Colson glances over. I don’t miss the way his jaw muscles jump. His eyes aren’t as calm when he looks back down at me. “Head up to your apartment. We’ll talk later, okay?”
The way he says it, fast and without question, has my stomach flipping with unease. Is this guy here for him? KnowingI shouldn’t, I look over in his direction again. Sure enough, he’s still staring.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
He swallows, no doubt trying to ignore that this person is thirty feet from us. It might still be daylight, but I’m not keen on the way his shoulders seem more rigid or how his expression goes from cozy to cold.
“Look, I don’t have an explanation for you. I just need you to listen, Violet.” How tightly my name falls from his lips makes my stomach knot more.
“Colson.”
“Violet,please.”
“Is that the guy that hurt you?”
I don’t know why my mind goes to that right away. Actually, no.I do.
Because this guy looks like trouble. Colson’s reaction to him only solidifies that. Along with him not wanting me around. Fear of him showing up at my door again after getting the living hell kicked out of him comes to mind. I can’t see him that way again. The bruises on his ribs and how much pain he was in…
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
“Says who?”
“Says me,” a deep voice declares, barreling straight into my conversation with Colson.
I look over, seeing this stranger standing not five feet from us, his cigarette gone.
When he offers a sinister grin, my thoughts scatter.
“Moore, tell your girlfriend to beat it.”
“I’m not…” I look to Colson, waiting for him to say something. Anything.
When he doesn’t, Stranger Guy adds, “I don’t give a flying fuck who you are to him. Whether you sucked him off last night or not means shit to me.”
Whether Iwhat?
“Violet.” Colson says it with care, but I note the urgency. “Go.”
This intense need to stay with him takes over. More than anything, I want to make sure he’s safe. But I’m also not sure I want to stay and find out what this is.
If they were friends, he wouldn’t be telling me to go inside, would he?
Goosebumps break out on my skin, and the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rise.
Something isn’t right.
I take in Stranger Guy once more, memorizing his features before looking back over to my friend because that’s what he is at this point, isn’t it? Colson and I have been through enough to throw the F-word out there.
Please go up to your apartment. We’ll talk soon,he tells me with those blue eyes.
Except I don’t want to talk soon. I want to talk right now and hear what the hell is going on. Even if it isn’t any of my damn business.
“I’ll wait for you in the lobby,” I offer, thinking it’s better that I let this guy know I don’t plan on leaving Colson to fend for himself.
Stranger Guy chuckles. It’s like nails on a chalkboard. “How goddamn sweet.”
