Page 35 of Bitter Beats

Everyone ignores me.

Everyone except Mckenna. She’s staring at me with a strange expression. It’s almost as if she pities me, which is infuriating because—“What the fuck are you looking at, Mckenna?”

Mckenna drops her gaze, and everyone in the room looks at her.

The forlorn, pale, swimming-in-her-too-big-hoodie Mckenna Byrne.

The room stills, painfully quiet. Mckenna wrings her hands together. The muscle under my left eye ticks.

Jess snaps her fingers. “Perfect!”

“She’s in law school,” Aiden shares.

“She’s already living here,” Kimberly agrees.

“And Kenny can’t stand Mav.” Annoying-as-fuck Levi laughs.

“No way,” Jameson says.

Mckenna’s eyes widen, her features frozen as she stares at me. She looks like a deer caught in headlights, and it takes me a second to realize that I’m the oncoming traffic.

I’m the SUV about to run her over, flatten her to the cement, and crush her life as she knows it.

“No,” Mckenna and I say in unison.

Levi chortles louder this time. “See, you guyscanagree on something.”

“No fucking way,” I state.

“I don’t have time for, for…this.” Mckenna waves a hand in my direction. “I have classes.” She turns her pleading eyes onAiden. Why does she look to him—and not me—for help? “You know how stressful 3L year can be. I’m applying for jobs. Clinical programs. And working at the café, practically around the clock, and?—”

“Why’re you working there?” Levi questions.

Mckenna snaps her mouth closed, a blush blooming on her cheeks.

Jameson glances between Mckenna and me. “You’re living here now…” he trails off, letting the implication dangle in the space.

If Mckenna isn’t paying rent but still working her ass off, she must need the money.

I close my eyes, knowing what’s coming. They’re going to interrogate her. And yeah, their concern is coming from a good place but…knowing how proud and private Mckenna is, dread drops in the pit of my stomach, heavy as a stone. A shiver runs through my body as quiet reverberates throughout the living room. The type of quiet that is on the cusp of shattering. Like a goddamn grenade with the pin pulled.

“Shit,” my brother murmurs.

I open my eyes.

“Why do you need money, Kenny?” Levi’s voice is laced with worry that causes Mckenna to wince.

Mckenna shakes her head, her eyes darting between Aiden, Jess, and Kimberly. Embarrassment makes her cheeks burn.

But my brother and Levi, used to speaking freely about everything in front of our team, don’t read her distress.

“Is everything okay?” Jameson asks gently.

“Did something happen?” Levi inquires, his brows pulled together.

The fact that they care guts Mckenna. It’s evident in how her eyes bleed with anguish while she holds her frame perfectly still.Her lips quirk up in a pleasant smile.Only her hands give her away. She wrings them, her knuckles turning white.

“I’m fine,” she says finally, her voice strained. “I’m…figuring things out.”

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