Page 107 of Your Fault

Nick let go of my waist and stepped forward. “You’ve got one second to get out of my sight, and if you don’t, you’re going to have problems, get it?”

This was spinning out of control. I grabbed Nick’s hand. “Come on, let’s go. Please,” I said softly.

I didn’t want them to fight. I just wanted to get out of there.

The idiot from the bar seemed to understand this could turn out badly for him; there was no question about who would go down if the two of them were to fight. The door to the bar opened, and the music from inside echoed out into the street. Briar emerged, holding hands with the idiot’s blond friend.

“What’s going on?” she asked, coming over. Nick turned on his heel. His entire body went tense, and I knew this wasn’t going to turn out well.

44

Nick

I locked eyes with the girl who had just come from the bar.

Briar Palvin.

I couldn’t believe it.

The guy she was hanging off let her go and walked over to his friend. I was pissed enough to take on four guys if I had to. But seeing Briar there threw me off. I saw surprise in her face just as I looked away to concentrate on the other two assholes.

“What? You’re going to do something, dumbass?”

I clenched my fist, ready to shut his mouth for him. They thought I’d back down because there were two of them… Big mistake. The only thing that kept me from leaving them both on the ground bleeding was the girl who was squeezing my arm just then.

“Nicholas, please,” Noah insisted.

The blond guy stepped forward, right into my personal space.

“If you’re smart, you’ll back off,” I said, controlling my tone.

“Or else what?” The other one came up beside him. I could easily have flattened them both, but that wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t the time nor the place, especially not with Noah around.

I looked over at Briar and saw she had walked away and was coming back with the gorilla who watched over the door. The big guy sneered at us as he came to a stop.

“Get out of here if you don’t want me to call the cops. I’m talking to all three of you.”

I guess the guys got scared because they backed down, so I escaped the need to bruise my knuckles and get into an even worse fight with Noah.

But I had a bigger problem now. I knew it when I saw Briar walk over to Noah and wrap an arm around her. I tried as hard as I could to come up with something to say to that girl with the fire-red hair. Her eyes were utterly indifferent to me.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us, Morgan?” she asked in that angelic voice that she used whenever it was convenient for her.

Nervous, Noah looked at me and bit her lip. I’d have liked to tell her to stop, not to hurt herself, but then she said something, and every single alarm in my body went off.

“Nick, this is my new roommate, Briar. Briar, this is my boyfriend, Nicholas.”

I stood there for a few seconds before I managed to reach out and shake the hand she presented to me.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Briar Palvin was the last girl I’d ever have chosen to live with Noah. She had known the very worst parts of me. And when I said the worst, I meant the worst.

“It’s a pleasure. Nicholas…?” she said, waiting for a response.

“Leister,” I grunted through pursed lips.

As if she didn’t know… I couldn’t understand why she was pretending not to recognize me, but it was too late for explanations. Anyway, the last thing I wanted was to give Noah more reasons to doubt our relationship. Briar Pelvin was a part of my past, and that’s where she was going to stay.

“We’re on our way,” I said, pulling Noah off toward my car.