Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(58)

“You motherf*cker, I’m going to KILL YOU,” Marcus roared, and I realized something was seriously wrong. Marcus was my best friend and would be my brother-in-law in a couple of days. Was this a joke?

“Preston, back the hell up! Marcus, stop and ask him first before you commit a murder.” Rock’s voice came out of the darkness.

“He’s right, Marcus. Let him talk first. If he’s f**king around, we’ll all beat him to hell,” Dewayne called out.

I heard a scuffle and Marcus yelling as Rock demanded he calm down.

Moving out of the headlights that were blinding me, I walked toward them. Once I had the lights out of my eyes, I could see my three best friends in what looked like a argument. Marcus was swinging his arms and yelling about killing me, and Rock and Dewayne were holding him back.

“Can I ask why the hell you want to kill me?” I asked, trying to figure out what had brought this level of anger out in normally levelheaded Marcus.

“Are you f**king around on Amanda?” Dewayne asked with a snarl.

What the f**k? “No! Fuck NO! Why would you even think that? Is that why he’s lost his mind? He thinks I f**ked around on Manda? My Manda, who I adore more than my own life? Are you shitting me?”

“I told you he didn’t do it. There’s an explanation, Marcus. Calm down, dammit, and let him talk,” Rock said, jerking Marcus’s arms back as Marcus glared at me. Some of his rage had cooled as he studied me.

“Let me go. I’ll let him talk first. But he better have f**king proof! Do you understand me? FUCKING PROOF!”

Dewayne eased up on him. But Rock didn’t let go.

“Promise you’ll let him talk. Amanda is gonna want him alive if he didn’t do anything wrong,” Rock said.

“I swear. Let go,” Marcus snapped, jerking free of Rock’s loosened hold on him.

Then he started toward me, and Rock was back on him.

“I just want to ask him!” Marcus roared.

“Then do it with several feet between you,” Rock replied calmly.

“Fine,” he yelled, jerking free again, his eyes so full of pain and fury that it wasn’t even Marcus. I’d never seen him like this. Not even the time he had found out I was seeing Amanda.

“You left your phone in Amanda’s car today. You got a text from Greg,” Marcus said in disgust. “But Greg doesn’t have a pu**y that you can get wet. So Amanda was confused about that and found out that the Greg you used to work with is in your phone but with another number.”

“Wait . . . what?” He was talking about wet pussies and Greg from work. None of this made sense.

“Do you have a woman’s number that you’re disguising as Greg’s in your phone because you’re f**king her behind Amanda’s back?” Dewayne asked.

“HELL NO!” I yelled, furious that they would even think this.

“I knew he wasn’t cheating on her,” Dewayne said, throwing up his hands like he was always right. This time he was. Very f**king right.

“You’ve got some serious explaining to do, then, because I just got a text from Willow. She called that number on your phone, and a girl named Jill Vick answered. She was at Live Bay. Willow could hear Jackdown playing in the background. When she asked her how she knew Preston Drake, the girl hung up on her,” Marcus said, not sounding as angry, but more like he needed proof.

“Does Manda think I’ve cheated on her?” I asked, looking at the three of them.

“Of course she does! She’s a f**king mess!” Marcus replied, raising his voice again like he was about to go off. This all made sense now. Amanda . . . I had to get to her. Holy f**k. She’d be crushed.

“I gotta go talk to Manda. Now,” I said, stalking past them.

“NO! You’re going to Live Bay with us first. We’re finding this Jill Vick and figuring out why the hell her name is in your phone under ‘Greg,’” Marcus said, reaching out and grabbing my arm.

I loved the guy, but he was not going to make me let Amanda think for one more goddamn minute that I had cheated on her. Fuck that! “I. AM. GOING. TO. AMANDA.”

“Okay, look. I’ll go to Live Bay with you,” Dewayne told Marcus. “I know you’re angry because Amanda is so torn up, but he needs to get to her to fix this. She needs him to fix this. We will go figure out who the hell Jill Vick is.”

I pulled free of Marcus and ran to my Jeep. When I jerked open my door, I remembered where I had heard that name before. “Jill Vick is that brunette at Live Bay with the big fake tits and the pink tips in her hair. She’s been coming on to me for months. I just ignore her and she goes away.”

“I know her! You asked for another server last week because of her,” Dewayne said, snapping his fingers.

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s how I know her name. Rick told it to me when I went and asked him to keep her away from my table for the rest of my life.”

Amanda

“Hey,” Willow said, standing up when her phone rang and putting it to her ear. “He didn’t. I knew he didn’t. . . . Stop it, Marcus. . . . You’re too emotional about this. Calm down. Do Dewayne and Rock believe him?” She was pacing back and forth, and I was hanging on her every word. “See! They believe him. . . . I’m only staying until she tells me to leave. I won’t stay here until I hear from you if she wants me to go.” Willow looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Go figure this out and leave us alone. She’s going to be fine. He’s telling the truth. You know in your gut he is. . . . Love you, too,” she said, then hung up.