Текст книги "Bad Romance"

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Dedication

Acknowledgments

By Jen McLaughlin

About the Author

The Editor’s Corner

Excerpt from Raven

SEVEN YEARS AGO…

Jackson

Walt, my stepfather, frowned at the letter in his hand. “Yale said they would take him, despite his bad grades. I have to buy his way in, but I will.”

“They did?” Mother gasped, smiling.

“ ‘He’s’ right here,” I said drily. “And doesn’t want to go to Yale.”

Neither of them noticed.

“At least he can amount to something, unlike his father.”

Mother smiled even wider. “Thanks to you, Walter.”

“You’ll go at the end of the month,” Walt said, not even looking at me, even though he clearly spoke to me. “You’re dismissed.”

The hell I was. “I don’t want to go to Yale. I’m joining the army.”

Walt laughed. “Not in my house.”

This was bullshit. Everything about it was. Mother was married for the millionth time, and this time to a man who quite clearly didn’t want the extra kid that came along with her. No big shocker, there. His new wife didn’t exactly want me, either.

She never tried to hide that fact from me.

Had told me, straight up to my face.

But to have some pompous prick all up in my business, telling me what I had to do with the rest of my life as if I needed to listen to him, was the last straw. I was eighteen years old. I didn’t have to listen to Walter Hastings. Or to his wife.

Screw them all.

They’d only been married a few months, and he wasn’t my damn stepfather, no matter what he thought. I mean, he was. Legally. But I didn’t need him.

I didn’t need anyone.

So I stood up, fisting my hands at my sides. “I don’t want to be a lawyer. I already told you that.”

Walt laughed. “And I told you that, under my roof, you do what I tell you to do, and that’s that. You’ll do it, and you’ll like it. I won’t budge.”

“Neither will I, Walt.”

“Don’t call me that,” Walt said, his voice low and seething. His name was Walter, and he hated it when I called him Walt…which was why I did it. “My name is Walter, or Mr. Hastings, or sir. No one calls me Walt. Learn some respect, boy.”

I didn’t answer. Just smirked.

Walt could kiss my ass.

“Jackson, dear…” Mother fidgeted. “It’s a good career. You’ll be lucky if you live to see the other side of twenty if you join the army. Listen to your father. He knows what’s best for you.”

I stiffened. I might not know my father, but I knew one thing. Walt wasn’t him. “He knows shit, and he sure as hell doesn’t know me because he’s not my father. He has no idea what’s best for me, or who I am. Or what I want. I want to—”

“Watch your mouth, young man, and how you speak to your mother. You’re going to law school, to Yale. That’s final, so get it into your head. End of discussion.” Walter picked up his newspaper, addressing his wife. “And if he wants to continue living here, he will stop annoying me.”

I gritted my teeth, because he was a tight-suited asshole. “Then I’ll leave this house. Go out on my own. Make my own way.”

“Over my dead body. You’re part of this family now, and while you are, you’ll live up to the Hastings name. And that’s all that will be said on this matter. You may go,” Walter said dismissively, flicking a hand my way. “I’m finished with you.”

There was so much I wanted to say, but why bother? I knew it was a waste of my time, so I walked away from them both. He wouldn’t listen, and, really, it didn’t matter even if he did. Officially, I was an adult now, so I didn’t need their approval to sign up for duty, no matter what they seemed to think. End of discussion. What the fuck was that, anyway? The discussion was over when both parties decided it was. Not one.

Pompous prick.

As I left, I heard Walt sigh. “Honestly, Nancy, I don’t know what to do with that boy. Are you sure his father won’t take him off our hands? He’s nothing like my Lilly.”

Ah…Lilly Hastings. Fifteen. Rich. Smart. Sweet as hell. And gorgeous, to boot. Walter didn’t deserve her, and it boggled my mind that she was the old man’s daughter, because she was nothing like him. Everything she got, she must’ve gotten from her deceased mother. That was the only thing I could figure.

I initially tried to hate her on principle, but the thing was, I couldn’t. From my first day here, when she brought me chocolate chip cookies because they were my favorite, till today, she’d been nothing but kind to me. She was the only person who made life in the Hastings household bearable. And because Lilly was the total opposite of her father, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hate her.

And believe me, I tried.

