Page 20 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
I dropped my backpack on one of the sofas and left my motorcycle jacket on top of it. “This summer, apparently.”
The dry response was the only one I had. Even as I tried to study the guy in the photos, it was the smile on Frankie’s face and in her eyes that arrested me. She looked so goddamn happy. Hand on the trackpad, I scrolled down the screen.
How had I forgotten how truly blinding that smile of hers could be? How long had it been gone for me to forget thebreathtaking force? A part of me wanted to punch the guy in the face for having an arm around her, even more when I saw one of him kissing her.
“Do you see the problem?” Incensed, Archie continued to pace the room. There was a barely restrained violence wreathing him. I glanced at him just as Jake and Coop hit the opening to the game room.
The temperature spiked as Jake zeroed in on the big screen.
“Son of a bitch,” he swore, stalking forward.
Coop let out a long sigh as he slid his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Guys…”
Straightening, I caught Coop’s eye and shook my head. Based on Jake’s reaction, he wasn’t ready to listen to reason. Not yet. Archie was just a seething black hole of tightly wound fury. The two of them in the same room was probably an epically bad idea.
Yet, here we were.
“How the fuck did she meet him in San Antonio?” Jake demanded as he scrolled. “And when…”
“First post is from June.” The flat answer from Archie held everything from recrimination—why the hell hadn’t we known—to pure fury—what the fuck were we going to do about it?
“Dammit,” Coop muttered and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“How did you miss this?” Jake whirled to glare at Coop. “You said you were still keeping an eye out for her?”
“I was and am.” Instead of irritated, Coop sounded a hell of a lot more patient than I felt. “She didn’t bring him back to the apartment. She also has a car and wasn’t really interested in talking to me any more than she was with the rest of you.”
That stung.
“Whose fault is that?” Archie pounced.
Without missing a beat, Coop just shot him a bland look. “Didn’t you ask her?”
Coop didn’t respond to either of the twin glares he received from Jake and Archie.
“You know what, we can figure out the rest of thatafterwe get rid of the asshole.” Folding his arms, Jake fixed a look on Archie. “What else do we know about him?”
“Exchange student from France. He’s staying with the Butlers. Standard exchange terms are one semester at best. We can look at making it too uncomfortable for him or we can check into getting his student visa revoked…”
“Are you serious?” I asked, and ignored the stink-eye Jake gave me at the interruption.
“Yes,” Archie replied. “I have some calls in to get more information on him. I’ll have a full background check by tomorrow at the latest.”
“Do you care how we get rid of him?” Jake challenged me and I got it. He was pissed and he wanted somewhere to pour all of that anger.
“Yes,” I told him and didn’t shake my head at the shock rippling over his face and Archie’s. “I care because whether we like it or not, she’s clearly into him.” I waved a hand to the screen. “If we just get rid of him, that's going to hurt her.”
“Not to mention what she’ll do if she finds out.” The quiet observation from Coop landed like a grenade between all of us. Jake swore and stalked away where he punched the wall.
Archie just sighed. “I also called my attorney about what options we have if just getting him kicked out didn’t work, maybe we can make him an offer for a different school or location in another state.”
I rubbed both of my hands over my face. That was not any better than just getting him kicked. “I didn’t really get to talk to her about him or any of this today.” Math had been too busy and lunch had been tense. I’d wanted to show her the bike, whichwas why I’d headed toward her parking spot after school, but that hadn’t worked out well either.
“Yeah,” Coop said slowly. “I talked to her some this morning, but she was in a mood to fight. Probably didn’t help that I teased her about the boyfriend before I realized he was real.”
“She is pissed,” Archie muttered. “At us.”
“Why?” Jake demanded, facing us again.
