Now he was screaming something in Jesse’s face aboutFuck youandYou don’t fucking know—and then he turned and lunged forMatt.
Whose arm was still aroundme.
Zane grabbed Matt by a fistful of shirt; the other fist was already raised to strike by the time I processed what washappening.
“Zane!” I screeched, throwing my hands up—but thank God Jude and Shady were on him. Jude grabbed Zane’s raised arm and prevented him from landing that punch. But Zane was strong and he was in afury.
Had I ever seen him lose it likethis?
He was practically frothing at the mouth, and he wouldn’t even look atme.
In the end, it took Jude, Shady, Con and Jesse to subdue him while Seth and Flynn got Elle to safety, the other girls got the hell out of the way, Lex and Bane cleared a path and tried to convince the restaurant staff not to call the police, and Matt and I sat in our booth in stunnedsilence.
At least his arm wasn’t around meanymore.
I did an automatic mental headcount of everyone, like I would in the middle of any Dirty disaster. I didn’t even know where the hell Dylan was. Thewashroom?
“What the hell’s up your ass?” I heard Jesse ask, as the guys struggled to get Zane to sit down in an emptybooth.
“Don’t ask,” Judemuttered.
“She’s mywife,” Zane spat out. I froze as he turned his ice-cold gaze on Matt, and if looks could kill… I was just glad four large men were holding Zanedown.
Jesse looked over at me. “What?”
“What??” That was Katie, who was hunkered down in the nextbooth.
When I dared to look around, everyone else was staring at me,too.
Elle, Seth, Amber, Jude…everyone.
Beside me, Matt slowly raised his empty hands. “Hands to myself,” he said. “Scout’shonor.”
Which set Zane offagain.
He shot up off his seat, but the guys were on him, and this time they decided to haul him outside. I watched them go, Jude, Shady and Jesse fighting Zane all the way out thedoor.
Oh,Jesus…
“Take it easy,” I kept hearing Shady say. “Take it easy,brother…”
“Alright,” Con said loudly, with his trademark charming grin. “Show’s over.” And gradually people pretended to go back to their food. Then he and Lex herded the rest of our party out thedoor.
Except for me and Matt, who just sat here in ourbooth.
Jude walked back in and looked at us, then glanced at the waitress who was cleaning up the broken coffee pot. He sighed and shook his head. “Have Dylan pay the bill,” he told me. Then he walked back out, to deal with whatever was going onoutside.
Our waitress appeared and laid the bill on our table without looking at our faces, thendisappeared.
I was pretty much numb with shock. I couldn’t feel anything. I’d finally hit some kind of emotional/sensory overload where I just couldn’t takeanymore.
I felt Matt looking at me kind of sidelong, like he was afraid to look atme.
“Wife?”
I swallowed. “I, uh, married Zane at the end of the last tour.” My voice was small, but I managed to get the words out, quickly. No point lying to Matt’s face again, but I’d definitely never felt more like an asshole about the whole thing than I did right now. “Are youalright?”
“Yeah.You?”