“Walter, you know he ran as soon as he found out I was pregnant. I had to raise Jackson by myself, and you know how hard that was on me,” Mother said, her voice low. She shouldn’t have bothered. I heard her, anyway. “But if you would consider letting him…”

I walked away, knowing how this conversation would end. Walt refused to accept that I had all but joined the army—all it needed was a few signatures, and it would be done. I passed all the tests, filled out the papers. It was a done deal, and I would be leaving soon. But once I was gone? Yeah, he’d get the picture pretty damn fast.

“Psst,” Lilly called out, holding two bottles of Coke. I would rather have a beer, but she wasn’t into rebelling. Not that badly, anyway. “Come here.”

I walked over, my heart thumping against my chest the closer I got to her. I might be three years older than her, but we connected on a level that couldn’t be ignored or explained. She just got me. And I got her. “What’s up, little girl?”

She flushed. “I hate it when you call me that.”

“I know.” I tapped her on her nose. “It’s why I do it.”

She stole another quick glance at me from under her ridiculously long eyelashes and bit down on her lower lip. My heart rate increased in response, but I ignored it. It was no secret that she had a huge crush on me. I liked her from day one, and I’d tried to keep that concealed as it wasn’t so much a sexual thing for me. Well, okay, she was a babe, so obviously I appreciated that like men did…but my feelings toward her were really more of a protective “I’ll take care of you” thing, if that made any sense at all.

At least we weren’t blood.

And thank God for that. I’d kill myself if I were a Hastings like that asshole in the other room. We were a family unit by marriage and legality only. And Lilly was pretty much my only friend, which made her my best friend, and a guy didn’t mess around with his best friend.

She was too young. Too pretty. Too clean.

Too good for a guy like me.

I graduated high school a month ago, five months after our parents married, and she was about to enter eleventh grade. I might only be eighteen, but I’d seen and done shit she had no clue about. And I intended to keep it that way.

“Don’t listen to him,” Lilly whispered. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He never does.”

I smiled, because she was trying to make me feel better, and I wanted her to think it was working. She always tried to cheer me up after Walt went on one of his asshole binges with me. “I know. What’s up?”

“Come here. I want to show you something.” She held her hand out to mine, watching me with those bright green eyes of hers. “Alone.”

Just the way I liked it.

Walt laughed from the dining room, and his deep voice boomed as he said to his wife, “The boy is doomed to fail.”

I knew he talked about me. Just like I knew he hated me. Just like I knew the one way that I would be guaranteed freedom from his overbearing grasp. And it was through his Lilly….Ah. He loved his sweet, innocent Lilly. Everyone did. If I took her, and dirtied her by making her mine, he would flip his shit. Never forgive me. And I would finally be free of his annoying interference in my life.

Too bad I couldn’t do that to her.

She meant too much to me.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t want it, or me. She did. If I kissed her, she’d probably have an orgasm right there. But I refused to hurt her. To use her. And that was that.

“All right. Let’s go,” I said.

“Hurry, before they see us.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me along behind her, her tiny hand feeling dainty and frail in mine. For some reason, her touch felt different tonight. Like she wasn’t my stepsister, or even my best friend. I didn’t know where these feelings were coming from, but they needed to quit. “Look. They opened the pool. No one’s been in yet, so they won’t think to look for us here.”

I scanned the area. We were indeed alone. My heart thumped so loudly I couldn’t even hear my thoughts, but that was a good thing. They were confusing the hell out of me. “It looks great,” I said, my voice strained. “I’ve never been in here before.”

“It’s my favorite part of the house.” She kicked her pink flip-flops off and sank her toes into the clear, blue water. “Come on. Sit next to me and enjoy it.”

Sighing, I removed my black Chucks and sat directly beside her. She smiled over at me, and I shook my head because she looked so utterly beautiful, staring up at me with adoration in her eyes. Guys like me? Yeah, we didn’t usually get looked at like that.

Especially not by pretty girls like Lilly.

“It feels nice,” I said, trying to smile. Her thin legs flexed as she moved her feet in the water, brushing her toes against mine. It wasn’t something we hadn’t done before. Soft touches like that. But tonight…it made me suck in a breath. I cleared my throat and tried to think of something, anything, to say. “I’m not even going to get to swim in it. Even if your dad refuses to admit it, I’m out of here for the army soon.”

