Page 18 of Accidental Baby For My Brother’s Best Friend

I push past Samuel and stalk to the edge of the dance floor where Axel and Locke are standing. Without so much as looking at Locke, I grab Axel’s hand and start to pull him toward the back doors.

If Locke follows us, I don’t notice.

Axel laughs, but then, when I turn to look at him after we get outside, his smile fades.

“Gemma?”

“I need to get out of here, can you drive?”

“Uh, no, absolutely not. But I could walk you to your room,” he stammers, uncharacteristically nervous when he’s usually smooth.

It’s blissfully cool outside, or at leastcoolerthan the hot club, and the breeze feels nice on my face. I’m more drunk than I thought I was, and I feel off balance, so Axel’s offer to walk me makes me feel a bit better.

I loop my arm through Axel’s and we start to walk off, but he stumbles off the curb and I go with him, laughing. I close my eyes against the way the world begins to spin, but then Axel pulls away from me and my eyes pop open.

When I look up a bit further, Locke fucking Kincaid is standing next to him, a hand on his shoulder, his jaw tight, his full mouth set in a hard line.

Goddamn it.

I take a couple of steps back, nearly stumbling, and Axel tries to grab my wrist but I shake my head and he drops his hand. I’m not upset with him, not really, but right now, I’m so angry that I don’t want anyone touching me, even the person I’d been wanting to touch me all night.

I look directly at Locke, all but ignoring Axel.

“What the hell are you doing?” I demand, knowing that my voice is too loud.

“Trying to keep you out of trouble. You’re not exactly making it easy.” Locke’s voice is a roar in the alley behind the bar and Axel steps back toward the door, not leaving, but getting out of the way of our argument.

I gape at Locke, shocked that he snapped back at me.

“I’m not a fucking teenager! I don’t need to be kept out oftrouble. Maybe I want to getintotrouble! Have you or Jackson ever considered that?”

“That’s what I need to do,” Locke mumbles, as if he’s speaking to himself instead of me, but his brown eyes are still flashing. “I need to call Jackson.”

“Don’t youdare!”My voice is nearly a screech at this point and I can’t think straight between the tequila and the rage that’s rising in me. “I’m not a child!”

“Maybe you should stop acting like one, then,” Locke says, his voice lower and suddenly cold, and I have the urge to punch him but manage to control myself.

“You’re not my fatherormy brother, so how about you mind your own business, Kincaid?”

Finally, it hits me that Axel hasn’t said a word, hasn’t stood up for me even though he’s become my best friend, so my eyes dart to his and he gives me a very weak smile. I narrow my eyes and it fades, just like it had before, and I tell myself I’ll never speak to him again.

When I’m sober, that might change, but right now, the only member of the Spades I’m willing to acknowledge is Samuel and I stalk inside to find him.

By the time I find him, my vision is blurring, either from tears or tequila or both.Men!

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