Running both hands through my hair, I tugged on the short strands hard enough for a bite of pain to reach through my rage-fueled haze. Pacing the back alley, I kicked a dumpster, and my foot’s collision with the unyielding metal sent a shockwave up my leg.
I wanted to feel something. Guess I got my wish.
“Feel better?” Cal’s voice said as my vision finally cleared.
“No,” I grumbled, returning to where they leaned against the brick exterior of the bar.
I reached for the handle of the exit door, but Jenner slid in front of it, blocking my path. “Not so fast.”
My first instinct was to fight my way through him. I needed to get to Bristol, to make sure she was okay.
Seemingly reading my mind, that redheaded bastard cocked a smirk. “You gonna hit me too?”
One half of my brain warned that I was in enough trouble, but the other half figured that if I was already in a hole, what did it matter if I dug a little deeper?
“I need to see her!” The frantic need to see her safe settled in my chest, making it difficult to breathe.
“Who?”
“Bristol, who else?”
Jenner looked at me like I’d lost my mind, shaking his head. “Unreal. You couldn’t stay away. Now look at you.”
I charged at my best friend, my chest pressed against his. “Are you fucking telling me that if you saw some asshole pinning Evie to a wall, you would just stand there and do nothing?”
His nostrils flared, and he gritted out, “Leave her out of this.”
“No. I need you to know where I’m coming from. It doesn’t matter that we’re not together. She said no, multiple times, and he ignored her. Thought because they had a history, she was playing hard to get. And then, he had the balls to act all chummy with me when he discovered I’d been with her too. Tried to warn me that she might want more than meaningless sex because that’s all she was good for.”
A muscle in Jenner’s jaw twitched. “Fine. You’ve made your point.”
“Now let me pass.”
“No.” He refused to back down.
“Goddammit!” I screamed. “I need to make sure she’s okay!”
Cal stepped in. “No, what you need to do is lay low until we can make sure the little shit has been handled.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “Can one of you go in and check on her, then?”
“When we pulled you off Levi, Jaxon grabbed her. She’s shaken, but she’s okay.”
“How did she end up alone with him?” I needed answers.
Cal shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t know he was here. He wasn’t invited. And as for Bristol, were we supposed to follow her into the bathroom?”
I scoffed. “Don’t women usually travel in packs in that regard?”
A shadow passed over his blue eyes, and he softened. “She seemed like she needed a minute alone.”
Instead of his words setting me at ease, my concern shot through the roof. “Why?”
He looked skyward and blew out a breath. “Let’s just say I’m not the only one bothered by your night with Hannah.”
“Who fucking told her?”
“She asked Hannah point blank how you two knew each other. And my wife doesn’t know when to keep her damn mouth shut. Poor girl looked like she wanted to cry. The idea of other women is a trigger for her. I’m sure you can imagine why.”
