Page 60 of Eight Steps to Alpha

Chapter 20

It wasfour shots in when Elliot finally started to relax. The alcohol was running its course, warming his insides, and easing the tension that was spiraling like a spring in his stomach. He still had no idea what they were doing there. Why Colton had insisted this was the place to be. All he knew was that at some point during the night, he was supposed to get into a fight.

He turned to Colton, pushing his fingers through his hair, and yawned. “So, what’s this plan?” he said sleepily, because all of a sudden, he wanted to get on with it. To get it over with, so he could get out of this place, and in bed.

Colton didn’t even look up when he responded. “This is it.”

Fe’s brows pinched together, like it took a tremendous effort to concentrate, but there was something in her body language that told him she knew more than he did.

Colton’s cheeks lifted in wry smile, and he turned toward the table, filling each glass one more time with tequila. “Do you dance, darlin?” he asked Fe.

She looked down to the table, picked up her glass as though expecting the invitation, then pressed it to her lips before answering. “Not by choice.” She threw back the shot.

He laughed. “Well then, let’s pretend you don’t have one.” He rose from his chair, then held out his hand in a silent invitation.

She took hold of it, glanced back to Elliot and frowned. “Are you coming?”

He only shook his head, “No. And you know you don’t have to go either, right?”

She visibly swallowed, looked over to Colton, then back at him. “I’ll be fine.”

Their eyes locked for a moment, because not a half hour earlier she’d had a death grip on the back of his shirt. But now she’d had five shots of tequila, and was about to follow his brother to God only knows where. But maybe that made all the difference. Maybe she trusted him. Lifting one shoulder, as though to say, “do what you want”, he watched as she disappeared into the crowd with his brother. An unexpected knot of jealously mading it hard for him to see straight.

He didn’t dance. Wouldn’t dance as part of his brother’s stupid schemes, but he hated the fact that she was out there alone, and he couldn’t see her. In a room full of strangers, looking the way she did right now. His eyes scanned the dance floor, hoping for any glimpse of her. Partly because he didn’t trust Colton, but also because he was protective of Fe, for no other reason than the fact she was his. She was his Fe. His iron woman.

When they got to the very edge of the dance floor he spotted them, Colton’s hand on her lower back as they started swaying. Dammit if his brother didn’t move like a God damned Casanova, which somehow made him even more of an asshole.

Elliot turned toward the table again and poured himself another shot. He didn’t need to watch this. His brother charming the pants off of yet another one of his friends. He’d seen it happen too many times to count. Even when he warned them explicitly that it wouldn’t last, that Colton was only after one thing, and when he got it, he’d only be onto the next. For some reason though, it hurt worse now, and the knot in his stomach was starting to make him sick.

“Elliot, is that you?”

An excited voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked up to see his friend Jennifer. She was a junior associate at Fredrick and Morgan’s, but she’d since switched departments and he hadn’t seen her in a year. She was walking toward him now, wobbling slightly in her stilettos. The red bra she wore beneath her sheer black blouse completely visible. “Jen?” His eyes squinted. “Is that you?”

She laughed, waved her hand over her ensemble as she took a seat on one of the stool across from him. “I should say the same about you, handsome. What have you been doing with yourself?”

He laughed nervously, glanced down to the table and shook his head. He knew he was different, but sometimes he forgot. It had been a couple weeks since he’d gotten the haircut, and the comments at work had died down to almost nothing. Jen on the other hand hadn’t see him in a long time.

She glanced over the table, to the bottle of Patron sitting in the center. “Drinking alone, I see,” she said with a wink.

He ran his hand over his hair and shook his head. “My roommate—er—and brother are here too.” But he didn’t want to talk about them. Or even think about them for that matter. “How are things? How’s the new office?”

She wiggled into her seat, causing her vinyl plants to squeak slightly as she crossed her legs. “It’s good. Crazy with the acquisition and all, but I like it.” She glanced back to the tequila. “I didn’t realize you could get a full bottle here.”

Elliot turned to the dance floor again, not able to stop himself. “I’m not sure that’s normal.” But that’s where his words stopped, because standing in front of the bar was Colton, but Fe wasn’t with him.

“No, it’s cool. Don’t get me wrong…” She cleared her throat. “Do, um, you mind if I have a shot with you, Elliot?”

He turned back to Jen, who’s hand was already inching toward the shot glass. “No, of course not.” But he was distracted. He looked back to the dance floor, scanning from left to right. Where is she? His heart began pounding and he stood from his seat. “Will you excuse me?” he said to Jen, but didn’t wait for her to answer.

The closer he got to his brother, the louder the music became. He walked around the perimeter of the club, scanning over face after face. He was no longer relaxed. He was tense and nervous and scared. Where is she?

When he finally got to Colton, another woman was on his arm, whispering in his ear. Elliot resisted the urge to pull him by the collar as ask what the fuck he was doing. “Where is she?”

But his brother only shrugged his shoulders, as if Fe’s whereabouts meant nothing to him. Elliot spun on his heels, pushing through the crowd, fear expanding in his chest and making it almost impossible to breathe. Colton had left her alone. In a crowded bar, partially drunk.

But then off to the distance, about twenty feet away, he spotted her dancing with a stranger. Her eyes closed, with the stranger’s hands all over her body.

Elliot began pushing through the crowd more urgently, his need to get to her growing by the second. He could see the anxiety on her face. Her fear, her panic. So much so he could almost feel it inside his own body.

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