Adam’s unnecessary shout of welcome garners far too much attention. Everyone at the booth turns around to face us. I can see the slight tensing of Oakley’s jaw from here and I straighten my back in response. Braden slaps a hand on my shoulder and pushes me forward as he starts walking towards the group, smiling like the damn Cheshire Cat. Choking down my grumble, I shove my hands in the pockets of my jeans and try my damndest not to look like I’m being led to the guillotine.
‘As fashionably late as ever, big man,’ Adam slurs, his statement clearly aimed at the brute beside me. Adam’s arm is slung loosely over Braden’s shoulder.
“Isn’t that Gracie?” Braden asks nobody in particular, staring off to the side.
My throat tightens as I follow his line of sight.
She’s standing tall with her hands placed firmly on her hips, barking harsh words at the girl standing in front of her, replicating her stance. It takes me a few seconds before I realize that the girl in front of her—wide, square-framed glasses and all—is none other than Beth Winston, stalker-extraordinair.
Beth always creeped me the fuck out with how she was always watching Adam with big, beady eyes back when they were in Uni, and the hatred she felt towards Ava was like something straight out of a horror movie. She didn’t even know Ava anymore than you could know a random person in a coffee shop that accidentally spilled steaming hot coffee all over you. We all knew that she was only after Ava because she was closer to Adam than she was. The entire feud between them was just confusing and weird. But it’s been three years since then. So why the hell is Beth acting like a deranged ex shoving around a girl who has never so much as looked in her direction before?
I’m as surprised to see her as much as the next guy, but as I watch her take another step towards Gracie with a spine chilling sneer, I know that I won’t be able to sit back and watch whatever’s going to happen next.
Gracie’s head smacks against the brick wall behind her and she lets out a gasp of pain, falling back against the wall. Adam rushes past me before the growl rising through me has a chance to escape. I stare at him. His cheeks are flushed in anger, eyes cold and hard, his jaw set. I haven’t seen him this angry in a long time.
‘Keep your hands off me!’ Gracie shouts, the urgency behind her words cuts straight through me and urges my feet to start moving towards her. In my rush to get to Gracie, I push past a guy I have never met before, I catch a glimpse of the two girls before I am shoved out of the way by a couple of gawking asshats. I growl when one of their elbows digs into my ribcage, sending a jolt of pain through my side. My fists clench at my sides. I turn my attention to the two frat-boy-looking douche bags.
Walk away. Walk away. Walk away. This is not the time to start a bar brawl.
My gaze is torn away from the two guys when someone shoves past me, pushing me out of the way. I whirl around and see Oakley forcing his way through the crowd. An outraged cry rings throughout the bar and I’m focused only on getting to Gracie. I follow after Oakley as we both head towards the same girl.
‘What is your deal, you psycho?’ Gracie’s eyes are wide, bewildered, and her lips are slightly parted. Beth stares at her in an anguish that even I feel in my core. Her hands are twitching at her sides, and her foot taps the floor to an off tempo beat. She looks manic.
‘Where’s Adam?’ Beth spits. My eyes move slowly over Gracie, tuning out the catfight as I look for any piece of her out of place or, even worse, hurt. Even the thought of it makes my chest throb.
My teeth grind together as soon I see the red patch of hair at the back of her head, and a stream of blood cascading down her cheek. Locking my steely gaze on Beth, I start towards them only to have my arm squeezed in a tight grip. The hand yanks on my bicep, sending me faltering back as I look down at the familiar, tattooed forearm.
‘Let go over me, Oakley. I won’t ask again,’ I hiss.
He ignores my comment with a shake of his head, but lets go of my arm.
‘She can take her. Trust me.’
‘She’s hurt.’
‘I know. If Beth wasn’t a girl, you know I would be out there beating the life out of the sorry fucker. But Gracie won’t want us to interfere. Not with this one.’
Pride ripples through me as I watch Gracie pull her shoulders back and huff, clearly exhausted from this entire thing. She takes a menacing step towards Beth. Beth tilts her head, taunting Gracie.
Gracie’s lips move slowly as she takes another brave step towards her opponent, face set in stone. Then, she finally snaps. Her arm shoots out. Gracie’s clenched hand flies toward Beth, hitting her smack on the bridge of her nose.
Beth reels back, and her eyes go wide. An animalistic scream rips through the air. My jaw goes slacks, my groin tightens, an unabashed sense of pride filling me. That’s my fucking girl.
“Don’t ever touch me again,” Gracie spits,. Her words are laced with venom.
Beth’s top lip curls, and her right hand forms a fist. Gracie takes a step back and starts to lift her hands to protect her face when she sees Beth pull her arm back. “I always thought you were just a pretty face. Guess I was wrong—”
‘Beth. You need to leave.’
Gracie whips her head around, searching for the person who decided to insert themselves into the stand-off. Confusion mixed with a wave of fierce anger is clear on her face. When her eyes find Adam, she relents and drops her hands.
