AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Zath, on the other hand, looked conflicted. I had a feeling he was still waiting for that moment to come when I’d leave him behind.
“Are you okay, Zath?” I whispered. He nodded, his face smoothing out as he let go of whatever was bothering him. He had something in his hand and I laughed as he spun the shiny badge around in his fingers. “Tell me you didn’t grab that from one of the cops.”
“Of course, I didn’t,” he said but was already cracking up. “That would have been hilarious though.”
El cut in before I could interrogate him. “It’s not real, I promise. We just thought it was funny. There was this little shop and they had their share of toys and seeing as how today was such a shitshow, we figured we needed something to remember it by. Especially if we’re getting kicked out now.”
“Yeah, are we still part of this?” Zath demanded. “They let me go within thirty minutes. Whatever Stanley’s grudge with you is, apparently didn’t extend to me.”
“Lucky you. My interrogation was short because I pissed off the cop. I’d bet my favorite coffee mug that he has an in with the board or Stanley.” I sighed. “I was in that room after talking to the cop for three-and-a-half hours, just sitting by myself. The wait was insane.”
“What did they find, why’d they finally release you?” El asked.
“They had nothing on me,” I said bluntly. “Apparently, one of the judges is allergic to pistachios and they were claiming that we used them in our drink. But none of the alcohol we used for that shot had any nuts in it whatsoever. Not to mention, apparently, they don’t even have them on the shelves anywhere. When they finally said I could leave it was because they said they had footage of a staff member but gave me nothing else about the whole incident.”
“That’s so fucked up,” El said angrily. “Holding you without evidence, then giving you no apology. They need to be called out for this.”
“I don’t know what to do here, honestly. We can’t spend every day being attacked,” I said quietly. We had to put ourselves first at some point.”
“Let’s not cause a scene yet. Something is clearly going on here, and if we play our cards too early then we’re going to just look like dropouts and risk our businesses and reputations. We may not like it but they’re literally the local board. They have knowledge and connections in every aspect of owning a bar. Do we really want to burn those bridges?”
Riven’s words were full of logic and I hated it. What I wanted to do was burn the whole event down and dance on the ashes. Maybe that wasn’t the most noble of me, but they’d crossed us too many times already.
But I also knew he was right.
“I don’t want to risk it, either. I worked too fucking hard for this. We’ve come too far in this competition to just drop out because of some stupid bullshit. But if someone doesn’t feed me soon, then we’re going to have real problems.”
“Well, I think you need to get out of this building, so let’s head downstairs,” Zathrian insisted as he grabbed a hoodie for both of us, tossing mine over. I pulled it on, grabbed my wallet, and followed them out. We stopped at El and Riven’s room long enough for them to grab what they needed and lock up.
“How are you not in jail?” The icy tone had me stopping. We all turned slowly to take in the bitch who obviously caused all of this trouble. Or at least some of it. The fact she said those words specifically likely meant she had a hand in what happened. At this point, I wasn’t going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Oh look, it’s Lacey,” I deadpanned. “How are you not kicked out of this competition for all of these false accusations? You know, if you minded your own fucking business more often, then maybe you wouldn’t have to throw yourself at my men. And if you touch them again, I’ll fucking end you.”
Her red-painted lips formed into a shocked circle as she listened to my tirade. At my threat, she finally snapped out of it. I could tell she was definitely one of those people that used her looks to her advantage; even now she was dressed up to accentuate every curve and bit of cleavage she had. Her makeup and hair were done to perfection.
“I’m not the one who tried to poison a judge,” she said snarkily. “You should be rotting in a cell for that. It was on camera, the whole world saw it.”
“And yet I’m not, because I haven’t broken any laws. So, if you’d kindly move, we’re going to go get some food since, you know, I actually have mates to go with.”
She let out a growl of frustration, but we all turned our backs on her. Though, Riven did fall in step behind the group, protecting his mates in case she tried something.
We made it all the way to the elevators, the door closing as she made a beeline for the stairs. I had a feeling this wasn’t over yet.
Sure enough, the moment the doors opened she was standing there like a Barbie avenging angel ready to strike, hands on her hips and sneer on her face.
As if that would stop us from getting around her.
“Do I need to call security to remove you?” Zathrian asked coldly. She looked him up and down before dismissing him. That had my blood boiling.
“Why are you so obsessed with me?” I questioned, making a joke of it. My voice was so loud that we were getting attention from everyone in the lobby. She glanced around nervously and took a few steps back. “My mates and I were going to get some lunch. You need to back off and stop trying to get between bonded mates. That’s the lowest form of desperation.” My tone was as judgmental as I could make it and whispers soon followed. Her face was now as red as her lipstick and she stomped off, heels clicking loudly as she made her exit.
“Damn, somebody is on the possessive side,” El joked. His hand was on my lower back as he led me through the lobby and that was the only thing grounding me. All eyes were on us but I ignored the hushed murmurs completely.
Of course, it seemed that chaos was just going to follow us wherever we went. Stepping outside the front doors, we were met with Lance again. His father hung back, looking worried as his son approached.
Lance held up his hands. “Look, I’m not necessarily here to talk about you and me, though if you ever give me the chance to, I would love to talk about that. But this is about my safety and your safety. Can we please talk?”
Something in his voice was so serious that I couldn’t just step away from it. But I was also at my capacity for bullshit today. I was frustrated and hungry and ready to snap. One horse could only take so fucking much. This one week already felt as if it were two months long with all the insanity I’d endured.
