Page 162 of Only Fools Rush

“Follow me,” Ciel said, without any other explanation. Behind him stood the bodyguard and Wynn, both looking contrite as hell. Assholes.

I snorted, taking another drink, and leaning my head back on the couch. I should just go to my room and disappear. Maybe I would once I finished this glass. But no, the bottles were out here.

Maybe I could head downstairs to the club and lose myself in the music, the bodies, and the dance floor, as I had done countless times before.

“I didn’t fucking ask, Ryuji,” Ciel said. He stomped over and took the glass right out of my hand. “Get up. Follow me right now.”

I sighed. “Sassy Ciel.”

“Do you want to fight?” he demanded, whirling on me. I raised an eyebrow. “I’ll take you down to the gym right now. You know I can take you fair and square, even if you weren’t drunk.”

My eyes roamed over him. He was right. Ciel often got relegated to the van for tech work, but we all knew he was as deadly as the rest of us. If he wanted to, he could lay me flat on a mat—but I could do the same right back to him.

But for the first time in a long time, I didn’t want to fight. I was tired, and it seemed pointless.

“Not tripping up over your words now, are you?” I teased.

Scotch always made me feel so delightfully fuzzy, but truthfully, I wasn’t as drunk as he apparently thought. No, I was just stewing in the realization that all of this had gone to shit, and I was right to have purchased that LA club. Now would be the perfect time to slip away.

I had everything I needed for a clean break.

“Come on, Ryuji, we need to talk,” Wynn said from the hallway. “We’re going to the library.”

I stared at the ceiling for a few breaths before rolling my eyes and standing.

“Where’s my glass?” If we were going to talk—meaning they were going to talk, and I was going to drink—I needed a refill.

“You can have it back after we’re done,” Ciel said, carrying it with him as he stalked across the room. “Hurry up.”

“Fine.”

I reluctantly followed, trying my fucking hardest, yet failing, to avoid looking at Leona’s closed door. My ears strained to pick up even a murmur of conversation going on inside.

Had Fallon come to take her back to Philadelphia?

Both my feet and my heart stuttered to a stop at the idea.

She wouldn’t…she wouldn’tleave. Would she? Fallon couldn’t just steal her from us.

“Ryu,” Wynn hissed, jerking his head. Ciel stood in front of the door to the library, pounding his fist on the dark wood.

“Open the fucking door, Obi,” Ciel snapped. My eyebrows raised in surprise. I’d never heard my quiet brother soangry. The door just barely opened before he burst inside, the rest of us following behind like little whipped dumbasses.

I glared at the bodyguard.

“This is all your fault,” I hissed as the two of us entered the room last.

He looked like he wanted to pull his hair out first, then turn to me and do the same. “At least I’m not running away like a scared little boy.”

Obi shut the door behind us, grabbing my arm before I could snap back at the bodyguard. Maybe a fightwasa good idea. But Obi’s fingers dug into my skin.

“Ow.”

He let go. “You’re drunk.”

I sniffed. “So are you.”

“I hold my liquor better than you do,” he said, turning his nose up.