Reckless Retribution (West Warriors Book 1) (11 page)

“Let’s go see Cam,” I suggested. We walked into the large sitting room, which again was very neutral in color. Standing in front of the large windows was a huge smart TV with massive surround sound speakers on either side of it. Two biscuit-colored fabric sofas were angled toward it, and the TV was the sole focus point of the room. A cream rug lay centered on the floor. On the wall behind one of the couches hung a black and white picture of Mohammed Ali. I smiled at the fighting reference.

Along the main wall was a tall fireplace decorated with unlit candles and some pictures in frames. One side of the fireplace encased a large bookshelf, and the other, a long sideboard with a sound system sat on the top, which was providing tonight’s music. The small crowd in the room was sitting on the couches, some of them perched on the arms of them, and others stood. I spotted Cam, who was talking with Leon and two other guys next to the TV that was silently playing a music channel. Jamie was sitting just behind the door where we walked in, one ankle propped onto his knee, talking to two guys and a girl. The girl was laughing at whatever he was saying and played with her hair flirtatiously.

“Hey, you.” Cam pulled me into a one-armed hug, an approach they all tended to adopt when greeting me socially. Except Jamie, of course. Leon smiled warmly at us both.

“How are you?” Cam asked.

“I’m good, thank you.” I nodded and looked nervously at the two other guys he was with. I hated meeting new people.

“This is Jase and Aaron,” he introduced us both to them. In return, they looked us up and down and seemed to like what they saw. They didn’t bother to hide it.

Taylor and I greeted them. Her greeting was confident, whereas mine was… feeble. Well, they
had
just blatantly given us the once-over. Cam suddenly hit Jase on the chest like he’d forgotten to tell him something, and they resumed their conversation about some party they went to. I felt awkward standing there because neither Taylor nor I had anything to add to it. I looked over at her and realized I’d never seen her so quiet before, and that was saying something. She was just silently sipping on her beer, eyes darting around the room. I finished my drink and asked her if she wanted another one.

“Yep,” she said without hesitation and took off toward the door.

Following behind her, I glanced at Jamie as I passed him. He didn’t even bother to acknowledge us; instead, he kept his attention on the guy he was talking to. I didn’t expect him to make a fuss over us or anything, but I wasn’t expecting him to act like we weren’t even there. He was the one who had invited us, after all. So far, his only acknowledgment was him getting mad because I didn’t tell him we were coming to the party, and because we had each drunk a bottle of his beer. Again, I didn’t understand his switch in personality. He was happy and flirty at the store the other day, and now he was being crude and ignorant. I didn’t like it, and I was starting to feel irritated. “Is it me, or do you feel awkward here?” I snapped, as we got into the kitchen.

“Yeah, I feel awkward all right,” she agreed.

The sound of the doorbell caught our attention, and I wondered who it might be. We poked our head around the kitchen door curiously to see who it was. Jamie walked to answer it, scratching the back of his head. When he opened the door, a girl came walking in wearing a slutty skirt and a crop-top that would fit a preschooler. It was barely covering her chest. She gave him a doe-eyed look and a quick kiss on the cheek. He seemed to flinch in response to her quick movement. I couldn’t help but turn to Taylor and screw my face up in distaste, and she mirrored my expression, mouthing,
Ew
. The sound of the door closing a little too harshly made us turn back to Jamie, and he was looking directly at me, eyebrows raised questioningly. Judging by the expression he was giving me, he knew my thoughts on his new houseguest. I turned my back on him and grabbed more beers from the fridge. I unintentionally slammed the fridge door as I closed it; the girl’s presence had further ignited my irritation.

“Easy, tiger, don’t want to break something.” Taylor cringed as the bottles inside rattled.

I really wanted to leave, but I couldn’t come up with a justifiable reason to give—well, not one I could say to Jamie’s face anyway. Walking to the sink, I looked through the kitchen window that overlooked a huge, neatly manicured lawn. A large table with chairs on the patio looked inviting. “Wanna sit outside for a bit?” I asked.

Taylor didn’t hesitate with her answer, so I opened the back door and we quietly slipped outside, away from the party. Away from Jamie.

