Noah and Chase push him back, and Ryan fixes his jacket. Dave and another Silver who they’re always with, Ian, I think his name is, stand beside him. I can’t help but notice the remnants of a black eye Dave’s sporting haven’t completely healed yet. A small, victorious smile spreads involuntarily on my face. Is that from Aiden? I hope so.
My smile disappears, however, when Kaitlyn emerges from Ryan’s Mustang and hangs back a bit behind them, a scowl etched on her face. She looks tired and drawn, as if she hasn’t been sleeping properly.
“Calm down, Simms. I had nothing to do with Greg’s death,” Aiden explains evenly.
“Like hell you didn’t!” Ryan counters, looking less and less composed. “I know you were arrested! I know where his body was found. I don’t know how many officers you had to blow to get released, but I know you did it!”
I scoff out loud, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one either.
“Aiden is a thousand times smarter than you, Ryan.” I can’t help but interject, ignoring the warning glare Aiden’s shooting me and taking a few steps closer to Ryan. “Do you think if he was going to murder your father he’d be stupid enough to get caught? To leave the body in front of his own house as if showing off a prize?”
“Well, Parker’s whore, let me explain something to you.” Ryan takes a step closer to me, and I sense more than see Aiden also moving toward me. But I don’t care, all my attention is focused on squaring off with Ryan.
“Parker is trash,” he continues. “He’s a product of his filthy, trailer trash whore of a mother. He keeps company with you fuckwits because scum is attracted to other scum. It’s practically his destiny to get shanked and die in prison because that’s all he’s good for anyway. Those bastard brothers of his are better off jumping off a roof than continuing to live with him. They’re probably little incest babies anyw—”
Red. All I see is red. My mind shuts off and instinct takes over as I raise my fist and punch him with all I have, harder than during training, harder than when I practice on the punching bag, hard enough to cut him off midsentence and make his head snap to the side and throw him off balance.
“Fuck!” I hiss as I pull my hand to my chest. I forgot how much it hurts to throw that kind of a punch, especially when the target is a human face.
Before anyone even has time to process what happened, strong hands are on my shoulders, practically throwing me back into a hard body with open arms, as if they were waiting to catch me. The arms wrap around me, both familiar and comforting, but they’re not the arms that I basically know by heart, that belong to the man who takes
my breath away.
Aiden now stands in the place I was, and in the second it took him to pull me out of the way, Ryan straightens up and swings without looking at the target, aiming lower since he expects it to be little ol’ me, not the tall wall of muscle that is Aiden.
Aiden catches his wrist in his left hand with ease, automatically returning the favor and knocking Ryan straight to the ground, where he curses and moans.
I shrug off whoever is holding me and look back to see that it was Mason. Stay out of trouble, his eyes seem to say. It’s like he doesn’t even know me.
I get that Ryan’s primary emotion is anger, but I also know he must be in pain. I understand that he’s hurting—I really do. I lost a father, too, one that was great to me, even if he had his problems, and one I loved. But now Ryan’s lashing out at the people I care about, and that is not acceptable, even if he’s in pain and thinks it’s all our fault.
Aiden strides over to where Ryan’s laid out, fully conscious but clearly in pain. He crouches down and rests his forearms on his thighs.
“You can talk shit about me or fight me all you want,” he says, his voice low and menacing. “But you leave my friends and family alone. And you especially don’t talk about my brothers or lay a hand on my girl.”
He looks at Dave at that last part, too, as if proving his statement that no one messes with his girl—with me.
They both get to their feet, Ryan spitting blood out as he does. Kaitlyn comes to his side and wraps her arm around his waist but he pushes her off him and wipes his lip with the back of his hand.
“Listen, Ryan,” Aiden says, his arms at his side but still tensed and ready for a fight. “Greg was a shitty person, but he’s still your father, and I’m sorry he’s gone. But I had nothing to do with his death. The truth is, he was the last thing connecting us. With all of this happening, your mom’s no longer my guardian. We can all move on with our lives and drop whatever juvenile rivalry we have. Channel your hate into something productive. We don’t ever have to see each other again.”
My heart swells with pride at Aiden trying to be the bigger person, even if he didn’t say it in the nicest way, and even if he did just try to rearrange Ryan’s face with his fist.
Ryan spits again. “Fuck you, Parker.”
Kaitlyn must not like the scowl on my face, because her icy, blue eyes narrow at me and she says, “Have something to say?”
“It’s funny how obsessed with Aiden you all are. Like, I get it, he’s great. But seriously, this is getting very tiring and I’m done with wasting time on dealing with this stupid bullshit.” I walk over to Aiden and take his hand confidently in mine. “Let’s just go.”
I don’t give anyone time to protest—I drag Aiden with me, hoping that the rest of our friends are behind us. A few seconds later, Charlotte falls into step with me, Noah and Chase right behind her, and Mason just a few steps behind them.
“Amelia’s house,” Aiden says as we all get into our respective cars.
Julian’s truck is gone, so he’s presumably off somewhere consoling his girlfriend, so Charlotte gets in the back of Aiden’s Challenger, while Noah and Chase go with Mason.
“Always have to get right in the middle of a fight, don’t you, Amelia?” Aiden sighs as he pulls out of the parking lot.
I turn on my butt warmer and sigh, looking at my hand, which I’m still cradling. I really hope Ryan’s face didn’t break it.