“I can’t believe it.” Kayden gapes, unable to shake off his bewilderment. “My brother and my best friend.”
“I think it’s kinda cute,” I say. “You’re not gonna go over and confront them, are you?”
Kayden scrunches his mouth in contemplation.
“Don’t be an asshole. Let them have their moment,” I insist. “And we can have ours.”
He stares at them for a moment longer, having an internal debate with himself, before caving in to my suggestion.
“All right.” He yields.
And we let the rest of the night carry our thoughts away.
***
Half an hour later, we manage to pry ourselves off the dance floor. Kayden exits through the door at the back of the club, opting for some fresh air, and I grab another drink since the last round of alcohol has fizzled out of my system. I prop myself in an empty booth by the washrooms, casually sipping my piña colada to pass the time. A couple of minutes later, I spot Brent and Evans emerging from said washroom, hands linked tightly together.
They come to a halt when they catch me staring.
“So . . .” I begin casually, eyeing their clasped hands. “I’m guessing you two sorted things out?”
“Yeah,” Brent says sheepishly. “Any chance you can not tell Kayden about it?”
“I think he already knows.”
“Great,” Evans wails, throwing his hands up behind his head. “I’ll be immigrating to Canada if anyone needs me.”
I think there’s something so comical about Evans’s easy-going nature getting demolished in fear of not knowing what Kayden might to do to him the second he finds them together, even though I’m certain that Kayden would want nothing but the best for both of them.
“You’re his best friend,” I coax, twirling the straw casually with my finger. “You’ll be fine.”
“I’m his best friend, ” he echoes in a wildly panicked tone. He drags his hands through his hair, pulling at it like he has half a mind to rip it out to make himself feel better.
“Which means he’ll kill me with his bare hands if he has the chance.”
“Where is he, by the way?” Brent searches the crowded space.
“He went out for a bit,” I tell them, peeping over my phone to look at the time.
Whoa. It’s already been twenty minutes since I last saw him. Worry knots in my stomach at the thought of him running into some kind of danger. I propel myself out of the booth and toward the exit I’d seen him go through. Before leaving, I spin towards Brent and Evans.
“I’ll be right back. Stay put,” I order.
When I’m outside, a dead end greets me to the left, forcing me to make a hard right and go around the corner, which leads me to a dirty alleyway. It’s cold, clammy, and misty, and it takes me a while to waft through the fog to see anything at all. But as soon as I do, what awaits me on the other side immediately puts me in panic mode.
I retreat quickly behind the wall and peek over instead to watch the confrontation unfold.
“You know when my girlfriend said she was slumming it with you, I didn’t think she was actually serious,” Jax says, irritation flickering in his eyes as he and a few other men close in on Kayden.
Kayden doesn’t appear the least bit intimidated, scoffing at Jax’s attempt to frighten him. I look around frantically for anything that can be of use to get him out of this situation.
Nothing but barbed-wire fencing, a ton of littered cigarettes, and resting beside one of the dumpsters sits . . .
A crowbar.
Bingo.
“Don’t you mean ex-girlfriend?” Kayden says with a lifted brow. “It’s not my fault you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants. Cheating on someone with their sister is a new low, even for you, Deadbeat.”