“I know.” She sipped on her Coke, her gaze off in the distance. She looked…sad. Which inexplicably made me sad, like our emotions were tied together or some shit like that. Her small, delicate features looked flawless in the late-afternoon sun. For some reason, I couldn’t stop staring. I was going to miss her when I was gone, but that wouldn’t stop me from going. Nothing would. “I’m sorry he’s such a jerk to you. You deserve better.”

And that was why I liked Lilly; she was always on my side. She was the only one in this ridiculous family that cared about me. I lifted my own Coke and shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care.”

“Yeah. You do.” She rested her hand on my thigh, and I tensed. I had board shorts on, so she didn’t touch skin, but still. It felt…intimate. And good. “I can see it in your eyes.”

No eighteen-year-old guy liked to hear his feelings showed in his eyes. So I scoffed. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

“It’s true,” she said a bit defensively.

No. It. Wasn’t.

I didn’t care about Walter, or his wife, or anyone but myself…and Lilly. She was the one exception. And I’d show her that, right here. Right now. Her hand was still on my thigh, so I covered it with mine. “The only person whose opinion matters to me in this house is sitting right next to me, and I mean it.”

She licked her lips and shifted closer. “I care about you very much, Jackson.”

“Yeah.” My heart sped up, and I smiled. “I know.”

A laugh escaped her, and she bumped me with her shoulder, her gaze focused on my lips. “Cocky much?”

“Yep.” The way she looked at me, as if she wanted nothing more than to see what it would feel like if I kissed her…well, there was only so much a guy like me could ignore. And I was leaving, and I wouldn’t see her again, and man, I wanted to find out what she tasted like so damn badly. Just one small, tiny, innocent kiss. That was all I wanted. No one would ever know. Not even Walt. “Know what I see in your eyes?”

She parted those soft pink lips and stared at me as if I was some sort of god or something. It made me feel a little bit ill, but also as though I could rule the world, if I had her by my side. “What?”

“You want me to kiss you,” I said, some unknown, greedy man taking over my actions. I trailed my hand up her bare arm, leaving goosebumps in my wake. “To be your first kiss. The one you remember for the rest of your life. To touch you.”

She trembled and licked her lips. “How did you…?”

Curling my hand over her chin, I grinned. “Go ahead. If you’re brave enough to do it, to take what you want, kiss me. No one will ever know you kissed your stepbrother but us. It’ll be our little secret…”

I knew she wasn’t going to, no matter how much I might wish otherwise. It was why I left it up to her. I didn’t have qualms about it. Didn’t think it was wrong, or dirty, because she wasn’t my damn sister. But there was no way she had it in her to—

“You know what?” Crawling into my lap, facing me, straddling my thighs, she cupped my face and stared into my eyes. I got lost in hers, and some sinking suspicion told me that I was staring at the person I was meant to live the rest of my life with—which was crazy. “I know you think I’m too young, or too good, or too scared to do it…so I’ll prove you wrong. And guess what? You’re going to like it.”

And then she did it. She kissed me.

And she was right. I did like it.

Her soft, sweet lips closed over mine, and she tightened her grip on my cheeks. And, God help me, I finally found out what she tasted like. She smelled like vanilla, sunshine, and innocence, and she tasted like heaven….

And bubblegum.

Moaning, I took over the kiss, pressing her perky, soft breasts against my chest and skimming my hands down her sides. When I gripped her ass and arched my erection up against her, she gasped, giving me access to her mouth. I took it….

And then I took some more.

My tongue found hers, and she gripped my shoulders, digging her nails in as she pressed down against me, obviously wanting to feel my dick up against her core again.

And for the first time…

I thought I’d finally found a home.

Burying a hand in her hair, leaving the other on her sweet ass, I deepened the kiss, taking it to the next level. Warning bells went off in my head—this was getting too hot, too fast—but I ignored them, because she just felt way too fucking good. What had started off as a lighthearted flirtation backfired, because she was kissing me, and I didn’t want to stop. Having her in my arms made me feel as if I wasn’t alone.

As if we were meant to—

“Son of a bitch,” Walter growled from behind me.

I stiffened and broke off the kiss, my hand still on his daughter’s ass, and knew I’d fucked up. I’d forgotten to listen for anyone coming. “Shit.”

