Page 42 of The Leaving Road

“Cassie, what the hell are you doing here?” I ground out, barely keeping my composure. She knew the rules; she avoided this place and me, and I wouldn’t spread around what had happened between us. Not that I wanted to, since it wasn’t my style, but it was a good bargaining chip to use against her so she’d leave me alone. Although it didn’t stop her from blowing up my phone and having “accidental” run-ins. Right now, I regretted not letting everyone know how terrible she could be.

Watching as her face turned into a scowl, I wondered how I ever found her attractive, because now she just made my skin crawl. I hated the look she gave Magnolia; I wanted to get her away from her as soon as possible. I didn’t want her hate to taint Magnolia inanyway.

“Sloan!” she purred and stood, plastering what I’m sure she thought was a seductive smile on her face, running her sickly yellow nails over the buttons of my shirt. I noticeably winced and flinched away from her touch, which caused her smile to fade and I saw the nastiness she was trying to hide.

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

I stepped away from her so I could get a view of Magnolia, who focused completely on me and this exchanged with barely concealed interest.Good, pay attention, baby. It’s you and me now.

My eyes never left Magnolia as I responded to Cassie, “I’m only here to see Magnolia.” The blush that stained her cheeks had my half-mast cock standing at full attention, straining against the zipper. I found myself wondering how farexactlythat blush extended.

Cassie’s sputtering broke me from my daydream fantasy, and I tore my gaze away from Magnolia. I shot her a look that would have most men withering on the spot, but of course, it didn’t seem to faze her.

“Sloan,baby.”

“Excuse us,” I said and I grabbed her arm—not roughly, but hard enough that she got the hint she didn’t have a choice in following me.

I made it a point to look at Magnolia as I dragged Cassie off, hoping she understood the words I was trying to convey with my eyes.I'm sorry she bothered you; I’ll take care of it. I should have done this years ago. Please, don’t run from me.

Finally reaching a small alcove between the bar and the back manager’s office, there was no way I was taking her anywhere with a closed door. I wouldn’t put it past her to try something sneaky just to further whatever she was up to.

“What are you doing here?” I snarled at her. “Go home, you aren’t welcome here.”

“Sloan, don’t be like that. We were good together. This little fit of yours has lasted years, and it’s time to move on from this.”

She tried to turn her face up toward mine, a pout on her lips—one Iusedto love, and at one time would have had me giving into her demands. Now, it just caused bile to rise in the back of my throat.

“That’s never going to happen, and you know that.”

All pretenses of her trying to be nice were wiped from her face when she realized I wasn’t going to give in. “It’s not even that big of a deal, Sloan. God, get the fuck over it.”

“Youstolefrom me,from my family.Youliedto me, telling me you had a job with your father, and that’s how you were able to afford the purses and the designer clothes. Little did I know, you knew your dad was going to cut you off the second you graduated college, so you madesureyou would be taken care of, no matter what, huh?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “You’re being over dramatic as usual. It was just a few things. And as myboyfriend,I never should have had to ask!” she all but spat those words in my face.

“Cassie, you expensed over a hundred thousand dollars on the company credit card. We almost lost our business, I gotdeniedmy business loan to open Yuliana’s at first. Youruinedyears of hard work, and for what? A couple of purses. I’m only sorry I didn’t realize what kind of person you were. I think I always knew; I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“You don’t mean that,baby. You love me.”

“You disgust me.”

A small snort from behind me had me turning and I noticed Lexie was looking at us with thinly veiled interest. I wondered how much of that conversation she heard, her head cocked toward me with a small twinkle of what I thought was approval. It made me think she had heard enough, and she walked back to the group.

“Go home, Cassie. You aren’t welcome here, not now, not ever.”

She tried to grab me, but I tore my arm away from her prickly grasp and made my way back to the table where the only girl I ever wanted to spend time with was hopefully waiting for me.

Chapter 28

Magnolia

Watching Sloan stalk off with Cassie had my heart in my throat. There was a look he gave me while walking away that I could quite decipher. Should I stay here? Should we go? The table was deadly silent, letting the awkwardness of what just unfolded settle around us. Lexie decided at that moment she had to use the restroom and sauntered off in the same direction Sloan had.

“What was that?” Dexter whispered to Lydia.

She took a lazy sip of her drink, not bothering to look somewhat embarrassed that she basically caused this to unfold. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. Why’d you tell Cass to come out tonight?Here,of all places.”

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