Zellman and Jordan shared a look.

“You first, dude. Your shit is more recent. Not much to say about mine except dealing with my stupid ‘feelings.’” Jordan glared at him. “Thanks.”

Zellman smirked. “No problem. Always here for you.”

Still glaring, Jordan sighed. His head lowered even farther. “Fine.”

This was momentous. This was big. This had never been done before. Jordan actually letting us in concerning him and Tabatha. It wasn’t that he meant to not share. It was more that Jordan usually didn’t realize what he was feeling himself until later, and even then, half the time he was surprised. So, him feeling things and him sharing those feelings was huge. I shared a look with Cross. We both knew this was a moment to respect.

He shifted back, propping a shoulder against the wall by the door, facing toward Jordan. His arms lowered, one hand going into his pocket. His head lowered a little. All eyes were on Jordan, waiting.

“Okay.” His eyes closed a second. “She cheated on me.”

A bomb was dropped.

“What?” I couldn’t—really?

“You fucking with us?” Zellman shot to his feet.

Jordan shook his head, looking around the room. Pain was etched over his face. “Yeah. There was a frat party the night after our documentary thing. And she cheated.”

“Who told you?” Unlike Zellman and me, Cross’ tone was quiet. Calm. Eerily calm.

Jordan snorted, leaning back against the chair. His hand came up in a helpless motion. “Allen.”

I had to groan inwardly at that. Zeke Allen. Again.

“You sure?”

Jordan nodded slowly. “Yeah. Allen told me he saw Tabatha hooking up with a guy there, I guess he’s in Zeke’s fraternity. I asked Blaise about it. He said he was there, and he saw it, too. Said it definitely happened earlier in the night because he took off halfway through the party.”

Blaise was known for being honest, brutally honest. He wouldn’t lie. Especially not about that.

“I’m sorry, Jordan.”

He looked at me, nodding again. The pain flared brighter. “Yeah. I confronted her about it, said I had two people backing it up, and she rolled over. Started crying. Then said it was my fault. All of it was my fault because she feels you guys don’t like her.”

Okay. Now I was pissed.

I’d been feeling bad for Jordan, but I hadn’t moved to the default reaction I used to have. Now I was. I wanted to rip her head off.

Zellman got there before me. “I’ll show her exactly what she can blame us for.”

Cross straightened from the wall, his eyes on Jordan. “What do you want from us?”

We fell silent, waiting.

Jordan shook his head, standing, too. “Nothing. I broke up with her immediately, and trust me, I’ve been having my revenge. I’m fucking every girl she knows. Just haven’t started on her sorority house…yet.”

I winced.

If Cross broke up with me, then banged a whole list of girls I knew, yeah. That’d be torture. I was feeling tortured just thinking about it. No matter if she messed up, Tabatha still loved Jordan. She’d first been my enemy the beginning of last year, and they still started dating. Both had fallen for the other. So this didn’t make sense.

“Why?”

All heads turned my way.

I added, “Why would she cheat? I don’t believe what she said.”

“If you don’t, then she wouldn’t say why she cheated. She wasn’t drunk. Allen and Blaise both said she looked sober.”

Well, that didn’t answer my question.

I didn’t understand cheating. It was a shallow and selfish move that only satisfied you for a temporary basis. Why risk the long run on a short glitch? I could only understand cheating if it served a purpose, like deliberately pushing the other person away because you saw a future together with the new person.

“Wait.” I held up a hand. “Who’s the guy?”

“Allen wouldn’t tell me.”

I scowled. “You deserve to know.”

He scowled right back. “If I find out, I’ll rip his head off. I don’t know if I couldn’t not do that.”

Nodding, I got that, but I still had to ask. “Is anything going on in Tabatha’s life right now? Besides the breakup with you.”

Cross’ eyebrows pinched together. “What are you thinking?”

I opened my mouth to explain but shot Jordan a look. His were fixed on me with an almost hopeful look, and my gut shifted to the side. I couldn’t. If I was wrong, I couldn’t give him that hope and then take it away. So, I lied, shrugging. “Just thinking of more ways to hurt her, that’s all.”