Adam takes a cautious step towards a very clearly unstable Beth. She is staring at him lovingly from where she stands in front of Gracie. He raises his arms slightly, as if he is trying not to scare a wild animal when he moves closer to her. He doesn’t pay attention to the buzzing group of onlookers surrounding us. He focuses all of his attention on her.
‘You don’t need to make this any more of a scene, okay? Let’s go outside,’ he pleads, in a gentle tone. Beth nods her head in agreement, smiling broadly at him. Adam visibly relaxes.
Relief floods through my body, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Adam leads Beth away from Gracie and through the crowd.
Gracie stays where she is, her feet planted firmly on the floor, eyes wide. She raises a hand to the back of her head and winces.
Her eyes meet mine through the dispersing crowd, the lack of drama doing little to entertain their drunken minds. A brave group of stragglers stand off to the far side, watching her, almost as if they can’t believe the small, innocent-looking girl in front of them could have possibly stood up to a complete maniac.
I tear my eyes away from hers and glance around me, searching for her scary big brother to no avail. Oakley is nowhere to be seen. It’s almost a relief. The space around me is empty now as I dart my eyes around the bar, the tightness in my chest from being squished shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers fading into nothing.
‘You okay?’ Gracie’s voice runs down my spine, sending chills down to the bone. My eyes lock on the thin, red cut above her eyebrow and the several scratches on her arms as soon as I turn back around. I’m shocked that I resist the sudden, almost overbearing need to run my calloused finger around her wound in hopes of taking the pain away. Her hair is knotted and her cheeks are flushed. I almost chastise her for asking if I’m okay after what just happened to her, but I don’t want to upset her.
I swallow harshly and nod. ‘We need to clean those cuts and make sure you didn’t crack your damn skull.’
Her lips part slightly, a hiss slipping between them when she reaches up and touches the back of her head, flinching back at the sting. ‘Okay.’
‘Were you . . . you know? Watching that back there?’ she asks after a few beats of awkward silence as we walk side by side towards the dingy bathroom.
‘Only the last part,’ I lie. I keep my eyes trained in front of me, swerving us between stumbling idiots as I try to force this uneasy feeling deep, deep down and leave me the hell alone.
The stupid stick man rests above the men’s washroom. I don’t hesitate to push the creaky door open and place my hand on her lower back, leading her inside. ‘Stay here,’ I order and leave her beside the door before she can argue with me. I move towards the closed stalls, kicking open the closed doors one at a time, which luckily for us all happen to be empty. I turn to the door and twist the lock.
‘Can I move now?’ she asks, sarcasm dripping off her tongue as I watch her fold her arms across her chest. My eyes flash down to the prominent cleavage showing as she unknowingly pushes her tits up with her arms, but I manage to pull them back to the dried cut.
I turn on the creaky faucet and grab a wad of paper towels from the holder as I wait for the water to heat up. She leans back against the countertop when I turn back around, bright eyes glued on me, greedily watching me gather everything I need to clean her up.
‘Get up on the counter,’ I tell her, wetting a piece of paper towel in the now warm water. Looking back, I watch as she raises an eyebrow at my somewhat forceful command and cocks her head to the side.
‘What’s the magic word?’
Setting the wet towel down beside the sink, I turn to her, taking slow—almost predatory steps until we’re close enough that I can watch the desperate swallow she takes. Her eyes trail up my torso, until they rest hungrily on mine.
‘Now.’
Her surprised yelp makes me smirk again as I place my hands on her waist and lift her effortlessly onto the cold counter. I reach over and wrap the wet towel in my hands, moving between her legs.
‘Wasn’t that so much easier?’ she teases.
‘Sit still. I don’t want to hurt you,’ I mumble as I raise my hand and gently pat at the dried crimson with the rough paper towel.
‘You don’t have to do this, you know. I am a big girl.’
Ignoring her comment, I spin her to the side before parting a section of blood soaked hair, finding nothing more than a small cut. I sigh in relief and carefully wipe away the blood. “How did this happen anyway?’
She scoffs and rolls her eyes dramatically. ‘I saw Beth when I finished talking to my brother. Apparently she lost Oakley and wanted someone to take her to Adam. I said no.”
I toss the last paper towel into the trash and back up to examine how iffy of a job I did and I nod my head in approval. That is as good as it was going to get. I move to take a step back but her fingers wrap around my wrist to pull me back in place.
‘Thank you,’ she whispers, tangled in each other’s gaze as we stay surrounded by the silence given to us by the private bathroom.
The feeling of her fingers rubbing across the top of my hand consumes me as fast as the heat behind her eyes has. I want nothing more than to sit here and feel her delicate touch on my imperfect skin all night long.
‘Let me in,’ she murmurs quietly, inching closer to me. The seconds flick away slowly around us.
‘You wouldn’t like what you would see.’
The air surrounding us is thick, heavy with tension, almost like the world is begging me to open up and let her see the deepest, darkest parts of myself that have been expertly hidden from everyone, including myself. She has no idea what she’s asking of me. Of herself even. She doesn’t deserve any more heartbreak in her life.
She’s too pure.
