Tyler pushes off the car and takes a concerned step toward me. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Nope,” I repeat, snatching the blunt off him and biting it between my teeth.
I walk right past them toward the elevator, staring at the picture of me and Laney pinned to my lock screen. It was one we took on a glamping trip for my birthday years ago. Cameryn and Tyler were there too. I pull the blunt from my lips, running the pad of my thumb over Laney’s pixie cheek with an exhale.
I’m not going to stop until I find out who did this to us,Lanes.I promise I will not fail you too.
“You’re doing good for yourself, B,” Ty states, spinning around and resting his shoulders against the large doors that open outonto the balcony. It has just started raining. Lightning forks and drags across the sky, though no rumbled thunder follows.
Lifting my chin and pushing back into the sofa, I draw my feet up and rest them on the upholstered light gray cushion beneath my ass. I balance the chicken Katsu rice bowl in my left hand and retrieve the chopsticks perched between my teeth with the other.
“Thanks,” I state quietly, snatching a piece of chicken and savoring the tangy sweet barbecue sauce it’s drowning in.
I’ve always been a sauce kind of girl.
Tyler pushes off the glass being hammered with water and slips into the armchair at the edge of the coffee table, running his hands through the longer strands of dark hair at the top of his head. There’s shuffling to my side when Cameryn moves around the table and places a cup of piping hot lemon and ginger tea in front of me before throwing a bottle of water at Ty. She drops down beside me, snatching up her own bowl, the same as both mine and Ty’s, and starts to dig in.
Ty’s bowl looks so small in his large palm when he leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he shovels rice into his mouth. He places it down and takes a sip of his water, then he speaks around the last dregs of his mouthful. “So, what are you doing with yourself? You got work?” He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Yeah,” I confirm, placing my own bowl down and cradling the herbal tea in both hands. It heats my palms, sending warmth easing through my body. I snuggle back into the cloud that is my sofa and rest the skull mug on top of my raised knees. “I, um…” I clear my throat when a piece of rice gets lodged, then I keep my chin to my chest, flicking my eyes up to Ty’s focused ones. “I bought a commercial space a few months back, renovated it, and opened The Barbed Cherry.”
“What?” Cameryn spits, placing her own food down, her blue eyes now widening out of her head. “The club that has a show and stuff?”
I nod, hanging my wrists over my knees, tapping my nails against the mug. “Yeah, that one.”
The lock at my front door clicks, and all three of us snap our attention toward the noise. Caleb’s large frame shoves through the door. His dark curls are wet, the black trench over his shoulders much the same when he shuts the door with a thud. His back is still to us when he starts to talk. “Thought you might be needing some of th–”
Caleb spins around, holding a bottle of whiskey in the air. He stops talking when he sees that I have company.
I watch Ty out of my peripheral push back in his seat, kicking his legs out, and when I flick my gaze away from Caleb, I feel Tyler’s burning holes into the side of my head.
He was always protective.
But he has no right to be now.
Can’t say I’m mad about it, though. I loved that side of him.
“Who’s this?” Ty asks, jerking his chin toward Caleb, but his midnight eyes stay locked on mine.
Cameryn snorts beside me, then pushes up from the couch. She smiles at Caleb, pressing her hand to her chest. “I’m Cameryn, here, take a seat.” She motions her head toward the empty spot on the sofa and walks toward Tyler. Curling around the back of his chair, she wraps her tattooed arms over his toned chest. Her fingers slide their way across his hoodie, twirling the strings at the hood around her fist. I can’t help but notice how the black nail polish covering her fingertips is chipped.Nothing has changed.
Her lips come to Ty’s ear, and she whispers loud enough for all of us to hear. “You don’t get to do that anymore.”
“Like fuck,” he growls back, his eyes never leaving mine.
Caleb laughs.
He fucking laughs, and I snap my head toward him, my blue eyes catching his deep green ones. Mischief coats his orbs, his lips tilted playfully.
Here we fucking go.
“Ahhh, the famous Tyler,” he says, licking his lips as he spins the bottle in his hand like every talented bartender who wants to make a point, or evidently show off.
I slice my gaze back to Ty and watch him lean forward, his elbows on his knees as he sets the darkness in his eyes right on Caleb. Cameryn perches herself on the armrest beside him, pulling a blunt from the pocket of her leather jacket and lighting it up, completely unfazed.
I recognize something different about Tyler at this moment.
He used to look like he could—possibly,maybe—kill somebody.
