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“Why do you care?”
“'She was drinking.”
“Not enough to get a DUI.”
Pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger, I fight with myself to stay calm. “What does that matter? Driving with any amount of alcohol in your body isn't safe.”
Leighton's lips tilt into the slightest smile, as if she knows something I don't. It pisses me off.
“Pretty sure she's walking home, bro,” Crew chimes in, chest heaving from the exertion of fighting off a rabid Leighton. “Don't sweat it. She's fine.”
“Is she with someone?”
My stupid-ass brother narrows his eyes in confusion. “Nah, she's on her own. Why, you jealous she found someone else?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, making Leighton giggle like a child. It takes all of my self-control not to punch him in the face.
“She's walking home alone at this time of night?”
“Nothing's gonna happen to her in Tupelo, man.”
God love him, but Crew is the only one of my siblings who paid no attention to Mama's lessons on manners and how to be a gentleman growing up. Hell, the jury's out on whether my parents were even able to make a decent human being out of him. Even Conan, who by most people's standards is an intolerable asshole, would have offered to drive Thea home or called her a cab.
“Gimme your keys,” I demand. “I'm taking your car.”
“What the fuck, man?” he grouses but tosses them to me anyway. “Take your own.”
“Can't. Came on my bike.”
“Fine, but crash it and die.”
I don't give them a second thought as I leave them breathing heavily on the floor, cheeks flushed like they've just finished fucking. But then, I guess to those two, fighting and fucking are one in the same.
Thankfully, Thea hasn't even made it to the end of the driveway before I roll up alongside her in my brother's obnoxiously loud rally car. Even in the dark, I can see the whiteness of her breath and the violet hue of her lips. Christ, it's below freezing and this woman's out here in nothing but my old shirt and a slip dress that ends at her thighs. She's not even wearing pantyhose.
I'm already pissed at her for being so irresponsible of her own safety that I'm burning into a fireball of rage by the time I get the window down.
“Get in the car.” My voice is a low growl, barely audible over the rumbling of the engine.
She hears me, though she pretends she doesn’t. I guess she’s forgotten how well I know her or how I've had her facial expressions memorized since we were kids. Because it's the slight twitch in her eyebrow that betrays her, just as it has always done.
“I'm not fucking around, Thea. Get in the goddamn car.”
Her glare is cold when she finally turns to me, but it lacks the bite she's aiming for. Probably because her entire body is convulsing with violent shivers, her little chin shuttering like the lens of a camera. “Leave me alone.”
“So help me god, Thea, if you don't get in right the fuck now, I will come and throw you in myself.”
She stops walking and eyes me like she can't tell if I'm serious. Joke's on her, though. I'm as serious as a motherfucking brain tumor.
Before she can even blink, I’m rounding the car and lifting her into my arms. Though I can tell it pains her to do it, instinct has her burrowing her little body into me, her face finding home in the crook of my neck. I don't allow myself to acknowledge how it feels to have her in my arms again or how it smothers the rage within me like a blanket over flames.
How right it feels.
I simply carry her around to the passenger side and dump her unceremoniously into the front seat, leaning across her to buckle her belt before she does something stupid like trying to make a run for it. Only when I'm back inside the car and no longer touching her does the anger filter back into my bloodstream.
“Can you turn the heat up?” she asks, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her legs.
“It's already on full.”
Her chin trembles, teeth rattling so loudly I can hear it above the music playing quietly from the car speakers. Pretending to be focused on something in front of me, I watch out of the corner of my eye as she tugs the shirt I lent her tighter around her body in a fruitless attempt to warm herself up.
