“Of course I am, don’t be a Neanderthal.” My brother folded his arms across his chest as he lifted an eyebrow in question. “You can’t go in and throw your weight around. Ava will kick you in the balls. Again.”
Jett grinned with pride as he rubbed his crotch. “But she treats them so well.”
Shaking my head, I gave my brother a playful shove as I walked past him. “You have five minutes to remember you’re a Devil and not a pussy-whipped dick.”
“You know I’m not stupid,” his quiet voice halted my exit. “She’ll be okay.”
“I know.” I didn’t turn to look at him and waited for a moment before he spoke again.
“I need to check on her, too, sometimes,” Jett said softly. “Even Ash does.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I know.”
“As long as you do.”
Looking over my shoulder at my brother, I nodded once. “I have it handled.”
“I know, brother.” He watched me, his serious face so like my own. “You have to loosen the hold though.”
Rolling my neck on my shoulders, I tried to ease the tension. “I’m trying.” I walked out of the room before he could say anything else.
In my own room, I went to my bathroom and washed my hands and face. With hands clenched tightly onto the sink, I looked at myself in my mirror. My hair was longer than it normally was. I preferred it close-cropped, but I had let it get too long on top. My skin, like any athlete who played his sport outside, was tanned. Jett and Ash were both taller than me, but I was broader over the shoulders. I wasn’t overly vain; I knew I was decent-looking, and I had enough women throw themselves at me to prove it.
Quinn never threw herself at me. Not really. Jett nicknamed her Queeny early on; she just had a regal presence about her. Her head was always high, her back straight, and she had the “get the fuck away from me” vibe down even when she was eleven.
I didn’t need to go to the bar to make sure she was okay. I had put the walls up, and she had respected them. But I could see her struggling. When Jett texted me a few weeks ago to say she was hurting, I didn’t even ask him how he knew she neededme. Nothim.
I had dropped everything and run to her. She had sobbed in my arms for what she lost, and I had held her and promised to those above I would find out who hurt her, and I wouldn’t sleep until I had fulfilled that promise and buried their carcasses.
Quinn deserved pain in her life. She caused me enough, and she deserved to feel what I felt. But she didn’t deserve what she had gone through. She didn’t deserve anything close to that. None of the girls did. We had three films now, each a different girl, each a different heartbreak.
Selfishly, I was glad Quinn wasn’t on any of the film. I was barely holding on as it was, and if I had seen her on that table . . . I closed my eyes against the fury. The rage burned inside me, and I didn’t know how to put the fire out.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I pulled my T-shirt off, andputting on an identical black one, I grabbed my hoodie and my bandana. We would go from the bar to the next house. The plan wouldn’t change despite the small detour to the bar. I just needed to know she was okay, and I knew just putting my eyes on her, even for a brief moment, would calm my inner beast so I could be right for tonight.
We couldn’t fuck up. We couldn’t get caught either. I didn’t want to go to jail, but I would. For her.
With a disgusted grunt at my foolishness, I went out of my room to get the others. We’d check on her, she’d be fine, and we could move on to tonight’s job.
Ash grinned as he held up his bandana. “Great minds.”
“Easier,” Jett said distractedly as he checked his room for anything he might miss. “We go straight there after an hour in the bar, okay?”
“An hour?” I asked him as we descended the stairs of the dorm house.
“Problem?” Jett asked casually as he looked over his shoulder at me.
“No. Just thinking it’s a long night,” I replied. “Got an assignment due at nine.”
“Fuck, bro, why you never better prepared?” Ash chided.
“’Cause I do my best work on a tight deadline half-asleep.”
“He really does,” Jett agreed as we got into my car. I didn’t have an R8 like my brother. I had a nice, black, sleek Mercedes. It didn’t stand out as much as Jett’s car, and it wasn’t the environment-killer SUV that Ash had. I had a hybrid, and I didn’t give a flying fuck if they called me a hippie. One day, my kids would inherit the world I left behind.
“So . . . how do we play this?” Ash asked as he pulled the seat belt on. “Do we just tell them Jett’s a needy fuck, or . . . ?”
“How about we play to your horndog rep and say you’re needing some red in your life?” Jett snapped at him with a glare.