“What are we doing here, Lo?” She cocked her head to me as we took a seat on the chairs.

“I’m trying to figure that out too,” I sighed, sagging into the chair. Setting my purse into my lap, I dug through it for my cell. Pressing the button to illuminate the screen, I looked at the time and sighed some more. We’d only been here 30 minutes. Realizing that we were going to just have to stick it out until it was an acceptable time to leave without being totally rude, I filled Taylor in on my plans for Texas.

Deep in discussion about the mechanics of getting my stuff over there, Marc came walking down the steps into the garden. “There you are. Thought you’d gone home.”

Taylor immediately brightened before letting out an awkward laugh at his comment. He looked at her, puzzled, then took a seat next to her at the table.

“We just wanted some air,” I said, before smiling warmly at him. At least
he
actually cared about us.

Not wasting any moment to pry for information, Taylor got straight to it. “So how do you two know each other?” She waggled her finger between us both, intrigued.

I was surprised by now she hadn’t already worked that one out. Marc furrowed his brows, equally confused that she didn’t guess, and then his head snapped to mine where he waited for me to explain it to her.

“Don’t tell me this is another one from work,” she said, drooping her shoulders and letting her head fall back slightly in annoyance that she hadn’t figured it out sooner.

“Yeah.” I let out a small laugh, while a smile crossed her lips, and she shook her head playfully. She didn’t have a clue meeting Leon earlier that he completed the quartet of the fighters from the club. I thought to keep that to myself a little while longer.

My thoughts of Leon soon vanished when I caught Taylor’s expression as she looked over at Marc. The same look on her face had returned from when their eyes first met at the door earlier tonight. I could tell she liked him. A lot. Usually, she was confident and outgoing toward guys, but this… this was calm for her. When she first met Cam and Jamie at MusicFest, she almost couldn’t contain her excitement, but things were different with Marc. I sniffed a potential romance in the cards. They both liked each other; that was clear. I just hoped they behaved themselves. I didn’t want any trouble from Kal. Or Jake—who she clearly wasn’t thinking of at this moment in time.

Marc struck up a conversation with her about the places we go out drinking, and I got the feeling he was trying his luck with her, so I left him to it. I would hate to see his face when she told him she had a boyfriend, so I made my excuses and decided to go find the bathroom.

Walking back into the kitchen, Jamie stood facing the window, talking very closely to a petite redheaded girl who was resting her back against the sink. I couldn’t quite catch what they were saying because they were talking so quietly. Again, he didn’t acknowledge me as I walked past, so I didn’t bother asking him where the bathroom was.

I walked up the stairs to find four rooms off a long, narrow hallway, two to my left and two to my right. All of the doors were closed, with no indication which one was the bathroom. I tried the first door to my left, which was a small bedroom. It housed a single bed, a dresser, and a bookshelf. Who did he live with?
I then cautiously tried the door next to it.
Bingo!
I used the bathroom, and on my way out, I got curious which room was Jamie’s. It had to be one of the other two rooms.

Part of me wanted to find out which one it was, but I was too scared he would catch me. Instead, I made my way back downstairs, helping myself to two more of our beers from the refrigerator. He was still talking to the redhead and a pang of jealously hit me. I wished he would take the time to talk to
me
. He was still acting like I wasn’t here, and it was doing my head in.

Walking back outside, I handed Taylor her beer, but she was still deep in conversation with Marc discussing college, and by the looks of it, hadn’t even finished the beer she already had. “Last one and we’re off,” I said, placing our beers down on the table. I didn’t even bother to hide my annoyance. I slumped back in my chair and folded my arms, sighing.

“What’s up with you?” Marc asked, amused.

I really wasn’t in the mood to talk about it, especially with him. Taylor looked at me, waiting for me to divulge, and I looked at her long enough for her to realize not to go there.

Switching my gaze from her, I looked around the nice, neat garden, and before too long, my focus stopped at the kitchen window, where I could see Jamie still talking to the redhead. Not wanting to spend the rest of the night looking at them, I moved to the opposite side of the table next to Marc, so my back was to them. Marc watched me as I settled into my chair, and then he glanced up to his friend before returning his gaze back to me. I hoped I hadn’t been too obvious why I moved.

