Kingpin (Court University 2)

“I value what’s mine,” I said, too close. I knew because I could taste her again, that floral scent deep in my chest and warming my blood. “And I may be a brute. I may be a bully, but when I have something good, I don’t throw it away.”

Red lashes flicked wildly over her eyes, her body shivering. Especially when I pushed off of her.

I grabbed my beer. “Don’t be stupid, beauty queen. You’re better than that.”

Billie

All too quickly, he walked away, leaving me in his wake, and I dizzied yet again.

But he’d thrown me away too.

I hated that my thoughts even went there, and they confused me so much I did text Sinclair. I needed to get out of here. I needed to go home. This was our first public appearance since kind of talking to each other again. LJ was wrong. We weren’t together, but we were talking.

Why did he even care?

Why did he know, and so confused, I shook my head. I asked Sinclair where he was via text, but when he didn’t respond, I immediately sought out a bathroom. I needed to throw some water on my face. I needed a reality check.

“Bathroom?” I asked someone in the house. I didn’t know this house. I didn’t know these people. Sinclair had said he had some friends throwing a party, so we came out, the pair of us trying to do something different and me trying to be more adventurous. I’d basically cut myself off from the world after he’d broken up with me, become a hermit besides my visits with Mom, so I was trying to be better. Better only got me under the arm of Lance Johnson again.

“When I have something good, I don’t throw it away…”

Needing to get him out of my head, I followed the directions to the bathroom and threw it open. I hadn’t knocked first. For some reason hadn’t bothered.

I should have bothered.

The space was preoccupied, two guys in there. One was balls deep behind the other, grunting wildly over the guy below, but the moment I came in, they both stopped.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped out, backing away, but not before seeing the other guy’s face, the one bent over the sink with his pants down to his ankles. Catching my eyes, the guy’s widened, completely horrified.

That’s because he knew me.

“Billie,” Sinclair gasped, pushing the guy behind off him. Sinclair immediately righted himself, getting his pants back up. “It’s not what it looks like.”

It wasn’t what it looked like? The fact that that was all he could come up with floored me, and I raised my hands.

“Don’t fucking talk to me,” I growled, shaking as I backed out of the bathroom. My eyes brimming with tears, I ran, looking for my coat, and the moment I found it, I shoved my arms inside. I hadn’t driven, but I had one of Sinclair’s car keys on my chain. He’d given it back to me once we started talking.

Such a huge mistake.

I was basically in tears as I ran through the house, and by the time I made it outside and into Sinclair’s car, my cheating ex had gotten his shit together enough to chase me.

He pressed his hands to the glass of the window of his own car, but I locked the door, keeping him out. He tugged at the door. “Billie, open this door and talk to me!”

So much made sense now. He’d said he’d been confused…

Shaking, I turned on his car, ignoring his roars on the other side as I pressed my foot to the gas and peeled away. I tried not to think about LJ’s words about being stupid during the drive.

Because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop crying.

Chapter Thirteen

Billie

A knock slammed against my door some days later, and though I thought I had a good handle on my curling iron, it slipped and burned the shit out of my finger.

I cursed, dropping the damn thing, and all the while, someone pounded at my door like the police. I managed to get my curling iron up, and after running my finger under some cold water for like a second, I rushed to the door. At this point, the person was ringing the doorbell like crazy, and I screamed I was coming.

“What do you want—” My voice screeched to an abrupt cut-off.