“Daddy, I—” Lilly started to say, scrambling to climb off me.

“Don’t talk to me. Go to your room immediately.”

Lilly gave me one long, panicked look, but did as told.

She always did.

“And you?” Walter grabbed me by the arms and yanked me to my feet. “How dare you defile my baby girl? Get out of this house, and don’t come back. You’re cut off. Not welcome here. Out of this family.”

I forced a careless grin, even though watching Lilly run from me was like watching my own heart leap out of my chest and sprint for the door. “It’s about damn time. I never wanted to be in it, anyway.”

Yanking free, I walked past the man I hated more than my own father. Walked right past my mother, and didn’t even look at Lilly, who stood paralyzed halfway up the stairs. If I looked at her, I’d waver. I’d want to stay, for her. And I couldn’t afford to do that. Not anymore. So I walked right out the door….

And I didn’t look back.

Not even once.

Chapter 1

Jackson

I might’ve only been twenty-five, but I wasn’t waxing poetic when I said I’ve been through hell and back and seen it all. Literally. Twice. I’ve seen death, life, murder, pain, anger, hatred, and joy. Not much of the last one, but I’ve seen it. I just hadn’t really experienced it. But whatever. I wasn’t the type to cry over the life I’ve been handed.

You lived. You fucked. You died. The end.

Next story.

In the end, no one really gave a damn about you once you were gone. That was why I lived life for today, instead of planning for tomorrow. It was also why I didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything, because in the end they wouldn’t give a damn about me. That was a lesson I learned before I was eleven. I made sure not to care about anyone enough to let them hurt me, because that was how the world treated me. That was the way I’d lived my life for the last fifteen years, and it was the way I always would….

With one exception.

But that hadn’t exactly worked out so well for me.

My gaze fell on the blonde dancing on the floor with an abandon for life that I didn’t quite grasp, and never had. My unquenchable interest in the blonde dancing seductively in the crowd didn’t make much sense. The feelings she stirred inside me went deeper than lust, as if I somehow knew her, or should. I didn’t know how deep those feelings went, and I had no intention of finding out, but still. They were there.

Maybe it was because I’ve avoided people in general since coming home—women in particular. Not because I was nervous or any shit like that. Hitting on a gorgeous woman never intimidated me, for the most part. It was just that I was focused on trying to re-accustom myself to civilian life, and I didn’t want to drag another person into the shitstorm that my life was right now. But I spotted this woman when I walked through the door, and I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her since.

My reaction to her had been fast and sure.

I was so fully isolated that no one in my family even knew I was Stateside, and I hadn’t been back long, but the second I saw this woman, I knew she had to come home with me tonight. Screw isolation. I’d rather screw her. I could easily lose myself in her arms for an hour or two. Her soft curves and long, wavy blond hair teased me and made me feel alive for the first time in God knows how long. It looked unbelievably soft, and my fingers itched with the desire to see if I was right. If it was as soft as it seemed.

It was time to find out.

Smoothing my shirt, I stood up and took a step toward her. But she turned around, and I prepared myself for my first full view of her—shit. That wasn’t a hot blonde I could take home, give a few orgasms to, and forget. She wasn’t even a light flirtation I could indulge in.

No, she was my little stepsister. Lilly Hastings.

The one whom I’d kissed seven years ago, and then never saw again. Only she wasn’t so little anymore. And she was even more drop-dead gorgeous.

She’d always been on my mind, thanks to the letters she’d sent, but I never spoke to her again after that night. I think, in a way, I was ashamed of how things ended. Of the way we’d kissed and then gotten caught. I never even checked in with her to see if she got in trouble after I left. If she’d been okay. And that was just shitty.

Did she hate me now? She should. I deserved it.

I forced myself to stand still. To not approach her, or flee.

We had nothing in common. Not anymore. She didn’t know what it was like to sweat in a desert for years, or to watch your buddies get blown to pieces. She didn’t know what loss and pain felt like. She didn’t know me.

Not anymore.

So I sat the hell back down on my stool.

If she wanted to dance her little heart out, and bring home four guys—well, that was none of my business. And I wasn’t gonna do a damn thing to make sure she made it home safely afterward, because she wasn’t really my sister, and I wasn’t really her big brother. I didn’t need to look out for her. She was better off without me messing around in her affairs. Look what happened last time—a clusterfuck.

