love with someone else,” I told her instead. I hadn’t been in love with anyone at the time, and I’d only been thinking with my dick back then.
Now, I knew I was in love with Shaw, and while my cock wanted to do all the thinking for me, I was smart enough not to allow him.
“I’m not in love with anyone else,” she denied vehemently. “Not for months now.”
“Yeah, okay.” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my tone any more than I could stop myself from snorting.
I expected Remington to try to stop me, but he was smart enough not to even argue. Still, I got out of there as quickly as I could in case he changed his mind. I really didn’t want to have to fight the guy, but if he tried to stop me from taking the girls home, I would be forced to fuck him up.
I didn’t put Violet down until I reached Shaw’s car and was glad to see she’d followed us. “I took an Uber,” I told her, holding out my hand for her keys. “So I’ll drive you two home.”
When they both just glared at me, I stepped closer to Shaw. “I already texted Luca.” I hadn’t, but she didn’t need to know that. I just needed to use whatever leverage I could to get her to give me what I wanted, and I knew she wouldn’t put Violet in the position of having to deal with Luca’s crazy ass right then. “Make up your mind, Dimples. You gonna stand there and glare at me all night, wait around until he shows up here and makes a total scene and upsets your bestie again?” I smirked. “Or you gonna hand over the keys and let me drive your sexy ass home?”
I knew threatening her was the wrong decision as soon as she snarled, “Asshole,” at me. The next thing I knew, I was taking a punch to the face.
Fuck, that hurt.
Blood started pouring from my nose, and I grasped it, trying to put pressure to stop the rapid flow.
“I’m going with option three,” she growled at me. “Where I drive myself home and you go fuck yourself.”
Shaw took Violet’s arm and guided her to the passenger door. After her friend was inside, she shot me one more hard look before getting behind the wheel and driving away.
“Idiot,” I berated myself as I walked down the driveway to wait for an Uber. “You know what a hothead she is.” I touched my swollen nose, thankful it had stopped bleeding for the moment, and grinned. “But fuck, she’s hot as hell when she’s pissed.”
Chapter 15
Shaw
I yawned as I walked on to the jet behind Mom. It was only early evening, but I was exhausted after the past few months of school during the week and then babysitting Violet each weekend while she partied, drank until she couldn’t remember her own name, and made out with random guys to push Luca’s buttons.
I got it. Really, I did. I understood her need to be a little self-destructive. She couldn’t fall apart in front of others, so she had to find some way of coping with the pain and anger that festered inside herself like a living entity. But I was starting to see that I shouldn’t be enabling her because she was eventually going to burn out.
Or worse…
I’d heard the stories about both her father and Uncle Drake. Both had been addicts before they’d married their wives. Both had different addictions, but addictions, nonetheless. And I was beginning to fear that my best friend was going to become an addict if she didn’t slow down.
I needed to find a way to talk to her about it.
If that didn’t work, then I worried I was going to have to go behind her back and tell her parents so we could get her some help.
This weekend, I had a photo shoot, which was kind of a blessing. It would give me time to think about how to handle the situation without her seeing my struggle. But it was also giving me anxiety because I was scared as hell that she was going to go out partying without me—even though I’d made her promise me she wouldn’t.
Once she started drinking, she didn’t know how to say no to guys who started putting their hands on her body and their tongues down her throat. I watched her back at the parties, making sure whatever guy she started making out with