Her Best Men

“Yeah, that's what they all say. And I'm sure they even mean it,” she said. “Doesn't keep them from doing it though.”

She looked at me as she gripped the gate tightly before slinging it open. Stepping into her yard, she slammed it shut again behind her a

nd without turning to look at me, ran up the stairs to her front door.

I fought with the gate, which was stuck, as she went inside. I called out to her, one last time, before the door closed behind her. If she'd heard me, she ignored me. Not even a glance back at me. I stood there for a moment feeling absolutely awful and completely powerless to do anything about it.

CHAPTER TEN - CASON

“Wait, so you think someone is abusing her? Who?” I asked as I got ready to pick Hailey up for our dinner date.

Quinn told me everything that happened earlier – including the part where she said to leave her alone. All of us. Not like I was going to let that bother me – for all I knew, it could be Quinn trying to pull one over on me to keep me from seeing her. It's not like it would have been the first time he'd tried to get over on me.

I straightened my tie and looked in the mirror, making sure it was perfect as Quinn paced my bedroom behind me. I could tell there really was something bothering him. He was a little more agitated than usual. Whatever had happened with Hailey had rattled him.

But, I was determined to not let it bother me. I was determined to see Hailey.

“I don't know,” Quinn said. “She was really upset though. And I don't know if it's a good idea if you – or any of us – try to see her. She was pretty clear about wanting to be left alone.”

Bennett was standing in the doorway, leaning against the jamb, eating a leftover BBQ pork sandwich, listening to us with curiosity. Quinn went on about the bruises on her wrist for another couple of minutes.

“It's not like we know much about her,” Bennett said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Maybe she's got a boyfriend already that we don't know about.”

“Here in Black Oak?” I asked. “You can't believe that. We'd have heard about it.”

“Maybe he's not from around here,” Bennett said. “Maybe he lives a town over or something.”

“And if she does have a boyfriend already, he's an abusive prick,” Quinn said.

He paced the room, his fists balled up, and his jaw clenched tightly. From one side of the room to the other. Back and forth. Back and forth. His agitation seeming to grow with each step he took.

“We need to beat the shit out of him,” Quinn announced. “No one hits a woman and gets away with it.”

“He hit her?” I asked.

“Well, he did something to her obviously,” Quinn said. “You should've seen the bruises on her wrists, man.”

“This may sound bad and I don't mean it to,” I started, “But are you sure she's just not into some BDSM or something?”

“Nah,” Quinn said, stopping his pacing to look over at me. “No, man, the way she reacted – it wasn't like that. She wasn't embarrassed about having some fetish. She was scared shitless. Trust me, this wasn't the case of a woman being into kinky shit.”

“Well I'll ask her about it tonight,” I said.

I looked over at the clock and then back at my reflection, straightening my tie one last time because I had to leave in a few minutes if I was going to be on time picking her up.

“You're still planning on meeting up with her?” Quinn looked at me with a look of disbelief on his face. “Even though she asked us to leave her alone?”

“I want to get to the bottom of this and clear it all up,” I said. “If someone is hurting her, I want to help her.”

“Someone is hurting her,” Quinn reiterated. “There is no if about it.”

“Then I'll help her,” I stated matter-of-factly. “Jesus Christ, Quinn. We'll get to the bottom of it, don't worry. I'll find out who it is and we can figure it out from there.”

Picking up my phone, I looked and saw that there were no messages from Hailey canceling on our date, and shrugged. As far as I was concerned, it was still on. I slipped my phone into my pocket and grabbed my jacket, stepping around Bennett to get out of my room, before rushing out the door.

Quinn was hot on my heels, and Ben was right behind him.

“What?” I said, turning around and glaring at both of them.