As I spoke, I realized my ass was numb and so were my legs. Groaning quietly, I carefully lifted Vi’s head and tried to stand. Once I was on my feet, I opened the door. “Could you carry her to the bed for me?” I asked, without looking at his face.
But he caught my chin and forced me to lift my gaze to meet his. “Don’t lie to me, Dimples. You’re not okay. Baby, please tell me what I can do to—”
“Nothing,” I cut him off, my jaw clenching. “You can’t do anything. Except help me get Vi to bed so she doesn’t wake up sore tomorrow.”
Chapter 14
Jagger
I finally knew why Shaw was so reluctant to be with me.
She’d always said that she wanted what Luca and Violet had. That soul mate, forever kind of love that would complete her like her best friend had. Often, she’d rolled her eyes when Vi would talk about her plans for her and Luca’s future, but the longing had been deep in Shaw’s baby blues every time.
Now, everything she’d always been secretly envious of was nothing more than the shattered pieces of Vi’s broken heart dropped at Shaw’s feet. It was to be expected that Shaw’s sudden disillusionment in that forever kind of love would make her scared of going through the same thing.
Given the stunt I’d pulled that had caused all this shit to begin with, I couldn’t really blame her.
I’d set out to push her away, but when I got just that, all I could think about was fighting to get her back.
I just had to be patient and show her I would never let what happened to Violet happen to her heart.
After trying to call her all of Friday morning and afternoon with no answer, I followed her to some huge-ass house in Santa Monica.
The place was probably the biggest mansion in the county, with not just one, but two gates with multiple guards on duty that I had to get through. The party was for Remington Sawyer, and I wasn’t on the list. I had to get the Uber driver to park off to the side, and I called Ma, knowing she was the only one who could help me out.
“Why do you want to go to this boy’s party?” she asked, distracted. She’d been busy all day getting Luca’s ass out of trouble with his coach. She’d told them he was sick and couldn’t make it to the Iron Bowl that weekend, and considering the game was against Alabama’s most hated rival, I figured the entire coaching staff was beyond pissed to have one of their star defensive players miss the game.
I’d heard her arguing with someone on the phone only an hour or so before I’d left the house, and I knew she was about fed up with people in general for the day. She’d spent so much time dealing with Luca’s problem that she hadn’t spent any time at all with her father, and I felt bad about asking her to do this for me on top of everything else she had to take care of.
But I needed to get in there and make sure Shaw was safe.
“Vi and Shaw are at this party. I don’t want either of them to get in trouble or hurt, Ma,” I told her. “I won’t let what happened at that last party happen to either one of them again.”
She blew out a tired sigh. “Give me a few minutes. I’ll see what I can do.”
Ten minutes later, she texted me that my name was now on the guest list, and I glanced at the guard shack to see one of them on the phone. Grinning, I directed the Uber driver to go back to the gate. The guard who’d been on the phone rolled his eyes at me, but he opened the gate. The second guard station simply waved me through.
A mile up the driveway, I saw the line of expensive cars and knew my own car wouldn’t have been out of place there, but the Uber driver’s sure as hell was. I handed the guy a hundred for his trouble and then stepped out. As I walked up the rest of the drive, I spotted Shaw’s car parked between a Lambo and a Ferrari, and I grinned.
Unlike Cannon’s car, Shaw’s was more practical. It had every safety feature her parents could think of, and the thing was built as solid as a tank. Hell, I wouldn’t have