Page 70 of Give Me Perfect Love

I was missingher,and I hadn’t even met her yet.

Fuck, where is she? I toss the drink back, turning behind me at Ben who’s picking up beer bottles and cleaning off bar tops. The man’s over six-five and has a massive beard. It’s almost comical seeing him do normal shit like cleanup.

“Stop, man.” I place the glass onto the bar. “That’s not why I wanted you to come up here.”

He tosses empty bottles into the trash, quirking a brow at me. “You don’t think I know that?”

I look at him in question before grabbing another glass and filling both of them up. Ben’s worked for me for a long time. I’ve never really thought about it before, but besides Jace, he’s the closest thing I have to a friend. I guess it’s only natural he picked up on some of my tendencies. Obviously, I’m uneasy hints why I’m being a dick.

I slide the glass to him. “The man I got into a fight with at the gym. That was Cain.”

“What?” He stops midway from taking a sip of his George T. Stagg.

“Yeah. He’s back in town. Can you explain to me how I paid Bones a busload of money and yet, I’m still having to deal with the problem?”

Ben shakes his head and runs a hand through his beard. “Fuck, Bryce, I don’t know. Bones told me they slit his throat. Left him bleeding out in an old warehouse outside of town.”

Damn, they slit his throat? I’d assumed they killed him, but that’s pretty hands-on. I figured they shot him and walked away.

“Well, he fucking survived and I’ve got more scars on my hands to prove it.”

Ben tosses back his drink. “I’m going to call them now. This is unacceptable.”

“Do that.” I reach over and grab my phone, seeing if K has returned my call.

Still nothing.

It’s after ten at night.

Maybe she’s watching a movie with Claire or some shit.

Damn, I need to talk to her, though. As Ben gets ahold of Bones, I decide to call Austin. Maybe he can at least talk to Claire and tell the girls to be cautions.

I scroll through looking for his number. The boy’s still working on a car for me. The parts to this one were hard to come by, so it’s taken some time, but I can’t wait to drive the 1966 Ferrari 275.

“Hello,” Austin answers, and I look up when my brother walks through the door.

I hold up a finger to him, signaling for him to keep quiet. He looks from me to Ben who has a deathly expression. Ben’s just as pissed about this situation as I am. And from the looks of it, he’s not having a good conversation with Danny.

“Hey, man. Have you spoken to either one of the girls?”

“Um, yeah. About an hour ago, why?”

I hear the sound of a sander in the background, and I wonder if this guy ever takes a day off.

I rub the back of my neck. I know Austin has feelings that run deeper than friendship for Claire, so this isn’t going to go over with him well.

“I’ve got some shitty news. I ran into Cain not too long ago.”

“Cain?” he asks. “I thought he was gone?”

“Yeah, I did, too, but he was at my gym. We got into a fight. I didn’t recognize him, but the gym confirmed who he was.”

“Fuck, this can’t be good. I need to tell Claire.”

“Yeah. I was hoping you’d get in touch with them. K won’t answer my phone calls.”

“You two having problems?” he asks.

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