Aspen was trying to get my attention. “What are you talking about?

“Your boyfriend has had beef with that guy.”

She looked. “Who?”

Jade was looking, too, and seeing Harper, she gasped. She moved back a step.

Veronica looked, her eyes narrowing, and she moved the opposite way, moving so she was almost guarding our entire group.

Angeline was next to Jade, gripping her hand.

I did a double take, noting that she was also glaring at Harper, who was closer to our group and had five other guys with him.

“Who the fuck picked this party?” I growled to the girls.

Aspen’s mouth fell open, but she hurried out, “We all did. We thought it was a barn dance, that’s all. Who are these guys?”

I smothered another growl because I was betting they were the only ones who got the invite, and fuck Blaise for not being honest with his girl about his enemies. I glanced down, making sure my phone was still turned on and that Cross was hearing this. I tried to pull it out, so it wasn’t too smothered against my jeans.

Aspen’s phone started ringing, but Harper was on us.

“Monroe. I don’t believe you were on the guest list.”

The girls all went still.

Veronica was measuring the guys behind Harper, and yeah…it wasn’t looking good.

They were all built thick, looking like they ate bricks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then maybe snacked on little boulders for a late-night snack.

I stepped around and positioned myself slightly in front of Veronica. “What was the play here? What were you going to do?”

“Were?” He smirked at me, his head moving to the side so he could look Aspen up and down. “Nothing past tense about that. I still plan on getting to know Mrs. Blaise DeVroe.” He jerked his chin up. “What’s up, kid? You’re Aspen Monson, huh?”

“My boyfriend doesn’t like you?”

I was surprised at how chilly her tone was, and looked back. She wasn’t hiding. She looked pissed, livid even. Angeline had a hand on her shirt, and I noted that was to keep Aspen back. That was a nice sort of surprise. An enraged girl could do damage, and Aspen was fast looking enraged.

Harper’s smirk only deepened. “You know, I had a family function recently and talked to some of my cousins. They’re past brothers, too. One of them knew your brother. Nate Monson.”

“Yeah?” A nice little snarl from Aspen.

“Yeah.” Harper was loving it. “He said to show his thanks to you. Said it was because of your brother that we got a brand-new house. Guess the other one was burned down.”

Whoa.

I had new respect for Aspen’s brother, and even though I’d met him a few times, we never really interacted. Cross still had a problem remembering meeting him. He tuned out anyone who wasn’t us, so that meant anyone older.

“Are these your brothers?” I asked, scanning the rest of the guys and moving to the group behind sitting by a campfire near their two trucks. Coolers were pulled out. They looked like they were grilling. I was counting maybe ten other guys.

Shit. I was so not getting a good feeling here.

Then I saw a mattress on the floor, and that whole shit feeling was fast turning into a nuclear feeling.

“Were you going to rape them?”

I was seeing red.

I felt the air sizzling.

I noted in the distance that someone was moving away from me.

I swung my gaze back to Harper, and he was gloating now. Not smug. Not smirking. He was gloating.

I was going to rip his mouth off so he couldn’t gloat anymore.

Then I was going to break his other hand.

“You don’t fucking know who I am, do you?”

I wasn’t being conceited. I was doing this so one, he knew. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been warned, but also because I wanted to get in his head. I was going to fight. I already knew I was, and I was going to stab and I was going to make them bleed, and I was probably going to go down, but I was going to take as many of them down with me.

Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!

“Bren?”

Holy déjà vu flashback from the bad of bad times.

My head literally swam as I saw one of the guys head over, clutching a cup and frowning. He came at us hesitantly and then moved at a quicker pace once he recognized me.

“Alex,” I rasped out.

Alex Ryerson.

I was in a bad dream. That’s what was happening as I watched the guy who led the charge from the last time I thought I needed to take on an entire group that was coming my way.

Alex had always been stocky, kinda like these guys, but he was more slimmed down. Not in the muscle way. In the muscle way, his arms were bulging.

I noted, also taking in his short haircut so he looked almost military, “Jail was good for you.”

