It is abundantly clear that nobody is more ashamed of EJ than EJ himself. He hit Callum.EJ. The obnoxious ball of sunshine. Hard enough to give him a black eye. Carter isn’t going to rest until he has answers, not when it was one of his teammates who got assaulted. He backs his own people, and he might like EJ, but Callum trumps him by a mile.
EJ’s eyes slide across the lawn to Seth and Declan. They’re looking at him like they don’t recognize him. Like they don’t know him at all. He physically flinches at what he sees on their faces, and I don’t blame him.
“Start talking,” Declan snaps quietly.
“No,” EJ mumbles, shaking his head. “No. Talk to Wy.”
“EJ,” Seth warns.
“I’m not saying anything,” he murmurs, glancing down our row of tables. “Lau, can we go for a walk?”
Lauren, whose eyes are full of concern, eagerly heads right for him. She ignores everyone else, choosing not to leave their friend completely alone when he needs someone the most. She winds her hand around EJ’s arm and guides him out of the backyard.
Declan and Seth watch them go, exchanging a wary look.
“What thefuck?” Carter whispers, running his hands over his head.
“Wyatt willnevertalk to him again,” Seth says.
Dec brings a hand over his face. “EJ wouldn’t hit Wyatt’s partner. Not without reason.”
“What fucking reason,Lowesy?” Carter barks.
“Youaren’t allowed to have an opinion on when someone is or isn’t allowed to hit someone else,” I snap, because he does not know that man as well as they do, and he needs to remember that. This doesn’t involve him, and his judgment is not appropriate when hitting people is practically his favourite hobby.
His head whirls my way, like he forgot I was here at all. Boston shoots me a pleading look over my brother’s shoulder, begging me to rein it in until he calms down.
“Something happened,” Declan murmurs, more to himself than anything.
Seth agrees, his brown eyes full of worry.
“I’m going to go check on Wyatt,” Tiffany says gently, excusing herself.
“Saltzy disappeared around midnight,” Carter says, trying to recall the events of the night to make this make sense. “We all did that shot at Ari’s table. He wasn’t there. EJ wasn’t either.”
Declan’s brow furrows. “Was Wy?”
Carter stares at him, curtly shaking his head.
The three of them were gone. One of them now has a black eye.
“EJ came back, but I didn’t notice his hand,” Seth says. “I was in the rideshare back to the hotel with him. Wyatt had left by that point. Eej was quiet, but the girls were singing, so there really wasn’t much room for conversation.”
“Wyatt wasn’t with the rest of us at the end of the night, either,” Declan confirms, his eyes skirting over the table. “At the hotel. When we decided not to have an afterparty and just hit the sack, he and Callum were both not there. That’s not like him.”
“Neither was EJ,” Arden mutters. “I remember that.”
“That’s definitely not like EJ,” Seth adds, shaking his head.
It’s quiet for a long moment. Declan sighs, glancing up at the house. “When everyone else gets here, donotbring this up. If Saltzy stays, let him keep his fucking sunglasses on without question, and if EJ comes back, drop it, alright? We’ll get this sorted out, but not publicly like this.”
“Reno’s going to notice Cal’s face in half a second,” Boston says.
“Then punch him in the dick before he mentions it,” Declan grumbles.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
boston
