PROLOGUE
EARLIER THIS YEAR
Leo
“She’s gonna go!” Liaden shouts to me, but I’m already diving to catch Sadie as she passes out in my arms, bombed out of her skull. In the process of catching her I knock a glass to the floor, smashing it to smithereens. The red, orange, and yellow lights in the nightclub dance over the shattered shards of glass, making them glitter like a disco ball. A beautiful mess, just like my girl.
She’s completely out cold, her head lolling against my chest as I brush hair out of her face, but she’s not a bad colour or temperature, and her pulse is stable enough. I think she just needs to sleep it off. Given how much Em told me she had to drink before I arrived, her collapsing was pretty much inevitable.
I scoop her up carefully and hold her tightly as I make my way to the exit. Liaden and Em gather Sadie’s handbag as well as their own and follow me to the door, where a burly bouncer I’ve never met before is giving me a hard look.
“What’s going on here?” he shouts over the still-pounding music.
“She’s my friend,” I shout back, “and she’s not feeling well.” He looks me over suspiciously, clearly evaluating whether I’m the kind of disgusting scumbag who spikes women’s drinks and then brazenly carries them out of the club in full view of everyone. I meet his stare, hard, refusing to look away. He can pry her out of my cold, dead arms. I’m not letting her out of my sight again until she’s sobered up. “She’s pissed as fuck, man. I’m getting her out of here, and then she won’t be your problem. Or you can take her, and when she pukes on you, that’s what you chose. So let me pass, yeah?”
“It’s true!” Em pipes up. “Heisour friend. I called him here when she started to, uh, feel unwell…”
One look at Em’s sincere, worried,prettyface, and he’s putty, convinced I’m OK after all. That’s the Em effect. She’s so mild and genuine that everyone trusts her straight away.
“Yeah, he’s alright, Mick,” a voice says next to me, and I’m relieved to see Ashton, one of the regular security guards here and a long time friend. From the way Mick immediately backs off, Ash obviously outranks him, and it’s a relief that he’s here. “Whoah, Sadie overdid it, huh?”
I nod. “Big time.”
“Alright, you need a hand?”
“Nah, I got her,” I reply, and he holds the door open for us. Careful not to knock her against the doorway, I ease out of it, followed closely by my friends.
When I got here I parked my Jaguar at a haphazard angle just outside the club. My normal ride is an Audi, and I normally keep the Jag for special occasions only, my own private indulgence. But when I got the call from Em, all I could think about was which car was fastest.
“You got her?” Liaden asks, clear and calm as a nurse on duty. I turn to her, and her gaze is gently insightful, like she knows I broke speed limits to get here, and she knows why. I like her. She’s good people, and a delightful chatterbox, usually. Given who she’s dating, it’s heartening to see how cool she is in a crisis.
“Yeah. Hey, reach into my pocket? My keys…” Awkwardly, I lift Sadie out of the way and manoeuvre myself to make it easier for Liaden to access my left front jeans pocket, and she retrieves them without a word. Ordinarily I’d make a joke about her not getting any ideas, or, if she wasn’t Dean’s girl, ask her if she felt anything she liked. But not tonight.
I let her unlock the Jag while I look down at Sadie, checking her out. She’s paler now, a little sweaty, and grimacing in whatever kind of sleep she’s getting right now, occasionally snoring softly or making annoyed guttural noises from her throat. I hate how much emotional pain she’s in these days. Particularly when it’s for someone who never deserved even a passing moment of her attention, let alone her tears.
Em is frowning in confusion as she takes in my car. She’s never seen it before, probably didn’t even know I had it. But I’m not a flash Harry, and it’s no big deal, really. Sometimes, when Eli was ensconced in wedding prep with Em, and Dean was enjoying his first taste of true bliss with Liaden, and Sadie was playing house with a dickhead, I’d simply jump in the Jag and take off for a long drive, enjoying the low purr of the engine. Sometimes I’d blast out a new album, sometimes I’d just take in the gorgeous British coastal scenery. I’d usually end up sitting on my great aunt’s park bench atop the cliffs, where I go when I need some peace. And where I usually end up thinking about how much I wish the woman currently snoring in my arms was sitting next to me instead, so we could watch the sun setting over the ocean together.
“Ready?” Liaden calls, and from the look on her face she’s had to do it a couple of times to get my attention.
“Yeah.” I walk over and, as gently as if she was a newborn baby, ease Sadie into the passenger seat. She grumbles a little, but her eyes stay closed and her head hangs comfortably as I arrange her limbs and lean over her to buckle her seatbelt. Her hair curls gloriously in a halo around her face, and she’d look like a sleeping Botticelli Venus if it wasn’t for the drool at the corner of her mouth.
“Would you like us to come with you?” Em asks.
I look up at her as I shut the passenger door. There’s arguments for having Em and Liaden come along too - extra help when wrangling a pissed up friend is never a bad thing - but I’d rather just handle this myself. Look after her,properly, the way Peter should have and inexplicably never did. I shake my head. “That’s OK, I got her.”
There’s total confidence in her face as she nods at me. Unlike those assholes taking advantage of Sadie’s drunkenness in the club, Em knows she’s safe with me. Always has been, always will be. Even when Sadie was dancing pressed up close to me the way I’ve always wanted, trying to lure me in for a meaningless ego-boost of a one night stand, she was safe and sound. I had to grit my teeth against how good she felt, but never in a million years would I have taken her up on it when she was wasted like that. She didn’t really mean it, and sober consent is theonlyconsent. I kind of want to head back into the pub to give those two guys a black eye each to make them think twice next time there’s a vulnerable woman in their sights, and make a note to have a word with Ash about them so they’re on his radar in the future. Other women they come into contact with might not have friends looking out for them, self defence classes under their belt with enough sobriety to use them, or someone like me on hand to threaten those shits into fucking off.
Liaden links arms with Em and smiles at me. “No worries, call us if you need us.”
“Thanks, Rizzo. You ladies OK to find a cab?” I’ll give Rizzo and Sandy here a ride home if they need one, but I’d much rather just get Sadie somewhere safe and comfortable. They nod, so I jump into my car. Sadie hasn’t moved. With a final wave to the two women, I drive off.
It’s only when I’m half a mile away that I realise Em still has Sadie’s bag, and therefore Sadie’s house keys.
“Shit,” I mutter. I could turn around and see if I can catch her…
“Mmmmmmmph,” Sadie whines fitfully next to me, squirming uncomfortably. Her eyes snap open, and she makes the most horrendous, guttural retching sound that has me jumping out of my skin.
“Woops,” I say, putting a gentle hand on her back and easing her forward so she doesn’t choke. And also, so she doesn’t ruin her top, scant though it is. I’m prevented from thinking further about how good it looks on her by the genuinely disgusting and loud noises she makes as she vomits on the dashboard and in the footwell. I haphazardly pull her hair back with one hand as best I can, and I get most of it out of the way.
