their eyes and taking note of the way their guns lower away from my chest.
“Come on, O,” Kairo says. “Move out of the way. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I hold up my bruised wrist and show off my red chest. “You didn’t give a shit about me getting hurt when he dragged me down the fucking stairs, now back the fuck off. If Nic wants to come here and step into Colton’s territory to start shit, then Colton has every fucking right to defend what’s his.”
“You’re not his. You’re one of us.”
“The hell I am,” I insist. “You lost me. All of you did. Now get your fucking leader and get the fuck out of here. I never want to see any of you again.”
Sebastian takes a hesitant step forward. “O.”
“No. Please … just go. All of you. I can’t do this anymore.”
He lets out a breath before finally nodding and cautiously stepping around me. He walks right into the boys’ fight and hooks his arms around Nic, hauling him away from Colton. Nic resists and tries to fight him off but the fight has worn him down. “Let’s go,” Sebastian urges. “She doesn’t want us here.”
“I’m not leaving without her,” Nic spits. “She doesn’t belong here. She belongs with us.”
“I know,” Sebastian says, “but today is not the day. We’ll come and sort it out once you’ve calmed down. She’s never going to come back like this. You know that. We need to earn her trust back.”
“How is that going to happen when she won’t fucking talk to me? To any of us?”
“Time, bro,” Eli says, meeting my eye. “She just needs time.”
I walk over to Colton and look him over before watching as Kai gives Sebastian and Nic a hard shove to get them moving. “This isn’t over,” Nic says, looking back at me and wiping blood off his face while making all sorts of guilt come rushing in and sit heavy in my gut. “I’m going to come back for you. You don’t belong here.”
I shake my head, watching as the hurt seeps into his eyes but surely he must know that he stood no chance after the bullshit on Saturday night and then storming in his like a fucking raging bull and making demands. Hell, my fucking wrist is going to be sore for days. “Just go home, Nic.”
He clenches his jaw and as Colton’s hand slips into mine, he finally turns around and walks away.
Chapter 31
There’s a long beat of silence as we stand out in the night, watching my crew disappear up the long drive before Colton pulls me into his side. “Come on,” he finally says. “Let me get you back inside.”
I keep my eyes on the boys, unable to look away and watch how each one of them glances back to look at me with longing and regret filling their deep gazes. I know they’re all hurting, but surely they can understand how wrong this is. Nic’s behavior … I’ve never seen anything like it from him. He's always been so put together, cool, calm, and collected. This possessive wildness isn’t him. I understand that he has a lot on his plate with becoming the new leader of the Black Widows and trying to fill his father’s shoes but he can’t keep going down this destructive path. He's screaming out for help, but it can’t be from me. He needs to learn how to let go.
As for the others, they should have been smart enough to reel him back in. How could they think that coming here tonight was a good idea? Clearly, they’re all aware that I don’t want anything to do with them otherwise I would have responded to their constant calls and text messages. They all need to back off and give me a chance to catch up with everything that’s been going on.
With a heavy heart, I let Colton lead me back up the stairs and as his arm slips over my shoulder, I listen to the soothing tones of his deep voice. “Are you alright?”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” I murmur. “How the hell did you learn to fight like that?”
Colton scoffs. “You don’t grow up as a Carrington without learning a thing or two about defending yourself. But I wasn't asking about you physically? They’re just bruises. You’re strong and they’ll fade. I’m asking about on the inside. Are you alright?”
I shrug my shoulders. “I honestly don’t know. Nic is supposed