Page 49

He puts me back down to my feet, his eyes going over my shoulder, and I turn to follow his line of sight. Madison, Bishop and Brantley are there.
“Where’s everyone else?” I ask, nudging my head.
Brantley grins. “It’s our turn this week.” His eyes fly to Nate. “You’re a greedy bastard. Some shit does change.”
Nate flips him off. “Just with her.”
Brantley returns his bird flip. “Yeah? I’ll remember that next time you have the Raven jumping around on both of our dicks.”
I suck in a breath, hopefully not obviously. Who the fuck is The Raven.
Nate doesn’t seem bothered, and why would he be. I knew who he was when I decided to, as Brantley well put it, bounce around on his dick. I can’t deny the sting though.
Madison grinds her teeth. “Not sure I like her yet.”
“Who?” I ask, annoyed with being out of the loop.
Bishop chuckles, pulling Madison into him. “Chill, baby. She has nothing on you.”
“He’s lying,” Brantley rolls his eyes, walking past us. “She’s by far the hottest chick I’ve ever fucking seen. Isn’t that right, Nate?” I can almost hear Brantley grinning.
And I’m over this shit, but at the same time, I can’t show that it’s affecting me. I just have to stop Nate from being too hands on. Of course he’s been messing around with girls, but what annoys me is that this girl has obviously been a regular, and apparently he’s shared her with Brantley—no surprise there—and she’s nicknamed Raven and—big and—she has Madison pushing on the insecure side. No one, and I mean no one can make Madison insecure. Consider me intrigued.
Madison yanks on my hand. “Let’s get a drink, shall we? Also, ignore Brantley. He hasn’t gone there because—gross—and neither has Nate. They’re fucking with you. This time.” She whispers into my ear. I want to ask her what she means by “gross”, but she is already dragging me forward.
“Yeah.” I look right at Nate as I let Madison drag me toward the glass house. “Good idea.”
His eyes stay on me until I drag them away. No deal, buddy. No way am I letting him run playboy on me.
The big guy waves us through and as soon as we get inside “What’s Happenin!” by Ying Yang Twins is thudding loudly.
“Is this a club?” I lean into Madison.
She shakes her head, dragging me toward a table where around four other guys are seated. A couple are young, really young. I’d have to say around sixteen. Too young to be here. The entire area is circled with tables and small bars, and then you take a few steps down, and—I lean over the railing.
“Holy shit!”
There’s a massive UFC shaped octagon downstairs with a fight happening and people screaming, throwing money around. The rowdy people don’t surprise me. It’s the tables of immaculately dressed men surrounding those people, hidden in the shadows. Smoke drifts up through the air as they all watch the fight in unperturbed ease. One man in the corner with a fedora hat looks up at me and I stop. Immediately looking away.
Madison follows my sight, handing me a bottle of some pre-made drink. I take a sip, the vodka hitting my throat instantly.
“Are you okay?” Madison asks after downing half of her drink.
I turn to face the railing and watch as two guys fight in the middle of the ring. Both shirtless, both ripped, and both—“ouch!” someone got a kick to the face. The smell of sweat mixed with cologne, cigar smoke, and weed lingers around the place.
“Tillie?”
“Hmm?” I turn to face her, my mouth around the rim of the bottle. I drink the rest and gesture to her. “I need another.”
“Okay so that’s a no,” Madison murmurs, and then hooks her arm around mine and drags me back toward the table where the guys are seated. I haven’t seen any of them in my life.
Their eyes all come up to us, and I take a second to draw in their appearance, because I’m in the mood to be shallow. There are four of them, two are young, around sixteen, I’d say, and the other two would have to be older. Like around Spyder’s age, so twenty-four-ish. I can feel the distinct sound of blood pulsing through my ears as the alcohol begins to seize my thoughts, relaxing my muscles slightly.
“What you girls up to?” One of the young guys grins at us, his eyes raking over my body. He has a square jaw and cheeky eyes. His nose is slightly crooked, giving his otherwise pretty appearance a rough edge. The other young guy has long hair that hangs around his neck and has muscles for days. The other older guys have buzz cuts and if I’m being honest, seem to slightly resemble each other.
“Nothing.” Madison smiles. “Looking for drinks!”
The bold one with the crooked nose gestures down to the glass fridge beside him. “By all means, Swan, help yourselves, but tell me…” He leans forward, his eyes pointedly on me. “Who the fuck is this beauty?”