“See, she’s fine. Let me go.” Jared attempts to rationalize with him. His words are choppy under the pressure around his vocal cords.
Johnny shakes his head. “No. Not fucking cool.”
“Dude, she was inmyroom, what do you expect?” Jared should really keep his mouth shut if he knows what’s best for him.
Johnny’s other hand clenches, and I realize shit is about to get way worse between them. As much as I’d love for Jared to get what’s coming to him, there are too many witnesses here to cover up for Johnny again.
Neither one of us can afford a repeat of the Griffin situation.
“J…” I come around and into Johnny’s peripheral. I place both of my hands around his eager fist. “Come on. We need to go.” Once I get his attention, I remind him, “It’s not worth it.”
Johnny seems to snap out of it, releasing Jared with one final shove. “If you ever so much as look at her, I will end you.”
Jared gasps for breath and rubs at his neck.
I maintain eye contact with Johnny and drag him toward the exit. The second we’re almost clear of the room, the idiot opens his mouth again.
“You’re a dead man, Jones,” Jared calls out.
But Johnny doesn’t bother stopping. “Fucking try me.”
We push through the crowd that had gathered in the hallway, a collective murmur in our wake. If we were trying to fly under the radar, we epically failed.
The worst part of it all, we didn’t find what we came here looking for.
Johnny grips my hand firmly and guides us around the drunk people scattered about.
I glance behind us, scanning to make sure Jared isn’t coming after us. My sights settle on another room, the door ajar enough for a person to barely squeeze through.
My breath catches and Johnny senses it immediately.
He snaps out of his stupor and focuses on me. “What is it?”
“Over there.”
He follows my direction, spotting the white sneakers with black stripes sitting right next to the nightstand in the foreign room.
We might not know who they belong to, but we can officially rule one person out. And if anything, I call that a huge win.
“Hey.” Cora grabs my arm to stop us at the bottom of the stairs. “Everything okay?”
I fight to hide my reaction to the impact of her fingers on my bruised skin. I may have fooled her, but Johnny notices the way my body tenses.
“Yeah,” I yell over the loud music. “I’m not feeling so great. We’re going to get going.”
Cora narrows her gaze and throws her hand on her hip. “If you two wanna be alone to bone, just admit it. We’re all adults here.”
Johnny places his hand on my lower back to guide me away from the people behind us trying to make their way through. He scans the faces like he’s waiting for a possible threat.
“Yeah,” I laugh. “You caught us.” I’d say anything to get her off our trail at this point. I need to get Johnny out of here before he explodes in a fit of rage.
She giggles and shoves me lightly. “Fine. Get out of here, then, lovebirds.”
I waste no more time, weaving my fingers through his, and waving a final goodbye to Cora on our way out the wide front door. I have to nearly drag him to get him to follow.
His mind is obviously distracted by thoughts of going back in there and ripping Jared’s head off.
I exhale once we’re about a block away and the chaos of that frenzied street dies down behind us. “Are you okay?” I glance over at Johnny.