I scowled. “You’re turning into a chickenshit.”
“I’m not, but why aren’t we doing this with Mason?”
“Two reasons. One, my brother is making sweet, sweet love to his woman tonight, and two, because he can’t do shit. He’s on the football team. It’s on us to do something.”
“Mason has a plan.”
I shot back, “Yeah, well, I love my big bro, but he’s dragging his feet with this one. Sebastian needs to be dealt with. I’m tired of sitting on my hands. You backing out?”
“Shut it, Logan!”
“You are.” I glimpsed his face.
He’d gotten worked over by them a few weeks ago. His bruises finally faded. I paused. Maybe I should send him back. But no, I needed backup just in case.
“Kade?” The guy came over with a beer in each hand. His hair was sticking straight up in the air, and he looked like a rejected has-been fraternity brother.
Recognition hit, and I flashed a grin. “You’re Blazer. You’re the Toga Kid.”
“Uh, close.” He held out the beer to me.
I held up a hand, rejecting it.
He handed it to Nate, saying, “I’m Blaze. I had that party at the beginning of the year. You were there with your brother’s girlfriend, who lives on my friend’s floor. She’s Sam’s RA.”
Nate glanced at me.
The pudgy Toga Kid called her Sam. He didn’t get to call her anything, except his friend’s floormate, but since he was there, and I was remembering other conversations from that night, I held my tongue. I skimmed him over. He didn’t look too drunk. He was happily sloshed. His smile was lazy. He wasn’t teetering on his feet, but his shirt was unbuttoned, and the T-shirt underneath had a few stains from the night—ketchup, mustard, but mostly spilled beer.
He was drunk enough, and after he opened the second beer and was lifting it to his mouth, I took it.
A quick smile to smooth things over, I told him, “I changed my mind.”
“Oh.” His shoulders went up and down. “Sounds good to me. I can get more, but, uh…” He noticed the looks as well. “You do know where you’re at, right?”
We were gaining more and more attention. The small frame of surprise was gone.
I nudged Nate with my elbow. “Maybe you want to bring the car around?”
“What?”
“The car.” I shot a meaningful look at the fence beside us.
“Oh.” He frowned. “But…”
He gave me another look, and I knew what he was thinking. I smiled back at him. I took his beer and gave it to the other kid, Blazer—no, Blaze.
The guy blinked in surprise and started to smile.
Oh, no, we weren’t friends. I was going to use this son of a bitch who thought he could use Sam’s name like he mattered.
Throwing an arm around his shoulder, I patted him on the chest and said to Nate, “Blazer will help me out.”
“Blaze.”
I patted him again. “That’s the least of your problems.”
Nate was shaking his head. “No, Logan. No, no, no.”
Blaze was frowning. “What problems?”
I pointed to the street. “Get the car. I’ll need it.”
Nate let out an unhappy sigh. “I’m not okay with this.”
I didn’t care, and I jerked Blaze around with me. “Say, Toga Kid, where are all your friends?”
They’d claimed to hate Sebastian. It was their day to show their balls or let ’em shrink back up into vaginas. I had a feeling they were going to shrink, but either way, we were going to have some fun.
“Uh…” He wasn’t fighting me. He was just confused as he replied, glancing across the crowd, “They’re by the fence. Why?”
“Let’s go say hello.”
“Wait. What?”
Too late. I was almost dragging the kid to his buddies.
Mason was the mastermind in our family, but I wasn’t a complete idiot. Sebastian knew I was there, and he’d know in two seconds that I was alone. These guys, as they’d proclaimed, weren’t Sebastian supporters. The standoff needed to happen with them at my backside, not Sebastian’s fraternity rejects.
We got to Blaze’s group of pals when a sudden hush went over the group.
He was there.
I didn’t know why I enjoyed these moments.
I had no support—or little support. The odds were stacked against me. Most people would run the other way, not seek it out. As the crowd parted and Sebastian stepped through with his A-holes behind him, I was feeling the tingle in me. It was low and spreading fast, but as it rose, it was becoming overpowering. It was the need to fight. Mason didn’t have to fight. He didn’t enjoy fighting, but I did. I loved it. I thrived on it. And right now, I was damn near climaxing.
I was so fucked up, but all I could do was smile at Sebastian, who looked way too cocky and self-assured for his own good.
“Logan Kade,” he greeted, smirking, with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Are you lost?”
I could punch him now. One shot, and he’d go down, but his buddies would be on me, and that was not what we did. We fought, but we won.
“Patience.” I could hear Mason’s voice in my head.
He’d go slowly. He’d make sure all the checkpoints were in place, and he would start the conversation, but he didn’t like to strike first. I did. Mason liked to hit back once someone hit him. It was something that drove me crazy about him. Maybe I just didn’t have the patience in me that he did.