The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

We both ducked simultaneously as one shirtless guy stumbled backwards, his drink spilling over in his hand.

Krein wrapped a hand around my waist and literally lifted me out of the way and placed me in front of him, protecting me from three sides, a hand in front to ward off anyone.

“Sorry, dude…” the shirtless guy slurred.

Krein shrugged him off, nudging me forward.

We shoved our way through the next tier of people and Krein pointed towards a corner where I got a brief glimpse of Jace standing in a corner, two girls pressed up against him while he was nodding to whatever some guy was telling him.

Krein switched places with me and muscled his way over to them, two guards let us through, both giving me the once-over.

The new guy from Monday nodded in greeting to us as he shifted aside so we could walk through.

Hax, another of Jace’s guys, nudged Jace from behind. He nodded in our direction when Jace glanced at him.

When he spotted me, I saw the slight widening around his eyes. The rest of the world would just see the same poker face, but they weren’t privy to the storm that was brewing in his eyes. Great. There was the same tight jaw he always got when he was really pissed.

Jace broke away from the group he had been standing with, leaving the two girls disappointed, until they latched onto someone else. One girl managed to send me a glare first. The next thing I knew, Jace had grabbed my wrist and was pulling me back the way Krein had just brought me.

And just like Krein, at the first drunk who stumbled in our path, Jace simply lifted me up and placed me in front of him, his arms coming around both sides of me to protect from all angles.

Ben must’ve sent Grunt, because suddenly he materialized in front of us and cleared a trail for us until we set foot in the back hallway.

“Jace,” I started.

“Don’t,” he said harshly, not letting go of my arm as he led me to his office. One of the guards saw us and ducked inside. A second later a scantily dressed girl darted through and ran down the hallway, away from us.

“Greg,” Jace ordered, “I don’t want her going that way. Get her back.”

Greg nodded and left quickly behind the girl.

When we were inside the room, my eyes had to adjust for a moment to the dark lighting.

Jace didn’t say anything. He brushed past me and disappeared inside his bathroom. Emerging a second later, he pulled off his shirt and grabbed another one laying on the chair. Pulling it over his head, I diverted my eyes when I saw his stomach muscles ripple from the movement.

Jace regarded me for another moment in silence. “What are you doing here?” he asked smoothly.

I hugged myself, feeling self-conscious all of the sudden. “I came for a friend.”

“Oh. So this is business?” he asked coolly.

“My friend, Geezer—”

“You’re here about his dad.”

“Yeah,” I breathed out.

“And you want to know if he’s working for me?”

“Yeah.” I willed myself to look up and hold his gaze. “Is he?”

“And what right do you have asking that? Why should I tell you? he demanded harshly.

“Because…”

“Because, why, Taryn? Last I know, the only thing you’ve done in my life is walk out of it and cause more rift between my little brother and I.”

I flinched. He was right. I’d been so focused on moving forward, finding a better place in life for me, that I’d left everyone behind. And not gave one shit about who I was hurting or how many times I hurt them.