Page 140 of River of Deceit

She’s not like Pandora.

Franklin starts stammering. “Um. I mean. That is… Sandra and I, we, um, we haven’t…”

“Lay off him, Blaze,” River says steadily. “Franklin doesn’t need to rush into anything.”

Asch appraises River, but he doesn’t comment on that.

Of course, now everybody else knows that Franklin hasn’t sleptwith his girlfriend, and all the guys start laughing and teasing Franklin about it.

“Is she even that hot?” Zayden remarks, while Tate and Brock laugh about Sandra’s slightly larger figure.

Franklin goes completely still.

“Good job, River,” I hiss at him.

River glares at me. “You’re the one who brought it up,” he snaps back. He grabs Franklin’s arm. “Come on, dude. Let’s go find the cups or whatever.”

Tate laughs. “Yeah, he’s gonna need the beer goggles to fuck her.” He takes another hit of his vape.

“You think it’s like fatty tuna down there?” Brock adds.

I let go of Franklin and stalk over to Brock. He’s still laughing, right up until I grab him out of his camper chair and toss him into the lawn.

“You think you’re some hotshot because you can’t even figure out where a woman’s clit is, you dumbfuck?” I ask him, stomping down on his hand.

Brock cries out. “What the fuck! What the fuck!”

I raise my foot and bring it down hard on his stomach. Brock’s mouth opens up in a large gasp.

“Show some respect for your frat brother’s girl,” I growl. “If you can’t do that, you’re fucking out of here.”

“Blaze!” Zayden grabs my arm and yanks me back, away from Brock. “Christ, man, we get it. It was just a bit of joking around!”

My fist itches with the desire to punch him. “Joking around? Then you’d better keep them in line, oh illustrious leader, because where I’m from, we don’t disrespect each other’s women.”

“Blaze,” Asch says, his voice quiet. “He’s not worth it.”

“Not worth—” Zayden sputters. “I’m still the Kappa Alpha leader, Alvarado. I can get anyone kicked out!”

I roll my eyes and give him my darkest grin. “Yeah? You want to try it? Because I think?—”

“Shut up!” River suddenly shouts. We all look over to him. He’sholding his hand up and is looking around the yard. Outside of our circle with the firepit and the tiki torches, it’s fairly dark. A few windows in the house are bright, but River’s attention is beyond the yard, closer to where the woods start.

I tense and get on the defensive.

“What?” Zayden asks. “Rivera, stop acting weird. Brock, Tate, you can apologize to Franklin, and?—”

Asch claps his hand over Zayden’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” he hisses.

I edge away from Zayden and toward a darker spot of the yard, away from the lights. My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I see what River noticed.

There’s movement in the trees beyond the yard.

My phone buzzes, but I ignore it.

The guys still by the firepit start whispering to themselves, looking around blindly.

Zayden pulls away from Asch. “If you ever touch me again, Alvarado, so fucking help me?—”