Page 10

My heart clenches for what could have been. And damn, it. Could. Have. Been. Amazing.
I shoot off a quick text, explaining to her that my brother showed up and fucked up my night instead. Then, I tell her to have a good time with Jared, and that I’ll obviously be under the watchful eye of the guard until further notice, so she might as well stay at Jared’s tonight unless she wants some rando listening to her fuck.
She sends me back a crying face. I’ll have plenty of time to bitch to her later, so I reinforce that she should stay and have a good time. I’m the only one who needs to have her night ruined by the big, bad Dragons.
5
The bed jostles underneath me.
“Leenie!” Jaz calls out in her sweet, drunk voice on as she jumps on the bed.
I open one eye and stare at her. Her eyes are glassy, and she has a lovesick smile pulling at her lips.
Like a loser, I got home before midnight, watched a Netflix docuseries about the afterlife and then dragged my ass to bed.
I grunt at her in response which just makes her laugh.
“I have hot boy news.”
Well, now. That’s interesting. “You have my attention,” I say just before a yawn takes over all other bodily functions. I wave my arm at her. “Continue.” She takes a big breath and opens her mouth, gearing up for a spill session. “Wait,” I cut her off. “Is our friend still outside?”
She shakes her head. “No, but there’s a black car out front.”
I roll my eyes. My brother’s guard was standing just outside the door last night. I thought about having a very loud session with my vibrator, and when word got back to Cole about what I was doing, I could tell him he should stay the fuck out of my life if he doesn’t want to hear about my self-love time. Instead, I decided to be the bigger person and sent my brother a message to tell him I was home. Then, I reminded him that since I was, in fact, safe and sound inside my apartment, the Dragon didn’t need to stay.
He never answered, and I’d stupidly believed that maybe it was because he’d listened to me.
Jaz lifts a brow. “Are you done bitching out your brother inside your head?”
“No,” I grumble.
She throws herself down next to me, hogging most of my pillow. She’s still dressed in the same shimmery shirt and skinny jeans she went to the fights in. I turn toward her like we used to when we were just kids having a sleepover, and she does the same.
“You didn’t go home with Jared?”
“Oh, I did,” she said, smiling. “But I felt bad about leaving you here all by your lonesome so he brought me back afterward.”
“Aww, you’re such a good friend,” I tell her, pushing her elbow away playfully.
“I know,” she agrees. “Now, are you going to let me give you the scoop or not?”
I yank the pillow down and get comfortable. “Is it about Finn?”
She nods slowly, her glassy eyes twinkling in the bit of light coming in through the window. “Yeah. Sooooooo,” she draws out, prepping for her news. She never gets quite so dramatic until she’s been drinking. Me? I’m a little dramatic all the time. “I’m not saying I know what happened but I saw Finn later in the night and he had a black eye.”
“Wait. What?” I screech.
She grimaces. “Girl. Shh, I’m right here.”
I lift up onto my elbow. “Do you think Cole punched him?”
“I didn’t see Cole at all. I wouldn’t have known he was there if I didn’t get your text. But I definitely saw Finn when he came up to say goodbye to the fighters we were hanging out with, and he definitely had the beginnings of a black eye.”
“Did he say anything about me?”
She frowns. “No, but he looked a mix between pissed and sad. You know?” She picks at the sheet between us with her fingers.
“Did anyone ask him about the black eye?”