Page 16 of The Triple Play

He’d seen what we were capable of.

And we were blocking him out.

He swallowed, taking a slightly misguided step back, nearly twisting his ankle on a manhole covering. “She’ll have to hear me out eventually,” he snapped, but he was receding, giving up before it could turn into anything worse.

His lips pressed into a tight line before he spun, walking off, his figure slowly lighting up little by little as he walked toward the glowing neon sign at the mouth of the alleyway. None of us moved until he turned the corner, disappearing entirely.

My gaze drifted back down toward Annie, but Xavi already had her, his hands on either side of her cheeks, his body bent down to look her in the eyes as he mumbled something to her almost inaudible to me. Her eyes were wide as she looked at him, one hand shaking slightly at her side and the other still clutched onto the back of Colton’s jacket with an almost immovable grip.

Xavi was good at this. Always had been. He could talk almost anyone down, could protect and help people he cared about. Colton struggled with the patience of it, and I… I just didn’t have it in me to pick my words carefully, especially when I didn’t speak nearly as much as those two. But I almost found myself wanting to when she looked that rattled.

I barely knew her. But the way my chest had tightened seconds ago, the way it was tight as shitnow, the way I wanted to tear apart whatever had made her look like that… that scared the hell out of me.

I swallowed, glancing at Colton instead.

He wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was locked on the ground, his jaw tight, his hands shoved in the pockets of the jacket Annie clutched. He was quieter than I’d ever seen him, his cocky, upbeat energy drained away, like something in him had cracked just a little. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was from the altercation or the way Xavi was holding Annie.

My jaw tensed as I looked between the three of them.

This was going to be a problem.

Chapter8

Xavi

The more Annie rattled on quietly to me about what had happened between her and Elliot, the more I found myself seeing red.

I knew what it felt like to have people outwardly not believe in you. I knew what it felt like to be belittled, to be spoken down to like the things you wanted, the things youdreamedof, were nothing. I knew it in my bones, had it verbally beaten into me over and over as a child before my birth parents abandoned me and my adoptive parents decided they wanted to do more thanjustfoster me.

Cole and Colton had slipped back inside in search of a glass of water for Annie, letting me do what I did best off the ice — talk people down, or distract them for long enough that they can start to feel okay about what happened.

But the more she spoke about what Elliot had done, the more her eyes glistened, the more her chest heaved, the more she shook beneath my hands on her shoulders. I’d never wanted to punch someone so badly as an adult as I did Elliot, and I knew that just a handful of soft spoken words weren’t going to cut it in helping her.

I let out a slow breath as I leaned back against the brick wall, keeping my eyes locked on her. “Are you shaking from the frustration or are you cold?” I asked. It wasn’t exactlyfreezing, but it definitely wasn’t warm either, and all she had to keep her warm was a thin, long-sleeved green shirt.

She shook her head, her jaw tight. “I’m fine.”

I didn’t believe her for a second. She was still rattled, her breathing uneven, tears still clinging to her fluttering lashes. “Annie,” I said, leveling her with a knowing look. “Do you want to go back inside?”

Again, she shook her head.

I sighed, shrugging off my zip-up hoodie and handing it to her wordlessly. She stared at it for a moment, the offer hanging in the air physically, before finally she wrapped her fingers around it and shrugged it over her shoulders, the fabric dwarfing her significantly shorter and smaller frame.

I looked at her for a long moment. “Wanna punch something?”

Her lips twitched upward a little. “That’s not healthy.”

“True, but it’s fun. And we can make a special exception.”

A little snort came out of her. “I don’t want to bust my knuckles open on the bricks.”

“Then don’t,” I smirked, locking my arms behind my back and pressing my shoulders into the wall, jutting out my stomach and pelvis. “Hit me.”

Her eyes blew wide immediately, her breath hitching. “Xavi, I’m not?—”

“Not in the dick, obviously,” I added. I adjusted my stance, spreading my legs a little wider for better stability. “In the stomach. Go ahead, I’m tensed.”

She blinked at me, her mouth parted in a cute little O, her gaze locking onto my stomach and her cheeks heating. “I don’t… I don’t want to hurt you.”

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