The stare down lasted a while. I was tempted to check my emails, but they’d probably both be offended I wasn’t impressed or terrified or turned on.
So I waited, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.
Jay eventually stepped back, whether it was because he knew it was a fight he wasn’t going to win or if he remembered what I said about Stella, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter.
Because he snatched up his phone on the desk.
“I need you to book me a flight to New Zealand. The next flight,” he told the person on the phone.
Success.
Once he’d hung up the phone, he turned his attention back to me, hands flat on the desk. He was rattled.
“Tell me what you know,” he ground out.
Oh, shit. Yes, I’d told him Stella was in the hospital.
I grinned at him. He didn’t like that. “I knew you still loved her,” I beamed triumphantly.
Jay’s expression tightened. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Oh, he was going to turn this into a thing. “I knew that the second you thought Stella was hurt, you’d get your head out of your ass and go get her,” I explained to him.
Jay’s gaze darkened into what I guessed was his villain stare. I had weathered plenty of those, so it didn’t affect me. “You mean she’s fine?” he asked quietly.
I scowled at him. “Of course, she’s not fucking fine,” I snapped. “You shattered her heart into a million pieces, and she’s run off to the middle of nowhere New Zealand, not a Sephora or Nordstrom to be seen. She’s nowhere near fucking fine.”
My heart broke, thinking of how much pain Stella must’ve been in to run away like that, to avoid us so completely. My hands fisted at my sides even thinking about it.
Jay was still villain-glaring at me. “But she’s not in the hospital?” he clarified.
It was clear then that Jay really was not okay with my little white lie. Karson stepped in front of me.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Settle down, Karson. He’s not going to hurt me.”
Jay was not staring at Karson, his attention was weighted on me. “How can you be so sure?” he asked, the words a threat.
“Because you know how much I mean to Stella, and you wouldn’t hurt her,” I answered, not an ounce of fear in my voice. “Not beyond what you’ve already done. Which you most likely did while trying to be noble or some shit. Trying to protect her.”
I rolled my eyes once again, attention flickering to Karson who was still on high alert.
“I swear, you fucking badass alpha male types are so hell-bent on being heroic, on protecting us from the world, from yourselves, you’re blind to seeing that your toxic masculinity is the thing that fucks us up the most.”
Karson showed no reaction to my words, even though they were also spoken for his benefit.
I turned my attention back to Jay. “If you’d thought the unthinkable, to … I don’t know, speak to Stella honestly, lay it all out and let her make her own decisions about what’s good for her and what’s not, we probably wouldn’t be in this fucking predicament,” I sighed. “Nonetheless, we are. So you’re going to New Zealand.”
I was rather satisfied with my little speech. More than satisfied. These men were like toddlers, all they really needed was a stern talking to.
He wasn’t going to agree with me straight away, of course. He had to sit there with that granite stare on his face, operate under the illusion that he was in control of all of this. When really, these men, these strong, dangerous men were powerless against us.
The only problem was, we were pretty powerless against them too. And we were both trying to hide that.
“No,” Jay spoke finally, and my heart stuttered. “I am not going to New Zealand.” His eyes went from Karson then back to me. “We are.”
It was then I grinned.
“Fuck yes we are.”