“I’m sorry I caused problems,” she apologizes softly.
“Ignore him,” Jax says as he leans back against the sofa. “He’s just pissy because Layla put him on the sofa.”
“Because of me?” Verity asks nervously.
“No. Because I brought home the wrong type of bread. Goddamned fucking hormones.”
I chuckle finding his predicament absolutely hilarious. Layla has him wrapped around her little finger. If she’s miserable then he is definitely miserable, but it serves his ass right for shutting down everyone and everything else for so damn long. Of course, we’ve all found out Layla had a part in that too. It’s hilarious to see Rory without his balls. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Except for maybe Bastian, but I don’t quite foresee the same outcome with Verity. She and Layla couldn’t be more different. She definitely has him wrapped and he is losing his balls as we speak, but the dynamic there is different because she is different.
I look over to Bastian with my biggest asshole smirk. “Glad to see you took my advice.”
Jax and Rory sit up like I just told them their wives were about to perform a strip tease. “Your advice?” Jas questions with a smirk.
“Of course, it was him. He’s some kind of fucking romance savant,” Rory grumbles as he tosses back a drink.
I shake my head with a chuckle. I’mnota romance anything. I just know those three guys better than anyone. And I pay attention to people. If I were some kind of romance genius, Tori wouldn’t still be fighting what I know - can see she feels.
Christian walks in a few minutes later looking like he just got laid. “What took you so long?” Rory barks.
“He was coming from Hunter’s place,” Tristan says it like he just said Christian was coming from the store.
Mine and Jax’s eyes grow wide that the cat is out of the bag. I see Bastian wince. Apparently, it’snota big secret except from Rory.
Rory throws himself a fit, yelling about dealing with Layla which he will definitely have to do. More likely than not, this shit will land him in the doghouse for sure, even if he can’t control Hunter or Christian.
Then we finally move on to why we’re here, and it blows my mind. I definitely never saw it coming, but I knew the minute that Bastian started talking with Verity in the room, Rory would lose his shit.
But my focus stays on Verity. You’d think I would have been better prepared to catch her when she ran. You’d think that out of everyone here, I’d be the one most likely to catch her before she reaches the door. But not only do I miss all the signals that she’s about to bolt, the girl is fast as fuck. I mean holy hell.
Bastian, fortunately, has dealt with her running a few times now, and knew to get in front of her. “Calmati, Principessa,” he tells her.
She starts shaking her head as tears flow down her face. Whatever is going on is scaring the fuck out of her, and again, she is reminding me a bit of Zoey. Only this time, I can see that Jax recognizes it too. His shoulders tense and his eyes are darker, the demons he’s been fighting since what happen to Zoey, swirl vividly in his eyes.
“They’ll tell I’m here,” I hear her sob to Bastian.
“Do you trust me,Principessa?” She gives him a nod, so he continues. “Then trust me when I say no one in this room will tell anyone you’re here. Not now. If and when we do, it won’t be for some exchange. It will be to tell them you aren’t going back.”
I walk up behind her and place my hands on her shoulders. She turns and practically throws herself into my arms out of fear. “Come talk to us, Darlin’.”
She looks between Bastian and me before nodding.
I pull her into my side. I don’t care if it pisses Bastian off. The girl needs someone to make her feel safe. I’m sure he could do the job except you can feel his anger building, growing, and radiating from him.
He begins to explain to us what’s going on. Suddenly, all of my wariness regarding the douche from the meeting the other day are completely justified even if I can tell that we aren’t getting the entire story. I don’t need it. I can feel in the way her body is trembling almost violently the rest of the story, and it fucking pisses me off.
For some reason, Tristan’s brain and mouth are not communicating tonight. He begins to run off in grand fashion like he’s suicidal or something. I may not be afraid of Bastian, but I know the fucker is deadly. I also know, you never talk shit about a guy’s girl. Not like Tristan is doing for damn sure. Even the most peaceful of dudes would lose their shit to protect the girl they love. Sebastian Delrie would probably leave a trail of bloody bodies.
Bastian is about to go after Tristan again Rory grips him by the arm gesturing toward the girl curled into me sobbing violently as I stroke her hair. He reaches out for her, and she accepts his hand. His focus is on his girl, and I feel proud of the guy. For the first time in years, he cares about someone. He’s always cared about us, but this is different.
We begin to make our way out. Jax gives Verity a hug as we leave.
“I want that fucker skinned alive,” Jax hisses as we climb into my truck.
“I’m pretty sure, at some point, we’ll get our chance. You saw that look on Bastian’s face. He would’ve killed Tristan tonight if we hadn’t been there as a buffer,” I tell him as I exit Bastian’s ground floor garage.
“You did get the same feeling I got, right?”
“Yeah, I got the same feeling,” I admit.
