Page 18 of Take You

“No problem. Now fuck off so I can study.” I shooed him away, theatrically as I spoke. He left the room, chuckling as he went.

I was going to hell, and I was okay with that, given that Rose had already ridden me all the way to heaven.

Chapter 11

Fox

“Dude, I can feel the nervous energy fucking seeping from every pore. Can you cool it just a little, please? She’ll walk in, take one look at us, feel the weird vibe, and hightail it out of here as fast as her legs will carry her. I sure fucking would. Just dial back the psycho a teensy bit would you? Can you?”

Kane hissed the whole thing at me under his breath, as we weren’t alone in the bar, and though I was sure the other guys wouldn’t have missed that there was something going down between the two of us, he was obviously trying to ensure that they wouldn’t find out exactly what. Still, he needed to keep a fucking lid on it, because I had no intention of explaining what was going on.

“Keep your fucking voice down,” I hissed right back. Jesus. We were about as subtle as a brick to the head.

“What the hell is going on with you guys? Another lovers’ tiff?”

Drew dipped his fingers into his drink, and flicked it our way as he spoke.

“Actually, no, it’s the exact opposite, if you must know. Kane has a date,” I shot back.

All eyes were on me. “And you guys are fighting about it, because…you’re jealous?” Bear looked at me in question, and it was a few beats before I realized he was actually serious.

“What? No man, why the fuck would I be jealous?” Bear said nothing, just cocked his eyebrow and waited for the other shoe to drop. It plummeted. “What? You think there’s something between us?” I laughed while Bear and Drew continued to stare. “Oh, wait. You’re actually serious? Why would you think that?” Sometimes I wondered what the fuck went through their heads. They weren’t stupid guys—both had decent GPAs and could string an intelligent sentence together, but I guess, like me, they had those moments where their inner ridiculousness won out over all of that.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Drew was still dead serious.

“Okay, well let me ask you this. What’s the story with you two?” I nodded my chin between Xavier and Drew. Bear and Kane looked at me as though I’d taken total leave of my senses, which could well have been the case.

Drew just looked incredulous that I could even allude to what I was most definitely very much alluding to. Xavier had his nose buried in his phone, but I didn’t doubt he was listening in. He wasn’t a guy to let shit get past him, especially shit that pertained directly to him. I was sure he was acutely aware of what was going down.

“What do you mean, story? There is no story. Why would there be?” Drew was doing all the talking. Whatever was happening on Xavier’s phone was keeping him absorbed.

“No reason. But why would you think there’s a story between us two, if there’s nothing between you two?” Realization dawned in Drew’s eyes. He’d walked into a trap, and was now trying to figure out if he was going to have to gnaw his own leg off to get out of it. I was stealthy like that. I played dumb, until I didn’t, but by that point it was too late.

“Your sitch is totally different from ours.” Drew looked kind of confused.

“How?” It wasn’t, and he knew it.

“You guys are closer than brothers, and you share a room, so...”

“Jesus. What is this, grade school? In point of fact, we share an apartment basically. It’s not like we’re holed up in the same bedroom like Bert and fucking Ernie.” Kane snorted, not even bothering to hold back his laughter, while Bear struggled, and just about managed to keep a straight face. “And for that matter, you have no idea how close brothers can be, you have a fucking sister.”

“Granted. But we both have girlfriends, with no issues, yet there are ruffled feathers between you guys, because one of you has a date.” Drew sounded defensive, which made me laugh to myself.

“Nothing’s ruffled. I have a lot of shit on my mind, that’s all. And again, sticking to the actual facts, you guys have only recently settled down, and it wasn’t without drama between the two of you to get to this point. So, you need not sit in your glasshouse throwing grenades around like they won’t blow up in your face. And anyway, like I said, there is no issue here, or at least, not of the kind you’re thinking, anyway.”

“Jesus Christ, it’s the twenty-first century, and none of us are in middle-school anymore. I don’t give a fuck if you two are the gayest thing since Christmas”—Xavier joined the conversation without warning, confirming my suspicion that he had been listening in, even while giving the appearance of giving zero fucks—“but I do care about the fact that you’re sneaking around using my contacts to stalk someone, or whatever the fuck it is you’re doing, and haven’t had the decency to come talk to me about it.”

Shit. I knew it would go this way. I just fucking knew, but I was so focused on Rose that I kidded myself that I could get away with it without incurring the wrath of Xavier to get what I wanted.

The fact was, I wouldn’t have altered my behavior, either way. This thing was way bigger and more important than any shade or fucking fatwa that Xavier could throw at me, so as far as I was concerned, he could bring it on, and do his worst. I had zero fucks to give, and so much more to lose on the other side of the equation, that I really didn’t care about the outcome with the kingpin.

I could have cut the silence around the table with a Samurai sword.

“Dillon told you?” Obviously.

“You get the part where he’s practically my uncle, right? Of course he fucking told me. Not only that, but even if he hadn’t, by the simple act of using my actual brain to make reasonable deductions about the world around me, I would have guessed that you had something to do with the impromptu sound and light show in the Bio Eng. lecture on Tuesday, anyway. But none of that’s the point. The point is that you didn’t tell me, and I’m assuming that if I wasn’t bringing it up right now, you’d have no intention of telling me.”

“It’s not that I had no intention—” Actually, it was totally that I’d had no intention.

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