The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

“Matt—”

A knock sounded on the door.

Matt cursed.

A head popped in.

Scott found me, but I was already moving. I saw the alarm, and that was enough.

I was crossing the room as he said, “We got a call. You need to go.”

That was enough.

I paused in the doorway, looking at Matt. “Will you—”

He waved me off. “Go. I got her.”

A clip of my head, up and down, but my feet didn’t move. I was rooted in place.

“Matt,” I called.

He looked up again, but he didn’t say anything.

“Turn it off. Just think about Cy, about Ser, about Bailey. Think about them and you’ll do fine.”

As pep talks went, it sucked. I knew it. I knew he knew it, but it was the best I had in me. I felt he was searching for something more, but then we were moving down the hallway.

Scott was next to me. “We got a call from your guy. He said he’d brief you on the plane, but…” He hesitated.

I growled, “I don’t have time for this—”

“You’re going to have a guest on the plane.”

Shit.

“Who?”

We’d gotten to the main room, and it seemed more people were in there. That meant people were crashing, but Scott wasn’t looking at them. His gaze was pinned on Bailey as he answered, “Victoria.”

That wasn’t going to go over well.





THIRTY-FIVE



Bailey


More and more people were coming into Matt’s penthouse floor, all Hawking students.

At first, I was loving it. The guards around me were blending and I was huddled up with Torie, Tamara, and Melissa, so it wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t getting the attention.

That lasted thirty minutes.

Liam showed up, and he was lit. I thought he’d been here the whole time, but it was apparent he’d stepped out. The brown paper bag was my indicator. His eyes were dilated, his hair a mess, and his grin was sloppy. Those were my other indicators, as he came over to us. “Heyyy, my girls!” He threw his arm wide—not the one holding the booze. “These are my girls. Hey! Hey. Carl. Hey. Did you meet my friends?”

Carl was the guy sitting next to Liam during the game.

He was the guy who had conversed with Melissa almost the whole game. He was one of the two that seemed to be a good guy.

Carl was also sober, unlike his very not-sober friend Liam.

He grinned, though, seeming all chill. “Nice to meet you guys.” His grin curved higher. “Again.”

“So guess what I did?”

Liam had missed the “again.”

Melissa and I shared a look, but I answered him for us, “What’d you do?”

He swung the brown paper bag forward, indicating me, before bringing it back and taking a long swig of whatever was in there. “I invited Hoda and the guys here.”

The music could’ve stopped with a screech. The same effect crashed over our huddle. Even Carl’s eyebrows shot up.

“Uh.” He was the first to speak, scratching behind his ear. “Say what?”

Torie was glaring. “You did what?”

Tamara chided, “Watch yourself. She’s going to go all Torie on you.”

Liam frowned at her, cocked his head to the side, and narrowed his eyes. “Have we met?”

Melissa was sharing another look with me. I couldn’t read her mind, but I felt it might’ve gone something along the lines of “Your friend is about to Torie on his ass and I don’t know what Torie means, but she seems super scary right now and I’m scared of her, so Liam better sober up real quick because he’s gonna get his ass kicked.”

Okay. She didn’t say any of that. Her thoughts were probably more like “Did you hear what he said?”

Either way, I was right there with her.

Torie was about to kick Liam’s ass, and he wasn’t sober enough to enjoy it. The dude would be all sorts of remorseful in the morning.

“You did. I don’t give a shit you don’t remember me. You better tell me you didn’t invite that bitch who sent out an image of my girl and her man in a private moment here? Where my girl is? Where her man is? And where her brother resides? Tell me you didn’t do that.”

Liam’s mouth was hanging open. He was gawking at her.

Carl sighed, shaking his head. “Oh, man. Here it comes.”

Liam said, “I’m usually chill, but fuck—you’re hot.”

Carl sighed again. “There it went.”

Carl seemed like a good bud.

I poked him in the shoulder. “Hey.” I nodded at Liam. “Get him out of here. He’s inviting people who want to hurt me. I have guards around me for reasons, so that’s not going to go over well.”

He looked around.

I didn’t know if he took in the guards or if he remembered them from earlier, but he nodded super-duper quick-like. “I got him. And for the record”—he leaned close—“he’s only being this way because he saw how Melissa wants to bone your brother. He’s in the feels, if you know what I mean.”

Carl really was chill. I would’ve liked him in another universe.

I nodded, stepping back from him. “Still not cool.”

“I know.” His hand came to Liam’s shoulders, and right there proved how beyond Liam was, because Liam had no clue.