Marc made idle chitchat, but I didn’t engage in the conversation much. I just nodded at the right times and was too busy peeling the paper label off my bottle to care. I couldn’t stop wondering what Jamie was talking to the girl about for so long. Did he like her? Was he going to hook up with her? It was starting to frustrate me that I liked him more than I really wanted or needed to.

Marc went inside for another drink, and I turned watching, as Jamie spoke with him when he entered the kitchen. Sure, he’ll talk to
him
! He was definitely ignoring me—that was all the proof I needed. Now I was pissed.

Taylor finished her drink, so I gulped mine down in record time.

“C’mon, let’s go,” she said, pushing her chair out and standing up.

I followed behind her, and as we walked back through the kitchen, we passed Jamie. Taylor directed a glance at him, but didn’t bother saying goodbye, so neither did I. We didn’t say bye to anyone, Marc included. I felt a little bad about that because he had actually made the effort to make us feel the teeniest bit welcome.

Closing the front door behind me, it suddenly pulled back open again. And I turned to see Jamie standing there.

“You leaving?” he said, almost irritated, scratching the back of his head—something I noticed he did when he got annoyed or frustrated. He actually had the damn nerve to look mad that we were leaving.

“Yeah,” I threw over my shoulder, while I carried on walking. I wasn’t about to fake that everything was okay.

“Hold up,” he shouted after us.

I stopped and turned on my heel to face him as he skipped down the steps to where we were.

“Do you mind?” He looked at Taylor, hinting that he wanted to talk with me alone, but the tone of his voice was rude and patronizing. She narrowed her eyes and shot a deathly glare at him before looking to me for confirmation that I was okay to talk with him alone.

Curious about what the hell he wanted to say to me all of a sudden, I nodded, and she slowly walked to the road to flag down a cab, but not before giving him an icy once-over again.

“Are you pissed?” He folded his arms across his chest.

Any moment, I felt like steam was about to erupt from my ears. “Well, wouldn’t you be if I invited you to a party and I didn’t bother to speak to you all night?”

He narrowed his eyes at my words and nodded. “So, you’re pissed I didn’t talk to you?”

I felt my jaw clench. Why was he being so arrogant? “Night, Jamie,” I breathed.

I didn’t want to get into a fight with him, so I turned and began to walk away. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back in front of him. His eyes searched my face.

“Are you really pissed at me for not talking to you?” he asked again like he couldn’t comprehend my reason for leaving.

“Like I said, Jamie, don’t invite me to a party then act like I’m not there. Cam, Leon, and Marc were the only ones decent enough to speak to us,” I said, pointing back toward his house.

“I did speak to you.”

I raised my eyebrows, surprised at his comment. Did he really think the crude
and
rude way he spoke to me in the kitchen was enough to call a conversation? Not in my books, it wasn’t.

There was silence as we stood facing each other. He didn’t know what to say, and it was written all over his face. He suddenly stepped closer to me, and I tried not to react to his closeness.

“You want my attention? Now you have it,” he said softly, looking deep into my eyes.

The way he was gazing at me, it was hard not to give in and forgive him. But it was a little too late. He watched me expectantly, but I wasn’t a pushover. “Too late. Night, Jamie.” He let my hand slip through his grasp and I walked away from him, meeting Taylor at the cab she’d managed to get for us.

“What an ass,” Taylor fumed as we climbed in.

“I know,” I sighed, leaning my head back against the headrest.

“What did he say?”

“He asked why I was pissed, so I told him.” I shrugged. I still didn’t understand why he thought it was okay to act the way he had.

“Keep your distance from him. I don’t like him.” She scowled.

Tonight, he’d truly shown what an ass he could be. The only problem was he wasn’t always one. I’d seen how nice he could be. That boy had more colors than a kaleidoscope, that was for sure.

We sat in silence on the drive home, both silently fuming about the waste of a night. We arrived at my house, and I apologized to her for the crappy party.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know it was going to be like that,” she said sympathetically.

“Marc seemed to take a liking to you,” I teased.