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“Let them work it out.” He curled an arm around my shoulder.
Ben’s eyes met mine, and I saw it. His self-destruct button had been pressed.
“Then why do I know what her lips taste like?” He said it so low, I barely heard him. Jude whipped around, fire in his eyes. There was no question he’d heard him too.
“Hekissed me, Jude. I pushed him away. I didn’t want it.” I reached for him, but he’d already launched himself at Ben.
They crashed to the ground, Jude on top, his fist slamming into Ben’s jaw. “You touched my girl without her permission? You touched my girl?” he roared.
“I love her. I fucking love her. She was supposed to be mine.” He sounded defeated. Just completely done in with it all. Not angry or bitter, but finished.
Ben barely put up a defense to the punches Jude rained down on him. It couldn’t have lasted for more than a minute, but by the time Tino, Juan, Jin, and Seven dragged Jude off Ben, my throat was hoarse.
That was when I realized I’d been screaming the entire time. And when I saw Ben lying on the grass, bloody and broken, the bile that I’d swallowed back earlier ripped through my body, landing on the ground in front of me.
Jude had stopped trying to get to Ben and started trying to get to me. The four men holding him could barely contain him.
“Stripes! Don’t you dare try to leave this house. Don’t you dare leave me!” He yanked at the arms holding him back. He thrashed and spit, more wild animal than the gentle man I’d fallen in love with.
“Go, Tali,” Tino yelled over Jude’s cries. “Find Nina and go. He needs to calm down.”
I ran into the house, sobbing hysterically. Nina ended up finding me and took me to my room. We laid in the middle of my bed, curled around each other, clinging to one another like rafts in a storm.
“Heather and I broke up,” she whispered.
“Good. Do you think Jude and I broke up?”
“No. But maybe you should.”
I nodded against her shoulder. It wasn’t what I wanted, but everything was dark, so grim, I couldn’t see my way out of this.
“It’s too late, and everything is too crazy to think right now. Let’s go to sleep, okay?” Nina stroked my hair, soothing me when I should have been soothing her.
“Okay. Let’s go to sleep.”
