Page 53 of Unloved

“Stop, Tyler. It’s embarrassing—”

“You’reembarrassing,” he snaps, like the tether on his patience has broken entirely. “I mean, my god, I don’t know how I even tolerate you at this point. I must be a goddamned saint.”

Tyler moves toward me, almost caging me against the brick siding of the building. He’s shouting now; sympathetic looks shoot my way from a few of his friends, but none of them stop him. No one bothers to intervene.

“Fucking pathetic, Ro. Honestly—”

“Do you mind?”

The voice that stops him is gruff, but with a sickeningly smooth quality threaded in the deep tone. And the man it belongs to, now grasping Tyler’s shoulder tightly where he was starting to box me into the corner, is more terrifying.

He’s massive, tall even to me, with warm russet skin and black hair dripping wet. A player, I assume, based on the black-on-black suit he’s wearing, but I’ve never seen him before tonight—even on the roster I studied a few weeks prior.

“Private conversation, man. This is none of your business.”

“You’re screaming at a girl in public—I think that makes this everyone’s business,” he says before flicking his frighteningly bright eyes toward me. “You okay?”

I nod.

“Do you want to keep talking to this loser?”

“Fuck off,” Tyler growls, trying to yank himself away from the force field of a man in front of us. “My girlfriend is fine.”

The guy’s golden eyes swirl with mirth—not with anger, but like a gladiator with the spectators chantingmore! He grips Tyler a little harder before yanking him away from me and slamming his back into the brick.

“Now you’re just pissing me off.” He smiles, lifting Tyler off the ground so his feet scrape to find balance. “How is it little pricks like you even—”

“Let him down.”

Everyone stops at the presence of another giant entering the scene. Tyler’s friends, who haven’t scattered, but haven’t intervened either, freeze like pups in the presence of an alpha as Bennett Reiner walks toward the stranger still mildly strangling Tyler.

The guy puts him down, and Tyler trips backward for a moment before saying something under his breath that has the golden-eyed stranger shooting a fist toward his face.

“Fuck,” Bennett curses, pulling him back from going after Tyler again. “Goddamn it, Kane, don’t make me save your ass.”

“I’ve been saving yours all night,” Kane grumbles halfheartedly. “Fair’s fair.”

Shockingly, I see a small grin spread across Bennett’s face as he manhandles Kane away with a rough shove. “Go get your stuff on the bus. I’ll take care of this.”

Bennett turns and I see a visible change in Tyler. He could easily win with words over fists with some guys, but not Bennett Reiner. He’s from a family far wealthier and more connected than even Tyler Donaldson’s.

Threats to sue mean nothing to the towering heir to the entire Reiner fortune, not to mention the son of a hotshot corporate lawyer.

“Reiner,” Tyler sighs. “We were just leaving.”

Bennett nods, arms still crossed as he stands over us all with shower-soaked curls and in a crisp blue suit sans tie.

“Then leave.”

His voice brokers no arguments from the group as they all start to walk away. I turn to follow them, head ducked low in shame, but after we’ve left the spot where the Waterfell goalie still stands, Tyler grabs my arm.

“Find another way home,” he says. “We’re not taking you.”

“You can’t leave me here.” I try to press some authority into my wavering voice, hating the catch of a cry in my throat. “How am I supposed to—”

“You’re a big girl, Ro.” He sneers, swaying a little from the beers he’s been chugging. “Use that big brain to figure it out.”

CHAPTER 20Freddy

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