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I nodded, breathing deep through my nose.
Vaughn got off the seat and switched to one at the opposite end of the bar.
I released the stranglehold I had on the scrubbing brush. “Sorry. I just…” Couldn’t deal.
“It’s cool. I get it. But while you’re triggered, I need to tell you something.”
I cringed. “Can it wait until I get home? If you’re going to tell me you’ve moved my shit out while I was working, fine. I’m not going to keep fighting you on it. Just tell me where you left my stuff and I’ll sleep in my car.”
“I didn’t touch your stuff. Not only because there’s a giant, kinda scary man in your bed and if I’d tried to rip your sheets out from beneath him, I don’t know that I would have survived to tell the tale.”
I fought a smile. He was annoyingly cute when he wasn’t being a dickhead. “Shoot then.”
“You’re not going to like this, but I talked to Caleb, Leonn, and Hugh today. That’s their names. The guys who attacked you.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “They sound like such nice, normal names, don’t they? Like, do you think when their mothers were gazing down at them in the hospital, picking out these proper, distinguished names, that they ever thought for a second their darling babies would turn into violent monsters?”
“I would hope, if they’d known, they’d have asked for a refund.”
I scrubbed at a lipstick mark on the rim of the glass clutched in my fingers. “Why were you talking to them? Just organizing to have a little bro catch-up?” It was an uncalled-for jab, but I barely knew Vaughn. I couldn’t trust him yet, even if my lady parts did get all excited at the sight of him. Something in my gut wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but my gut hadn’t done too well for me lately, so I was relying fully on my brain.
While ignoring the lust-filled thoughts that flooded it whenever he was around.
“No. I saw them at a coffee shop. Overheard Leonn freaking out about Fang’s little rampage through the hospital.”
I grinned at that. “No shit? He was rattled?”
“Very. Caleb threatened to sue you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course he fucking did. Anything to shut me up.” I peered at him, still not fully believing his story. “So you just happen to hang out at the same coffee shop as Caleb Black?”
“Guess so.” He ran neatly trimmed fingernails along the edge of a paper coaster with the scary Psychos clown logo printed in the middle. “I wasn’t planning on talking to them. But they spotted me when I left. Caleb invited me to his Halloween party next weekend.”
I glanced up. “He’s having a party? At his house?”
Vaughn appeared distinctly uncomfortable. “Yeah. Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up. You probably didn’t want to hear that.”
“I want to come.”
The words surprised me probably more than they surprised him.
Vaughn’s dark eyebrows drew together. “Ah, no.”
I leaned over. “Ah, yes. You owe me.”
His eyes went all squinty, trying to work me out. “What the hell do I owe you for?”
“Trying to steal my half of the inheritance.”
“I’m letting you sleep in my house!”
I waved that off like it was nothing. “You were a douche. You call me Roach, for Christ’s sakes. That’s not very nice.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I actually didn’t. I maybe enjoyed the nickname. It was tough-sounding, and I could identify with a name like that at the moment. It was a hell of a lot better than something girly like sugar or princess.
So I didn’t answer his question. “Come on, Vaughn. I need to know everything about them.”