The crack of her hand against my cheek stopped whatever my dumb ass might have continued to spew at her. Regret washed over me as I saw the shimmer of tears before she turned away. “I knew coming tonight was a mistake. Thanks for proving me right.” She shook her head,
causing long curls to dance wildly around her shoulders. “Nice place you have here, and it’s awesome that you’re turning our friend into a cokehead. That’s just about perfect. But now I’m bored, so I think we’re going to head out.”
She glanced behind Jace and I followed her gaze to a man in a suit as big as any of my security men walking toward us with a tall chick with long red hair. I recognized the man as Lucy’s bodyguard from the few pictures I’d seen over the years of her in the tabloids. The girl was someone I’d seen in recent papers as Scott Montez’s daughter. “I’m so ready to get out of here, Kin.”
Kin pushed past me and wrapped her arms around Lucy’s neck. “What’s wrong?” I heard her murmur.
“I just want to go.” The tears were gone now and her voice was full of steel. “Do you mind?”
“No, of course not…”
Jace made a choking sound and I forced my eyes from Lucy to the Tainted Knight’s front man. “Kin?”
The redhead stiffened and turned her head, and when her bright eyes landed on the rocker they widened for a moment before frosting over. “Jace.”
I watched as Jace swallowed hard and took a hesitant step toward the taller girl. “What are you doing here?”
“Lucy invited me.” If a person could catch frostbite from someone’s tone of voice, I was positive that Jace would have needed medical attention right then. She looked less enthused to see Jace than Lucy was to see me at the moment.
Jace ignored it and shook his head, his eyes seeming to eat up the sight of the beautiful redhead. “No, I mean… what are you doing here… in California.”
A flash of something that looked a lot like pain crossed her face and she lowered her eyes to her clasped hands for a second before clenching her jaw and meeting his gaze once more. “I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to my life story since I last saw you.” She took hold of Lucy’s hand and turned away. “Let’s go.”
“No.” Jace moved until he was blocking their path. He caught her free hand that she quickly tried to jerk away from him, but he held firm. “Don’t go.” His throat bobbed as if he were having trouble swallowing, which amused me. In the few months that I’d known Jace and become friends with him, I’d seen him score with one girl after the other. That this chick was tossing him off his game was beyond funny to me. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
With her back turned toward me I couldn’t see the look on Kin’s face, but from the way her shoulders stiffened I knew that she either didn’t like his admission or didn’t believe him. “Yeah, I could tell from all those phone calls and text messages you didn’t send. I’m not in the mood to listen to your bullshit, Jace. Move or be moved.”
Lucy’s bodyguard stepped up behind the two girls and whatever expression Jace saw on the guy’s face must have told him that he would definitely not want to be moved. Jace glared at the bodyguard for a long moment before finally stepping back.
I had the sudden urge to take his place. I didn’t want Lucy to leave. Even though she had pissed me off and yeah, hurt me more than a little, I still wanted her to stay so that we could hang out and catch up. I missed my best friend so damn much.
I took two steps to follow after them as they left but Jenna chose that moment to tune into what was going on around her and promptly vomited all over the couch.
Fucking perfect.
Chapter 4
Lucy
The sound of the doorbell woke me.
I groaned as I turned over in bed and pulled my extra pillow over my head. From the way the sun was shining through my window, and the noise coming from my brothers’ room down the hall, I knew it had to be between midmorning to early afternoon.
Last night had definitely not gone as I’d expected. Kin hadn’t even wanted to sleep over after that whole scene with Jace St. Charles. She hadn’t said more than a few words on the drive home. Most of them had included her telling me who the hot guy who had been so surprised to see her at First Bass was, and her asking Marcus to take her straight home. She had spent the majority of the ride home frowning out the side window as Marcus had gotten us out of the city.
I’d been okay with her quietness. After seeing Harris again, I didn’t want to talk much myself. Had he always been such an asshat? Exhaling long and hard, I tossed the pillow at the end of the bed and glared up at my ceiling.
I was surprised Mom had let me sleep that long. She normally liked to have us all at the breakfast table on Sunday mornings. It wasn’t like I’d gotten home overly late the night before. Ten on a Saturday night was definitely not late, especially when she liked for me to be home no later than one as an unenforced curfew. Unenforced, because I rarely stayed out later than eleven on the rare occasions that I did go out.
Even though I’d gotten home at an uncool hour and gone straight to bed, I hadn’t fallen asleep until nearly dawn. My mind hadn’t wanted to shut up and I’d been helpless to make it comply with my wants and demands. All I could think about was Harris and how good he had looked. My crush had definitely not been smothered out in the four-year exile I’d kept it in from my old friend.
If you’d seen Harris Cutter, then you couldn’t blame me for my infatuation. It was possible that he was the most delicious piece of male specimen to walk to planet. At six feet, five and a half inches he stood even taller than my dad. His dark hair was cut short, something that he’d always been a stickler over. Aquamarine eyes were startling against his natural tan complexion and those damn dimples were enough to leave a girl speechless when they were flashed at her.
When I was twelve, however, it hadn’t just been his appearance that had made me crush on him. I’d been privileged enough to get to know the soul underneath the killer looks. I’d known how kind his heart could be and how deep the scars from his childhood hurts had gone.
Maybe I hadn’t understood what I’d lost when I’d let our friendship fade into nothing four years ago, but after last night I didn’t know if I ever wanted to find it again.
Seeing Jenna so trashed had been bad. I didn’t know what I should do about her coked-out state. Sure I knew what I wanted to do and that was to get Shane, Drake, and Natalie together and tell them what I’d seen the night before. But what if Harris was into that shit, too? What if…