“Oh hey, was I in the way?” Shane asked as he looked around the wide hallway in which Jett could easily have moved around him.
Jett’s eyes flicked to mine, and then his attention was back to Shane. “Need a minute with her,” he told him.
Her?Asshole.
“Oh.” Shane was looking at me curiously, and I knew I was scarlet. “I didn’t know you were friends.”
My strangled laugh caught both their attention, and Shane took a step toward me. “You okay?” he asked me with concern.
Jett raised an eyebrow, daring me to say otherwise.
“Yeah, absolutely.” I nodded, not making eye contact with either of them. One could see right through me and the other,well . . . I didn’t want to lie to his face. “I’m really thirsty, would you mind getting me some water?”
“Of course.” Shane smiled, and his hand ran down my arm in a familiar way, which caused Jett to narrow his eyes and my cheeks to burn brighter. “You sure you’ll be okay?” When I nodded, he stepped back. “Meet you back downstairs?”
“Absolutely, I’ll be right behind you.”
Jett didn’t have to speak. His face told me I may have been hasty with my assumption on the speed of this next conversation.
Shane lingered for a moment more before the Saints’ number eight turned his head and stared right at him. The message to move along was loud and clear. With a gulp, Shane dashed down the stairs.
“Nice,” I snarked as I watched Shane’s retreating back.
“How’s your Instagram?”
Embarrassment flushed my face this time. “Haven’t checked.”
“Hiding?” The smirk was back, and he looked far too pleased with himself.
“Never.”Liar.
“I told you not to do it,” Jett said casually. Almosttoocasually, as if he thought being friendly toward me was going to ease my nerves. Well, he didn’t know me that well.
“Well, thank Christ I don’t have to listen to you.”
The friendliness vanished as quickly as it had come. Hard blue eyes traveled over me before he made eye contact again. “Don’t you?”
“No.” Defiantly, I met his stare, Quinn’s words from earlier in my head.
“We’ll see.” Jett leaned into me, and I pressed myself up against the wall, my breath leaving my body in a rush in my haste to get out of his space. With that smirk in place and humordancing in his eyes at my reaction, he pushed past me as he entered the room I had used the bathroom in.
My hand grabbing his arm surprised him, and well it should, because it shocked the hell out of me. “Wait.” My voice cracked, and I couldn’t take my eyes off my hand curled around his forearm. “You don’t need to be a dick. You don’t need to try to intimidate me or send your psycho girlfriend to give me veiled threats.” With confidence I wasn’t feeling, I looked up at him. “I didn’t do this to you, but I told you, I’m willing to tell whoever you need about what I remember if it helps you. I’mwilling tohelpyou.”
Jett’s hand covered mine, plucking my hand off his arm and dropping it like it personally offended him. “Who were you with?”
“When?”
He looked over my shoulder, jerking his head toward the stairs. “Boyfriend?”
“Shane?” I looked toward the stairs. “No.”
“Fuck buddy?”
My head snapped back at him in disbelief. “No, what iswrongwith you?”
“Got drugged, fucked a girl, got suspended from football.” Jett said it so matter-of-factly without a flinch, butIdid at the brutality of his words. “What’s wrong withyou?”
Asshole. “Got wasted, fucked a guy, got threatened.” I could play his game even if I didn’t match his coldness.
