She nods. “Thanks, Joss.”
“You’re welcome. But Molly?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not convincing anyone I’m your brother. If you want this dude gone, I’m gonna kick him out because he’s a lecherous cunt. This is your chance to tell me I’m wrong.”
Molly winces. “You’re not wrong, but can you wait until I’m out of sight?”
I can live with that. She points out the table she’s escaped from, then melts into the crowd. I track her as she reaches Kai and yanks him through the staff door, then I shoulder my way through the throng until I reach the yuckster who came here to get some. “Oi. Dickhead. Date’s over. Get the fuck out.”
He blinks.
I take the opportunity to drop my hands on the table and lean over him. I’m not as big as Kai or Tanner, or even Jax, but I’m not small, and I grew up fighting Peckham road men a hundred times tougher than this hair-gelled handjob. “Don’t make me say it twice.”
It’s not a complicated conversation. For a brief moment, he wants to fight me. Then he doesn’t, and he hightails it out of the bar so fast he knocks over his chair.
Sighing, I right it and find a bartender whose name I happen to remember. Oz. “Don’t let that greasy geezer in again. He’s probably had a wank in the bogs.”
Oz has clearly spent enough time with Jax to decipher my Brit speak. “I’ll screenshot his face on the security footage and add it to the wall of shame.”
Works for me. Our interaction was fleeting, but the guy had creep written all over him. How the fuck did Molly wind up on a date with him?
I need to ask her. Or tell someone closer to her to monitor that shit. But first, Ineedto find Kai. We have unfinished business that’s still heating my blood, and beyond that, I just wanna know he’s okay, cos that look on his face?
Even from a distance it fucking killed me, and Kai deserves better than to lose the giddy anticipation we brought home so soon.
I weave through the crowd and slip through the staff door. The stairs disappear two at a time, and I fully intend on sprinting all the way to the apartment, but it proves unnecessary.
Kai’s waiting on the top step, sitting with his knees bent, elbows resting on top.
He blows out a breath as I come into view. “There you are.”
“Miss me?”
He rubs his chest. “Something like that.”
Damn, this dude. I nudge my way between his legs without a second thought and bend to embrace him. He’s damp with sweat from our ride home, but he’s overheated too. Vibrating. “Too busy for you, eh?”
He makes a frustrated sound. “Don’t pull on that thread.”
“Why not?”
“It’s bullshit.” He draws back and stands, making himself a foot taller than me. “Crowds give me the worst flashbacks, and it makes no fucking sense because it has nothing to do with what happened.”
“Does it need to make sense? Maybe your brain gets overloaded like mine. Overstimulated by noise and too many people. It’s hard to protect yourself when the world comes at you from a thousand angles.”
“Yeah, I know that. I did all the fuckin’ therapy. It’s just annoying, and I can’t seem to get over it.”
“Yet. Nothing stays the same forever.” I take his hand and step over the stair he’s glowering at me from. “Come on.”
I draw him to the apartment we share and fish the keys from his pocket. Still holding his hand, I unlock the door and precede him inside. He follows me whether he wants to or not, cos I’m not letting go of his hand. Not until he’s safe on the couch.
Only then do I leave him, and even then, it’s only to go to the fridge and find the strawberries and coconut whip I stashed in there earlier.
I take them to him. “Try this.”
Kai fights to clear the fog from his mood. I recognize the battle more than I want to. “What is it?”