Zellman bought it.

Jordan was in too much agony to see through me.

Not Cross. His gaze was heated on mine, and I knew he was calling me a liar.

Later. I tried to convey that to him.

It worked. The heat faded and he nodded, just slightly.

But no matter what, I’d be taking a couple of trips tonight. Then I remembered my five A.M. job start. Damn.

I amended my previous plan.

I’d be taking a couple trips tomorrow.

“You’re thinking Tabatha did it on purpose?”

Cross waited until after we both heard Jordan and Zellman head to their own rooms. Zellman’s bedroom was upstairs. Jordan’s was downstairs. Cross’ was on the main floor, and I kept one across the hallway from Zellman’s upstairs. Some nights we were in Cross’ and some nights we were in mine. All the guys thought it was important that I had my own room.

We were in Cross’ tonight.

We heard Zellman’s footsteps on the stairs, and the basement door shut.

I came out of the bathroom, brushing my teeth. I stared at him a second, then he moved into the closet. A few minutes later, we both moved to the bed and I crawled in, but I scooted to the headboard, pulling my knees up against my chest.

Cross sat on the end, facing me. His eyes were hooded. His face a stoic mask, but I only knew that was because he was bracing for whatever I was about to say.

“I’m wondering. Cheating doesn’t make sense to me, not unless something happened in her life recently and she’s pushing Jordan away.”

“Why couldn’t she just break up with him?”

“Not if something is going on with her. He would push, you know that. She was at our house the night before, at our documentary thing. They were both happy that night.”

He considered it, his shoulders rounding and falling forward. But then he sighed, looking at me again. “And what if she did just cheat? If there’s no deeper reason for it?”

“I don’t know.”

“She’s turned into a royal bitch again, that’s for sure.”

“I know.” But Tabatha wasn’t careless. I couldn’t see her cheating on a spur-of-the-moment decision, especially if she wasn’t drunk. So none of this made sense.

“You going to talk about what’s been going on with you today?”

I flashed him a grin. “I was being stupid. That’s all.”

He was studying me. “You still being stupid?”

I shook my head. “No. Just finding my footing here.”

“I love you.” His head lowered, his eyes pinning me in place.

My breath was taken, just like that.

We’d been through so much, and my love for him swelled up in my chest, threatening the tears to spill. I blinked them away, but my voice was raspy. “I know.”

This wasn’t a time when I had to say it back. He wanted me to know, to be reminded, and I was. I reached over, grabbed his hand, and tugged him into bed with me. I didn’t say the words back this time, but I showed him instead.

It was afterwards, when he was holding me against him, as he was curled around my back. His breath moved against my neck, his arms under my breasts. “Take backup with you when you confront Tabatha.”

I had to smile, even though it was only to the darkened room. He knew he and Zellman couldn’t help me with the girls. We might’ve been able to get away with breaking that rule last year, in Roussou, in our high school, but that was only on a few exceptions. That wouldn’t fly here, and it shouldn’t. Everything had been different in Roussou.

I didn’t have any female friends here, but … “I will.”

I had one person I could ask, someone I knew could handle herself.

His arms tightened around me, and I felt him moving my hair aside. His breath was on my neck before I felt his lips there. “Good.” Then his hand moved down, down, down between my legs and pleasure was rolling through my body within seconds as he slid a finger inside of me.

BREN

“You want me to do what?”

In a perfect world, I would’ve waited. At least a week. I didn’t have a week. But I did wait until later in the morning. It’d been an early morning, a seriously early morning, but I’d been jazzed for it. And when I showed up at Coug r Lanes for my first day, they had not disappointed.

I met the whole group.

Hawk was there, her mouth pressed tight as I handed over the paperwork she needed from me.

Gramps and Bonnie were there, both dressed in black clothing. Everyone had been wearing black clothing, but they’d also been dressed in their vests, Taser guns on the side, their badges hanging over their chests from a chain. The only two people who had actual guns were Hawk and another guy, the Brock guy that I thought Hawk had been.