Jaden (Jaded #3)(66)

He didn’t move.

Michael was trembling underneath him, his eyes imploring him, but he didn’t dare talk. Corrigan’s hold was firm on the knife—that’s when I got it. Corrigan was like me. I wasn’t nervous. He hadn’t been nervous with me either. Because we each knew the other’s limits. Corrigan wasn’t really going to slice his throat open, but he had no qualm about making him think that. He wasn’t going to let him go without a scratch either. The threat of violence from Corrigan was real. He had it in him to do something horrible, like me, like how I had embedded the knife into Michael’s thigh. It wasn’t lethal, but it wasn’t a paper cut. It would be felt for a long time, reminding him of what he’d done, who he’d hurt.

I didn’t know what Corrigan would’ve done to Michael. I knew he wouldn’t have killed him, but that was the beauty of him. He wouldn’t have done something like I had. A part of me wondered what it would’ve been, but Bryce cleared his throat again and Michael started crying.

The moment was gone.

Corrigan had to let him up. When Bryce touched his shoulder, he did just that, standing up and turning toward me. His gaze was hooded; he was even keeping me out and that hurt. I swallowed the pang, though.

He stopped in front of me. “Where’s my phone?”

I dug it out of my pocket and held it out to him.

He took it without a word and brushed past me for the door.

I turned around. “Don’t delete it.”

He stopped at the door, his back to me.

I added, “There might be some way of using it somehow. Don’t delete it yet.”

He nodded and left.

I turned back around. Bryce had helped Michael back up and untied him. I went over to him and tilted my head to the side. Both guys looked up, but Bryce went back to letting Ritt loose.

“Tit for tat, Ritt,” I said. “You narc on us, we’ll narc on you. And trust me, we’ll make it sound worse than anything you can cook up in that fried mind. Got it?”

He nodded wearily. “He’s going to kick me out of the fraternity.”

“You used him.”

Bryce paused and lifted his head. His eyes rested on me, and I felt like he was hearing something in my voice, seeing something through my wall I didn’t realize was coming out. I flushed, but then hardened my jaw. I didn’t care at that moment. All I cared about was Corrigan.

I added, “You used him, and you betrayed his trust. You abused your friendship, your brotherhood. You should be thankful that’s all that’s happening to you.”

We left him there with the instructions to leave the warehouse and lock it behind him. He was instructed to sit and wait. Bryce called a cab for him as we left the parking lot. After he hung up, he glanced at Corrigan. “He’s got some major injuries. You don’t think he’ll say anything?”

Corrigan’s eyes were narrowed. “No, I don’t think he’ll say a word, not if he’s smart, not if he wants something worse done to him.”

Bryce met my gaze in the reflective mirror. Corrigan had been outside when I said those words. The fact they were almost the same, word for word, wasn’t lost on me. Like I realized, Corrigan and I were alike.

We understood each other.

I turned away and felt a slice of pain through my chest. Something else had happened in that warehouse. I had realized how Bryce and I were not alike anymore, and the distance between us felt like an ocean now.

It was almost too wide to overcome.

“Okay,” Bryce announced, turning the car to the right on the highway.

Denton’s house was to the left.

Before we could ask where we were going, Bryce held a hand up. “Ritt was a dead end, but we need to celebrate.”

“Celebrate?” Celebrate what?

He said to me, “Ritt’s not your stalker. That’s one celebration, and the other is that you’re no longer a suspect. We should’ve celebrated last week, but we didn’t. We’re doing it now. I don’t care what happens. We’re drinking. We’re laughing. We’re taking a f*cking break from this world right now.”

There was a moment of silence, then I said, “Thank god. I need a break.”

Corrigan grinned, and some of my tension eased at that.

Bryce was a genius, although this time away presented some problems of its own. Like the fact that it was only Bryce, Corrigan, and me. I pressed a hand to my stomach, feeling somersaults.

The love triangle just got real.

*

Bryce took us to a biker dive bar on the edge of the city. A line of motorcycles littered the front of it, and when we got inside, it was mostly bikers.

Corrigan said it perfectly, “Well. Being recognized isn’t a worry I have for us here.”

Bryce laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on.” He wound his way through the room to a table in the back section. When we went past the pool tables, I saw there were others there. They weren’t wearing the leather jackets like the rest of the bikers and were wearing jeans and sweatshirts like us. Sliding onto my chair, I could only stare at those people.

“What’s up?” Corrigan noticed my reaction.

“I’m not a biker.” I gestured around the bar. “I should be worried being in a place like this, but I’m not.” I paused, wondering if that was true. “Yep. Nothing. I don’t feel a thing. We have the best weapon in the world.”