Page 90 of Offside Devil

“Owen isn’t my keeper. I’m a grown man. I can make my own choices.”

“Not when you’re not being yourself.”

I fling my arms wide. “This is me! I am being myself!”

“What do you think Coach is going to do when he finds out? Do you think he’s going to hand you a captain’s C after he sees that video of you chugging a beer with the fucking rookies?” Jace drags a furious hand through his hair.

“I don’t need Coach to hand me anything,” I snarl in the general direction of where the three or four Jaces are swimming in my vision. “I take what’s mine. I don’t sit back and let other people date what belongs to me.”

Jace shakes his head in disgust. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“I know more than you.” I jab a finger in his chest. “You don’t know anything. I haven’t told you anything.”

I don’t know how it happens, but we’re suddenly in the middle of the bar, drifting towards the door. “I think you’ve had enough fun for one night.”

“You aren’t my dad,” I snort. “Actually, shit, maybe I wish you were my dad. Then you wouldn’t be talking to me right now.”

“Be nice to the person whose backseat you’re about to throw up in.”

Decent point. My insides are making a convincing argument for why they should be on my outside. Bile is crawling up my throat with every step.

“You’ve been drinking, too,” I argue stupidly. “You can’t drive.”

“Which is why Rachelle is on her way to pick us both up, asshole.”

“I’m fine. I’m not even dru—” My entire world turns sideways. My feet are off the ground and I’m flailing, waiting to hit the ground. But I don’t. Because Jace has me balanced on his shoulder and is heading for the exit. “The fuck’re you doin’...”

“It’s time to go, Whitaker.”

I pound on his back, which is surprisingly hard when there are two of him. I keep landing glancing blows to his ribs. “Put me the fuck down, Cannon!”

When we make it to the door, I manage to find some traction with the door frame. I press the soles of my shoes against the trim and lock my knees.

Jace curses under his breath and lowers me to my feet. My land legs left the chat sometime between shots two and three, so I wobble like Bambi. The only reason I don’t fall sideways is because Jace snatches me by the front of my shirt and gets in my face.

“My wife left in the middle of Allie and Noah kissing in the rain so she could drive out here and pick our drunk asses up,” he snarls. “She’s out there in pajamas, and we are not going to keep her waiting because you have a few more ideas about how to fuck your own life up.”

I feel sick. Jace has someone. He has a wife waiting for him in the car. Someone to pick him up when he’s drunk. Someone to take care of him when he needs it.

I don’t know why, but it pisses me off.

“What in the hell are you doing here with me, then? Go out there and be with her,” I slur. I grab his shoulder and try to swim past him back into the bar, but the entire building keeps rocking back and forth. It’s hard to tell where the bar even is.

He pins a hand into my chest, pushing me into the wall. “I said you’ve had enough, Whitaker. Get the fuck outside. Now!”

I rear back and swing at him, but Jace isn’t as drunk as I am. He grabs my arm and uses my momentum to heave me back over his shoulder.

“I forgot what an asshole you are when you drink,” he mutters to himself.

“Put me down!”

Jace just hauls me through the door and into the night.

37

ZANE

“Wake up, asshole. We need the couch.”

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