“Keep going, Ryder! I’m close!” Everleigh cried out as she kept pace with me.
I was close to another orgasm myself but I wanted us to finish together. I reached my hand around to her swollen clit rolling roughly in my fingers. In that moment she shattered and came hard against my dick as I followed her over the edge, coming inside her.
After a few moments of catching our breath, I pulled out of her and zipped back up as she pulled her jeans back up and fastened them. Turning and falling into my arms, she said, “That was perfect. God, what is it about us and bathrooms?”
I laughed and kissed her. “I don’t think it’s the bathroom. It’s the thrill of getting caught.”
“Well whatever it is, it’s something I don’t mind repeating over and over,” Everleigh said, grinning playfully. I pulled her close to me after she zipped her jeans.
I brushed a few strand of hair away from her face and said, “So, are you ready to go back out there?”
She bit her lip and smiled at me. “It’s going to be hard to convince people we didn’t have sex in here.”
“Do you really care if they know or not?”
With a slight blush in her cheeks, she grinned and said, “Not really.”
I kissed her beautiful mouth once more, then we unlocked the door and walked out of the bathroom to rejoin the group.
After spending a few more hours drinking, shooting pool, and catching up with Jagger and the guys, I felt more like myself than I had in a while. Everleigh had laced herself into every part of my life, including charming the pants off my friends and I loved it. It was nice to have a girlfriend that everyone you cared about loved as much as you did.
After laughing at something Logan said, I looked back and noticed Everleigh yawning. I checked the display on my phone and it was almost one in the morning…that meant it was time to head back to the penthouse. She was sitting on one of the stools against the wall when I approached her. “You tired, gorgeous?”
She smiled at me, her eyes sleepy. “Just a little bit.”
“All right, just let me say goodbye to the guys and we can head home.”
“Okay, I’ll go get Danni,” she said and stood up. She kissed me quickly and walked away in search of her friend.
I turned and walked toward the group, who were all gathered around the pool table. “Well, you guys, this has been fun but I think I’m going to call it a night.”
Cash snickered and said, “Already, bro? It’s not even one in the morning yet.”
“Well, if you were going home with a fucking hot ass girl like Everleigh knowing you were going to get laid you’d cut the night short too,” Logan said, tipping his beer toward me.
“Uh, thanks,” I said, chuckling.
“Where did your hottie go anyway? I wanted to say goodbye,” Zayne said, grinning.
“She went to find her friend Danni so we can head out. She just got into town today and is staying with us.”
“Oh, the smoking little blonde? I saw Jake leading her off to the back room a little bit ago,” Cash said. I tensed and looked around for Beau, hoping he hadn’t heard that. I didn’t see him anywhere so I relaxed.
That relaxation didn’t last long because suddenly I heard a commotion coming from down the hallway leading back to the bathrooms. The next thing I knew I saw a distraught Danni running toward the front door of the bar with Everleigh in tow. I started to follow but before I could get close to the door Jessie beat me to it. “I’ll check on her, go find out what happened.”
I tapped her arm and said, “Okay, thanks, Jess.” I walked back toward the bathrooms. As I made my way a petite bleach blonde girl came running out of the men’s room passing me as she ran toward the door. Once she was gone I looked up and someone else was coming out of the bathroom behind her, buckling his belt…Beau. I walked up to him and narrowed my eyes. “What did you do?” I growled.
“Shit, shit, shit!” he said, zipping his fly. “I have to talk to Danni. Move out of the way,” he said trying to push past me.
I shoved him and he fell back against the wall, surprised. “You’re not going anywhere, Beau. What the fuck did you do?” I yelled.
“I fucked up!” he shouted, shoving me back. “I got pissed at Danni and I fucked everything up! Is that what you want to hear?”
“No, what I wanted to hear was that you kept your word to not fuck some other girl until you talked to Danni first! You looked me in the eye today, Beau, and you told me that you were going to try and see if this thing with Danni was just a passing fling. Now I see you coming out of the bathroom zipping up your pants. What the fuck happened?”
He collapsed back against the wall and ran his hands through his long hair. “I saw her with Jake tonight when Jude and I first got here and I was pissed. He had his hands all over her and I was so jealous I couldn’t see straight. I wanted to grab her away from him and tell him to back off but I didn’t. Then when I saw him leading her off toward the back by the bathrooms I…I’d never felt such rage in my life. I wanted to kill him,” he said. As he spoke his eyes became a mix of crazy and distraught.
“So you decided to just fuck some random chick? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“No, I followed them down the hallway. I was going to stop them and tell Danni that I’d been a dick and that I wanted her but when I found them, Jake already had his tongue down her throat,” he said angrily. He blew out a frustrated breath and continued, “After that I just saw red. I thought if she was moving on then I would too…so I did. I found the first girl I saw and took her into the bathroom. We hadn’t been in there long before Danni walked in on us.” For the first time he sounded ashamed.
“Why did she come into men’s room?” I asked.
“She was looking f-for me,” he said, his voice breaking. I was so pissed at Beau right then but it was hard to be completely angry when I saw his expression. He looked destroyed and on the verge of tears. I’d never seen him like that before. He slid down the wall and dropped his face into his hands. “I’ll never forget the look on her face…I can’t believe I fucked this up.”
