“Bastard. You’re such a bastard.” I half squealed and laughed. I finally struggled loose and rolled to my knees, my hand scooping up mud as I slid inelegantly to my feet. “Payback is a bitch.”
I lobbed the mud ball at him and took off, sliding on my feet as I tried to sprint to safety but found myself defying gravity as he hoisted me over his shoulder with a shout of victory.
I was laughing so hard at my attempt to get free from his grasp that I didn’t hear the bikes pull into the yard. I didn’tknow how long they’d been there when I finally caught sight of them, but I knew something wasn’t quite right as Drew swung his leg over the bike and dropped his helmet onto the seat.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Drew
The yard fell quiet as my eyes narrowed in on Ayda and Kenny. The moment my feet hit the ground, my shoulders rolled in my cut and my face tensed.
I wasn’t prepared to play by today’s rules anymore.
Every part of my body was charging with a new kind of energy, the flames of anger growing and growing until they were curling around every piece of muscle, skin and fabric that was on me. Slater’s quiet groan was the only thing I registered as I began to walk forward.
I couldn’t fucking see anyone but the two of them, her and him rolling around on the ground, his hands touching places that didn’t belong to him—touching someone he had no right to touch. There was no urgency to me reaching him. I knew that once this beast inside me was unleashed, things would get fucked up, so I took my time, trying to collect my thoughts as my chest heaved in and out and the muscles in my jaw flexed back and forth.
Everyone remained silent, their eyes wide as I gave each one of them a quick glance of fury from beneath hooded eyes. When they landed on Ayda, I saw her full smile fall slowly and the small scowl form on her face as she pushed the hair and mud away from her cheeks.
Her hands, which only moments earlier had been playfully punching Kenny’s kidneys, reached up to tap his arm and gain his attention, but her eyes never left mine. They were still narrowed in confusion.
I groaned quietly, and as soon as Kenny saw me, he guided her down and avoided looking my way. His body tensed immediately, one foot shuffling on the ground as he tried to turn away, bringing the back of his hand to run under his nose.
The fucker knew.
He knew.
“Having fun?” I growled.
Ayda looked at me in confusion, her hands pushing her muddy hair from her face before planting her hands on her hips. “We were playing football.”
“I was talking to him,” I said through gritted teeth.
Seeming unsure, whether of Kenny’s silence or my dismissal, she twisted her head to look at Kenny in question. “Okay.”
He twisted back around, his head rolling as he closed his eyes as if to try and figure a way out of the shit he was obviously drowning in. When he opened them again, he gave me a resigned shake of the head and shrugged. “Not what it looks like, Drew.”
“That so?”
He didn’t answer.
“I asked you a question.”
He still didn’t answer.
“Tell me what it fucking looks like, Kenny.”
Throwing his hand out to the side, he swallowed when his palm landed back down against his thigh. “Defiance, I guess.”
“You guess?” I hit back, low and threatening as my eyebrows rose and I took a step closer. “Oh, I see it now. This is the part where you make me look like the possessive dick. This is the fucking part where you act innocent so I look like the bad guy, right?”
“Drew,” Harry called out from somewhere around us, but I wasn’t moving an inch. The blood was still dripping down one side of my face and all the adrenaline I’d been storing up for days seemed to have found a nice target in the form of Kenny’s face.
“It was just football,” Kenny finally spat out, turning around fully as he straightened up his shoulders.
“From where I was standing, it looked a lot like you were playing football with my girl’s ass.”
Ayda’s eyes went wild as she stepped forward in an attempt to get my attention. “Wait just a goddamn minute. What the fuck is going on right now?”
