didn’t mean the darkness didn’t remain.
“I see you’re feeling me.” War met my gaze in the mirror, holding it captive. When I nodded, he turned to Kyle. “Maybe another day. I’ll take you up on the bag of treats and the bedroom.”
“Your choice. Whatever you want, man.”
“Thanks.” War clapped him on the back, then turned to me. “Go on out. Back into the hall, babe.” He jerked his chin the way we’d come in. “Space is too narrow for anything but single file. You first.”
“Okay,” I said, not entirely sure that was true. It would just be a tight squeeze.
A couple was nearly having sex in the hallway in front of me. War had to have seen them, and I believed he meant for me to see them too.
My forward momentum came to a stumbling halt when I realized it wasn’t just any couple. It was Bryan and Missy.
“You pretend I’m him,” Bryan said to her gruffly. “I’ll pretend the way I do. No talking. It works that way.”
He yanked her skirt up and turned her against the wall. Her back was to him, and his was to me, his jeans and boxers down around his knees. His ass was tight, round, and so perfect.
I flushed and must have gasped, even as my stomach lurched to my throat.
Missy turned her head, looking over her shoulder at me as Bryan sucked on her neck. She narrowed her ice-blue eyes. “What’s your problem, Lace?”
Unable to speak, I just stared. If I could, I would have begged the ground to swallow me up whole.
Bryan turned his head, and one of his beautiful gray-green eyes widened. The other was nearly swollen shut. He had a cut on his cheek and another on his mouth, probably from War’s rings.
I noted those things as if from a distance, as if I were floating and looking down at myself.
But I was no longer floating in safe and known waters. I was in a vacuum without any air.
War
Lace was mad and wouldn’t talk to me. I think she suspected that I had a hand in orchestrating the scene with Missy and Bryan, and she was right.
It seemed like the right kind of justice, her getting the same type of unexpected blow I’d had seeing her and Bryan on the beach. It was a Southside fairy-tale ending. Or it would be, eventually. Because Lace no longer thought Bryan’s shit didn’t stink.
Another benefit? She now knew life wasn’t fair. She’d grow up, set aside her crush on Bryan, and we would move on. Well, we’d move on when I returned as the biggest man on campus and took her to prom.
King grinned. “This limo es muy genial.” It’s very cool.
“Sweeter than the taxi we had to take to SFO after those assholes at Zenith lowballed us,” Sager said, exchanging a commiserative glance with King across the aisle.
Dizzy and Bryan were on the other side of them, up by the driver. As far away as they could get from me, and totally uncommunicative.
Not everyone approved of the way I’d handled the situation with Lace. But so what if there were a few minor difficulties to sort out?
Tempest was an emerging rock band with two major labels courting us. After jumping through hoops at two home offices, we were now cut loose in LA with a $250,000 offer from Zenith and a $300,000 offer from RCA. That was a potential $50,000 to $60,000 for each of us, including Dizzy and Bryan. Money enough for them to get over it.
“We’re going to a strip club tonight,” King said, making eye contact with me. “You wanna come with?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sounds like fun.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Dizzy asked, speaking to me for the first time since I brought his sister back to him in pieces at his uncle’s place. “Lace gets wind of it, she’s not gonna like it, and she’s already pissed at you.”
“It’s not me she’s really pissed at.” I caught and held Bryan’s gaze. The swelling around his eye had gone down. He didn’t look so scary anymore, just miserable.
“I’ll go,” Dizzy muttered.
“You going, Bry?” I asked, extending an olive branch, but he glared back at me like he wanted to beat me over the head with it.
“No.”
“Suit yourself.” I put on my shades and leaned my head back. It was only a couple of miles to our hotel, some swanky place on Bellaire. A couple of miles didn’t seem far. But the driver had told us it