Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 151765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 759(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 506(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 759(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 506(@300wpm)
Alex muttered a curse, heading over to them, and a moment later, both brothers were dragging Clint back with them. They shoved him forward before creating a wall. Cohen joined.
“What?” Clint yelled at them, getting in their faces. “I’m not doing shit.”
Alex got back in his. “You were going to.”
Trenton’s mouth was clamped shut, but with Trenton, who knew what that meant? Right now, he wasn’t backing down from Clint.
Swinging around, seeing me, Clint did a double take. Then he saw Scout’s hold on me, and an ugly snarl came out. “Right. No fucking feelings, huh?”
Ignoring that, I jerked forward. “What are you doing here?”
“You brought them here.”
“Of course I did! I told you last week to leave it alone. They’re going to be looking for us.”
“For you guys?” Alex prompted.
Scout began pulling me back to him.
I resisted, but I wasn’t trying to break free.
“What’d you do?” Again from Alex.
Clint was skewering me with a look that clearly said if I talked, I’d regret it. I was getting the message, but Trenton was still being quiet. That was making me more uncomfortable than anything else.
I raised an eyebrow. “They already know.”
“What’d you do? You need to say it.” Alex shoved Clint backward, who almost hit me, would’ve if Scout hadn’t yanked me out of the way. He stepped in, taking the hit and holding Clint steady.
“Get off me!” Clint shoved away before focusing on Alex. “Nothing. I did nothing—”
“Tonight.”
All eyes went to me. I added, “Tonight, you did nothing.” And because this was stupid, I filled in the rest. “Max’s family belongs to that fraternity. He’ll be a legacy. He’s going to join that fraternity at UConn next year.”
Both Alex and Trenton sputtered out curses.
Alex was biting out with sarcasm. “You stole all that liquor from them, didn’t you?”
“That was thousands of dollars’ worth of liquor,” Cohen spoke. “Whoa.”
Clint quieted before jerking a hand in my direction. “I just scouted the first trip and took pics of some other things. She helped me.”
Scout lined up right behind me, his body a hard wall. He growled, and I felt the vibrations from his chest. “Helped how?”
Clint gave him a nasty glance. “You were supposed to stop fucking when you got feelings.”
There was one second when everyone froze.
Then everyone sprang into action.
I threw my arms up, trying to stop Scout.
Scout began to lunge for Clint, who turned, ready to face off against him.
Alex and Cohen jumped in the middle.
Trenton was the only one who didn’t move a muscle, except to slide his eyes down the alley.
“Stop!” Me.
“Don’t!” Alex.
“Hey, man.” Cohen.
“Let him fucking come at me. If he’s going to hurt my cousin, I want to hurt him back. Rather do it now than later.”
“No, you don’t!” Alex turned his back to Scout and shoved once at Clint’s chest, making him fall back a step. “You’re hurting because of our parents. You want a target, and we’re here, stopping you from doing whatever the fuck you were going to do. So, now you want a different target. Scout’s my best friend.”
“Your best friend is fucking our cousin.”
I felt like I should say something.
Alex yelled, “And she’s letting him! Ever fucking think about that? Huh?”
Everyone got silent again.
Alex kept on, his face getting red, “I went at Scout. Him and me. We almost brawled about it, but I saw what even he couldn’t see. Think, dude. Think.” He stabbed a finger at his head. “The attraction was there from the beginning. Neither wanted it. They didn’t like each other, but that didn’t seem to matter. What does that tell you? I’m his best friend. He has two friends here. Scout’s not the type who fucks over friends, and still, he—”
Clint’s sarcasm was just as biting, “And still, he decided to shove his prick into her.”
Now I was seeing red. “You—” I lunged, but a cement arm wrapped around my waist, and I was being carried away. I struggled to get free. “Come on. Let me go! I know how to fight him.”
“I’m sure you do.” Scout walked me away before setting me on my feet, and when I tried darting around him, he stopped me, getting in my way. “Stop. Listen, okay? Listen.” He lifted a hand, hesitated, and then placing it against the side of my face.
I froze before looking up at him. His eyes were clouded. His face was shadowed, but he was fighting for his own control.
His hand trembled against my face. Holding it steady, he brushed a thumb over my cheek. “Just listen.”
A pent-up growl erupted, and I tried shoving away, but Scout held me against him.
Then I listened, and my heart began to break.
“He’s going to hurt her.” Clint.
“Maybe.” Alex. “Maybe not.”
“What are you on? You have to be on something. Yeah. It’s Ramsay. She does what she wants, but she came to us broken. He broke her. You’re going to let another guy—”