“You’re a criminal!”
No. No!
Now Jenner wasn’t being nice.
This was terrible.
“Put me down,” she demanded.
To her shock, Jenner did set her down, but then he stepped in front of her, moving toward Tobias.
“Go upstairs, Immy,” Jenner ordered.
“You don’t get to order her around,” Tobias snarled. “You’re her friend. Not her man. And, since your head is up your own ass so much, you won’t ever be.”
“Tobias!” she cried.
“And you think you will? You don’t think if I call Alejandro right now, he won’t haul your ass back to him? And you’ll have to go, won’t you? Since he owns you.”
“Both of you need to stop this!” she cried, moving between them.
This wasn’t something she’d been expecting.
“You’re obviously no good for her,” Jenner said. “She came home looking like she was dead inside and then she burst into tears as soon as she saw me.”
“Maybe she was crying over the way you’ve been treating her and it was nothing to do with me,” Tobias said.
Jenner reared back at those words.
“Tobias, don’t say that. It’s not Jenner’s fault if he doesn’t want me.”
“Don’t want you?” Jenner said in a choked voice. “What the fuck?”
“I know I’m no good for your career,” she explained. “You should be with someone like Amaya. I’ve just been holding onto a stupid crush. But that’s not your fault. You’re not responsible for my feelings.”
Jenner looked crushed. “Immy, no, that’s not it at all.”
She turned to Tobias. “And even though we had a great time and I called you Papa?—”
Jenner made a pained noise at that.
“We didn’t actually agree to anything, so I don’t appreciate you announcing that we’re together.”
“Little girl, we’re gonna be together whether you agree or not,” Tobias stated.
Holy heck.
She might have dismissed his words as posturing, but Tobias looked deadly serious.
“What . . . what do you mean?” she asked.
“You might think there’s a choice, but there isn’t. I claim you, Immy. You’re mine.”
“You can’t just fucking claim her!” Jenner yelled. “Immy, go upstairs. Call Sampson.” He pointed to Tobias. “She is not an object that you claim. You need to leave my house. Now. Before I call the cops.”
“No!” Immy cried. She turned to glare at Jenner. “You’re not calling the cops on him. Tobias is our friend.” Then she turned to Tobias. “And you don’t get to claim me, that’s not the way this works.”
Neither man said anything.