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“Here,” he said. “Give it back to me and I will take care of it. You shouldn’t be the one to tell him this garbage, then he will hold it against you.”

Tyson’s face had gotten darker and he glared at me.

Oh boy.

Now he was angry and directing that anger my way. It did absolutely nothing for me.

I glared right back at him and bit out, “No.”

I didn’t think, with the smelly mess covering a rather large portion of my face, that my glare had the desired effect on him.

I ignored that, and him, and focused instead where it was important. On Quinton.

This time when he spoke, Quinton sounded a lot more alert. “What’s going on, Ariel? Why are you calling me? And don’t go getting all pissy on me for asking that of you. You and I both know you don’t ever use my number. Spill it, babe, and don’t leave anything out.”

Damn. He had all good points.

I wasn’t going to leave Ty to face this beast alone. This time I would be acting as the buffer.

“Soooo… Julian put this stuff that smells horrible and like shit on my face. Oh, and it was mixed with his blood. And it’s on my face.” I told him, feeling it best to start there. I had done exactly what he’d wanted me to, like a good little girl. Didn’t this earn me something here? Brownie points, maybe? Probably not.

“Good,” he said, and he sounded relieved. “I’m glad to hear it.”

I winced, knowing he wouldn’t sound relieved for much longer.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s good. If it works, it will all be pretty good. Julian is really arrogant about the whole thing working. Now, listen-”

He cut me off. “Please, tell me you did not call Julian arrogant to his face.”

“I’m what?” Julian asked in a low voice from behind me.

Damn.

“Ariel?” Quinton asked in a strained voice.

“Excuse me?” Julian said in an equally strained voice.

This was working up to being a seriously messed up moment in my life, if there ever was one.

Tyson must have felt the same because he surged to his feet in one smooth, lethal movement and whirled around to snarl at Julian.

“Shut the fuck up, Julian.” Tyson snarled as he stabbed his finger in Julian’s direction. “Just shut your stupid fucking mouth right this second or I swear on my dead mother’s grave I will shut it for you.”

My mouth dropped open in horror and I almost dropped the cell phone right along with it.

“What is going on?” Quinton yelled in my ear and I jerked, remembering he was on the other end of the call.

“Uh…” I mumbled stupidly as I watched in sick fascination as Julian launched himself over the back of the couch and at Tyson.

“Ariel,” Quinton yelled at me. “Tell me what’s going on, right this second.”

Julian’s body flew through the air on a dive before colliding with Tyson’s.

Tyson stumbled back a foot before his feet became tangled together and he went down. They both did, but Tyson took it the worst when his back slammed into the floor with Julian’s body on top of him. Tyson grunted loudly when his back slammed into the floor.

I cried out in surprise and scrambled off of the couch, moving to the side and back. I kept going back and back further until I met something solid, likely the wall.

As I tried to fuse with the wall, I watched as Julian slammed his fist into Tyson’s cheek. I think he would have nailed Ty in the eye if Tyson hadn’t jerked his head to the side at the last second.