Page 76 of X's and O's

“Picked a fight with me because he’s also into Violet,” Whip filled in.

X pinched the bridge of his nose. “Gray, I’m struggling to go to my happy place.”

Gray turned to me.

I shrugged, not knowing what to say to make sense of any of this. “I just wanted to try the lobster.”

The guys who’d come in with Grayson all laughed.

Fang nudged me. “How about I drive you home? I have my club van here.”

Normally, the idea of getting in a vehicle with a man as big as Fang and who I didn’t know from a bar of soap would have sent me running in fear in the opposite direction, but after everything that had happened tonight, let alone the last couple of weeks, letting a stranger drive me home seemed the least of my problems.

“Please,” I told him.

I didn’t say goodbye to any of the others. I didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with any of them tonight.

So much for losing my virginity.

I followed Fang down the street to a white, unmarked van, and while he got behind the steering wheel, I got into the front passenger seat. I crossed my arms around my middle, clutching my purse.

He got us out onto the road. “Where to?”

I cringed, embarrassed. “My place is in Saint View. The extra-shitty part.”

He nodded. “I know it well.”

“You live out that way too?”

He shook his head. “Not anymore. But I grew up in Saint View and lived there until about six years back when I met my partner.”

Recognition dawned on me. “Rebel, right?” I asked. “I think I met you both briefly at Psychos the other night.”

He nodded.

“You guys have kids?”

He chuckled. “Five of them.”

“Five? Christ. That’s a lot.”

He shrugged. “I never had much in the way of family. So I made my own.”

I glanced at him, a little jealous. “I can understand that. I don’t have any family either. I’d love to have a ton of kids one day.” Though considering I was already thirty, my biological clock gave a good strong tick in the back of my head, like I might need the reminder I probably only had five good breeding years left. “Not that I have a partner to have any with.”

Fang chuckled. “Seems like there were a few guys back at Sinners who might want to change that.”

I sighed. “Whip and I barely know each other. X is completely insane.”

“What about Reaper?”

I shrugged. “Levi just started a fight in the middle of a restaurant. The Levi I thought I knew is not the man I saw tonight.”

Fang sighed. “He’s a good guy. I swear. Known him since I was barely more than a kid.”

I peeked over at him. “You two grew up together?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly. I met him when I joined the club. I was barely sixteen. He was about eighteen. We shared a room for a while, since we were the youngest of the club.” He flicked his thumb against the steering wheel absentmindedly. “That was back before War and Hawk were old enough to join. You met them the other night too.”