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I shook myself free of Fox and Kane—they’d already started loosening their grips, probably sensing that the big fight we’d all thought was about to kick off was in fact dead in the water. I stood up to full height and dusted myself off.
In restraining me, the boys had gotten me wet, as they hadn’t had time to remove their jackets before Xavier and I started to get into it. Kane shivered. “I’m fucking freezing. Xav, do you mind if I take a shower? Maybe while I’m gone you guys can hug it out, talk about your feelings, share a tub of ice-cream, and watch a chick flick or something. Seems like ya’ll are PMSing hard.” He cackled, and I bristled.
“Fuck off!” Xavier and I shouted in unison. At least we agreed on that, which had no doubt been Kane’s intention. He and Fox were always somewhat of a double act.
“Maybe we should park this discussion until tomorrow when we’ve all had a chance to warm up and cool off, then hopefully come back to it with fresh and calm heads, after we’ve slept on it.” Kane had a point—I was starting to get pretty cold myself, and maybe things would look better in the morning.
“Nice try, but no way that’s going to fly with me. We talk this out here and now, once and for all. I’m not sleeping on shit.”
“Ever the diplomat, Mr. Cross. I’m down, but can I borrow a hoodie and some sweats? I’m not prepared to get pneumonia for any of you knuckleheads.”
I couldn’t even muster enough fucks to give about Drew’s not so subtle insult.
Chapter 30
Bear
Once everyone had changed into something dry and warm, Xavier approached me again, still looking like he wanted to kill me.
“So, man, enough dicking around. What the fuck happened back there?”
I took a deep breath and leveled him with an uncompromising stare. “Exactly what you think happened, and exactly what I said before. I hated watching that. Man, it was torture. Didn’t you feel fucking bad?”
“Wait. You had no issue with ‘killing’ someone in front of the Cygnets, but you want us to have a conscience about doing what we needed to do to silence someone who could literally ruin all of our futures. Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“I guess I must be. I have no goddamned clue. All I know is that I couldn’t stomach the idea to begin with, let alone once she was so fucking terrified that she peed herself. So yeah, I tripped the alarms, and like I said, I’d do it again, and again, without hesitation if the situation arose. Which it won’t, because I won’t fucking let it.”
“You realize that you have literally screwed us all by doing this? The situation was bad before, and it took all the power of our combined brain cells to come up with a feasible plan to get her out of our hair, which—might I remind you—required a lot of effort to pull off. Hell, do you think I use the leverage I have over the Dean for just anything? I like to save up that shit, especially if, as in this case, it involves associating myself with my father in any way, even if it’s just reminding someone that he’s my sperm donor.”
Xavier hated his father more than I thought it possible for one person to hate another—especially someone they shared genes with.
“I went to all that trouble to ‘persuade’ him to invite her to the reception, pretty much whoring myself out in the process, and it was all for nothing. All wasted, no... squandered, because you have a crush.”
“I have to agree with Xavier on that one.” Drew said it as though him concurring with his best friend was something new. “You know how much effort went into this. And not to blow smoke up our asses, but it was the perfect fucking plan. I mean, that bomb collar? Inspired. Pure. Fucking. Genius.”
“Thank you. I have my moments.” We all looked at Fox. He obliged us by standing up and taking a bow with a huge theatrical flourish.
“I wasn’t talking about you specifically.”
“Well, the bomb collar was my idea, after I saw that Netflix show about the bank heist, then I went and did all that research and built the damned thing, so I’m taking full credit, whether it was being given or not.”
“It was a group effort that only came off because we all contributed. Dare I say the T-word.”
“Tits?” offered Fox.
I tried not to snicker, and failed. Drew looked at Fox as though he was sub human.
“Testes?”
Drew was about to blow his top if Fox didn’t quit being an asshat.
“Teamwork, you fucking idiot.”
“Oh yeah, that too. Except some of us contributed more to the team than others on this one.” Fox didn’t seem to want to let it go. He shot me a contemptuous look. “I mean, really what did he do?” He jerked his chin toward me. “Except create a legit excuse to fuck the girl he’s been crushing on anyway, who also happens to be the giant fucking fly in our collective ointment that we needed to swat. I mean, the next time I have a perma hard-on for a chick, remind me to concoct an elaborate plan just so I can nail her. If it also happens to fuck my ‘brothers’ to hell and back at the same time, then even better.”
Wow. I’d thought it was just Xavier who was down on me about this, but obviously not.
“First of all, I’m not crushing on her. I mean I like her, but it goes way beyond crushing. So there’s that. Secondly, if this was just about wanting to fuck her, then I wouldn’t have needed to go to these elaborate extremes to make that happen. I’ve already fucked her multiple times, and as I’ve made abundantly clear to you all, I’m not about to let the group dictate where I put my dick, ‘arch nemesis’ or not. Thirdly, if you seriously think I’d intentionally do anything to screw one or all of you guys over, you can eat a bag of dicks. Jesus.” I couldn’t believe he’d actually think that of me.
