Anger boiled in me at the angry post. I quickly clicked on the guy’s name and went to his page. Adam Mathis was a complete dick. I noted the time on his post, and it was over an hour after I’d seen her in class. Whatever happened to upset her, it wasn’t this fucker’s post on her page.
“What’s up Liam?” I didn’t notice that Maddox came into bar because I was so wrapped up in scrolling through her social media and seeing this douchebag with her.
“Who is this asshole?” I thrust my phone into Maddox’s hand, ignoring his greeting.
“What?” He took the phone and looked at the post. “Why are you on Paisley’s page?”
“I’ll explain in a minute, but who the hell is Adam Mathis, and more importantly why the fuck does he think he can talk to her like that?”
“Adam is her boyfriend,” he read the post on her page, “or ex-boyfriend it seems. I’ll talk to her when I get home tonight.” He slid the phone back over to me. “So, how do you know Paisley, and why are you acting so protective of her?”
Maddox was a smart guy, so I knew he already knew why I’d asked him to meet up with me on a Friday evening after work. The big crowds weren’t in this bar on Monday nights. They were at Club Paradigm or the local sex club, Deviance.
“You know why.” I took a sip of my beer and pulled my phone away from him again.
“She’s your student, man, you can’t fuck up your career.”
“She’s notmystudent. I filled in for another professor today. Paisley was in that class, and after it was over,” I gave a frustrated sigh and ran my hand through my hair. “I fucked everything up.”
“How?”
I finished off my drink, Chugs brought Maddox a bottle of water and stood close by, obviously entertained and listening to our conversation.
“After class, I told her never to sign up for one of my classes. She didn’t understand why, and obviously,” I gestured to my phone, “something else was going on that I didn’t know about.”
“Fuck.” Maddox studied my face, before chugging down half his water bottle. “Just make sure if you pursue her, it’s serious for you. She’s a brat, but I don’t want to see her hurt. Plus, it would make things complicated between me and Lexi since you are both our best friends.”
I quirked a brow. “Tyson’s type of brat or the normal kind?”
Maddox laughed, “The normal kind. Between you and me, I’ve heard of this Adam douchebag a lot over the last couple of years because she was dating him on and off through high school. When she’d come to the house with her family in the summers, she would come looking stressed out and leave looking relaxed, like something was taking a toll on her back home. I have my suspicions it was him.”
“I don’t like it,” I muttered, glancing up at the game again, but not giving a shit who was winning. My mind was on Paisley, and I was ready to make my claim on her. If it was any other woman, I’d have waited for her to be off a rebound because I didn’t want to add to her hurt. But Paisley wasn’t just another woman—she wasthewoman.
“I don’t like his post either. I’ll talk to her tonight.”
“Thanks for not busting my balls about this,” I mumbled, throwing down money for Chugs, covering both our drinks and a generous tip.
“I know how it was for me when I met Lexi. Everything changed, and I know you, Liam. You wouldn’t have asked me here or even considered her, unless she was it for you.”
“Yeah.”
I watched as Maddox pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll let the girls know we need to talk when I get home.” He sent a text and frowned at the reply.
“What’s up?”
“Lexi said that Paisley isn’t home. She hasn’t seen her since dinner.”
“Dammit.” I grabbed my keys, the worst-case scenarios running through my mind. “Let’s go.”
“Hold on, I turned on the locator for both girls’ phones. I can track her as long as her phone has power going to it.”
“Do they know you did this?” I felt relief that he had, but unease that Paisley wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
“Yes. They agreed to leave it on as a safety precaution.” I watched impatiently as he searched for her. I was ready to take off and put her right where she belonged, under me. “Fuck, you aren’t going to believe this.”
Shit. “What?” I tried to prepare myself for what he would say, but I wasn’t prepared for him to tell me.
“She’s at Deviance.”