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Or had she left because she couldn’t stand to see me kissing someone else?
I didn’t know, and that just pissed me off. I jumped to my feet. “Fucking hell, Lucy. What is your problem?” I took a step closer to her, but before I could get so much as an inch closer to the girl, Harris was suddenly standing between us.
The look in my friend’s eyes was something I had never seen before. Rage was rolling off him in waves, his fists balled at his sides as his wild eyes met mine. “You don’t talk to her like that. Ever.” Harris’s voice had been low, but no less full of fury. He was practically shaking with reaction. “I will fuck you up fast if you touch her.”
Some of my own anger faded as I wiped ginger ale out of my face. “Whoa, bro,” I said, trying to calm him down. “I wasn’t going to touch her. I don’t hit chicks.”
I’d never raised my hand to a female in my life. Not only because I knew Alicia would have kicked my ass and then dropped me into the best military school in the country, but also because of Kassa. I would never show her what kind of evil pricks there were in the world. Our old man had liked to hit our mother and even me when I wasn’t fast enough to find a good hiding place. I’d made sure Kassa was never hit, though. Even as a kid I probably would have killed the sonofabitch if he had tried to touch my baby sister in any way.
Lucy calmed down instantly at the sight of Harris’s rage. She reached for his hand, trying to turn him to face her. “Harris, relax.”
His eyes locked on mine, which led to an intense stare down. Fuck. Harris knew I would never raise a hand toward any chick, especially not his Lucy. The stare down went on and on and I was starting to realize that I was probably about to have an actual brawl with the guy who was one of my closest friends. Hell, my only friend. I didn’t want to fight him, but if I had to, I wouldn’t back down.
Lucy, having no luck grabbing Harris’s attention, suddenly pushed her way between the two of us. It was weird seeing the girl who was barely five foot five standing in front of the beast that was Harris Cutter. Harris stood at least a foot taller than her, with the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. She looked so small standing there in front of him, the lamb trying to calm the lion.
She cupped his face in her hands and stood on tiptoes to attempt to bring them to the same eye level. There were still a handful of inches keeping that from happening though. “Hey, hey,” she said, keeping her voice soft and calm, but loud enough to be heard over the music and the crowd that was upstairs with us. “Harris? Hey, come on. Look at me.”
Harris only tensed even more at her touch and all thoughts of worrying if I was going to have to fight my friend flew out the window at the thought that with him that pissed he could hurt Lucy by mistake. “Lucy,” I said, touching her arm, “maybe you shouldn’t stand so close to him like this. He’s shaking he’s so pissed.”
Harris moved so quick I didn’t immediately react. He reached past Lucy, pushing me back with one arm while the other wrapped around Lucy’s waist and pulled her against him like he was never going to let her go. “Don’t fucking touch her,” he roared.
“Dude, what the fuck?” I growled when I’d righted myself. “I was just trying to get her out of the way in case you turned into the Incredible Hulk on her. Chill out. I was just looking out for her.” I stabbed my fingers through my hair, noticing that it was still soaked with the soda, and already sticky as hell. Fed up, I shook my head at him. “Fuck this shit. I’m going home, man. Call me when your brain starts working again.”
I left—without the groupie who had been all over me earlier—and went straight home. After a long shower where I had to wash my hair twice just to get all the stickiness out, I fell into bed with my phone already out. Like the fucker who was such a glutton for punishment, I pulled up Kin’s contact info and tried to call her.
It went straight to voice mail after only one ring. Gritting my teeth, I dropped my hand and glared at the ceiling. At least she hadn’t blocked my number. Something I had expected her to do weeks ago with the way I called her so often. If she really wanted nothing to do with me, wouldn’t she have blocked me a long time ago?
That thought put a small grin on my face and it was still there when I rolled over onto my stomach and fell asleep.
That had been four weeks ago. She hadn’t returned any of my calls during that time, and I’d bare
ly seen her but she still hadn’t blocked my number. And it was taking her longer and longer to send me to her voice mail lately. A rational guy would have given up by now, I was sure, but I couldn’t let her go. The more she avoided me the more I realized what an ass I’d been and I was desperate to get that girl back.
It was Wednesday and I figured it was the only chance I would have that week to see her, so I got my ass out of bed and into the shower. I wasn’t going to waste a chance to spend a few hours with Kin, even if all she did was ignore me like she normally did.
I was grabbing my keys when my phone started going off and I quickly pulled the phone out of my jeans pocket. “Kassa?”
“Hey,” she greeted, but there was something in her voice that told me my sister wasn’t her normal self. That had me pausing with my hand on the door.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded, fear lacing my voice. Alicia was supposed to have her scan the week before and I knew that she was waiting on the results. Had they come back?
“Nothing,” Kassa started, but I made a disbelieving noise that had her blowing out a sigh. “I’m just lonely, Jace. I miss you and Gray. Alicia seems to be working even more lately even though the doctor told her to take it easy.” I heard a quiver in her voice and my gut twisted. “I hate being alone all the time.”
“Christmas is only a few weeks away, Kas. You could fly out here,” I tried to convince her but knew that wasn’t what she really needed. Kassa had always had me and Gray to comfort her, we had always been there when she needed a pair of arms to hug her if she was having a bad day. We’d always been there to let her snuggle or cuddle. My sister wasn’t a needy chick, but she had never had to be because between me and Gray, we’d always been just a step behind her to offer her the support she needed.
Now, we were on the other side of the country and she was left alone the majority of the time. Phone calls and FaceTime didn’t make up for warm hugs.
“I don’t want to leave Alicia,” Kassa reminded me not for the first time, and I gritted my teeth.
Alicia had been told repeatedly by her doctor in the last few weeks to take time out from work to get better. She’d been having more and more migraines but the more often she was sick the harder she worked, leaving Kassa alone to the point that she was basically the only one living in the house we’d grown up in. Kassa had school and other activities to hold her attention, but there was no one there to talk to once she got home. No one to tell about her day until she called me and Gray.
“Kassa…” I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. I couldn’t fly home for Christmas because Tainted Knights was expected to play every week, and if she didn’t want to leave Alicia I knew there was no way I could talk her into getting on a plane to come to California. We both knew that Alicia wasn’t going to take the time off work, not even for the approaching holidays.
“I didn’t call you to cry on your shoulder, Jace,” Kassa grumbled. “I just wanted to check in on you. I haven’t talked to you in a day or so.”
“I lost my phone two days ago,” I explained. It had taken me hours to find it at First Bass. It had fallen out of my pocket and gotten stuck between two cushions. The battery had died so I had been unable to call it so I could listen for the damn thing before the club had opened the night before. I’d been about to start slicing leather cushions when I’d finally found the fucking thing.
“I figured,” she said with a small laugh. “Gray said you were fine when I talked to him, but I know how you two are. To him, fine only means that you are still breathing. Anything else is trivial to you guys.”
