Page 72 of No Longer Safe

“Yep,” I nodded. “No sparks. I can appreciate his honesty.”

Carina shrugged. “I guess. I would’ve been insulted.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know. But this isn’t really for anything serious. I’m just appeasing my mother and you. Maybe I’ll get a hot wedding date out of it.”

She booped me on the nose. “You’re right. Maybe you’ll get some good orgasms out of it too!”

One could dream.

Chapter Forty-Six

Alexei

My shoes squeakedon the freshly waxed floor as I walked into the gym. Axel was already in the ring with someone, so I decided it was best to warm up. Too bad there hadn't been any issues at the clubs, I was ready to murder. All I wanted to do was crush someone, something, it didn’t really matter at this point. Audrey had gone on another date the night before and based on Ace’s accounts, it went well. She came back up to the penthouse with a smile on her face. He hadn’t stood her up, he wasn’t a catfish, and he kissed her goodnight. They would probably see each other again and then it would go past kissing. I squeezed my eyes closed.

What the actual fuck.

When had I gotten so bad at this? Why couldn’t I just ask her on a date? Why couldn’t I just do what I needed to do to lock her down? I was going to lose her to some idiot, probably some loser.

I beat into the punching bag a few more times.

“You’re going to put a hole in it,” Axel smirked from the other side of the bag. I hadn’t even noticed him come around, my mind was so fucked. “You’ve been in here almost every day. You okay?”

I punched again and the bag swung out, almost knocking into my friend. “No.”

“Wanna talk about it?” He asked again. I couldn’t.

“Distract me.”

He laughed like I wasn’t dying inside. “I went on a date.”

I stopped my assault on the bag. “Yeah?” That was new. He hadn’t been on a date in years. The last date he’d been on was probably in high school. He screwed around with groupies sometimes, but never dated. He said he was too focused.

“What changed?” I swiped at the growing sweat on my brow with the back of my arm.

“You did. You told me about that girl you’re obsessed with,” I couldn’t even deny it. I was fucked up. “And I realized I wanted someone to be obsessed with.”

“How’d it go?”

He smiled and I punched him to get him out of his head. “It went really well. She’s really pretty.”

“Oh yeah?” He landed a punch on me. We hopped around the mat watching each other. “Wedding bells already?”

He shook his head, a soft smile on his lips. “Audrey is…”

I didn’t hear anything else he said. It was like I had tunnel vision. Everything else faded. There was no way it was a coincidence. I was so flabbergasted, that I didn’t see the punch coming. He hit the side of my face and instead of blocking, I just stood there. Time seemed to stand still as I fell to the mat. He crouched down beside me and waved his hand in front of my face. All I could do was stare. Then I was off of the mat and flying at him. There was no point in trying to play it cool or nice or even play by the rules. I don’t even remember taking my gloves off. One second I was on the mat and the next my hands were wrapped around his throat.

Someone was pulling me off of him and I was pretty sure there was a lot of yelling happening but I couldn’t hear it from the blood rushing in my ears.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

It took three of Axel’s guys to get me off of him. I didn’t know if he tried to fight me off or if he was letting me just be a broken man. I wrenched my arms free as someone stepped between us.

“What was her name?” My voice sounded low, foreign, and deadly. I was ready to kill the bastard. I didn’t care how long we’d been friends. I didn’t care that I helped him open this place. I was ready to burn it all to the ground.

“Audrey Wilde, I think.”

Red was all I could see but instead of charging after him again, I stormed away. “Fuck.Fuck.”

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