Page 35

“Shut up!” I whisper shout to him.
He grins like the monster he is.
Agustin stands, stepping toward Roan and Shade to my left. “And you three are brothers, right?”
Roan’s lips quirk into a half smile, blinking at him when Agustin stands to shake his hand. He’s giving off the nonchalant vibe, but those who know him see the storm brewing. With I’m sure a great deal of restraint, Roan shakes his hand, but it’s not without sending a salacious glare my way in the process. “I’m Roan.” His words are short, pushed out through a sigh.
I don’t say a word, but I find my attention slipping to his. He leans back in his chair, completely relaxed, his eyes sliding to mine again.
I want to grab his face in my hands and beg him to see this for what it is, but I have no idea what this is, or what I’d say.
Agustin motions to them with a flick of his hand. “So you three race motorbikes?”
“Dirt bikes,” Shade clarifies, winking. “We race freestyle motocross. You know, the shit nobody has the balls to try, we do.” He lifts his beer to his mouth, takes a drink and then shakes Agustin’s hand. “By the way, I’m Shade.”
Tiller winks, proudly announcing, “And you’ve met me.”
I elbow him. “Knock it off.”
“Honey, look at it this way. I’m no longer the most hated person in the room. And you ain’t seennothingyet,” Tiller whispers darkly. “Aladdin—” I nail him again with my elbow as hard as I can. He glares at me and squeezes my shoulder. “Sorry, what was your name?”
“Agustin.”
He flips his hand around, motioning between us. “Uh-huh, so… how long have you two been dating?” I shoot him another glare. “Just so I have the time frame correct here.”
Kill me. For the love of God, just strike me dead.
“Three years,” Agustin adds, taking a seat across from me in an empty chair. While I don’t blame him for not taking his seat back beside Tiller and me, he’s next to Roan and I really wouldn’t put it past Roan to do something.
Roan raises an eyebrow, his focus on the ground. “Three years? Wow.”
“Not that long,” I mumble.
“Well, since Freshman year.” Agustin laughs, winking at me, as if we have our own personal jokes.
Again, I want to correct him, but there’s really no sense.
I begin to self-consciously fidget when my dad joins the conversation, talking about the spent time with us in New York and the apartment we now have. Together. Under the weight of the pending destruction I fear is coming, I sneak a peek at Roan.
He won’t look at me, but the slight lift of his eyebrows indicates he heard that. His demeanor showcases a man who on the outside is calm, relaxed, approachable, but on the inside, I know the war raging. I know by the way his knuckles are white as he grips the beer, it’s taking everything inside him not to send it crashing toward Agustin’s skull.
I force a smile, trying to maintain a façade of the girl who’s just here with her boyfriend and not the one who is still, without a doubt, in love with the one to his right. I breathe in, and out, and it’s all a ploy to distract.
With a sigh, Roan lifts his chin and regards Agustin for the first time. My heart literally stops. He sniffs. I know what’s coming. I do. He stays still, but his temper strikes with his words. “Living together, huh,” he scoffs in a calm, clear voice. Roan looks at Tiller, then my dad who is across from me, a deadly smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
My stomach twists inside out. I’m not stupid. I know exactly what he’s going to do when his eyes slide to my dad. “Roan, don’t,” I beg, reaching for his arm.
It all happens in slow motion. His eyes dropping to my hand like I burned his skin. Him moving his arm, our connection ripped away. And then he winks at me, my plea going unheard. He leans forward in his chair, capturing my dad’s attention with a nod. “Hey, Carl?”
Unknowing the deceit that will follow, my dad smiles at him. “Yeah, bud?”
And then he gives a truth that wasn’t his to give. “Tiller fucked your daughter.” His voice, let alone his words, are enough to still the air around us.
He’s out for blood, isn’t he?
Willa sighs. “Damn it, Roan.”
A magnitude of things destruct in the following seconds. Along with me wanting the ground to open up and swallow me whole. Scarlet taking the kids inside. Willa jumping to her feet. Agustin gasping and me choking on my drink.