Fallen Too Far (Too Far, #1)(56)

“What are you mad at me for? She’s the clumsy one. She dumped the whole tray all over herself,” Laney said in a high-pitched, annoying voice. God, she was a bitch.

“If you utter one more word, I’ll threaten to remove all my contributions from this club until you are escorted out. Permanently,” I warned her.

“But I’m Nan’s friend, Rush. Her oldest friend. You wouldn’t do that to me. Especially for the hired help.” Laney sounded shocked. I was about to give her something to be shocked about.

“Test me,” I said, leveling my furious glare on her so she knew not to go there with me. I turned back to Blaire. “You’re coming with me,” I told her.

I glanced back to see Bethy standing there, ready to take Laney down right in front of everyone. “I have her, Bethy She’s OK. Go on back to Jace,” I said. Then I turned back to Blaire. “Watch out for the snails; they’re slippery.” I had to get her out of here. Safely. She had gotten hurt. I hadn’t protected her again. I should have been here with her. I f*cked up. This was my fault. I always failed her.

When we stepped out of the ballroom and into the dark hallway that led back to the kitchen and offices, Blaire broke free from my hold and moved away from me. She crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive move. She was upset. I had let this happen.

“Blaire, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen. I didn’t even know she had issues with you. I’m going to talk to Nan about this. I have a feeling she had something to do with it—”

“The redhead hates me because of Woods’s interest in me. Nan had nothing to do with it, and neither did you.”

That didn’t make sense. Why was Laney pissed over Woods? “Is Woods still hitting on you?” Blaire’s eyes went wide, and she spun around and started to leave. I reached out and grabbed her arm. That was the wrong thing to say. Damn jealousy. I had to get a grip on that. “Blaire, wait. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. That isn’t the issue right now. I wanted to make sure you were OK and help get you cleaned up.” It sounded like I was begging, which I was, to an extent.

She let out a sigh, and her shoulders slumped. “I’m fine. I need to go to the kitchen and see if I even still have a job. I was warned by Woods this morning that something like this might happen and it would be my fault. So right now, I have bigger problems than you suddenly feeling the need to be possessive of me. Which is ridiculous. Because you were doing your best to ignore me until this incident happened. You either know me or you don’t, Rush. Pick a team.” She jerked her hand from mine and started toward the kitchen again. She was mad because I had ignored her? I had watched her every move, dammit.

“You were working. What did you want me to do?” I asked her. She stopped, and I took my chance to defend my actions. “Acknowledging you would have given Nan reason to attack you. I was protecting you.”

Blaire’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right, Rush. You ignoring me would keep Nan from attacking me. I’m just the girl you f*cked the past two nights. All things considered, I’m not that special. I’m one of many.” Then she ran from me.

I stood there, frozen, so damn confused. The sound of the doors slamming echoed down the hallway. She was hurt. I had been doing what I thought she wanted me to do, and I’d hurt her.

Did she really think she was just some girl I f*cked? God, how could she not see what she meant to me? I was so completely obsessed with her that she controlled every decision I made. What the hell did she expect from me? I loved her, dammit!





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX


Nan came stalking out of the ballroom. Her eyes found me standing there alone, and the fury I knew was boiling under the surface exploded. “How could you do this to me?” she demanded. “This was my night. I just needed you to ignore her for one night, and you couldn’t do it. Not even for an hour!”

“Just stop,” I said, holding my hand up. I wasn’t ready for this. I had to find Blaire.

“Don’t tell me to stop. You humiliated me in there. You threatened my friend, a member of this club, because a server was clumsy!”

I took a step toward Nan. “Laney dumped that tray on her. You know it. Paris saw it. Bethy saw it. Do not correct me.”

Footsteps interrupted me before I could say anything more. I turned to see Blaire, still covered in that crap, looking like she wanted to crawl into the nearest hole. She hurried away toward the door leading outside.

“Blaire, wait,” I called after her. I had to talk to her.

“Let her go, Rush,” Nan demanded.

“I can’t,” I replied, and took off running after Blaire.

The door closed behind Blaire, but I shoved it open and followed her out.

“Blaire, please wait. Talk to me,” I begged.

She stopped walking, and I caught up to her. She was giving me a chance.

“I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. I didn’t ignore you in there. Go ask anyone. My eyes never left you. If there was any question in anyone’s mind how I felt about you, the fact that I couldn’t look away from you while you walked around that room should have answered it.” I had to say this right. I couldn’t f*ck this up. I needed her to understand how I felt. “Then I saw the look on your face when you saw Bethy with Jace. Something inside me was ripped open. I didn’t know what you were thinking, but I knew you had realized the wrongness of tonight. You should have never been there serving anyone. You should have been by my side. I wanted you beside me. I was strung so damn tight waiting for anyone to make a wrong move toward you that I forgot to breathe most of the time.”