Rule (Marked Men #1)(14)

“What?” I could hear the surliness in my tone.

“Dude, what’s the deal with that?” Rowdy was the one who asked the question but Nash and Jet both looked like they wanted to ask the same thing.

“What are you talking about?”

Nash lifted up his beer to hide a smile. “You looked like you both wanted to box each other or tear each other’s clothes off and go at it right in the middle of the bar. What gives with that, I thought she bugged you.”

“She does. She’s rich and spoiled; we don’t agree on anything, we never have.”

Rowdy gave me a look that outright called bullshit on my claim. “I know what I saw and there is no way that if that girl didn’t offer it up you wouldn’t take it.”

I wanted to yell at him that he was wrong, so very wrong because before she was any of the things that annoyed me and got under my skin, she was Remy’s and there was nothing in heaven or hell that would make me forget that. Pulling in my temper I poured another beer and lapsed into a moody silence. I wasn’t attracted to Shaw, it was just seeing her in a new environment, seeing her in something other than her fancy outfits that cost more than I made in a month that had the tension between us reading to other people as something else.

We were almost to the bottom of the second pitcher and silently Shaw had dropped of a replacement when a really pretty girl with super short dark hair suddenly appeared at the edge of the table. She was tall and had eyes the color of Jack Daniels but there was nothing on her lovely face that came across as welcoming. She had a mouth that would give Angelia Jolie a run for her money and a body that was meant to stop traffic displayed in all its glory in a matching uniform to Shaw’s only instead of kick ass boots she had on a pair of spiked heels that probably made her taller than Nash and Jet.

Jet sat up straighter and Rowdy, who was by far the drunkest of all of us since he had started adding shots of tequila twenty minutes ago, almost fell off his stool when she posted up at the table between the two of them. Her gaze was trained directly on me though so I met her look for look until she finally spoke. She had a soft southern twang and I could swear I saw Jet fall in love on the spot.

“You’re Rule.” It wasn’t a question so I just nodded.

“I’m Ayden Cross. I live with Shaw.”

I wasn’t sure why that was supposed to matter to me so I kept silent while my best friend whipped his head around to glare at me. I was being kind of rude, but I was buzzed and still pissed at Shaw so I didn’t really care.

“I don’t know what your deal is but leave her alone. She doesn’t need you screwing with her head anymore so just back off.”

I blinked because I honestly had no clue what this babe was going on about. “I don’t mess with Shaw.”

She narrowed her eyes and pointed a finger at me. “I know exactly what you do and don’t do Tattoo Boy. I adore Shaw. She’s sweet, nice and the best roommate ever so you need to just go do your troubled, bad boy act somewhere else, she doesn’t need it…”It looked like she was gearing up to lay into me even more but something caught her eye and suddenly her eyes were glowing with gold fire. “Oh my God! I cannot believe that ass**le had the nerve to show up here. I need to go get Lou.” She spun on her heel and marched through the crowd leaving me reeling. I had no clue what she was talking about but clearly something had crawled up her butt so I looked over my shoulder and felt every protective cell I had suddenly come alive.

Shaw was standing by the bar . It was crowded but her white blond hair was unmistakable. So was the fact that she looked stressed and freaked out while a guy in a white polo shirt crowed her into the edge of the bar. He had a hand on her shoulder and was leaning down into her face, and whatever he was saying made her look like she wanted to punch him in the nuts or puke on his shoes. I’d never seen the look of panic on her face like that before; she was normally so cool and unflappable that against my better judgment I was climbing to my feet. I wasn’t the type to give two shits about a damsel in distress, but this damsel I knew for a fact could take care of herself and if she looked like she was struggling, despite how I felt about her I was going to intervene. “I’ll be back in a second.”

Since I was tall and had a good portion of visible skin covered in designs that cried ‘don’t mess with me’ I didn’t have to worry about people in the crowded bar moving out of my way. When I got close enough her eyes snapped to me and I was pretty sure I saw relief flood into the sparkly green depths. Polo shirt leaned in even closer to her and I thought I heard him say something about how things were going to look when he went home alone over winter break. I saw her stiffen and try to pull away but polo shirt just moved in to more fully keep her pinned against the bar.

“I don’t care what my mother told you, Gabe. We’re over; I have no interest in going to Aspen with you or your family. Stop calling me and stop showing up where I’m at.”

“Baby, we’re meant for each other and once you stop being stubborn you’ll see how great we could be together.” I hated guys that called girls baby. Baby was what you used when you didn’t remember the girls name or you were just too lazy to come up with your own nickname for her.

She wiggled a little more and I noticed the way the guy’s followed the deep vee of her revealing outfit.

“Let go of me Gabe. I didn’t want to be with you like that when we were dating, I sure as hell don’t want to be with you like that now. Leave me alone.”