I step back to get out of his slimy grip, but instead of letting me go, he grips me harder.
“What the hell?” I lift my hands off of him to try to push him away.
“Please,” Wyatt looks at me now. “My friends bet me a hundred bucks that you wouldn’t dance with me for a whole song.”
I push to get away again but he doesn’t budge. In fact, I think he’s locked his fingers together behind my back.
“I’m not some bet, you ass-”
But before I can finish, Wyatt is splayed out on the ground, covering his head with his arms in a defensive position.
I do a double-take trying to understand what the hell just happened.
Colt is standing tall next to me. His shoulder brushes mine and I hate how just that small contact feels like the sky at a 4th of July picnic. Now, that’s a spark,
But I sober up immediately when I see his face. He’s staring down at Wyatt like he’s a cockroach he needs to stomp out.
“Colt,” I grab his forearm to stop him as he takes a step forward. “It’s fine. Just leave it.”
His dark eyes turn to me, rage twisting his usually placid face into a scowl. And despite that, he still looks so damn handsome.
“It’s not fucking fine.” He says darkly.
I open my mouth to protest, but movement over his shoulder catches my attention.
Oh god. Did I just trigger a bar fight?
I step to the side to see what we’re dealing with. It’s not a fight, though. It couldn’t possibly be called that because one party clearly has the upper hand. Briggs’ giant stature hovers over the guys who just had their phones out to capture Wyatt and me on camera. His hand is lifted over their heads as they jump up and try to grab something from it. His other hand blocks off one of them from getting to Reese. Meanwhile, Reese is on the other side of Briggs, going through a phone. I look back up at Briggs’ hand. Phones. That’s what is in his hand.
Maybe they’re deleting the photos or videos of me, but maybe they’re not. I don’t pay them to protect me, so I can’t guarantee there would be a damn reason for them to care enough to create this much chaos.
I look between Colt, Briggs, and Reese and the mayhem that’s erupted. It’s all because of a stupid decision by me.
Embarrassment floods through me, making my skin hot. Why can’t I just take care of myself for once in my life?
I look back at Colt, who now has his cowboy boot pressing Wyatt’s arm to the ground. The same arm that just held me against him. Wyatt looks up with pure fear in his eyes.
“What the hell is happening?” Lacey comes to my side.
This seems to snap Colt out of it. He shoves Wyatt’s arm away with his boot.
“When a lady says no, she means no,” Colt sneers down at him and turns away.
“Look at her shirt!” One of the men who is being corraled by Briggs and Reese shouts. “That ain’t no proper lady!”
“What was that?” Reese says as he holds their phones over a pitcher of beer.
“I mean, uh,” the man stutters.
“Not good enough,” Reese says with finality and drops the phones into the pitcher.
He paces away from them, leaving them fighting each other to fish their phones out. He nods to the door.
“Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER TEN
Colt