Page 77 of My Kind of Trouble
Okay, what was going on? Had she broken him? Was he having some kind of technical glitch and needed a reset?
‘Noa, I…’
Alex had finally started to respond when he was cut off by the door of the back office behind him flying open. Noa whirled around and was paralysed by a pair of stormy eyes, the same colour as hers.
Shit.
It was suddenly clear to her that she had fucked up. Alex had been trying to tell her something with all his weird signalling, if that’s what you could even call it. In her haste to get out of the house, there was one very important detail she had forgotten. It was a Sunday night. And Alex was doing the same thing that he did every Sunday.
Which meant Ryan was here, and he’d heard the whole thing.
Chapter 45
Alex
Charging toward Alex, Ryan wound back his fist and clocked him straight in the jaw. Alex heard Noa shriek before she lunged forward, but he didn’t move. Instead, he let Ryan take another shot.
He deserved it. He’d seen it coming, actually. He’d been lying and sneaking around behind Ryan’s back with his little sister, the sister he’d always acted for first and thought later when it came to protecting.
The next words, though he’d feared them all these years,he did not expect.
‘Like father like son, I guess,’ Ryan spat, utter venom spewing from his tongue.
And hell, if those words didn’t cut Alex deeper than any knife ever could. Ryan could’ve gutted him, and it would have hurt less. Alex had no words of defence, though. He could only stand there motionless, still letting the words sink in, both Noa’s from earlier and Ryan’s now. He reeled at the possibility that he was going to be a dad.
I’m pregnant. She really had said that right?
He didn’t have to question whether he’d heard right for long because the rage pulsing from Ryan said it all. His shoulders were so tense they were almost touching his ears. His eyes, usually bright, icy blue like Noa’s, now looked dark cobalt and twitched furiously as he tried and failed to contain his anger.
Alex didn’t blame his friend for lashing out. It wasn’t like he and Noa had given him any reason to suspect they had feelings for each other. And, with Alex’s dating history, he knew what his friend thought.
Fuck.
How had they gotten this so wrong? They thought they were protecting themselves and Ryan by keeping this a secret, but all they had done was feed into the belief Ryan now had that this was something to hide, that Noa was another woman Alex would sleep with and walk away from. But this time, leaving behind more than just fun memories just like his dad had done to his mum. How was Ryan to know that this was so much more than that? That Noa was everything to him.
Ryan’s fists pulsed at his sides like he was trying to restrain himself from any further violence.
‘Noa, in the car now!’ he barked, aiming his fury at her now.
His eyes were still locked on Alex, though, even as he pointed at the door he expected Noa to leave through.
‘Ryan, just stop for a second and listen. You’re not being fair,’ Noa whispered, her voice sounding so small as it cracked with the plea.
Alex didn’t want her to plead for him, and hearing it both filled him up and cracked him wide open.
Unfortunately, all it did was fuel Ryan’s rage. Coming out of his daze and seeing the snarl Ryan was giving Noa was enough to make Alex snap. Ryan was angry and acting on that emotion alone. He’d regret it tomorrow, but like hell was Alex about to let him speak to Noa in that way.
‘Do not…’ he growled, taking a step toward him. ‘Talk to her like that.’
‘I told you to take care of her, Alex. I trusted you. I told you she was vulnerable and needed you to look out for her and, as always, you thought with your cock and took advantage of that. But I must be the fool for thinking you’d behave any differently.’
And the hits keep on coming.
That’s okay. Alex could take it if it kept them from being directed at her.
‘So, do not start trying to play the hero and look out for her now. You slept with my sister, damn it!’
Ryan turned away like he couldn’t even look at him. He was almost vibrating with his rage.
