Page 42 of Fox
“Come on, Atlas. Walk it off,” I state while walking with him away from the fire. Once we are no longer within earshot, I turn to my best friend and look at him,reallylook at him for the first time since, well, I guess since Janie’s birthday. He looks tired and on edge, his eyes look bloodshot, and his shoulders roll inward. All things that are not normal for him.
“What’s going on, man?” I ask him while leaning against my truck.
Atlas scoffs, rolling his eyes in irritation. “You busted my kneecap, and then fucking diva Derek over there made a mom joke. That’s against our code. We agreed on no mom jokes.”
“First off, I’ll talk to him about the mom joke, though you hate your mom, so I’m not seeing the—”
Atlas cuts me off. “It’s the principle. Bro code man.”
I hold my hands up. “Fair enough. Anyway, the kneecap thing barely fazed you. You’re being a bitch about it. What is going on? You look like shit.” At groans in frustration while running his hand over his jaw.
“I’m going through some shit right now with my mom and sister and…” Shifting uncomfortably, he grimaces before muttering, “Lauren's mad at me, and I don’t know why.”
“Okay, and?” I press, not understanding the severity of the situation.
“Andwhat?” He snaps back.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I try to hold back the snap brewing. “And so what if she is?”
He scoffs loudly, obviously insulted by my line of questioning. “It’s driving me insane!” He yells as he waves his arms around. “I’m adorable, funny, and charming.” He counts on his fingers. “There iszeroreason for her to be mad at me, yetshe is, and it is driving me crazy! I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t fuck.”
I smirk at my friend and shake my head at his frustration. “Did you ask her what you did?” I ask, trying to fake the seriousness that he is expecting. At has a crush on Ren. Of course, he'll never act on his feelings because Ren's in a different world than us, especially now with her job at this new firm. We all look like criminals; we are the men that moms warn their daughters about. So, I’ve watched how At refuses to sit next to Ren when we hang out. Or how he will not tattoo her. He'll flirt with her shamelessly, but only in public, so he can use the excuse that he's like that with everyone. Which is somewhat true, though he doesn’t look at anyone else the way he looks at her.
“I already know what I did.” He mumbles while kicking a rock with his shoe. “I might’ve mentioned something about lawyers being on hookup apps when we met up at Stevie’s earlier.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Is he serious? “At, you said you can’t eat, sleep, or fuck… it’s been three hours.”
“You don’t get it, man,” he shakes his head. “This will eat away at my soul forever.”
“You’re an idiot,” I admonish him. “Go apologize for your stupidity.”
“Listen,” Atlas trails off when he sees the group make their way over to us, minus Janie.Where is she?The question must show on my face because Stevie motions back at my house with her thumb.
“Some asshole sent her a death threat in her DMs. Her tremors are amping up, and we offered to stay, but she said she wanted to go lay down.”
“Death threats?” I growl out, my blood heating. I need everyone to leave so I can check on Janie and then murder whoever is threatening her.
Ren pats my shoulder as they begin to walk to their vehicles. “Be careful with her. She was shaking so hard she couldn’t stay upright.” Nodding, I say goodbye to everyone before taking my stairs two and three at a time until I get to the door and walk in. Apparently, while I was out sick last week, Janie told our group about her condition. I’m proud of her for opening up to them and happy that the guys knew better than to give her shit, but there’s a selfish part of me that is annoyed because I enjoy knowing things about her no one else does. I shouldn’t feel this way, and I shouldn’t want to know her secrets, but fuck, I do.
Walking through the empty living room, I go down the hall and freeze at my open bedroom door. Peering in, I’m caught off guard. Janie sits in the middle of my bed, hugging her knees to her chest as she quietly sobs. I briefly wonder why she’s in my bed when she has her own in her room. But honestly, I don’t care. I'd rather her here.
“Torch?” She stiffens when she hears my voice and turns her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes to look at me. My heart sinks at her tear-stained face. “Baby doll…” I whisper, and my words do her in. She crumples into a ball and starts sobbing. In an instant, I’m on the bed, scooping her into my arms and pressing her head to my chest.
“They know…” she says between sobs.
“Know what, baby?” I ask softly as I run my hand over the side of her face, desperate to find some way,any way,to calm her down.
“A-About the shop…they’re going t-to hurt me there.” My blood runs cold, and I pull her away to look at her sobbing body. The rage I feel at the threat of someone daring to even think about hurting her is impossible to describe. It’s all-consuming. I feel both panic and helplessness. I want to murder the fuckers threatening her while simultaneously holding her to me and never letting her out of my sight.
“Who?” I ask, trying to keep the panic from my voice. I need to know who is going to try to hurt her. I’ll destroy them before they even get the chance. She shakes her limp head before curling back into my chest.
“I don’t know,” she whispers. “The DM is from a spam account.”
“I’m going to add cameras around the building,” I state firmly as I hold her tighter. “And no more walking alone to your car. I know you said you aren’t going to Vegas, but I’m going to see if you can stay here with Ren while I’m gone to keep you safe.” She lets out a harsh, sarcastic laugh before looking up at me.
“Yeah,” she sniffles while rolling her teary eyes. “Don’t wanna ruin your tinder-thon with the guys.”
“Janie—” I groan, and she waves her hand to dismiss me. She tries to move out of my grasp, but I grip her hip to hold her still. Looking up at me, her blue eyes are full of so many emotions it’s overwhelming. Fear, sadness, loneliness. And lust?
