Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,50

major life change for Kody, which meant something along the lines of marriage or starting a family. Since Kody hadn’t mentioned either of those things, and she wasn’t one to keep her opinions and thoughts on pretty much anything to herself, both seemed unlikely.

But as I watched as Della hugged the other woman comfortingly, I felt like I was missing something big. I shook my head, realizing my thoughts were a little foggy and I was having a hard time putting the pieces of the conversation together. I bypassed the martini and reached for a glass of water, but my depth perception was off, and I ended up knocking over both drinks in front of me.

I gasped and got to my feet, nearly tripping over my chair. Aspen and Della both jumped up and scrambled to help clean the mess, but they were blurring together, and the bar was suddenly too loud. I put a hand to my forehead and rubbed the sweaty surface. I could feel my fingers trembling, but when I pulled my hand away, it felt like it belonged to someone else. Almost as if it wasn’t attached to my body.

“Are you okay, Presley? You got really pale all of a sudden.” I saw Della put her hand out in my direction, but I jerked away. I felt like I wasn’t in control of my actions as the world start to swirl alarmingly around me.

“I…uh…I’m going to check on Kody.” I needed to get away from the crowd. I needed to splash some water on my face and try and catch my breath. I had no clue what was going on with me, but I felt very, very off.

As I was lurching and stumbling toward the bathroom, bumping into everyone in my path along the way, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. Everything around me felt like it was closing in, and I struggled to breathe. I could barely see the face of my phone, but I managed to answer without dropping it.

Shot’s deep voice in my ear brought my racing heart rate down a bit, but I hardly managed to mumble any words when he asked what was wrong with me.

“I don’t feel well.” The words were nothing more than a pained rasp, then my phone fell from my frozen fingers and hit the floor. Vaguely, like he was yelling from the far end of a tunnel, I could hear Shot calling my name. I wanted to reply, but all I was capable of doing was slumping against the closest wall.

Slowly, with my back against the wall, I slid down to the floor. My head was spinning, and my stomach started to turn upside down. I blinked rapidly, trying to keep the world in focus, but nothing worked. It felt like an alien had invaded my body and there was no way to get control back.

I muttered a weak complaint as I was suddenly hauled to my feet. The motion was enough to make me lose all the bar goodies I’d indulged in during the last hour. I heard a deep voice swear loudly somewhere outside of my hazy bubble, but I couldn’t respond. I felt like a rag doll that was getting roughly jerked around. I feebly tried to push away the hand pulling at me and dragging me, but none of my limbs were responding to any of my commands. I was so frustrated; however, I couldn’t scream or cry.

I was hanging like a limp noodle in the hands of a stranger, I couldn’t see clearly, and my phone was abandoned on the floor. Even though my mind was fuzzy and I didn’t feel at all like myself, I knew this situation was bad, and going to get worse.

“Hey, where are you trying to take my boss’s sister?” The question was barked in a no-nonsense tone. Kody’s big, bearded bouncer suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and I was dropped on the floor in response.

I could hear the muffled sounds of a scuffle happening around me, and Kody’s shrill voice added into the mix. Soft hands touched my face and stroked my hair. I could tell it was Kody, even though I couldn’t bring her face into focus.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Presley.” She sounded both comforting and pissed as hell.

I heard the sound of fists hitting flesh but it was all too much and all I was capable of doing was closing