Kris and Jude came out into the hall at that moment. Jude asked, “What’s going on?”
I looked from Beau to Jude and glared at him. “What’s going on is that he took your shitty advice and Danni walked in on him fucking some bitch!”
Jude held his hands up and said, “Hey, you don’t need to get shitty with me man! Beau is a big boy and he fucked this up all by himself. I just suggested it. I didn’t force him to do anything. Besides, he told us both that he was going to wait to fuck anyone until he talked to Danni.”
“Well he didn’t,” I said, my anger rising. I repeated the story to Kris and Jude. I know that it must have seemed like I was overreacting to the whole thing, but the truth was that Danni was already family to me: if she was hurting I wanted to kick whoever’s ass was to blame. Unfortunately that happened to be someone I’d loved like a brother since I was five years old.
I heard a tortured sob coming from Beau and I looked down at him. He’d sank down to the floor and had his head in his hands. “Her face…” he mumbled.
Kris tapped me on the arm. “Let’s get him out of here and back to his apartment. There are still people here with camera phones and I’m sure he doesn’t want this on the news later,” he said, and I nodded. As we helped Beau up off the floor and took him out the back door, I texted Everleigh and let her know that I’d be home late and to have John take them home. I put my phone in my pocket and we all left the club.
Once we were all piled in the cab, my phone rang. I pulled it out to answer it, expecting it to be Everleigh, but it wasn’t. It was Kip. Getting a call from him at one in the morning wasn’t good. Dread immediately spread through me as I answered the phone and got the worst news I could have possibly gotten...the news that I was afraid would cause Everleigh to finally break.
Chapter 8
Everleigh
“Danni, wait up! What happened?” I asked,
already knowing the answer to my question judging by the look on her face and the unstoppable tears pouring down her cheeks. I followed her out of the bar into the cold. Beau had broken her heart, just like I was afraid he would do. She was sobbing uncontrollably as I approached her and wrapped her coat around her shoulders. “Was it Jake?”
“No,” she cried, “you know it was Beau.”
“What did he do?” I asked as Jessie came out of the bar and joined us.
“Danni, are you all right?” she asked, and Danni shook her head.
“I can’t believe he did this,” she said.
Jessie turned to me and asked, “Beau?”
I nodded silently and we both looked at Danni. “What happened?” I asked again.
Wiping tears from her cheeks, she said, “I didn’t know he would be here tonight but that really didn’t matter to me because he didn’t seem like he wanted to be anything other than friends now. I mean, when I saw him again this afternoon at the studio I wanted to tell him that I missed him so bad, but he just acted like he didn’t care anymore. When Jake started hitting on me tonight I decided to just go with it because hell, if Beau didn’t want me why shouldn’t I go for it with a sexy guy that was into me, right?
“Well, of course Beau shows up here looking so sexy that it literally hurt me to look at him and the minute I saw him my heart skipped a beat. I knew we needed to talk and try to work this thing out, but every time I looked at him he was glaring at me and Jake. I was getting sick of it so I asked Jake if he wanted to go out back with me to get some fresh air, hoping Beau might get jealous and actually fight for me but of course he never came.
“When we were outside, Jake kissed me but I pushed him away before it went any farther than that. The truth is that I love Beau,” she said, and I gasped. I’d never heard Danni say she loved any guy before…ever. “I know it’s stupid and you tried to warn me, Ev, but I didn’t listen and went ahead and fell in love with him anyway.
“I told Jake that I wanted to be with Beau and he backed off, telling me that Beau was his friend and he wasn’t about to try and come between us. I came back into the bar to find him and tell him what I’d been to chicken shit to admit and asked the bartender if he’d seen him. He told me that he’d just seen Beau go into the bathroom,” she said, crying harder.
I immediately knew what had happened before she had to say it. “Danni,” I said, putting my arm around her.
“He was fucking some girl against the wall,” she sobbed. “He didn’t even lock the goddamned door. That’s when I ran out…I couldn’t even look at him after that.”
At that moment my cell phone pinged and I looked to see that I had a text from Ryder. He told me that he and they guys were taking Beau back to his place and that John was going to take us back to the penthouse. I decided to text him back later as John pulled up in the SUV and we all piled into the back in a much worse mood than we were in when we got here a few hours ago.
The ride back to our apartment was quiet but once John’s cell phone rang it was also tense. Judging by the way his face changed as I watched in the rearview mirror my worry was quickly shifting from Danni’s broken heart to whoever he could have been talking to that made him look worried. John never got worried about anything; he was always so calm and collected. Something was seriously wrong…I could feel it.
As we stepped off the elevator I noticed John walking very close behind me. I looked at Jessie, wondering if she might know something, but she just shrugged her shoulders. As I got my key out and unlocked the front door, I asked, “Okay, John, what is it with you? Why do you look so freaked?”
“We should get inside and wait for Ryder, he will be here in about five minutes,” John said.
“I thought he was going to Beau’s place. Why is he coming back here already?” I asked, my eyebrows drawing together. I was getting more nervous by the minute.
