Are you coming back to bed?
I don’t make out anything else.
“Sorry, I’m back.”
“I can’t do this, Smalls, go back to bed.”
“It’s not what you th…”
I end the call and power off my phone. I have no right to be jealous; we made the choice to stay friends, to fight our attraction…besides, it would make me a hypocrite because I’ve fooled around with three guys and slept with another one. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway, but my heart is devastated. More tears fall and I swipe them away angrily.
The situation with the twins would have been fine. Apparently now I know sex with one person is fine, but being trapped between two, I can’t handle.
After Smalls and Aadi found me at that party, after the sick freaks videoed me, they wanted to take it to the police, for my sake. But that isn’t how it works where we come from. It would have made everything worse for us, but our motto is an eye for an eye. I know each one of them paid the price for what they did to me. I don’t really remember any of it, I have flashes of laughter, the room spinning, nothing after that.
I blamed myself for so long, I willingly went to that party to piss off Smalls, because he went to a party with Aadi and Veronica. I call her the local bike because everyone has had a turn, but that is also the day Smalls set me straight: I was fifteen, he was eighteen, and whilst he felt the connection we had, he would never act on it, not whilst he lived under my father’s roof. I always just presumed when we grew up and moved out, we would give it a shot but how can I expect him to wait for me? He will be twenty five by the time I get back to Australia. He deserves to find a girl and settle down, like he’s always talked about it. I just always thought it would be with me.
I force myself to get it together and march all the way to Elsie’s room, where I bang a little too hard on her door. She answers after one knock.
“I need booze and lots of it, today has sucked and I need to forget it ever happened.”
“Mini fridge over there is stocked. Tell me that the Knox boys haven't messed with you.”
I don’t fill her in on what happened with the twins.
“Back home problems, realising the boy I thought I would love forever might not be my future. Having to accept just being his friend is a hard pill to swallow.”
“Let's get you dressed and wasted...but first you need to shower, you look like a hot mess.”
Chapter Seventeen
Onyx
The party has been going for over two hours and Amelie is yet to turn up. I would know; Slate and I have been keeping an eye on the only entry all night. We need to apologise as soon as we see her. Slate and I feel like crap; we cornered her, made her feel unsafe and after what she’s been through that is not okay. We got too caught up in the moment, playing the same damn role we always do when we share some willing whore, that we forgot about her.
When we decided to make nice, use her to find out how to break her, I never actually thought I would end up liking her. It changes everything, but we still need her gone, just now it’s for a different reason: we need to protect her.
The party’s amazing - everyone keeps telling me - but I can’t relax and enjoy it. I need to know she’s okay. I need to make things right. So instead, I sulk in the corner, leaving Slate to make the rounds and socialise. I just tip beer after beer back without even tasting them, eyes glued on the illuminated tunnelentrance that will announce her presence and make everything better.
I do a double take when I see her walk in. She takes my breath away. I was starting to worry that she wouldn’t show, that she’d be in her dorm crying and upset, but she’s dressed like she came to kill. She looks like she’s already started the party without us.
Watching her walk in with Elsie, my eyes rake over her body. Her long dark curls are loose down her back and she’s wearing a short leather skirt with some killer boots and a form fitting top that plunges in the front. She looks like sex on legs. My dick twitches. I don’t know much about her encounter with Sawyer, but if she turned up dressed like this, no wonder he fell hard and is so fucked up about it.
Relieved to see her, I kick off from the wall where I was waiting and make my way over to her. Across the room, I catch Slate’s eye and nod. He sees her too and begins to head in her direction. Only, we’re intercepted by Kalen making a bee-line for her, two drinks in hand. For fuck’s sake! Her face lights up when she sees him in a way that it never does for me. She takes the drink he offers her, downs it in one and chucks the cup away. She throws her head back and laughs uproariously at something Kalen’s said. A bitter taste forms in my mouth.
“What do we do?” Slate asks, joining me. His eyes are glued to Amelie too and I wonder if he feels more drawn to her now that he knows they have a shared history of pain. The only thing worse than having to listen to Slate bare our secret to someone outside of the family, was having to listen to Amelie talk about what Laura did to her. She even tried to make light of it by joking. Thank fuck Slate has stayed glued to my side all night, otherwise I would have taken off to kill Laura for what she did.
I watch as Kalen and Amelie begin to dance. I can’t take my eyes off her, the way she moves, it’s hypnotic. I’ve never wantedto protect anyone outside of my family before. Family means everything and as far as I’m concerned the rest of the world can be collateral damage in my bid to keep them safe.
She wraps her arms around Kalen’s neck and pulls him in close, kissing him. Kalen’s hands slide down to cup her ass, before sliding up under her short skirt. Fuck.
“We intervene. They shouldn’t be doing that in public,” I mutter. It’s jealousy talking, but I say it with enough confidence that Slate believes I’m looking out for them. “Let’s go.”
I walk over to the couple and when I get closer, I can see that Amelie is wasted. Her and Kalen are practically having sex and quite a few people are enjoying the show. I glare at the onlookers until they get the hint and turn away. Then, I make sure to approach Amelie from the front, so as not to startle her or put her in a similar situation to earlier, and Slate does the same, remaining by my side as I close the distance between the four of us.
“Well, isn’t this quite the family reunion?” I drawl, placing a hand heavily on Kalen’s shoulder. Slate mirrors my movements and wordlessly we yank Kalen back and out of Amelie’s grasp. She stumbles and I let go of Kalen to catch and steady her. As soon as she’s safe on her feet, I drop my hold on her.
“Bro, what did you do that for?” Kalen grumbles.
