“I think there’s more to it,” Chloe said with a sigh. “But she didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Does it have to be you though, Clo? I know you like her, but she doesn’t belong on our side of the res. She’s not like us.”
His words penetrated the drunken haze hovering over me. He didn’t want me here. Zane didn’t want me hanging out with his friends or being in his space.
Yet, he was here.
He came.
For Chloe, a sobering voice whispered. He came for Chloe because Kye couldn’t.
Their voices became white noise, a distant rumble of vowels and consonants I couldn’t quite distinguish. My stomach roiled, the liquor sloshing inside me like waves in an angry storm.
“I-I don’t feel so good,” I murmured.
“Do you need us to pull over?” Chloe asked.
“N-no, I think I’ll be okay.”
“Get her phone,” Zane said.
“What?”
“Get her phone.”
Chloe leaned between the seats, digging into my pocket.
“Wha—”
“Shh, just focus on deep breathing. In and out, okay?”
I nodded, my muscles lax and heavy all at the same time. The gruff cadence of Zane’s voice filled the car, but I was too out of it to really hear the conversation.
When the car lurched to an abrupt stop, I jerked upright. Chloe and Zane climbed out, slamming their doors, and then my door was ripped open.
“Out you come, Einstein.”
Zane.
My chest squeezed.
I hated how he called me that, wielding it as a weapon, as if my intelligence somehow defined me and all that I was. But it wasn’t. I was so much more than mathematical equations, dictionary definitions, and test scores.
Strong, inked arms pulled me from the back of the car. My hands went to his biceps, bracing myself as he forced me onto my feet. “You good?” His eyes drilled into mine, but I couldn’t look away.
“Why do you hate me?” The words spilled out.
His brows pinched, a flicker of surprise in his gaze. My heart galloped in my chest as the air turned thick, suffocating. Something electric crackling in the space between us. Or perhaps I imagined it as he turned me around and gently shoved me toward—
“Max?” I gasped.
“Fucking lightweight.” My brother chuckled.
“I…” My gaze swung up to Zane. “You… you called Max?”
“Not sure daddy dearest would appreciate me marching you up to the door, Einstein.”
Something passed between us again. My mind was too discombobulated to decipher it, but I felt it. A weird tingling inside me that seemed to spread from my stomach outward, making my skin vibrate.