“I’m not sure but don’t worry, he’s probably just wanting to check on Danni,” replied Jessie.
The way John was looking at me wasn’t sitting well. He was smiling and trying to look comforting, but something was very wrong and he obviously was trying to distract me until Ryder got home to give me bad news.
We walked into the apartment and as soon as we were all inside John quickly locked the door. Shaking my head, I led Danni into the living room. We sat on the couch together after I handed her a tissue to wipe her tears. Thankfully a few minutes later, I heard the front door open and Ryder called out, “Everleigh?”
“We’re in the living room,” I replied, anxious to know what was going on. I was wringing my hands together as Ryder walked into the living room. Instead of the relief I usually felt when he was around, I felt my stomach flip as I saw his expression. It was a mixture of anger and fear. “Ryder, what’s wrong?” I asked, terrified.
John stood and said, “I’m going to take Jessie home and then I will be back. Keep the door locked until I return,” he said, and Ryder nodded at him. He hugged Jessie goodbye and John’s eyes lingered on me for a moment before he turned and left.
As soon as they were gone, Ryder came and sat on the coffee table across from me. “Danni, are you all right?” he asked her.
She shrugged and said, “I’ll live. What I want to know is why the hell John was acting so weird and why you just came in here looking like your dog died,” she said. “We know something’s up, Ryder, and you need to just tell us what’s going on.” I was so glad to have Danni there in that moment. Sometimes her bluntness really was a good thing.
Ryder blew out a hard breath through his lips. “Evie, I have something to tell you and I need you to stay calm, okay? Can you do that for me?” he asked, talking to me like I was a child again.
I sat up straight and ran my sweaty palms on my thighs. “Ryder, I am starting to get scared. Please tell me what’s going on.”
He looked down at the floor for a moment before he looked back up at me and took my hands in his. “Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I got a call from Kip after I left the bar. Scott broke into your house this morning Evie.”
My heart dropped into my stomach and fear prickled down to the base of my spine. Danni shouted out a few obscenities and I gasped and said, “How did he get in? I thought you had security watching the house!”
“It happened while Kip and Nathan were getting some rest. Apparently the other guy they had keeping a lookout wasn’t doing his fucking job and Scott managed to slip past,” he said angrily.
My thoughts went to one person…Trish. I was terrified for her safety. “What about Trish? He didn’t hurt her, did he?” I asked, my heart pounding.
Ryder squeezed my hands tightly in his and my palms started sweating even more. “She was out getting groceries when he broke in,” he replied quietly.
“Oh thank God,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Then she’s all right.”
“Everleigh,” he said, his tone serious. My eyes flicked to his and my relief completely washed away when I saw his face.
“She’s all right, isn’t she, Ryder?” I asked, my voice raising an octave.
“Listen to me,” he said, trying his best to keep me from freaking out. All it was doing was making me freak even more. “I have to tell you something and I need you to stay calm.”
I felt tears burning my eyes and I said loudly, “Please tell me she’s all right, Ryder!”
“I wish I could but…I can’t. She’s gone, Evie,” he admitted. I shook my head in disbelief as an ache in my chest like I’d never felt before knocked the breath out of me.
“Gone? What do you mean, she’s gone?” Danni asked, wrapping her arm around me.
Ryder lowered his head again and when his eyes found mind they were glassy. “Trish is dead. Baby, I’m so, so sorry.”
Danni gasped and cried audibly and I screamed, “No! No, no, no, she’s not dead!” I felt faint and the room started to slowly spin. This wasn’t happening…
“Evie, I’m so sorry,” he repeated, g
etting on his knees in front of me and pulling me into his arms. I completely broke down and the tears started pouring from my eyes.
“What the hell happened?” Danni asked, her voice shaking.
“Apparently Scott broke in while she was out and he was still there waiting when she got back to the house. I don’t know any details yet but I guess by the time that fucking asshole who was supposed to be watching the place knew anything was wrong, Scott had beaten Trish and left her lying on the kitchen floor. She was already dead by the time Kip and Nathan got back and by then Scott was long gone,” Ryder said.
My whole world was destroyed. I barely registered Danni and Ryder saying anything else because all I felt was crippling fear and agonizing guilt. Trish should have been away from my house and living with another patient right now. She should have been safe from Scott and not been a sitting duck for when he made his move. Everyone was so busy protecting me that no one thought about the dangers they were all in as well.
“This is all my fault,” I said, barely able to form the words through my cries of despair.
Ryder shook his head and said sternly, “Everleigh, look at me.” I shook my head, not wanting to face anyone but he raised my chin with his finger until I was forced to look at him. “This is not your fault. You didn’t do anything to cause this.”
Danni sniffed and said, “He’s right, Ev. Scott is a crazy fucker and he would have done anything-”
“To get to me. He murdered Trish in cold blood and left her to die alone because of me. Stop lying to try and make me feel any less guilty because nothing either of you say to me will change the truth,” I sobbed. “Now she’s d-dead and he’s probably on his way here right now to find me.”
Ryder growled and pulled me back into his arms. “He’s not going to get to you, Everleigh. After everything he’s done that sick fuck will be dealt with once and for all,” he threatened.
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