Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,19

down, my neck feeling stiff but also jumbled at the same time, like I couldn’t get it right and my whole head felt loose. It was me. I was off-balance.

“I do, yeah. It’s kinda my thing.”

Jamie whistled under his breath. “That’s cool. My older brother camps. He does this whole month-long trek, uses it to raise awareness and has a cam set up. It’s pretty awesome. I joined him for a couple days, but I had to come back for football last year. How long are you going for?”

I opened my mouth.

No one had asked this many questions about my camping—not even Miss Sandy, though she always wanted to know where I was going and how long I’d be gone.

“How long?” came from Blaise, and his tone wasn’t so nice.

Jamie shot him a surprised look, but didn’t say anything.

“I’ll be out there a while.”

“How long?” His eyes were hot and hard on me.

I pressed my lips together. What was going on here? I was so confused. “I dunno. A while.”

As if catching on to something even I didn’t know was happening, Jamie eased back a step, pulling away so it was just Blaise glaring at me.

“Word is you’re done with school,” he murmured. “You could take off until graduation.”

Not helpful, so not helpful. But holy crap. How’d he know that?

I frowned.

“People are talking,” he grated out.

Man, his eyes were not happy, not at all.

I swallowed over a knot, still not understanding what was going on. “I—I like to camp.” It made perfect sense to me.

“Alone?”

Jamie winced, easing back another whole step. “Damn.”

I gulped. “Are you mad about that?”

“You shouldn’t be camping alone. How long, Aspen?”

“I…” No one cared. Why wasn’t he getting that? Why was he caring? “I don’t know.”

“How. Long?!”

“I…”

“HOW LONG?!”

I jumped at his sudden shout, then heard myself saying, “Till Monday.”

Jamie’s eyes bulged out. “Oh, damn.”

“Monday?!” Blaise stepped up, his chest almost rubbing against mine. The bag of food was still in my hand, but Conway stepped in and took it from me. He took the coffee too, and I watched it all go, only realizing once they were gone there was nothing between us.

He moved in, pushing me back against Maisie. His arms came down over my shoulders, and he had me trapped. His head lowered, his eyes intent on mine. “You were going to go camping for four nights?”

“I…” My mouth opened and closed. I was awash in so many feelings right now.

“Alone?!”

I was distantly aware of vehicles pulling up, people leaving the gas station, some going inside. People were filling up with gas, but then suddenly, a loud engine zoomed in and came to a screeching halt.

“Hey! Get away from her!” a woman shouted.

That all was clicking in the back of my mind, but mostly I focused on Blaise. Who was I kidding? I was all focused on Blaise. His mouth hovered just over mine, but at the sound of that voice, his entire body stiffened. It had already been tense, but now it bordered on a dangerous level of rigid.

His head snapped up. His nostrils flared

Blaise DeVroe was pissed.

And he was hot!

“Calm your fucking woman down, brother,” he snarled over my shoulder. “This ain’t her business.”

Brother?

Fucking woman?

An icy dread blanketed me, and then all hell broke loose.

11

Blaise

Goddammit.

Cross had to show up now? Right when Aspen’s about to go off and camp alone for who knows how long? She said four nights, but Jesus. She finished school. She could be out there an entire week.

How long had she been doing this?

How many other nights had she gone camping? Been alone?

Where the fuck were her parents?

They just let her go out there? Alone?!

But now I couldn’t get answers to my questions, because my brother was here and his woman was in my face. She yelled at me, tugging me away from Aspen, and all I wanted to do was grab Aspen, drag her into my Wagon, and peel the fuck out of here so I could be sure she wouldn’t do something fucking stupid.

But first, Christ.

Bren—that’s her name—was almost hissing at me. Her hands dug into my arms, and she pulled.

I turned to find Cross right there. “Get your woman off me, or you and I are going to have problems.” I didn’t have any patience today.

His eyes narrowed, but he moved forward, maneuvering himself between Bren and me. He began to pull her back. “Bren!”

“He’s got his hands on her. Aspen, are you okay?” Bren looked around Cross, her eyes wide and alarmed.

Shit. She knows