Chapter 3 Gray
“Why should we go?” Ash was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “Country rock is not my thing. Any of our things. It’s gonna suck balls.”
“Have you seen him?” I asked my cousin casually as I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at Jett, who was searching through a drawer in his closet for fuck only knows what.
“So . . . we’re going so he can keep an eye on his girlfriend?
” Ash asked with a groan. He was lying sprawled over the couch in Jett’s room and was still only half-dressed since his shower after practice.
He had a large purpling bruise on his back and side where he took an extra-heavy hit from the defensive lineman earlier today.
“He’s trying to be cool,” I said quietly to my cousin as I watched my brother quietly freak out. It was funny. “But it’s eating him up inside, knowing she is in the same place as the guy who liked her and she almost hooked up with.”
“Will the redhead be there?” Ash asked with interest as he sat up. “I wanted to get some shut eye before tonight, but you know, I wouldn’t want to let my cousin down.”
“And the redhead is a bonus?” I asked him dryly.
“We all need perks, Gray.” Ash winked at me as he stood. “I need ten minutes.” I watched him walk out of the room when Jett turned to me.
“Ten minutes for what? I thought he showered?”
I barked out a laugh and then held my hands up innocently. “He thinks we should go to the bar,” I told him.
Jett started to grin and then lost it. “I can’t.”
I hadn’t been expecting that. “Why?”
“She’ll think I’m a clinger or something.”
“So?”
My twin genuinely looked stumped, and then I saw his eyes gleam. “You’re right, I don’t have to apologize or feel guilty. She’s my girlfriend.”
“Exactly.” I nodded even as I wanted to shake him. He really was a fucking caveman.
“And it will do the guy good to remember who her boyfriend is.”
“Absolutely,” I agreed while fighting back my laugh at his wholly predictable behavior. “You tell them,” I added with a smirk, which unfortunately the dumb shit noticed.
“You’re pulling my chain?”
“Of course I am, don’t be a Neanderthal.” My brother folded his arms across his chest as he lifted an eyebrow in question. “You can’t go in and throw your weight around. Ava will kick you in the balls. Again.”
Jett grinned with pride as he rubbed his crotch. “But she treats them so well.”
Shaking my head, I gave my brother a playful shove as I walked past him. “You have five minutes to remember you’re a Devil and not a pussy-whipped dick.”
“You know I’m not stupid,” his quiet voice halted my exit. “She’ll be okay.”
“I know.” I didn’t turn to look at him and waited for a moment before he spoke again.
“I need to check on her, too, sometimes,” Jett said softly. “Even Ash does.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I know.”
“As long as you do.”
Looking over my shoulder at my brother, I nodded once. “I have it handled.”
“I know, brother.” He watched me, his serious face so like my own. “You have to loosen the hold though.”
Rolling my neck on my shoulders, I tried to ease the tension. “I’m trying.” I walked out of the room before he could say anything else.
In my own room, I went to my bathroom and washed my hands and face.
With hands clenched tightly onto the sink, I looked at myself in my mirror.
My hair was longer than it normally was.
I preferred it close-cropped, but I had let it get too long on top.
My skin, like any athlete who played his sport outside, was tanned.
Jett and Ash were both taller than me, but I was broader over the shoulders.
I wasn’t overly vain; I knew I was decent-looking, and I had enough women throw themselves at me to prove it.
Quinn never threw herself at me. Not really. Jett nicknamed her Queeny early on; she just had a regal presence about her. Her head was always high, her back straight, and she had the “get the fuck away from me” vibe down even when she was eleven.
I didn’t need to go to the bar to make sure she was okay. I had put the walls up, and she had respected them. But I could see her struggling. When Jett texted me a few weeks ago to say she was hurting, I didn’t even ask him how he knew she needed me. Not him.
I had dropped everything and run to her. She had sobbed in my arms for what she lost, and I had held her and promised to those above I would find out who hurt her, and I wouldn’t sleep until I had fulfilled that promise and buried their carcasses.
Quinn deserved pain in her life. She caused me enough, and she deserved to feel what I felt. But she didn’t deserve what she had gone through. She didn’t deserve anything close to that. None of the girls did. We had three films now, each a different girl, each a different heartbreak.
Selfishly, I was glad Quinn wasn’t on any of the film. I was barely holding on as it was, and if I had seen her on that table . . . I closed my eyes against the fury. The rage burned inside me, and I didn’t know how to put the fire out.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I pulled my T-shirt off, and putting on an identical black one, I grabbed my hoodie and my bandana.
