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“Excuse me. Sorry.” I don’t wait to see the blonde’s reaction before breaking away from her and making my way across the floor. “Hey. I need to talk to you.”
The way his face falls and his eyes roll, it’s pretty obvious he’s not happy about being interrupted. “Sorry,” he tells the girl before sighing and following me off the dance floor. As soon as we are closer to the bar, I turn on him, even shoving him a little when I see his smirk.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What do you think you’re doing?”
“Last I checked, I was dancing. So were you, remember?”
“No. Don’t do that. I wasn’t dancing the way you were.”
“Oh, so there’s a difference now?”
“You know damn well there is. Don’t be cute. Don’t act like you don’t know exactly what I’m saying. We made a promise, remember?”
“I remember.” He couldn’t sound less impressed. “And last I checked, I’m honoring that promise.”
“Technically. But not really.”
“You’re not my mother, Ash. Stop acting like it.”
“Then stop pretending you have any interest in being true to Harlow.”
His head snaps back before he folds his arms. I’ve seen that hard look in his eyes, but usually he’s looking at an opponent. Not at me, his best friend. I’m usually an observer, not the subject.
“You’re serious. aren’t you?” He laughs, and the sound is like nails on a chalkboard. “Get real. What, you think she’s not screwing around with Ryder? Do you think they didn’t sleep together the second we were gone? Give me a break.”
“Don’t even say that.”
“Too late. I did. And you’re fooling yourself if you think they’re not —"
I’m not going to wait for him to say it again. Once was bad enough.
“Fuck off!” And then, because I’ve completely lost my mind, I do something I never imagined doing. To anybody else, but not to him. And not in a club full of people.
My right fist pulls back, then pistons forward before I know what I’m doing. The satisfying contact it makes with Soren’s jaw almost makes it worthwhile, and a rush of satisfaction races through me when his head snaps to the side and he stumbles backward. He recovers quickly, touching a hand to the spot where I made contact, and at first he smiles.
Then, he hits me back. Pain explodes across the side of my face when he strikes my cheekbone – not hard enough to break it, but enough that I’ll feel it in the morning. “The fuck is your problem?” he bellows, while everybody around us backs away.
“Your fucking attitude is my problem!” I shove him with both hands, and he glances off a high-top table before throwing himself at me, driving me back against the bar. I barely register the shouts of surprise and fear around us. All I know is, he’s going to pay for this. I’m going to make him pay.
At least, that’s what my stupid, alcohol-soaked brain thinks until a pair of very large hands take me by the shoulders and pry me away from Soren, who is also being handled by a bouncer. “Out, both of you!” the bartender shouts, and I barely have time to react before the two of us are being hauled out of the club by our necks.
No way this doesn’t get back to the team, to both teams.
No way it doesn’t get back to Harlow.
Even more than that. No way are we ever going to be the same after this.
11
ASH
What am I doing? Standing here, nervous as hell, pressing my finger to the doorbell and listening as it chimes inside the house. It’s barely seven in the morning and probably way too early for a visitor, but I didn’t exactly think this through. This entire trip was planned at the spur of the moment.
The first of my worries was cleared when I pulled up in my Uber and found no other cars besides Harlow’s parked in the driveway. I see now how worried I was. My eyes were peeled for Ryder’s car – it’s not exactly the kind of thing you could overlook or mistake for someone else’s. It’s not here. He’s not with her.
Maybe she’s not here. Ever consider that?She could’ve gotten a ride somewhere and not come home yet, which would explain her car’s presence. Maybe she spent the night at his place.
Then I hear her and see her shadow moving behind the curtain in front of the door’s glass cut-out. When she pulls the curtain inside, her eyes go wide the way I knew they would. She flings the door open fast enough that she’s still in the middle of gasping by the time we’re face-to-face. “What are you doing here?” she squeals before jumping into my outstretched arms.
