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“With who?” I asked, again confused.
“Don’t act stupid with me. I’m talking about Saint,” he snapped, his eerie smile still intact.
“Saint’s not here.”
“He is. You see ... where I go”—he poked himself in the chest with a tattooed finger—“he goes, which means if I’m here, he’s here. You’re in his fucking house.” He held his arms wide, his grin turning even darker. “This is our fucking house.”
I hadn’t realized it, but the entire party had gone still. The music had stopped, and you could hear a pin drop as everyone listened to our exchange. Sadie stood beside me. I could see her out of the corner of my eye. Still, I stared ahead. My eyes remained locked with Joker’s.
“I didn’t know,” I said honestly.
I wasn’t backing down, but he needed to know I wouldn’t have stepped foot into the house if I had known it was where they lived.
“Well, now you do, yet you’re still here. Why is that?”
I could feel the eyes of everyone in the house on me. I swallowed, trying to keep the anxiety crawling up the back of my throat down. I was too prideful to turn around and leave, but I knew he was correct. I had no right to be there.
He chuckled without blinking, and his smile grew stiffer. He was getting angrier by the second, but I wasn’t sure what my next move should be.
“Let me break it down into words you might understand better,” he said, moving into me so quickly I jumped away, and my back slammed into the wall behind me. “Get the fuck out of our house,” he screamed into my face.
No one talked to me like that.
No one.
I had dealt with all types of people, but none were as scary as Joker. I was afraid, but I wasn’t about to let anyone around me know that. Instead of ducking and running, which I probably should have done, I pushed back into him and dug my fingers into his naked chest.
“Fuck you!” I screamed, pushing him yet again.
His brows pulled down low, and his blue eyes glittered like something from a demonic movie. His smile grew wider, allowing his jagged teeth to shine back at me. People gasped around us, shocked that I had spoken to Joker that way, and I agreed with them. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who gave a shit if I was a woman or a man. I steadied myself, ready to feel his backlash, but before he could respond, a mountain of a man moved between us.
My eyes moved up the muscled back of the massive stranger who probably saved me from even more significant embarrassment. I had never seen someone so tall. He towered over Joker before placing a large hand on Joker’s shoulder.
“Chill,” he said in a deep, raspy voice. “I’ll get rid of her. Breathe it out, man.”
They were obviously friends. I was thankful the big guy had broken us apart. He turned and looked down at me with eyes so dark they looked black. He was a beast with no emotion in his eyes, but when he reached out and touched my arm, there was a softness in his touch.
“Come with me,” he said, wrapping his large fingers around my arm and directing me toward the front door.
I didn’t stop him or drag my feet, and I was glad when I realized Sadie was behind us. I wouldn’t have to walk home if she was with me.
The party continued behind us once we were through the front door and out on the porch.
“Thanks, Crow,” Sadie said, talking to the mountain who had saved me.
Crow.
I had heard the name around The Strip.
“Yeah,” I said, drawing his attention my way. “Thanks.”
He didn’t respond. Instead, he nodded his head toward the road as if to tell me to leave, and then he turned his back on us and went inside, closing the door in our faces.
Sadie turned my way, her mouth hanging open in shock.
“I had no idea you knew Joker,” she said.
I crossed my arms against the cool air surrounding us. “I don’t really know him.”
