Laurel walked away as quickly as she could. Nate started to go after her, but Robin caught his arm.
‘Nah, mate,’ he said, eyes flashing with anger.
Robin exchanged a quick confirmatory glance with Jack before pulling his arm back and punching Nate hard in the face. Christ, it was as if he had been hit like a tractor. He crumpled to one knee as pain exploded across his face, clamping his hand over his cheek where Robin had solidly landed his fist.
‘I told you if you hurt my sister, we would smash your face in,’ Jack said blithely. ‘And the two of you have pissed her right off.’
‘Alex, what the fuck?’ Nate shouted, getting back to his feet as quickly as he could. Somehow, this was all his fault, Nate knew it in his stomach.
‘Nate, come on, man. It’s not my fault she took it the wrong way,’ Alex huffed.
‘Tookwhatthe wrong way? What about a stolen paper?’ Nate asked, stalking forward towards his old friend.
‘I don’t know what she’s talking about,’ Alex lied, and lied badly.
Nate gave a brittle laugh. ‘Don’t give me that shit.’
Alex looked around, but there was no one to help him. Jack and Robin were watching intently, wondering whether either of them needed a further punching.
‘Look, I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have done,’ Alex said.
Nate frowned at him and barked out a harsh laugh.
‘I’m not sure that’s true, Alex.’
‘Come on, mate,’ he said, easy camaraderie barely masking his distress. ‘I didn’t say anything you didn’t think anyway.’
‘How the fuck would you know?’ Nate shouted, all semblance of calm completely disappearing. ‘I had absolutely no fucking idea that she’d written a paper, that you said those vile things and completely destroyed her.’
Alex sighed dramatically. ‘Alright, alright. I walked past her and saw that something had been left in your pigeonhole, so I took a look.’ He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘She’d even written a note on it asking you to meet her for a drink.’ Alex snorted. ‘Yeah right,’ he said under his breath.
What the actual fuck?
So, Alex was a thief, a plagiariser, a goddamned awful human being, and moreover, Nate was implicated as well.
‘Let me get this straight.’ Nate pushed a hand through his hair. ‘You saw something in my pigeonhole, read it, stole it, met Laurel, berated her, and then fed me her paper bit by bit as your own personal ideas?’
Alex finally started to look nervous and he licked his lips, eyes glancing to the hardened Fletcher boys. They were taking it all in. Nate would not want to be in Alex’s shoes if Robin and Jack decided to avenge Laurel further. Robin was a barely tethered Doberman.
‘I wouldn’t put it exactly like that,’ Alex said, wringing his hands.
‘How would you put it,’ Jack paused for a second, ‘mate?’
Alex threw an incredulous look at Jack as if he wondered how Jack even dared talk to him.
‘I’m not sure that you would understand.’
Robin’s neck strained as he held himself back, but Jack just laughed. Threw back his head and belly laughed.
‘I think the only one who doesn’t understand things here is you,’ he said, eyes crinkling from mirth. ‘You see this boy here?’ He flicked his thumb over his shoulder at Robin, who gave Alex a feral grin. ‘I’m the only thing stopping him from ripping your face off, so I suggest that you get the fuck off of my farm, and neverevergo near my sister again.’
Nate vowed to never get on the wrong side of Jack, because Alex looked as if he was about to piss his pants. He shot a pleading look over to Nate, but Nate just shook his head.
There was no way he was going to help Alex out of this shit storm, or any other shit storm, ever again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Laurel
