in response, his eyes focused on Conor and Holden.
Whatever it was they wanted, he didn’t tell me and I was too busy glancing around the room, counting red flags to press about it.
Just when it couldn’t get any worse, the bar door swung open and Reid swept through the room. My stomach dropped. Jem caught my gaze and let out a sigh. “This night just keeps getting better and better, huh?”
Reid searched the room, his eyes stopping at Conor, but he didn’t go to him. Instead, he turned back and left the bar. Not a moment later I saw Ember hurry behind him. My mouth dropped as Jem and I exchanged looks.
“Don’t,” he said firmly. “Not our business.”
I nodded in response. He was right. I turned my attention back to Conor. He had a dark look on his face, but he was in control of himself. It was this Holden fuck that I was worried about the most.
“Conor’s in charge,” Jem assured me, noticing how stiff I was. “He can hold his own right now, no intervention.”
“I wouldn’t even know how to intervene.”
Reid stepped back into the bar, but he stood by the door. It remained open and he was glaring outside, moving his lips fast. Then he disappeared outside again.
What the hell is going on?
My phone pinged loudly, interrupting my thoughts. I figured it was an update from Megan about how the evening was going with Penny. I didn’t pick it up straight away, my interest piqued between the door and Conor. From my peripheral, the screen lit up on the table, prompting Jem to glance at it. Instantly, his face drained. He glanced at me solemnly. “Char,” he began to say just as I grabbed the phone.
Before I could ask him what was wrong, I looked at the message on the screen and felt my heart drop.
I need you, Charlotte.
No.
No.
Not now.
Immediately, adrenaline replaced my unease. I glanced at Conor then Jem.
“You have to go,” Jem told me sternly.
I noticed the look of understanding in his eyes. It wasn’t what I was used to when it pertained to Locke.
I shook my head. “I can’t leave Conor –”
“I’m here,” he cut in. “I’ll take care of him.”
“What if Conor reacts?”
“You know he won’t. I’m here, anyway. I wouldn’t allow it.”
“What if they do?”
“Sweetheart, I’ve got a Mossberg 500 shotgun behind the bar at the ready when I serve, just in case of trouble. Nothing’ll happen.”
When he noticed my hesitation still, he hardened his voice. “You have to go. Locke needs you.”
Glancing back at the message, I felt my heart beat faster.
“Charlotte,” he urged quietly, “if it were me he was asking for, I’d be there in a flash.”
“You’re asking me to leave Conor in this showdown –”
“Conor is in a crowded bar,” he cut in. “Locke is out there alone and in trouble and only you can help him.”
But it wasn’t that easy.
I looked at the men in the corner of the room, then at the door where Reid had stood, and then lastly at Conor, whose demeanour screamed all wrong, whose face looked lethal with fury.
“You should go for me,” I whispered. “Go, Jem. He’s at –”
“No,” he hissed, his face breaking apart before me now. “He doesn’t want me, and I think I know why, and I don’t know how to make it better if I’m right. I can’t, Charlotte. I simply can’t.”
His eyes were rimmed red and desperate. He bared his soul to me just then, and it alarmed me seeing so much emotion flooding out of Jem.
What the hell troubled him so much?
“Okay,” I whispered slowly. “Okay, Jem.”
He looked relieved as I stood up. I hurried out of the bar before I could stop myself, but fuck, it wasn’t easy.
The cold air hit me on the way out, cooling my hot nerves as I raced to the car and unlocked it.
I passed Ember and Reid arguing on the way, but I didn’t stop to wonder what was going on. I didn’t have time to.
Locke needed me.
And I needed to stop him from doing a very bad thing.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Thames
He slid into the stool beside Holden, sitting so close, he was practically pressed against his side. He glared at Holden’s profile, waiting. The fucker had already registered his presence, but he was smirking without care, staring up at the sports channel on the television screen.
“Did you know I’d be here, Holden?” Thames demanded, his voice tight with fury.
“Nah,” Holden answered casually, taking a swig from his bottle. “This