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Xander
The heavy knockat my door startled me. I wasn’t expecting visitors. My brother, Jase, and Asher were at the country club. I’d declined their offer to go along, wanting to avoid them until tomorrow when I was going to officially give Jase my resignation, and then come clean about everything.
I couldn’t lie to him any longer. Not when he’d trusted me and given me the job. He deserved the truth, even if it shattered our friendship.
Crossing my apartment, I checked the peephole and opened the door. “Jase, this is—”
“We need to talk,” he gritted out, shouldering past me.
Dread flooded me but I didn’t have time to ask what was going on. When I closed the door and turned to face him, his murderous expression said it all.
“Tell me it isn’t true,” he said coolly. Too fucking coolly.
I bristled. “Let’s sit—”
“Sit? You think I want to fucking sit?” Disgust washed over him. “I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that it’s not true. I want you to tell me there’s no fucking way on Earth that you’ve been… fuck, I can’t even say it.” He blanched.
I held up my hands, panic surging through me. “I can explain.”
“Explain? What the fuck could you possibly say that even begins to explain how Darryn thinks he saw you and Peyton in Halston last night… together.”
“Fuck, Huckley saw us.”
My stomach dropped.
“Yeah, he saw you. Said the two of you were walking downtown looking very cozy.” Anger bled from his pores. “He called me earlier out of respect.”
“And to get one over on me, no doubt,” I muttered.
Jase pinned me with a dark look. “Not the fucking issue here.” He leaned back against the kitchen counter and let out a heavy sigh. “Talk to me, Xander. Tell me what the fuck is going on here.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen. I tried to—”
“Are you fucking her?”
My spine went rigid. “It isn’t like that.”
“You’re fucking sick. She’s a kid—”
“She isn’t and you know it,” I ground out. “She didn’t fall in the river that night, Jase. She tried to… fuck.” I ran a hand down my face.
“And you don’t think that was all the more reason not to get involved with her for Christ’s sake? She’s unstable, and you’re… fucking hell, Xander. You should have known better.”
Anger circled him like a storm. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. Huckley is threatening to go to the school board with this. She’s a student at the school where you work—”
“She’s eighteen.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter.” He boomed, the veins in his neck pulsating. “There are laws about this type of thing. Corruption of minors is a felony… you could go to jail. Do you have any idea the shitstorm that could rain down on you?”
My fingers went to my hair, tugging the ends in frustration.
He was right.
Of course he was fucking right.
And I’d known. I’d known that this could happen and yet, I hadn’t stopped myself. Because Peyton was buried under my skin, an itch that no matter how much I scratched didn’t go away.
Jase stared at me like he no longer recognized me. It was a look I was used to my brother wearing, but never Jase. He’d always been the peacekeeper, the one to try and smooth things over between me and Cameron. He’d given me a shot at something real with the team, and as far as he was concerned, I’d thrown it back in his face.
