As if the past few weeks haven’t traumatized me enough…
Lily:
Who was it?
Lily:
Don’t worry, I’m already thinking of ways we can use it to embarrass him! This is gold, Mae. OMG…
The door opened, Mae’s heart nearly jumping up out of her throat as she forced herself not to scream.Please don’t be one of the guys. Please don’t be Stone…
But it wasn’t one of the guys coming to find and yell at her for being reckless. Instead, out walked a flush-faced Jessie. Her eyes were wide and dreamy.Shit.There was nowhere for Mae to hide, and she felt the heat crawl up her neck. Why should she be embarrassed? Oh god. Her brother was intimately familiar with her friend. It was so weird being on that side of the situation. She’d given Hawk so much grief about not being too hard on Stone when he found out. And she already knew she was going to give him so much grief about his choice to fuck Dolly’s daughter, too.
Idiot.
“Oh, Mae! Hi!” Jessie ran her hands down her shirt. “What are you doing out here? Is everything okay?”
“I just needed some fresh air. I was tipsy as hell and just wanted to crawl into bed, but when I went back to my apartment, Hawk had a guest over and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Oh my god.” The poor thing looked like she might tip over from embarrassment. “You heard… I… Well, I’m just going to lie down here and hope the street swallows me up.”
“No. Don’t. You’re a grown woman. I just?—”
Jessie bit down on her lip. “Don’t want to see me with your brother?”
“Oh my god, no! It’s not about you at all. We’re friends, Jess. If he’s who you want, I’m happy for you. Just be careful. I wouldn’t count on Hawk ever being ready for something serious.”
“Yeah,” Jessie sighed. “I know. We’re just having a bit of fun. Things have been… intense… between us lately and I think it all just sort of boiled over. In the best way,” she cringed. “Sorry, I’ll spare you the details.”
Mae nodded, thankful for that. Her brother was more than a decade older than Jess. What was he thinking?
“Where is he? I can’t imagine he let you walk down here on your own? He’s an asshole sometimes, but never not in protector mode.”
“Oh, I… uh… well, he jumped in the shower. And I sort of slipped out.”
Mae laughed. “Okay, I take back my reservations. You are exactly what my brother needs.”
Jessie smiled. “I’m not looking for anything from him. I really appreciate that you want to save me from that heartache, but I’m twenty-four.”Fourteen years younger than Hawk.“There’s still a whole hell of a lot of life left for me to live before I’m ready for anything permanent. It’s just this infuriating chemistry between us. It’ll burn bright for a while, and it’ll be fun playing with that fire, but I think we both know it’ll fizzle out and then we can go our own ways when that happens.”
Shit, that was really mature of her.
“Do you know if—” Mae’s question was cut short whenshe heard an all too familiar noise. A metal ball, rattling against the side of a canister. Wet spray slapping against their beautiful brick. She’d had enough. First Stone, then her brain needing to be washed after hearing what was happening between Hawk and Jessie. She couldn’t take vandalism on top of everything else.
Those assholes better not be back tagging the side of the building again. It was one goddamn thing to do it some place abandoned, but to do it on the side of the fucking building where they knew cameras were placed…
“Hey, wait.” Jessie’s hand landed on Mae’s. “You don’t know who’s over there.”
“It’s just a couple of asshole teens. I’ve scared them away before. It’ll take me two seconds.” Mae pulled away, jogging to the corner of the building.
“Hey, assholes—” It wasn’t the three teens she’d confronted before. In fact, it wasn’t anyone she recognized. Her eyes bounced between the two mask-covered faces, to the black spray paint they had in their hands.
They weren’t tagging the building. They were spraying the cameras. Blocking out the video feeds. Mae knew she had half a second to run before they started coming after her. And she took it.
Turning, Mae shifted to the balls of her feet, ready to sprint away. Instead of gaining any distance, she slammed right into Jessie—who must have decided to come after her—Mae’s phone flying out of her hand and smacking against the ground with a sickening crunch.Wrong fucking choice, Jess. Mae knew it before the first hand landed on her.
She tried to scream. Tried to slam her head into the face of the person bending her arms behind her back.
“What the fuck do we do?” One man’s voice hissed.
