and it came in the form of him seizing the front of Barber’s jacket, shaking him.
“Ren, stop.” Oli went to rush forward, but I wrapped my arms around him.
“We can’t. Just wait. Let them have this out.” The words felt stuck in my throat, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure if they were loud enough for anyone to hear. But Oli stopped fighting.
“You fucking destroyed her. One careless fucking comment. You jackass. You told her she was fatter than Trisha Morgan and she got an eating disorder. She made herself sick until she killed herself. I lost my best friend because ofyou.”
The story unraveled, and my memory jumped back to the photo in Ren’s apartment of the sweet girl in the picture with him. She was beautiful. Definitely notfat; although, I hated that word with a passion.
“What are you talking about?” Barber shouted, shoving Ren. “I told her she was bigger than Trisha, but she was. Nearly everyone was. Trisha was anorexic. I wasn’t insulting her. Fuck.” He grabbed a handful of Ren’s tank top, his grip tight enough to turn his knuckles white. “I didn’t know she’d take offense.” Regret bloomed in his gaze, and I knew Barber well enough to understand he never said that sort of shit with meaning. Did he say careless shit? Yeah, a lot, but he always apologized in his own way when he realized he’d done wrong.
“You killed her.” Ren wasn’t crying, but his voice shattered. His words trembled. His fists tightened. He bared his teeth in fury. “The only one who was there for me. And now I’m going to destroy everything you love. Everything you care about. KC and Oli belong to me. They’re mine and I’m going to break them.Draw out their tears. Make them fucking hate you as much as I do.”
My fingers curled into fists. All at once, the world around me stilled as everything that I was and am narrowed in on Ren and his anger and what he’d said. Was he just spewing nonsense because he was furious? Or did he really want to hurt us?
I didn’t know if he was on such a massive fucking tear that he’d forgotten we were here or if he was just that confident, but it didn’t matter. Bubbling rage engulfed me, and the sight of Oli beside me with watery eyes sent me crashing over the edge.
I stepped forward, joining the fray. “What the fuck did you just say?”
Ren jolted as though he’d been electrocuted, attention snapping to me. He opened his mouth, then closed it, and some of the anger seeped away, leaving behind regret.
Too fucking late.
“Did you plan to use me and Oli tohurtBarber?”
Ren’s grip on Barber loosened until Barber extracted himself, but Ren focused solely on me and Oli. “KC?—”
“Did. You. Plan. To. Use. Us?” I shoved forward until I was in his face. “Were we collateral damage in some stupid pissing match with Barber? One he apparently didn’t even realize he was in.”
Ren faltered, and it was like watching him glitch. The wrath fused with sorrow and regret, and the determination in his actions vanished. He was clueless on his next move, but it didn’t matter because I was already poking his chest.
“Fuck. You. We aren’t toys for you to play with, for your revenge or whatever the fuck this is.” My bottom lip wobbled and I hated that. “You wanted to break us? Congratulations. You did it. You’re a hero. What was your plan? Make us love you, then ditch us? Well, you’re right. We’re two guys that would hurt. Probably more than most.”
The sound that left Oli was caught between anguish and anger, and it came from the depths of his chest. A heaving grunt might’ve been his heart splintering and scattering into the recesses of his chest. I felt the same way.
“You really are a heartless asshole.” I shook my head and grasped Oli’s hand. “Come on, sweetheart.”
“Wait—” Ren went to step forward, but Barber cut him off with his body, his hand on Ren’s chest.
“Nope, you’re not going after them.I’llgo with them. You stay here and think about your bullshit. Jeez. It’s bad when that shit comes from my mouth. I sound like Grandma.” He manhandled Ren backward, then came to us, gesturing at us to leave out the door.
I looked at Ren once more, studying the wrecked expression on his face, and raised my chin. Fuck him. He couldn’t break us unless we wanted to be broken. And if I found it hard to breathe around my aching heart, then that was my business. For now, Oli was my top priority.
We left the tattoo parlor, ignoring the loud curses that followed in our wake.
22
OLI
KC led the way into his room on the first floor. I should tell him how amazing his pa was, since he’d known the second we’d stepped foot in the house that KC was upset without either of us saying a word.
I didn’t.