He laughed. “County. That’s all I did.”

“So…you’re out.”

He nodded, taking in the others and then Harper. “I’m out.” He gestured to Harper. “Want to tell me how you know Tim here?”

Harper was taking in this scene with confusion on his face. At Alex’s question, his mouth flattened, and a vein stuck out. “You know Monroe?”

Alex nodded, taking a sip of his drink. “Sure do.” His gaze caught and held mine, and I swear I thought a hidden message was there for me. “We used to be enemies in high school. Bren was the reason I went to jail.”

My mouth dropped. “Are you kidding me?”

He winked. It was slight, so slight it looked more like a tick, but I knew what it was, and I shut up seeing it.

He continued to Harper, “Fought her crew, too, bunch of times.” He went to scanning the vehicles. “No Cross? That’s shocking.”

“It was supposed to be a girls’ night.”

“What is going on here?” Jade moved forward.

Aspen was with her. “Yeah. I’d really like to know what this has to do with Blaise.”

At Blaise’s name, Alex’s eyes sharpened and went right to Aspen. “I remember you. Monson, right?”

“Yeah.” It was obvious she didn’t know who Alex was. That was fine. There was too much history here to educate everyone. “Are you from Fallen Crest?”

Alex smirked, his gaze including me. “Roussou.”

“Oh.”

I was thinking about something totally different now, and hoping to hell there wasn’t something else in the works here.

I told Alex, “Drake called me.”

His gaze had moved onto Veronica, who was starting to thrust her hip out toward him. They were both eyeing each other, but at my words, his gaze whipped to me. “What?”

“He told me something about my dad.” I was testing him, seeing if he knew what I was talking about.

His eyes went flat, flatter than Harper’s mouth had been moments ago.

He knew.

“Is that why you’re here?”

He swore. “No. No way, Bren. I’m here because I know Harper. His dad was friendly with my uncle.”

My head lowered.

He read my motion right. “Yeah. That uncle.”

Race’s dad, the dad who ran the drug business in Roussou before Drake turned on him and ensured all of them went to prison, or just county, in Alex’s case.

I nodded to his drink. “Sober?”

He looked down, his eyebrows pinched together. Then he laughed. “This is pure soda, but drinking wasn’t my issue, and to answer your next question, I’m clean.” His gaze jumped to Harper before swinging to me. “Got clean in county. Planning on staying that way. And now that we’ve covered all the bases, you want to tell me what you’re really doing here?”

Alex had never been an ally.

My stomach was starting to churn, but that mattress. I kept going back to that mattress.

I asked him, “You know why that was brought out?”

He turned and paused before swinging back. His gaze met mine and I saw the look there. He wasn’t happy. His lips thinned. “No, Bren. I’m really here just for a get-together. Harper invited me, said it’d be a good time, but that was it.” He gestured to the mattress with his drink. “None of that, not like what you’re thinking.”

“What shit is she thinking?” came from Aspen.

But Alex didn’t answer.

I didn’t answer.

Harper didn’t either.

Jade swore behind me. “Those invites were only just for us, weren’t they?”

Veronica swore. “And there ain’t no barn, is there?”

Harper’s smile was almost evil. “No, ladies. There’s no barn, but yes, you were the only special ladies on the invite list.”

Jade grimaced. “I want to barf.”

“Me too.” That was Angeline, and she sounded just as pissed as the others.

Good.

Good!

They were fighters. Warmth spread through me. They weren’t going to wilt or cry or whimper. They might not get a lot of hits in. They’d for sure take hits, but they would fight. The guys were not expecting that.

I looked right at Alex. “You against me?”

And for the first time I had ever known Alex Ryerson, he smiled at me. It wasn’t sleazy or swarmy. It wasn’t dirty. There was no hidden agenda. Nothing. No pride. No ego. It was a pure and authentic smile, and it was almost blinding right before he tossed his drink. “Bren, you and your crew have saved my life twice. That means something to me.” He dipped his head down. “I’m with you.”