His brows go up and he chuckles. “Seems my reputation with the ladies has gotten around. What’s a pretty thing like…”
I see the light come on in his eyes when he places me. “Well, shit! Rain, Rain Rawlins, back in town and fine as hell.” He lets out a bark of laughter but still doesn’t release my arm.
He comes from one of the trashiest families in town. He and his brothers were all small-time drug dealers and had been in and out of prison for petty crimes and harassment charges even before I left.
“Gotta say, I was sad when you left town so I couldn’t stare at your perfect ass anymore but I wasn’t mad that you stuck it to the Kingston boys.” He leans close and I can smell the whiskey on his breath. “Now that you’ve shook those dogs off, what say you and I…”
“Get your fucking hand off her before I break it.”
The threat isn’t yelled, it’s growled with so much banked rage that it shocks me when I turn my head and see that it came from Chase. Blain chuckles darkly.
“I guess you do still have them on a leash, Rainy girl. How boring.”
“I said, get your fucking hand off of her, Blain. I won’t tell you again.” Chase grits out and takes another menacing step closer and puts his hand on my arm right above Blain’s like he’s going to wench it from the guy's grasp. I roll my eyes at the posturing like I’m some kind of toy they’re about to fight over but a chill of concern skates down my back when Blain drops his free hand down to lift his shirt up enough to expose a handgun tucked into the waist of his jeans.
“What if I don’t want to? Rain and I were just getting reacquainted. Nobody asked you to join our little party.”
This feels like it’s going to escalate to something dangerous when Chase drops his other hand on Blain’s shoulder and squeezes hard. I’m about to jam myself between the two of them when the biggest surprise of the night beats me to it.
Starlight ducks under Chase's arm and wedges herself between all of us. I’m shocked at the firmness and determination in her voice when she looks up at Blain and says, “Let her go, right now, Blain Joseph Colton!”
His hand drops away immediately and transfers to around her waist as his expression goes soft.
“There you are, Pixie.”
“What are you doing here, Blain? You know Rex banned you from this place. You’re not supposed to be in here! You promised you wouldn’t be trouble and cause me to lose my job!”
His free hand comes up and strokes down her long, pale hair.
“I ain’t here to get you in trouble, baby. I just needed to check on you, make sure my girl’s alright. I miss you, Star.”
She pushes him back a step while Chase locks an arm around my waist from behind to tuck me against his hard chest and pull me away from Blain.
“You don’t get to do that, Blain. It’s not your place to check on me or worry about me. You need to leave.” She looks around at all the people who’ve turned to watch the drama unfold and scowls at them. “If someone called Jackson…”
Blain scoffs again. “Fuck that guy. As if he’d be able to stand between us.”
Star stomps a foot angrily and as serious as this could have been, I can’t help but think how cute she is. With her delicate features screwed up in a mad face and her ethereal hair, she looks like a furious angel.
“He doesn’t need to stand between us, your lifestyle does that job well enough! Now go! Go before Rex sees you and I lose my job. Don’t take that from me too.”
His face goes pale but he lets her go and then pushes past her and us, shoulder-checking Chase on the way past. Star peeks up with a sorrow filled expression, mumbles an apology and takes off through the crowd.
Hetter steps up next to us, breathing heavily with glassy eyes darting around like he’s looking for a threat.
“I’m here! Who done did it?”
I snort a laugh and feel Chase’s chest rumble against my bare back which makes me realize he’s still holding me close even though the threat is gone. I decide not to analyze that right now when Maggie joins us and latches onto Hetter’s arm.
“Alright, big guy. Let’s get you home. I might be on my way to being my own boss but I’m not there yet and my current boss wouldn’t appreciate me rolling into work late and hungover.”
She looks my way, tracks down to the arm that’s around my waist, and bites back a grin.
“Rainy, you want to crash on the pullout? You’ve had a few too many to drive yourself home.”
He doesn’t even let me answer. “No. We’ll see her home. You guys take off.”
Maggie makes a hum of agreement but her eyes are dancing with amusement. She arches a brow at me and we have another silent conversation.
