Uppercut Princess (The Heights Crew #1)(37)

I nod.

I don’t know what it says about me that I understand what he’s doing. I get the code they all live by. I’m not saying I agree with it. Johnny thinks he wants me, but he doesn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t fuck around on me, and he wouldn’t let his father make some lame ass rule about not touching me until he moved up.

Big Daddy K’s rule actually works in my favor, but my pride took a blow today, I guess. That’s the only way I can explain the mixture of emotions swirling inside me.

He pulls away, puts his hand through mine, and we walk back into the shop. Everyone is waiting for us near the front. Rocket takes charge, addressing Magnum. “Did anyone leave or make any calls?”

Before Magnum can answer, Lynette says, “Of course not. We would never do that.”

Ryn keeps sending me frightened looks. I kind of want to punch her in the goddamned face. It’s girls like her who make other girls crazy. What part of understanding another guy is off-limits do some women not understand?

Also, what the hell am I doing still getting caught up in this shit? I shouldn’t care he was fucking someone else.

Instead of taking Lynette’s word for it, Rocket continues to look at Magnum until he answers in the affirmative. “All clear,” he says.

“Excellent. Can you take Kyla out to the car? I’ll be out in a minute.”

Magnum nods and waits for me by the big front entrance. Outside, everything seems to be passing normally on the street. No one out there is involved in the shit going down in here. Warped senses of responsibility and rules.

So, it’s okay for him to fuck around? That’s what he’s saying. I bet it’s not the same for me. I bet if I ever touched someone else, he’d kill me.

Brawler pulling me back into his hard body earlier flits through my head. If Johnny knew that happened, he’d kill us both.

Johnny kisses my hand again, and I keep my chin up as I walk toward Magnum. He opens the door for me, and we step out onto the sidewalk. I pause for a minute as the fresh air and rays of sun hits me. I need to soak as much as I can in because I have a feeling nothing will feel as real as this does while I’m inside the Crew. Magnum moves around me to open the door. I peek up at him. “I could’ve gotten that.”

He grunts in response. He acts all moody, but he wanted me to see what Johnny was doing. Out of all of them in there, he was on my side. The girls were too scared to say anything. Ryn was obviously just looking out for herself. Everyone wants to catch Johnny’s eye.

I turn to get into the car, my head about to explode with all the different nuances of everyone’s behavior around the Crew, but Magnum’s hand on my back stops me. “Shit. You’re hurt.”

I step back and stand. “What?”

Magnum pulls my shirt away from my skin. The cotton sticks, and he has to peel it away before it finally releases.

“You’re bleeding. I didn’t notice before because your shirt’s black. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t notice,” I tell him. Not because I’m trying to be brave because I honestly didn’t notice, but if he’s looking at the area where Johnny shoved me into the concrete blocks, there’s no wonder why I’m injured.

Magnum sighs. “Are you okay?”

“I think so?” I try to look at the wound on my shoulder, but I can’t twist far enough. “It hurts, but I can’t see it, you know?”

Magnum checks over his shoulder. “I can’t go back in there right now to get you anything. Rocket will be pissed if the women find out he hurt you.”

I give him a look. The look. The kind that says, Are you fucking kidding me? That is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard. Their ideas are warped.

“It’s better this way,” Magnum says. “Get in the car, and I’ll tell him when he comes out. In the meantime, there are cocktail napkins next to the alcohol cabinet. Use those to place on it.”

“I can’t see it,” I hiss. What does he want me to do? Grow a third eye on the back of my head?

We stare at one another for about thirty seconds before Magnum says, “You’re going to have to deal. I can’t touch you.”

“That’s the most asinine thing I’ve ever fucking heard. You do know what just happened in there, right? Johnny and Ryn weren’t just playing hide and seek. They were fucking. And all you would be doing is patching me up.”

“I know,” he growls. He runs a hand over his copper scruff.

God, he’s really good looking. This close, I can tell his eyes are hazel. I thought they were just brown before, but today, they’re amber with green flecks.

“If I touch you, there’s the possibility he’ll kill you and me. Is that what you want?”

I grind my teeth together. The hypocrisy of all this is pissing me off more than anything else. He can’t even touch me to help me? What if I was bleeding out? Would that be a good enough reason for Johnny to allow someone to help me? Do they have to ask permission first?

Hopefully I can persuade Brawler to train with me again, so I can get out all of this aggression I’m feeling, but for all I know, he’ll never want to do that again. After all, he touched me. And it wasn’t just because I was injured. He touched me. Because he wanted to. Because he felt a connection.

Not because I’m his property.