It was why I never wrote her back, or contacted her. The guilt over my actions, and over the punishments she had to have suffered because of them, weighed me down. And in true Jackson Worthington fashion, instead of apologizing or writing her back…I ran from my problems until it was way too late to apologize.

Instead of returning her sentiments of love and affection, I read her letters, savored them, and never wrote back for one reason and one reason only.

I knew she deserved better.

She needed to move on, and get over her girlish infatuation with me. Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. I knew it. And good ol’ Walt did, too. She wasn’t made for a guy like me. Lilly belonged in the world of trust funds and diamonds, not army guys and shitty base housing.

She was made for bigger and better things, and she needed to realize that. To forget about me. I might never have stopped caring for her, but since she stopped writing me once she got into college…something told me she’d wised up and moved on.

I’d gotten my wish.

Too bad it felt like shit.

So I would sit here, drink my Jameson in peace, and ignore the annoying voice in the back of my mind that told me I had to save her before something bad happened. Because, when push came to shove, I was just like everyone else in this club, like everyone else in the world.

I didn’t give a damn about anyone else, either.

I was okay with that, too.

Tossing back the last of my drink, I watched her shake her ass as she danced. So did at least half of the other men in the room with me, including the man she’d welcomed moments before. I didn’t blame them. I’d never seen a woman move so gracefully, innocence mixed with a soft sensuality.

Granted, it had admittedly been a long time since I watched a woman dance. Most of my last seven years had been spent overseas, fighting for home and country. The army had sent me home after an injury, and now…

Now I was back in the outskirts of Arlington, Virginia, hiding the fact that I was back in suburban hell from my family. Walt had no idea I was home, and neither did my mother. I’d hidden it, but truth be told, they weren’t exactly chomping at the bit to see me. When Walt told me to get the hell out, he’d meant it. The plan to turn me into his prodigal son had been dropped, and he hadn’t spoken to me again.

Good riddance, I say.

Seven years hadn’t changed my opinion about the man.

I was positioned here temporarily, working on recruiting duty while the army docs made sure I was still whole in the head. Turned out, I was. Now I needed to plan my next move in the ranks, and it would involve a desk job instead of battles in a hot-ass desert. I wasn’t fighting anymore. I wasn’t protecting my country and the people in it.

My life no longer had meaning.

After spending my adult life as a soldier, it was all I knew. Fighting. Pride. Survival. War. One bad night and a poorly timed shot had ruined it all. Had taken me down. And I hadn’t really gotten back up yet. But I was trying.

I was figuring my shit out.

I turned so only the bartender was at my back, instead of the whole room full of people. I might be out of the war zone, and I might know I was safe here, but I still didn’t like having people at my back. Whereas Lilly looked so free. So unworried about life.

I had no idea what that felt like anymore.

The years had been kind to her. She was slim, but not too much so. She had curves in all the right places, and she just sort of vibrated with energetic life. She always had, even as a teenager. It had been a while since I felt alive at all, so maybe it was that eternal light of hers that drew me in. Just like the memories of what we’d once been to each other did. Christ, I’d missed her….

Which was why I should’ve turned around and gotten out before she saw me.

Nothing had changed. She still didn’t need me in her life.

My vision blurred, and I squinted so I could focus on Lilly better. The whole room spun wildly, which wasn’t a good sign for tomorrow morning, but what the hell. Wouldn’t be the first time I drank too much, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. I drank a lot nowadays.

Anything to dull the pain of losing my career due to an insurgent’s good aim.

Some preppy little asshole bounced into me, knocking me off balance as I precariously sat on the barstool. He glared at me, but I ignored him because I could have him bleeding and unconscious on the floor in two seconds. I wasn’t looking for an easy fight. Not tonight. Not after Lilly had awoken the need inside me that I usually ignored.

I’d rather find a sweeter escape.

Too bad the only woman in this room I wanted was her.

If I went up to her, would she even recognize me? I sure as hell didn’t look like I had at eighteen. For starters, I had tattoos, muscles, and a few new scars. Seen and done shit that no man should ever have to see or do.

I was a different man from the boy she once knew.

Was she the same girl I kissed by the pool?

The man who’d bumped into me earlier shoved past me again and walked right up to Lilly. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she looked at him. After a few words, she shook her head and twisted away from him, her shoulders stiff.

