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It was hard to tell in the light from the open door, but I swear Xander’s posture got a little straighter.
“Got it. No one is touching her.”
Xander practically pushed me inside, even though I was going willingly. I was here for Rylee, not me. She was the closest thing to a friend that had been my choice, and now? My heart ached.
Now she was part of a world I couldn’t be in, and it sucked.
I wanted to say something to Xander. I wanted to tell him that this felt more like a funeral for my one and only friend than a celebration. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of me talking to his stupid, giant, hot ass.
Fuck. He’d been right. I’d definitely talked about his ass.
One more turn down a hallway, and then we were in a large gallery. There was artwork, but it wasn’t the center of attention. A bar stretched along a back wall where plenty of people milled about. I swallowed the lump that beat alive with the thump of the DJ. Movement on a dance floor caught my attention. People here had fun.
And me? I was looking for the one girl dressed in white so I could say goodbye.
The second the white dress flashed under the changing lights on the dance floor, I ripped myself away from the distraction behind me.
“See ya, Captain Dipshit,” I said, unsure if he actually heard me. Unsure why I was so angry at the man who gave me money and drove my ass here. Right. Because he’d wounded the little girl inside me hoping one person would see me. Fuck that. No one saw me.
Scratch that. My mother saw me for my ability to be useful at paying off her drug debts.
Nope. Not tonight, Satan. I was not going down that fucking road.
I plastered on a smile and ran up and grabbed Rylee just as her eyes made contact with mine. I could bear to hug this bitch for a little while longer.
“Aww, girl. You look beautiful,” I said as I squeezed her. I can’t say hugs were my thing, like at all. But with her? Hell, she looked like she needed a friend as bad as me when she’d first arrived.
“Thanks, Cali.”
She released me, and I did the same as she turned me toward another tall, menacing, full-of-tattoos-and-exuding-power guy.
“You remember Cas? From that really, and I mean really, stinky house, right?” She giggled. “He’s my husband now.”
The way she said that and looked up at him? I could feel an ache deep inside me open up and bleed out. She was well and truly happy, and all I could do was smile and nod. Of course I remembered that house, but to be fair, I hadn’t been looking at Cas.
And I wasn’t upset she said husband.
I was jealous. Jealous of happiness. Jealous that the one person I had was now taken and gone.
“Hey, short stuff.”
I whipped around and was ready to punch Xander when, instead; I watched him lean in and hug Rylee. My heart clenched. She had him too? He even had a nickname for her?
No. No. These guys were way too alpha for her to have all of them.
But he still had a pet name for her.
“X, give me back my wife. Go dance with your own date.”
X? Right. I had to think back to the one and only time I’d actually met him before. He’d been like my damn magnet then. That murder was nasty, and yet it was my favorite to date, all because of this idiot. I hadn’t wanted to be in that neighborhood, but the second he showed up, I couldn’t seem to remember why. He was my air in the decay and apparently the vacuum to my sanity since I’d asked him to bring me here.
I was stupid.
“My date just used me to get to short stuff here. Have you seen Zeid?”
I gawked at him, but he didn’t notice.
Rylee, however, did.
