Lyric’s eyes go wide, and she nods. “Should I check on whoever he was with?”
“She looked fine, but yeah. It was Misty in the kitchen.”
Lyric goes up on her tiptoes, kisses me hard, leans back, and smiles at me. “See you later.”
She sways her hips and saunters into the kitchen. Feral’s eyes are glued to her ass as she passes by. Something akin to angerpulses through me, and as I approach Feral and see his salacious smile, it boils over, and I kick his stool, sending him sprawling to the floor.
“What the fuck?” Feral roars and scrambles to his feet. His arms are outstretched, and he glares at me.
“Keep your fucking eyes off my woman.”
“Highway,” says Justice. “Calm down. It’s Feral. It’s what he does.”
“Not to her. Not now, not ever.”
Feral’s nostrils are flared, and he’s breathing deeply. He drops his arms, fists clenched as though he’s going to hit me.
“Feral, walk it off,” orders Creed.
Feral quickly shakes his head, his eyes never leaving me.
“Feral, walk it off so I can talk with Highway.”
Nodding profusely, a smirk goes across Feral’s face. “Yeah, okay… sure, Prez. You talk to Highway.” He walks past me, and his shoulder rams into me. “I’ll be outside if you want to talk to me later, Highway.”
I take two steps to grab him, but I’m stopped by Creed, who stands between us.
“Let him go.”
“The little fucker—”
“I don’t care. Let. It. Go.”
There’s a tense silence as Feral saunters out, leaving me seething. Creed turns his attention to me, his eyes hard and unwavering.
“You need to control your temper, Highway. This isn’t the time or place for this.”
“He disrespected her,” I snap, my fists clenched, knuckles white.
“And you think fighting him is going to solve anything? We’ve got bigger problems than Feral’s wandering eyes.”
I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself. The room feelslike it’s closing in, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. Creed is right, but the anger still simmers beneath the surface.
“I can’t just stand by and let him look at her like that,” I mutter, more to myself than to Creed.
“I get it,” Creed says, his tone softening slightly. “But you need to pick your battles. This isn’t one of them. Have you seen how he stares at Devil or any of the other ol’ ladies? Let it go. Feral simply wants what we have. A woman of his own.”
I nod reluctantly, the rage slowly ebbing away. Feral is outside, and part of me wants to follow him to settle this once and for all. But Creed’s words echo in my mind, reminding me of the bigger picture.
Justice steps closer, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s get a drink and cool off. We’ve got more important things to focus on.”
I follow him to the bar, my mind still racing but my body slowly relaxing. Feral’s laugh echoes from outside, but I force myself to ignore it—for now.
ChapterTen
Lyric
Missy stands at the sink, her back to me, shoulders moving up and down as though she’s crying. The soft, muffled sound of her sobs tug at me. I clear my throat, and her hands fly to her face as she wipes away her tears.
