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Dude was nothing but flirty smirks as he chatted Elena up out front. Asshat was probably nineteen or twenty. Had that fratty vibe. Likely a student. Easy arrogance dripping from his pores.

She swayed in those shorts, her hands clasped behind her back, hair twisted in one of those long braids.

Trevan couldn’t see her face, but he knew she’d be shyly smiling. Her cheeks flushed.

The kid reached out and took her hand, flipped it palm-side up, and wrote something there with a pen.

Glancing at her and talking away while he did.

She looked down at it before she nodded, then he grinned as he backed away before he jogged to his ride that was waiting at the curb.

Trevan moved without thought.

Pure instinct.

Out into the open light at the front of the shop.

He grabbed her hand and glared at what was written there.

Patrick followed by a phone number.

“What the fuck was that all about?” he demanded.

With a scowl, Elena wrestled her wrist out of his hold. It didn’t take that much effort since he would never hurt her.

But fuck, he could hurt that Patrick prick.

“It’s none of your business.”

“Wrong. Anything you do is my business.”

Elena huffed and hurt blazed in her eyes. Blazed in a way that they hadn’t since she’d sneaked into his room. “No, Trevan, it’s not. I can date whoever I want.”

“Pretty sure your brother is going to have something to say about it.”

Low and pathetic, he knew.

Disbelief filled her face. “What? Are you going to run and tell him? Deny me something else?”

She might as well have stabbed him in the chest.

He staked his fingers through his hair, looked away, muttered, “No.”

Because he had no fucking right to stop her from living her life. That was the whole fucking problem since the only thing he wanted to do was bottle her up and protect her with the last drop of his.

SIXTY-TWO

TREVAN

I strode through the door of Keg & Creek Tavern, stepping from the bright, blinding sunlight and into the murky haze.

My heart rioted at a hundred beats per second.

Thinking through the blipping of texts that had come through while I’d been in the shower with Elena two hours ago.

Silas

Keg & Creek. 10 a.m.