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Lauren’s eyes were big as she looked past us. “What’d you do to him?”
I grunted as Cris swept past her, past them, and carried me all the way outside without stopping. “Hoping I castrated him.” The door banged shut behind us before he put me back down on my feet, but he crowded me, not letting me go back inside.
Amber, Luis, Troy, and Lauren followed us out.
Lauren grinned, moving around them, and coming to stand by us. “I snapped a pic of him, and I know those guys in there. They were recording the whole time. Heath said he’d share the video with us if we needed it for some reason.”
“You okay, Maren?” Troy came over, his hand going through his blond hair.
I liked Troy. He was the kind one in their whole group, but also tortured at times too. Striking good looks, he modeled at times to pay the bills. Luis was next to him, in a way so opposite his boyfriend. Troy varied between being pale at times, to being sun-kissed tan. Luis had brown skin, thick black eyebrows. Dark black hair. And almond deep eyes. They were both lean, similar height, just under six feet, but Luis had a mean side to him except when it came to Troy. Luis was also a smartass at times too, and there was no love lost between him and Jude, which caused a lot of drama among their band. Still, he slung an arm around Troy’s shoulder, and I caught a twinkle of concern in his eyes too.
He repeated Troy’s question. “You okay?” Adding with a jerk of his head toward the house, “The others are about done with him. Say the word, I’ll make an ultimatum. Me or him.” He smirked, leaning against Troy. “We can get another good singer, but great drummers are another thing. They’ll kick him to the curb, no problem.”
I just gave him a tight grin because my mind was trying to grapple with everything that just happened.
Jude had been fucking Toya. How long had that been happening?
But what Jude said. . . I eyed Cris warily, because he’d heard. And his eyes were on me, and they were not happy. He was pissed, but his mouth was clamped shut tight. Whatever he was going to say to me, to question me, he was waiting until later.
A shiver went through me, thinking about how that was going to go.
Amber said, “You got your purse.” She grinned at me, some stress lines surrounding her mouth. There were heavy bags under her eyes too.
I shot Troy a look and held up my arm. “Thank you for this.”
He nodded, flashing me a smile, and relaxing under Luis’s arm. “Of course.”
I asked Amber, tensing, “How long? Him and Toya?” There was also another question unspoken.
She seemed to deflate in front of me. “He was fooling around with her before you came onto the scene.”
I stiffened in shock.
“She told me they stopped, but apparently,” she motioned to the house, “you can see they hadn’t.”
Fuck. Fine. I would have to ask, “Did you know?”
Guilt flared in her gaze before she looked away.
She knew.
She turned away, hugging herself.
Luis and Lauren were both gauging her reaction before Luis snorted, flicking his eyes upwards. “They were hiding it until August. They stopped hiding it after that. You just weren’t around as much, so they got away with it.”
“You didn’t think to tell me?”
He shrugged, not caring. “Bro code, sweetness. Plus, Jude kept telling us you weren’t exclusive.”
“We weren’t, but—”
Troy stepped away from Luis, rounding on him. “Toya was her friend!” He shot me a look. “I didn’t know. Swear to you or I would’ve said something.”
I believed him. “Thanks, Troy.” My eyes flicked to Luis and I relented, “But he’s right. Jude and I weren’t ever boyfriend/girlfriend. We just hooked up all the time.”
Troy started to say something, but he swallowed his words, his eyes shooting to Cris, who began growling.
I tensed, edging away from him to the side.
