Tough Shit (Rejects Paradise 1)

I push up to my feet and hold onto the wall. My legs feel like jelly but for the most part, I think the drug is out of my system. I slowly start creeping toward the bathroom, silently thanking whoever lives above that Nic decided to go. I don’t want him to see me like this. He would have stayed and insisted on helping me with every tiny little thing.

Holding onto the glass of the shower, I somehow manage to lean in and turn on the taps and after stripping off my clothes—clothes that certainly don’t belong to me or Nic—I search through the bathroom drawers for some pain-killers.

As I stand under the hot water and scrub the feel of his hands off my body, my mind wanders. It doesn’t make sense to me that Jude has run, not after the beating he took from Colton last night. He must be some kind of superhuman to have woken early and run out of here before Nic found him. From the sound of it, Nic’s been here all night and if Jude was there when he arrived, he wouldn’t be out searching for him now. It’s a two-hour drive from Breakers Flats and assuming Colton called him right after I passed out, that gives Jude two hours to regain consciousness and make a run for it.

Not fucking possible. Not after that beating. Jude would have been out for hours.

Something doesn’t add up here.

My mind takes me back to the fogginess of last night. I remember Colton coming and looking for me and I remember the way his eyes had locked onto mine, the fury, the jealousy, the rage. I remember it all.

He nearly killed him and then he took me away from my nightmare. He held me in my arms and murmured, begging for me to be okay, but then he said something else just as my world was fading to black.

‘Spence, I need your help.’

They know something. They know where he is. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

I fly out of the shower and pull Colton’s shirt back over my head before curling my hair up into a big clip. Underwear and sweatpants go on and a second later, I’m storming out the door to the huge mansion that still baffles me.

The clean-up crew is here and busy and resentment settles within me. I was supposed to enjoy that party and I was supposed to earn a shitload of cash helping these guys clean it up. Instead, I’m cleaning up a different mess entirely. A mess that should never have been made.

By the time I reach the stairs that lead up to Colton’s bedroom, my legs are starting to feel the burn. The pain-killers and the hot shower certainly worked their magic but there’s only so much they can do, but I’m not stopping. I don’t even care if I have to sit at the top for ten minutes before slamming my way through Colton’s door. I will be getting answers and I don’t care how I have to get them.

It’s some kind of miracle that I get to the top and find the will to force myself to the end of the hallway until I’m standing in front of his door.

I don’t wait.

I barge through the door, throwing it open, much like Colton had done last night. I fly into his room just a moment before his ensuite door opens and he strides out in nothing but a white towel wrapped dangerously low around his defined hips.

He comes to a standstill, staring at me in shock, clearly not having expected me to come barging in here first thing on a Sunday morning. “What ar–”

“What did you do?” I demand, cutting him off.

His brows crease and I try not to get distracted by the drops of water that slowly trail down his strong body, dripping from his hair, and making his skin look good enough to eat. “What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.”

“Jude,” I snap, watching as he walks around the room as though I’m not even here. “I know you stashed him somewhere so Nic couldn’t get to him.”

Colton stops walking and turns to face me, his eyes hardening at my accusation. “Get this straight, Ocean. I don’t give a shit what happens to the mother fucker after he put his hands on you. Dominic can have him for all I fucking care.”

I swallow at the intensity of his stare but it doesn’t go unnoticed that he didn’t exactly answer my question. I can’t stop staring. It’s never made sense why he cares so damn much but there’s something real there, something honest and downright raw.

I swallow my pride and walk toward him and with each step I take, the intensity grows until I’m standing right before him. Instinct has his hands falling to my waist as I claim his bare chest just as I had last night on the dance floor.