I was so mad I was shaking by the time we got inside and I handed over my purse. I knew everyone was there. Harris had been texting me throughout the day and I’d gotten a text from him twenty minutes ago asking where I was. I loved that boy to death. He was always worried about me. Even more so lately, but I didn’t want to think about that tonight.
As soon as Marissa and I entered the bar my senses zeroed in on the only person I didn’t want to deal with tonight. Devlin was standing with his back to me talking with two members of Alchemy, but I could tell by the stiffness in his shoulders that he wasn’t really paying attention to whatever they were discussing. My hungry eyes ate up the sight of him. His long dark hair hung down his back, ending just shy of the top of his jeans. He was wearing old jeans that had a hole in the left hip that broadcasted the fact that he was wearing black boxers underneath. The jeans hung low on his narrow hips, and I could just picture the sexy V that was hidden under the T-shirt he was wearing.
What was it with him and his friends wearing old, tattered clothes? They had the money to buy a new designer outfit every day for the rest of their lives, but instead they wanted the same clothes that they had worn a decade ago. Not that I was complaining, because the older clothes looked just as good on Devlin as new ones did. Maybe even better.
My attention was pulled away from Devlin when Emmie came over to chew me out for cutting my hair. I hadn’t thought about how my brothers would react to my new haircut. They hadn’t been on my mind while I was going through a mini nervous breakdown over the last several weeks. Call me selfish but I just didn’t give a damn about what they thought about me cutting my hair. It was mine and I was an adult. It wasn’t any of their freaking business.
But of course Emmie made me realize that it was their business. Especially if I wanted to continue to keep my brothers and everyone else in the dark about Zander and Devlin’s stupid-ass bet, and of course the end result that had shattered my heart. I might hate Devlin Cutter, and yeah I was still pissed enough at Zander to despise him too, but I still cared about both of them enough not to want them dead. Of course, I also didn’t want to be the reason that my brothers ended up in jail for the murder of two of their closest friends. Or depriving my one-point-five nieces of their father.
Thankfully Marissa quickly distracted Emmie from my haircut with her adorable nose piercing and soon Layla had joined in our group. From nose piercings to the newest antics of Luca and Lyric and even Jagger’s latest developments, our conversation was a rainbow of colorful topics and I couldn’t help but feel a little more sad at the talk of babies and growth spurts and first haircuts.
When Lyric came over and offered me a hug, I nearly let a few tears fall as I bent to wrap my arms around my honorary little nephew. I wasn’t sure how he had known that I needed a hug, but I was happy to accept it as I lifted him into my arms and rubbed my nose with the little guy. “Hey, big guy.”
He started jabbering at me, nodding his little head and cupping my face like he knew what was wrong with me and was giving me some awesome advice on how to make it better. I grinned down at him and nodded along with him, getting a toothy grin in return. I was content to hold him and then his twin came over to give Marissa some loving...
Loving that quickly turned into a peep show of Marissa’s very lovely shear bra and her gorgeous breasts. I burst out laughing for what felt like the first time in a year and moved to stand in front of my friend while she fixed her clothing.
“Luca!” Layla gently scolded as she took her son from a red-faced but laughing Marissa. “Oh my gods, Rissa. I’m so sorry.”
When she left to give her oldest son a talking to, I sat Lyric on his feet so he could toddle after his mother and brother. For the next half hour I stood with Marissa and Emmie. We were joined by Rhett and soon after Liam and Linc. But not long after Wroth appeared, I knew it was time to take Rhett and run. From the harmless flirting that Rhett and Marissa were doing I knew that Wroth was going to get the wrong idea and murder the poor guy before his career had a chance to take off.
“Phew,” Linc muttered as we stopped by the buffet and he turned to face his boyfriend. “I was sure that you were about to eat your dick.”
Rhett rolled his eyes. “And wouldn’t that just break your heart.” He picked up a plate and started piling food onto it. “I’m not scared of Wroth Niall.”
I met Linc’s gaze and rolled my eyes. We were all a little scared of Wroth. He was too quiet, too observing. And he had some dangerous skills that his time in the marines had taught him along with an anger that had been left to brew over the last year. If I were Rhett Tomlinson, I would seriously be worried about my dick and especially about my life.
“Linc, is Natalie here yet?”
My head snapped around at the sound of his voice. Had cutting my hair really changed the way I looked so drastically that Devlin hadn’t recognized me? Just the thought pissed me off because it only confirmed for me that it had always been my fucking hair that Devlin Cutter had been so attracted to, not the woman underneath it.
“Uh-oh,” Rhett muttered when he saw the look on my face. He grabbed a napkin and a plastic fork and nudged Linc in the ribs with his elbow. “Duck and cover, dude.”
Linc grunted, agreeing with the rocker and walked away without answering Devlin. “Dude,” Devlin called after him. “Is she here or not? You don’t have to be a fucking prick.” Linc shot him the finger over his shoulder and kept walking, leaving Devlin cursing after him. And completely ignoring the short-haired chick standing not five feet from him.
I wanted to pick up one of the plastic forks and stab him in the back with it. “Smooth,” I snapped as I grabbed a plate just to keep my hands busy so I didn’t actually start stabbing the asshole.
Devlin jerked around, his eyes landing on me and narrowing as he took in my short hair. “Sonofabitch,” he bit out. He took a step closer, his hands lifting toward my head as if he was going to touch my hair and I stepped back, glaring at him. “What the fuck did you do, Nat?” His voice was pained, his eyes dark with hurt. “All that beauty, gone. Why would you do that?”
I turned away from him, slapping a scoop of everything on my plate whether I wanted it or not. “So I’m not beautiful without my hair?”
He let out a frustrated groan. “Of course you. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. I just don’t understand why you would cut your hair off…” He broke off with another curse and grabbed my plate, halting my progress down the buffet. “You wanted to hurt me, is that it? You wanted to punish me?”