Even I realized how people had moved for him and how people were looking through the window now.
Jameson didn’t stop for any of them. He was on a damn mission to meet us at the railing of that balcony and confront us.
People pretended not to stare, but I knew they were, knew that if I didn’t de-escalate the situation, Archer might have to stand toe to toe with him.
I wasn’t quick enough though. Jameson acted faster than I could move and plowed a fist into Archer’s face right over my head.
His guys flanking behind him meant to block the scene from others, but people inside screamed, and I lunged for Archer. Not before Jameson’s arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me up against him, though, gripping my hip hard enough to prove a point. I shoved at his grip, digging my nails in and probably drawing blood, but it was no use. “You asshole. You know I dragged Archer out onto the dance floor. Let him be.”
He ignored me. Didn’t even look my way. Archer was the one he wanted, and he made that clear when his tone rolled out, so pointed and matter-of-fact as he told him, “You’re dead to me and the Diamonds, Archer.”
I had to give Archer credit. He didn’t cower or bow toJameson. He spit blood onto the cement and then licked the split lip. “You saying I’m not officially a part of the syndicate?”
“No. That’s not what he’s saying,” Hades interrupted, combing a hand through his hair as he glared at Jameson. “What the fuck? He’s my guy and yours.”
“He could be my brother, and I still would have made him bleed for touching her,” Jameson growled, and then he looked at Pink and Olive, who were shaking their heads. He eased me away from him and told them, “Keep her on the balcony.”
“I’m not staying anywhere if you take Arch—”
“He’s going to the bathroom with us,” Jameson said, eyeing Archer with pointed authority.
“Don’t go,” I told Archer, but he was already wiping his face and walking forward like he had a death sentence but intended to take it with pride. He even nodded at me and gave me a wink, which I tried to take as a signal that everything would be okay.
I didn’t have much of a choice either, because four huge men blocked the balcony entrance after Jameson and the guys walked through it.
I was being held against my will again.
“He won’t kill him, right?” I asked the girls quietly.
Pink glanced at Olive and Rosy, who both shrugged. She then tilted her hands up and down like it was a fifty-fifty before she answered, “No … well, I don’t think so.”
Jameson
“YOU WANT TO FIGHTme for her?” Archer asked me even though he was on his knees now in the guys’ bathroom on piss-stained tiles about to beg for his life. We’d caused a damn scene that Cal would have to clean up tomorrow, but he was good for cleaning up messes anyway. If there was footage of Diamonds acting out in the news, he got rid of it before it saw social media outlets.
I wasn’t concerned about that.
I was concerned about my own men turning against me for my pretty little teacher.
“Fight me and you lose, Archer, every fucking time.” I had my damn pistol out, and I wanted to use it. My finger itched to pull the trigger on him because I hated men who weren’t loyal to a fault.
Didn’t anyone get that? How could they not after what I’d done to my father?
“That’s the problem with you, dumbass.Iwon’t fight you. I’m on your side. But you can’t trust a fucking soul.”
I didn’t need a lecture; I needed him to shut up. The gun was at his temple as fast as my fist had connected with his mouth earlier. Through clenched teeth, I told him, “You knew better than to dance with her.”
“Calm the fuck down,” Cal yelled from behind me, but he didn’t step in my way. This was my choice, and he knew it. No one was saving Archer but Archer himself.
And that fucker didn’t even flinch. He was as unhinged as all the rest of us. “Mia deserved a good night after weeks of being holed up in a place she doesn’t feel like she fits in. You’d be wise to make her feel differently.”
I shoved the barrel harder against his skull. “You want to give advice with a gun to your head?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” He rubbed at the blood trickling down his chin, but I wouldn’t feel bad. He may have been loyal for years, but it didn’t justify his behavior now. “I spent time with her, man. You’re not going to win over that girl by blowing the head off of her friend. That’s what I am to her … and nothing more. You and I both know it. You’d be wise to believe her if you want her.”
An actual war ensued in my head, wrestling with the jealousy in me, with the adrenaline that pumped through my veins, with the rage I wanted to succumb to rather than the understanding I had to embrace.
As I lowered my weapon, he grumbled, “She’s not a Diamond, and you’re never going to win her over by acting like one.”
