Page 158 of Passion at the Lake

“I asked him about it, and he bit my fucking head off,” Pris continued. “If you don’t believe me, check out the scar on the back of his hand.”

When we got to the end of the hallway, Pris held out an arm, stopping me.

Kevin was on his feet by the wall. Boone caught my eye for a second before saying something to Jordan. He tried to hide it, but I saw his tell, the slight narrowing of one eye that always preceded a smile from him—the eye that wasn’t almost swollen shut from Kevin’s punch.

The crowd pretended to not be paying attention anymore, but that was bullshit. They kept stealing glances toward my brute of an ex-boyfriend and keeping their voices low in hopes of hearing something. Nobody had started the music again either.

After a quick discussion we couldn’t hear between Jordan and Boone, she took a breath that looked resigned and told Kevin to turn around.

Anna slid along the wall to us. “He’s leaving.”

“For how long?” I asked.

Anna didn’t seem to hear me, busy whispering something in Pris’s ear.

“And there’s the matter of broken furniture,” Boone told Kevin. “How much? he asked Sonya.

“Eighty,” Sonya answered.

Boone wrenched Kevin’s wallet from his pocket, fingered several bills, pulled them out, and pocketed them.

Five seconds later, my tormentor was un-cuffed. Kevin looked my way with a sneer as he took back his wallet.

Normally that look would have made me cower, but tonight I refused to give him that satisfaction and instead forced a smile. With Boone in my corner, I had a newfound confidence. I had to hope it wasn’t misplaced. Kevin could be both devious and persistent.

Kevin’s scowl deepened. Then he broke the stare and strode for the door. The other patrons parted a path, seeming afraid of him, as I’d learned to be. It hadn’t always been that way between us, and thinking back, the change had been so gradual that I couldn’t pinpoint when we’d drifted from affection to our more dangerous dynamic.

“You’re free,” Boone said from behind me.

I jumped with a gasp and turned to face him. “Shit. You scared me.”

“Sorry. He won’t be bothering you anymore, and I thought that would be good news.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely. And the car is not an issue. He’ll be sending you the title in the mail.”

I breathed in the taste of freedom as deeply as I could, and then threw myself into hugging Boone. A drop of blood hit my cheek when I looked up at him. I grabbed napkins from a nearby table and pressed them against his face. “You’re bleeding.”

“Shit.” He grimaced and pulled away.

“Don’t be a baby.” I adjusted the napkins I held on his cut. “We have to stop the bleeding.”

His hand came up to cover mine. “It’s nothing.”

For a moment, the warmth of his touch took me back a few weeks to a happier time.

“Where’d my stupid brother go?” Pris’s words broke the spell.

Boone pulled back with a start.

I reapplied the napkins to his face.

Pris came around the corner. “There you are. You look like shit. It’s a good thing you have a hard head. He could have killed you.”

He shrugged. “Thanks…I guess.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “I still say you’re stupid.”

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