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I pushed my way through the back doors, stumbling forward as I came face-to-face with Ray and Hunter.
“Wade,” Ray hissed.
“Why are you here?” I snapped at him. “Who the fuck invited you?”
Hunter took a step back, his hands coming up on either side of his chest, palms facing me. “Calm down, man. My secretary got an invitation for me so I came to support and show my face.”
Mandy and Jackson came through the doors behind me, stepping up beside us. “Wade,” Mandy warned.
“It seems a lot more like you’re here for her,” I snarled.
“I’m not,” Hunter insisted. “I didn’t even know Ray would be here.”
“And I didn’t know he was invited,” Ray added. Her eyes were locked on me, irritation coating every single muscle in her face. “You can’t tell me you’re still hung up on this.”
I took another step toward Hunter as another burst of anger flared. Of course I’m still hung up on this.
Ray sandwiched herself between us, stopping me with her hands on my chest. There wasn’t a hint of amusement in her gaze. “Wade. Stop. You’re acting insane.”
“I’m acting insane?” I scoffed. “You expect me to believe that none of what I was told was true when you’re this fucking chummy with him? I mean, you came outside with him. Out of eyeshot. Out of earshot. What the fuck are you hiding?”
“He’s my friend,” she fumed, pushing me back a step with her hands on my chest. “God forbid I be nice to him after he found me on the side of the road.”
“Seems like someone’s lost his temper.”
I spun on the ball of my foot toward the far too familiar, far too unwelcome voice. The smirk that spread across Zane’s lips as we locked eyes was enough to send me spiraling even further. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Hunter mumbled something under his breath behind me.
“I heard some of my favorite people would be here tonight,” Zane chuckled as he came down the stairs, his hands shoved in his pockets as if nothing in the world was wrong. Each step he took toward us was like a match to a fire. “I came to see the inevitable show.”
Ray stepped out from behind me, the wind rustling her curls. “You’re a menace,” Ray snapped at him. “You fed Wade lies. You crafted all of this.”
Zane’s shoulders rose and fell, an easy shrug as he bared his teeth. “I conveyed what I believed to be the case.”
“Liar,” Ray scoffed. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”
Zane leaned forward, every lanky part of his upper body coming close to her as he tipped to her eye level. “Did I?” he grinned. “Because I heard many things about that night. And one of those was your inability to call him anything other than baby.”
I winced at the reminder. Out of everything, that had upset me the most. That had been the one thing that sent me over the edge when Zane had called to tell me about the accident.
“I wasn’t fucking calling him baby!” Ray shouted.
Hunter stepped up between me and Mandy. “She was confused. She had just been thrown from her car and was knocked out. She likely thought I was Wade?—”
Ray shook her head, her lips pressing together. “It’s okay. You don’t have to lie for me, Hunter,” she said.
“Wait, so you did call him baby?” Jackson piped up, his brows furrowing as he looked between all of us.
Ray’s breath was sharp as she looked up at me. “I can explain,” she whispered. “But can we talk in private?”
My hands shook as I balled them into fists. I didn’t know what to make of any of this. Apparently she had called him baby. So, did that mean that she was going out there to see him? Was she burying everything we had in the sand so she could pull it out at a later date when she needed it most?
“We don’t need to talk,” I snapped.
“We do,” she insisted.
“No,” I rasped. “I need to beat the shit out of my stepbrother, and then I need you to get the fuck out of my life.”
