Page 27 of Battling the Enemy
Oh, fuck no.
Delaney was mine.
She was mine, and I’d be goddamned if I’ll let another guy claim or defend her in front of me. Winston was striding up towards them like he had the right to pull her away from the guy, and he didn’t.
I took off, and luckily for him, I beat him to it. But it had been close. We stood on either side of Delaney, staring each other down, the guy who was going to dance with her was long gone.
I snatched Delaney by her arm and yanked her towards me. “Can I help you, Reynolds?”
The guy’s face was all busted up, and he knew he couldn’t beat me, but he didn’t back down and I grudgingly respected that. “I’m not going to fade into the background so that she can be with you if you’renotgoing to take care of her, Marlow,” he snapped. He threw his arm up, indicating the party. “Because this isnottaking care of her. Delaney doesn’t belong here. If you were doing your job, she wouldn’t be here!”
I wanted to kill him.
I wanted to kill him, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Oh, hey!” Delaney’s drunk ass piped up. “I am my own woman, damn it!” She tried to wrench her arm free of my grasp, but that wasn’t happening. “I don’t need a man, and I sure as hell don’t need either of you to be the man I need, if I needed one.”
Christ,she was drunk.
She whirled around towards Winston. “For years, you’ve known we were supposed to get married, and you spent all these years offering me passive acknowledgement, at best. We were friends when we were little, but as soon as you discovered teenage pussy, I wasn’t even that anymore. And now you want to give a shit? Fuck that, Winston.”
I was next.
Delaney whirled around towards me and let loose. “And you,” she scoffed. “For years you never even knew I existed. And if you did, you didn’t care one way or the other. Suddenly, I fascinate you, and because you’re bored with your endless buffet of pussy and ass, you want a challenge and have decided that I’m it.” She didn’t know how wrong she was. “I’m here because ofyou, Deke,” she punctuated. “I’m here to see what if feels like to be cool and popular. I’m here because the real me can’t possibly hold your interest for long, and for some fucked-up reason, I want that. I want you to want me, but I want you to want me for longer than it takes for you to win. I’m not the girl for you. I’m not evencloseto the kind of girl you’re used to.” Her hand scanned down her body like she was presenting herself. “This is the kind of girl you like, right? And this is the kind of girl who is brave enough to do…what you want her to do.”
This conversation wasn’t for Winston’s ears. “Let’s go, Delaney,” I replied. “You’re drunk and don’t know what you’re saying.”
She let out a bitter laugh. “I knowexactlywhat I’m saying,” she argued. “I’m saying that you and Winston can go fuck yourselves.”
“Delaney-”
My eyes shot over towards Reynolds. “Don’t,” I snapped. “Do fucking not, Reynolds. This isn’t your business.”
“It is if she doesn’t want to be with you either,” he snapped back.
Like fucking hell she didn’t want to be with me.
Chapter 18
Delaney~
All that booze, and for what?
Standing in Deke’s house-sober as a goat-I was feeling miserable.
After I had told both Deke and Winston to go fuck themselves, I had been feeling rather proud of myself, but that had faded quickly when Deke had let go of my arm and had reached for Winston. Suddenly, we had been surrounded by Liam, Ramsey, Emerson, Roselyn, and Ava, and the guys had restrained Deke, while the girls had surrounded me.
I wasn’t sure why Winston kept antagonizing Deke, but I suspected it was to prove the point that he was still dedicated to our arrangement even after telling him I no longer cared to go through with it. But, whatever his reasons, I needed to cement my decision before Deke ended up killing Winston, and that meant telling our parents.
After Liam and Ramsey separated Deke and Winston, Deke had grabbed me by my arm and drug me behind him through the house and to his car. He had tossed me into the passenger seat, buckled me in, and took off from Trent’s. Halfway down the road though, I had gotten sick and Deke had had to pull over so I could throw up the twenty gallons of vodka I had consumed.
Okay, maybe it hadn’t been twenty gallons, but I didn’t drink. And because I didn’t drink, a half bottle of vodka was equivalent to twenty gallons in my mind.
When I had fallen out of the car, I had ran behind a random tree that lined the sidewalk and, while I was heaving up my innards, Deke had come around, held my hair and rubbed my back all the while telling me what an idiot I was.
Yep.
No sweet, soothing words of love from Deke Marlow.
