Shameless - Sybil Bartel Page 0,73

every single minute of it. Maybe I should’ve ordered the vodka cranberry after all. “Why are you here?” I wasn’t going to allow myself, not even for a second, to entertain the thought that he’d come here for me. I didn’t know this man, no more than the small glimpses he’d allowed me to see, but I knew enough to realize he didn’t chase women. He didn’t have to.

His frown deepened and his gaze wandered to the room. “Luna didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

His dark eyes cut back to me. “Did you look around the room?”

The bartender set Shade’s drink in front of him. “Here you go, sir. Anything else?”

“No.” Despite being a dick a minute ago, Shade still slid a bill across the bar.

The bartender palmed it. “Much appreciated.”

Shade nodded and picked up his drink, but he didn’t speak until the bartender was out of ear shot. “Conlon tailed you in.” He took a sip of his bourbon.

“What?” Ronan was following me? “Why?”

Holding the glass near his full lips, he tipped his chin toward the other bar. “Tyler’s got the room.”

I turned and looked. Tyler, another bodyguard who worked for André, was wearing a tux and standing to the side of one of the other bars as he vigilantly scanned the room.

Shade took a sip of his drink then subtly lifted his glass first to the left, then right. “Ty’s on perimeter, Savatier’s covering the back.” Shade focused on me again. “Knight’s with Fallon, Talerco’s doing who the fuck knows what, and Luna’s emptying his wallet.” His intense gaze bored into me. “All for you, princess.” Finishing the rest of his drink in one swallow, his gaze left mine and he set his glass down. Then his voice turned as dark as his eyes. “All because of me.”

With a smile on her face I hadn’t seen before, Fallon approached. “Summer. You made it.” Color touched her cheeks as she looked over her shoulder. “You remember Thomas.”

Guilt ate at me. “Yeah, hi.”

“Summer.” Keeping his arm around Fallon, Thomas merely nodded at me but then held his hand out to Shade.

Without comment, the two over-muscled, overly dominant men shook hands. A strained silence fell over our group and Fallon clasped her hands in front of her.

That’s when I saw it.

A single diamond graced her left ring finger.

All at once, anger, hurt, jealously at her happiness, embarrassment at my past behavior, it all slammed into the shitstorm in my head and I wasn’t congratulating her, I was accusing her. “You’re engaged to him?”

Heat hit her cheeks and she opened her mouth, but it was Thomas that spoke.

“We’ve been engaged.” His arm tightened around her and she leaned into him. “She was respecting the fact that you were going through treatment, and she was waiting to tell you.”

“Treatment?” I practically spit at him. “Go ahead and say it, I was in rehab.”

Fallon flinched. “Summer—”

“No.” I put my hand up. “Don’t. You came to my place, you saw me, you took me to the Children’s Hospital. You had plenty of time to tell me.” I threw out every accusation and ounce of anger I had at her that had nothing to do with her or her engagement, and everything to do with me and my shit life.

“Princess,” Shade murmured, his hand landing on the small of my back.

Jerking out of his grasp, I spun on him. “Fuck you, Shade. Don’t touch me.” I glared back at the one person in my life who didn’t deserve a damn thing from me except respect, but I was so fucking hurt, I couldn’t see straight. “Congratulations, Fallon,” I bit out, sounding nothing like the grateful stepdaughter I should’ve been. “I’m happy for you. You deserve to be treated right.” I glared at Thomas. “Don’t fuck her over.”

I pivoted and aimed for the exit, never feeling more alone in my entire life than in that moment.

Drowning in pity, my eyes on my escape, I didn’t see him before it was too late.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, darlin’.” A strong arm cinched around my waist, my body was dragged against a hard wall of muscle and my feet practically left the ground. “Not so fast,” Talon breathed in my ear before nodding at some older couple staring at us. “Hey, how you doin’?” He spun us back toward the party.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I seethed. “I’m leaving. Put me down.”

His arm tightened as he chuckled. “Not yet you’re not.” Propelling me toward the opposite side of the lobby, he snagged two