This needed to be handled ASAP, so I pointed a finger at the douchefriend. “Stay. We’re not done.”
“What?”
Heading back around my vehicle, I opened the side door of the garage just as Mason walked by, raising his phone to his ear. He jumped at my sudden appearance.
“Holy shit.” He clapped a hand to his chest. “Where the fuck did you come from?”
“Shhh.” I looked around him. Nate was heading across the front lawn to his car. He was too far away to hear our conversation, and I was grateful. Nate had gone back to his weaseling ways. I didn’t want him anywhere near this guy. “Where’s Nate going?” I smirked. “Who’s he going to hang out with? Sam?”
“Fucking A.” Mason let out an aggravated sigh. “What the hell is going on with you two? I thought the petty bickering was done.”
“Never.” My grin turned frosty. “I was all fine and dandy till he started taking pot shots at me.”
He gave me a hard look. “I don’t like having a family rift. We’ve got enough to deal with.” He nodded behind me. “He’s here?”
I hadn’t known where else to take him. “Figured I shouldn’t go back to the amusement park, in case Street Thug has guys out looking for us.”
“Logan.” Mason twisted around, looking at the house. “This is our garage!”
“I don’t know of any empty warehouses,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’ve only been here a year.”
He groaned, tipping his head back. “But five feet from Sam? She lives here, too.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Relax. This guy’s just an ex-boyfriend. And it’s not like I’m holding him here against his wishes or something, like I kidnapped him.”
“You pseudo kidnapped him.”
“Not really.”
“Really. You did.”
I shrugged. “He can leave whenever he wants.”
“Does he know that?” Mason asked before following me into the garage.
Fortunately, Eric was still on the couch, squinting toward where he could hear our approach. We stopped, standing right behind the light. He couldn’t see us, but he knew we were there. Mason shook his head.
Whatever. We’d done stupider things. It wasn’t like we’d get arrested for this…I didn’t think. Not wanting to dwell on that, I started forward. “I’m back, and that means you need to start talking.”
“But—”
“Now,” I said.
He let out a breath. Some of the fear had faded from his face, but he was still wary. “Or what? I don’t understand why I need your permission to talk to my girlfriend.”
“Ex-girlfriend, bro.”
I grabbed one of the folding chairs leaning against the wall and set it up in front of him. I dropped in to straddle it, now glaring from eye level at the guy. This was better. I could intimidate up close and personally.
I smiled, waving my fingers. “Let’s cut the bullshit. I know what happened that day.”
He grew still. “What do you mean?”
“I know.”
“Bullshi—”
“You ran like a coward.”
He paled and fell silent.
“Dipshit,” I leaned closer, tipping the chair on its back legs, “I’m sleeping with her.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
I laughed. The guy didn’t want to believe me. “What are you doing? Are you holding on to her? Is that it?”
“I know Taylor. She would never get over me that fast.”
“Well.” I gave him a pitying look. “She did. Sorry.”
“No.” He kept shaking his head. “Jason told me she would need me tonight. He said I could make everything better. I—” He stopped, studying me, before his head moved from right to left again. “No way.”
“She has a firecracker tattoo on her thigh.”
That shut him up. His eyes turned ragged. “No. No way.”
“When you’re inside of her and kiss her throat, she arches her back, and it’s the hottest thing I’ve seen in a long time. She makes a little sound that makes you want to go harder, just to make her do it again because you don’t want to disappoint her. She makes you want to satisfy her, makes you need to satisfy her—”
“Shut up,” he snapped, his chest heaving. “Shut up.”
“I could tell you a lot more. I won’t, though, because this isn’t about further hurting Taylor. This is about helping her. You being here is not helping her. It’s going to hurt her.”
He put a hand to his forehead and started rubbing. “Jason told me…” He cleared his throat. “Jason said, uh—”
I moved the chair closer, folding my arms over the back of it. “What did he say?”
“He said I could come back and make things right. This was the time