“Stop fussing over me like you’re my dad or something. I’m fine. Everything is fine. Fucking fine, fine, fine.” I picked up my glass of lemon-lime soda and sipped it through the straw. “F. I. N. E.” I spelled it out for him before putting the glass back down on the table we were sitting at with Marissa and Rhett. “Don’t,” I told him when he opened his mouth again. “Just don’t.”
“Nat…”
“Let’s dance,” Rhett said as he stood and offered Marissa his hand. “I’m feeling restless just sitting here watching all the scary beasts glare at me from a distance.” Marissa rolled her eyes at him, but took his hand.
“You probably should be scared,” Linc grumbled as he picked up his bottle of beer and followed his boyfriend out onto the dance floor. When he noticed I hadn’t followed them he turned back and took my arm, pulling me from my chair and out onto the dance floor with the rest of them.
I didn’t feel like dancing, or even being here at this frickin’ club. It was exhausting. On top of already being so tired, I felt like I could easily sleep for a week and still feel this way. I hadn’t been out with Linc in weeks, months actually. The whole club scene had lost its appeal. Dance. Drink. Dance. Drink. Vomit. Go home. Sleep it off. Repeat.
Yeah, that wasn’t for me any longer. And since Linc was starting to get serious with Rhett—well as serious as Linc could get—he was getting tired of it all, too.
Marissa swayed to the music in between Rhett and Linc, then bumped her butt against mine as she tried to get me to smile. I let a small one lift my lips because it was hard not to smile at her. There was just something about that girl that drew a person to her, made you love her within seconds of learning her name. Five minutes after I’d been introduced to her a few years ago I’d wanted to just wrap her up and protect her from everything bad in the world, even if she didn’t need for me to. It was just part of the magical pull that Marissa naturally had.
The music changed a few more times and I noticed that Linc kept distancing himself from Rhett at times. I sighed and met Marissa’s sad gaze before we both turned our attention back on the couple. Rhett was so obviously in love with Linc, but Linc was terrified of commitment. Scared shitless of the romantic version of love. His fucking parents had really done a number on him as he was growing up, showing him just how bad loving someone could really be. These days he didn’t have anything to do with his parents or his brother and sister because they had all turned their backs on him when he’d told them he was gay.
They had kicked him out of their lives when he was still a teenager. That was when he’d met Harper and Dallas, who had accepted him with no questions asked. They had been all the family he needed, or so he had told me on a few occasions. Now his little family of three had extended to include Lana and myself and all the other family that came with all of us. To Neveah, Linc was just as much an uncle as any of the Demon’s Wings guys.
I just wished he would open his green eyes and see that what he had with Rhett was special. Rhett proved over and over how much he cared for him. Linc was always pushing Rhett away, starting arguments and kicking Rhett out of the apartment at least once a week. Rhett was determined though, and came back fighting twice as hard for Linc’s heart every time.
Several more songs played and Linc produced another round of drinks for us all, his eyes shooting sparks at me as he handed over my glass of lemon-lime soda. “Ice is the hardest thing in this one,” he muttered as he passed Marissa her rum punch.
“Just the way I like it…” I snapped back as I took a thirsty swallow. “…Daddy.”
“Smartass.” Linc took a deep swallow of his beer and pulled me against his side. “Dance with me before you get into trouble.”
The night went by at a snail’s pace, or maybe it was just me. I mostly just stood with my little group of friends while they danced. Marissa was starting to feel the rum and not really paying attention to her surroundings, but I noticed Wroth as soon as he left his seat at the bar. The determined look in those dark eyes along with the glassiness that told me he’d been drinking more than he normally had spelled danger to me in big, neon lights.
I knew he would never physically hurt Marissa, but anyone else who got in his way was a different story entirely. I grabbed Linc’s arm and pulled him out of the line of fire, but Rhett was still dancing with Marissa and he was the most likely to die tonight if he got in Wroth Niall’s way. I rushed to pull him back with me and Linc and watched with a gaping mouth as Wroth kissed Marissa senseless.
Rhett started to move to intervene but Linc stopped him with a hand on his boyfriend’s arm. “Don’t. He will kill you, man.”
“I’m not scared of Wroth,” Rhett responded.
“Then you should be.” I wrapped my arms around his waist to take away some of the sting from my words. “Look, there are a few things you need to know to stay alive on this tour. One, don’t piss Emmie off. It will get you ugly-dead. Like your-own-mother-wouldn’t-recognize-you dead.” He snickered but I didn’t smile back. This was serious. “Two, don’t look at Lana for longer than a few minutes or Drake will cut off your dick. True story.” Again with the snickering and I punched him in the chest before hugging him again. “And number three, don’t rattle the cage of the beast.” I nodded toward Wroth. “If that isn’t a beast I don’t know what is. And he might look all cuddly on the outside but on the inside lies a very angry monster. He can destroy you with his little finger, Rhett. I love your dumbass, so please don’t get yourself killed.”
Rhett laughed but he nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to avoid those three things.”
“You’d better.” I pushed away from him just in time to watch Wroth walk away from a teary-eyed Marissa and Emmie wrap her arms around her just a moment later. What the fuck had we missed?
“Natalie.” I heard my name but didn’t immediately turn around. There was no use, I already knew who it was. Just the sound of my name coming out of his mouth was enough to make me ache for him.
Slowly I turned, tightening my arms around Rhett’s waist instinctively. If I let him go I would probably do something stupid. Like slap Devlin’s face. Or kiss him. Neither were options tonight. Not with one of my brothers and his band brothers watching. I might have crossed the thin line between love and hate and was now knee deep in hate, but I still loved the drummer enough not to want him dead.