“Fuck,” he whispered.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said, holding Connor’s chin, so he was facing me, but his eyes were on Warren and the girl. “Connor, look at me.”
He did, but his eyes were no less stormy. I looked back over and saw Hudson approach Warren. He said something so that the girl had to get off him, and the two of them walked away. Warren looked over at us as they headed towards another group of brothers, I could see the look in his eyes, pleading with Connor.
Hudson had read the situation and acted to fix it. I wondered how many times he had done that for them, and it made my heart ache.
Connor deflated a little but put a smile on his face as he saluted Ransom and Cassie and let me go.
“Where are you going?” I snagged his hand.
“Dancing won’t do it for me tonight, Curtsey,” he whispered. “I’m just gonna go hang out.”
“Stay with me,” I told him, not letting him go. I could see he wanted to pull his hand away, he wanted to lash out, and he was struggling hard with himself. “Please,” I got in front of him, not caring who was looking, although I could hear Cassie and Ransom talking about their parents. “Don’t leave me on my own. I need you.”
“You’re fine, Wave. You’re always fine,” he brushed my hair behind my ear. “Stronger than all of us put together.”
Then he pulled his hand from mine and walked away, disappearing into the crowd of people. I started to go after him, but the music cut off and my dad’s voice rang out over the noise. Everyone hushed and turned to look at him. I barely heard what he was saying though, searching for Connor. I made up my mind and started after him.
Everyone was cheering and out of the corner of my eye I saw the prospect, Kansas, head over to my dad who was holding up a new cut, beaming. The kid looked a mixture between nervous, tipsy, and excited.
The music started again, more cheering, but I kept pushing through, I had to find Connor. Someone stepped in front of me, and a spiked heel came down on the top of my foot.
“Ow,” I cried out, goddammit why did I not have any shoes on. I hopped, grabbing my foot.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I step on you?”
I looked up at Tanya, she was smirking, not sorry in the slightest for what she had done. In fact, it was obvious she had done it on purpose. It was obvious she wanted to start something with me, but I didn’t give a fuck about some club whore. Connor was more important.
I elbowed her out of the way, her indignant cry left behind as I darted away too quick for her to react. Screw her and whatever stupid game she thought she was playing. Not with me, bitch. Not tonight.
I spotted Connor by the pool. He was staring into the water. No one was swimming tonight, the lights were off, so the water was like a dark sheet of glass. He was so focused that he didn’t hear me coming towards him. But someone stepped in front of me again.
Fortunately, it was a man, so I didn’t have to worry about fucking Tanya but when I looked up, all the blood drained out of my face.
“Waverley,” he smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile, it was the smile of a sleazy opportunistic asshole, and it made my skin crawl. “Long time no see,” he said as he leaned towards me. “In fact, if I remember rightly, the last time I saw you…” he trailed off, but his meaning was clear and to punctuate it, he ran the tip of his finger down my forearm.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed at him, he just smiled down at me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Andrew Reinhart, the man who ruined my life. “You didn’t know,” he said smugly. “I work with your dad now. I’m currently deeply involved with a lot of things relating to the club.”
“You’re lying,” I said through my teeth. “You wouldn’t work with my father. With the club. Not after what you said. What you were going to do.”
“I was a kid then and you know how it is, you do and say stupid shit when you’re a kid. Besides, it got me what I wanted, didn’t it?” he laughed, and it was a horrible sound.
It brought back hideous memories, and I had to fight to stop my eyes filling with tears. This was the last place I ever thought I would run into him. In fact, I had hoped I’d never lay eyes on him again.
Andrew knew what this was doing to me and moved so that his back was to the crowd, his height and size hiding me from everyone.
“Besides, I’m making a shit ton of money off this gig. Why the hell would I stay away when I can use this place to help make me a millionaire?”
I didn’t know what to say to that. My head was reeling. Could he be serious? He was working for my dad? Doing what? My stomach revolted all the tequila I’d drank, and I felt the urge to vomit all over his preppy loafers.
“Come on, Wave,” he said in a smooth whisper. “We had a good time. Right?”
Andrew wrapped a hand around my wrist, licking his bottom lip. I glanced down, saw the gold band around his third finger and tugged my arm away, wrenching him so he stepped closer.
“Well now, sweetheart,” he said. “If you want to catch up, I think I could find a quiet place around here.”