The douche had been dismissed.

He didn’t take the hint, though.

Instead, he leaned in, grabbed her shoulder. She spun on him, scowling, and spoke again, her arms flying animatedly. The jerk still didn’t back off. If anything, he crowded her even more, laying his hands on her where they were obviously not welcome.

Well, shit.

The dude had taken the one road I couldn’t abide. Being a dickhead to a lady. I might be a jerk, and Lilly might be a grown-ass woman who could fight her own battles, but men shouldn’t treat women like that. Period. Someone needed to teach this dude a lesson.

And that someone would be me.

The man grabbed her arm roughly, shaking her, and I stood. Rage, pure, unadulterated rage, hit me in the chest. No one touched her like that and got away with it, damn it. That protective instinct I’d tried to bury seven years ago arose like it had never left me, like it was a dormant reaction that only came alive for her—like I was only alive if I was with her.

Fists at the ready, I made my way to her side. Lilly saw me coming before I reached her, and relief filled her bright green eyes. To be honest, I had no idea why. She had no way of knowing I was coming to her rescue, no reason to even think I would.

She shouldn’t be so trusting.

Someone needed to teach her that, too.

As I walked closer, I heard the tail end of their conversation. “And I’m not your property.”

The douche grabbed her arm way too tightly. “Yeah, you are, because you’re mine. You became mine the moment you were born. And you know it as well as I do.”

I stiffened. She wasn’t this asshole’s property. Who the hell did he think he was, anyway? I tapped the douche on the shoulder. “Psst. Jackass.”

He spun, face red, and said, “What?”

Hauling my fist back, I smiled and let it fly. I hadn’t even been planning on starting a fight—not really—but after I’d heard him speak…well, it had been inevitable.

Assholes pissed me off.

Probably because I was one, too.

The man fell backward, a hand clamped over his now-bleeding nose. He lowered it, blinking down at the red fluid as if he’d never seen blood before. Hell, he probably hadn’t. He wore the preppiest outfit I’d ever had the displeasure to see, and a pair of lame khakis. The kind with pleats in front. Fucking pleats.

Lowering his hand, Preppy Prick scowled and launched himself at me.

We fell to the floor in a tangle of flying fists and grunting, and as much of a pansy ass as he might be, he got one solid punch in. His fist connected, and my teeth tore into my cheek from the force of the blow.

The metallic taste of blood touched my tongue, and I lost it.

Growling, I regrouped and got three solid punches in before someone dragged me off him. I gingerly ran my tongue over the gash, grinning and laughing as the fool struggled to get to his feet. It had been a while since someone managed to get a hand on me, and it felt good. Welcome, even.

Fighting felt good.

“Who started it?” the man behind me asked. I knew that voice. It was Tyler, the owner of the bar, and a good friend of mine as well as a combat brother. “What happened?”

“Who do you think started it? Look at us.” Preppy Prick pointed at me with a shaking finger. “It was him.”

Tyler held me even tighter. “Of course.”

I purposely avoided looking at Lilly and remained quiet.

Being this close to her, and not knowing if she recognized me, not being able to touch her, was almost as hard as it had been for me to read her love letters and not write back. To set her free with my silence. And that had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.

She stepped forward, pale and trembling. “He—He was trying to help, I think. I’m—”

The longer I stood there, in front of her, the more opportunity I gave her to figure out who I was. And if she found out I was home, she would run back to her father and my mother and tell them I was here. This needed to end, now. “It doesn’t matter why I did it. I’m done now,” I called out. I didn’t bother to fight the hold. “I’m done,” I repeated.

“No kidding,” Tyler said quietly, keeping his words low enough for me and me only to hear. “What were you thinking, coming in here and starting trouble in my place? Trying to get the cops all over my ass?”

I shrugged as best I could. Tyler would have no clue why I’d come to Lilly’s rescue, and I wasn’t about to tell him in front of her. He was the only one who knew about Lilly, and how much I’d clung to her letters. How much I’d missed her. “That he had it coming.”

Preppy Prick hadn’t lost consciousness, but it would be a while until he had the energy to bully women in clubs, so I would have to be happy with that. Tyler unclipped my keys off my belt loop. “You can have these back tomorrow morning. Take a cab home, or call someone to pick you up.”