We would go from the bar to the next house.
The plan wouldn’t change despite the small detour to the bar.
I just needed to know she was okay, and I knew just putting my eyes on her, even for a brief moment, would calm my inner beast so I could be right for tonight.
We couldn’t fuck up. We couldn’t get caught either. I didn’t want to go to jail, but I would. For her.
With a disgusted grunt at my foolishness, I went out of my room to get the others. We’d check on her, she’d be fine, and we could move on to tonight’s job.
Ash grinned as he held up his bandana. “Great minds.”
“Easier,” Jett said distractedly as he checked his room for anything he might miss. “We go straight there after an hour in the bar, okay?”
“An hour?” I asked him as we descended the stairs of the dorm house.
“Problem?” Jett asked casually as he looked over his shoulder at me.
“No. Just thinking it’s a long night,” I replied. “Got an assignment due at nine.”
“Fuck, bro, why you never better prepared?” Ash chided.
“’Cause I do my best work on a tight deadline half-asleep.”
“He really does,” Jett agreed as we got into my car.
I didn’t have an R8 like my brother. I had a nice, black, sleek Mercedes.
It didn’t stand out as much as Jett’s car, and it wasn’t the environment-killer SUV that Ash had.
I had a hybrid, and I didn’t give a flying fuck if they called me a hippie.
One day, my kids would inherit the world I left behind.
“So . . . how do we play this?” Ash asked as he pulled the seat belt on. “Do we just tell them Jett’s a needy fuck, or . . . ?”
“How about we play to your horndog rep and say you’re needing some red in your life?” Jett snapped at him with a glare.
“Or,” I interrupted their argument, “we just say fuck all and remember we’re Devils, not fucking idiots.”
Jett snorted, and Ash grinned.
“Seriously, you both know better. How the fuck can you both be letting pussy distract you so much?” I asked them, the scorn heavy in my tone.
“Aww, we’ll find you someone, cousin. We’ll get a little psycho you can call your own, who will match your little psycho soul.
” Ash reached over and patted my shoulder in a consoling manner as my brother gave me a tight smile, a smile that didn’t meet his eyes, I noted.
Turning my attention back to the road, I ignored them both.
When we got to the bar, I parked the car around the back, out of sight, and as one, we entered the bar.
I saw her before I was even fully through the door.
She was laughing at something Ava was saying, and Ava was doing wild hand actions as she told her story.
How Quinn could hear her was beyond me; the music was so loud, I could feel my ribs vibrating from the speakers.
Jett’s hand on my arm surprised me, and as I looked at him in question, I saw the softness in his eyes as he watched them both. “Look at them,” he said to me softly.
Turning my head, I saw what he did. Quinn’s guard was lowered, her laugh was genuine, and her smile was wide. She looked . . . she looked like she used to. Before all the shit. Before the Devils fucked her life up.
Ava was laughing so hard; one hand was on her side, and the other was on Quinn’s arm. They looked so relaxed together that I took a step back. “We shouldn’t have come.”
“We don’t need to go over,” Jett told me as he grabbed Ash’s arm and shook his head. Ash looked over at the girls, and then I saw him scan the room for the redhead. When he saw her coming back from the bathrooms, alone, he nodded.
We stayed at the back of the bar, and not one of them turned to check out their surroundings. They were enjoying the music and, more importantly, each other’s company. Far too many guys for my liking, for any of our liking, approached them, and they were all sent away with a smile but a firm no.
The band broke for a break, and that’s when Jett stood from his stool.
As one, he and I moved through the crowd, and then, like he had all those weeks ago, his arm encircled Ava, pulling her back into his chest as his head dipped and he whispered in her ear.
Her cry of delight alerted Quinn and the redhead, and I watched as Quinn’s easy manner vanished and the mask dropped back in place.
“Hey,” I greeted them as Jett greeted Ava a whole different way.
“What brings you here?” Quinn asked us casually, and both Ash and I looked at Jett. Despite herself, she smiled as she shook her head in despair, her eyes rolling as she looked away with a grin. “Obviously.”
“Did you just get here?” the redhead asked as she watched us all. I saw her hesitance, and I paid more attention to her. Her body seemed to angle toward Ash, but I noticed she kept her attention on me.
“Yeah,” I lied. “Just passing by.”