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

Guy had his arm around one of the girls, sitting on the inside of the booth.

Chester was lounging back, another on his lap.

And Tony—I didn’t want to even look. He had tugged a third behind the corner, and I knew she was kneeling, but they couldn’t be doing what it looked like they were doing. They were out of eyesight from us, but not from the rest of the club. Though the club was darker than normal that night. Torie came over with drinks and mentioned they had a lighting emergency.

Tony was probably taking advantage. So gross.

“It seems intense,” Matt was saying, but his gaze kept going past my shoulders. I was at the end of the booth, and he had a perfect view of the tables surrounding the dance floor. I wasn’t going to take bets that he was eye-fucking a girl and that soon after he left the table he’d be screwing her for real. It’s what my brother did. Even if he said he was going for drinks for everyone, I knew not to believe him. He would go for drinks and would bring them back, but the time from leaving to coming back would depend on how long it took for him to get with the girl.

We’d had family dinner with Cyclone and Seraphina at the main estate earlier tonight. Marie was still gone, which was odd. Marie ran the place. Her being gone, super weird. My mom was there, but distracted through the entire dinner. Kash was still in meetings. Same with Peter, so it ended up being a sibling dinner with their aunt.

The aunt.

That was it.

I didn’t know her name. I kept forgetting to ask Kash and Matt. Then she was walking into the room and I expected her to introduce herself. Nothing. She shook my hand when I introduced myself, and stood behind Seraphina with an almost sad smile on her face.

She was pretty.

I remembered the slight heart attack I had when I first saw her, walking behind Cyclone and Seraphina when I FaceTimed them. She looked so much like Quinn, it’d been hard to see her.

I’d hoped that effect would go away, but it hadn’t.

The hairs on the back of my neck were permanently standing upright the whole time during dinner. It was the second time I’d seen Cyclone and Seraphina in person. Everyone waited, giving me two weeks to heal. They were going to give me more, but I’d had it with everything. I was fine. I would be fine. Let me get on with my life.

But that wasn’t the same deal with my two younger siblings. Every time I wanted to go see them, they weren’t available. There were lots of family therapist meetings for them, and if they weren’t in those, then they were with other trauma specialists or divorce therapists. It was a bit of overkill—bad wording there, but that’s what I thought.

Then again, maybe I couldn’t judge. It hadn’t been my mom who tried to kill my half sister. So tonight I had high hopes of really getting some bonding time in.

And I wanted to hear if they were already talking about AI in there, too.

I was relieved that, by the end of our pizza, he had never mentioned AI at all, just that the older guys had been super friendly and curious about me. Seraphina seemed happy, too. Lots of smiling and laughing. Matt kept teasing her about the guys in her grade. He kept mentioning an E.J. and she kept blushing. Her whole face was a tomato by the end of the dinner.

The aunt was there, always there.

The official reason was that she was there to help take care of Seraphina and Cyclone, but she was lurking. Sitting. Staring. Actually seeming nice when I looked at her, but I couldn’t look at her. I just saw Quinn.

Breathe, babe. Breathe.

I was breathing.

I was fine.

Quinn was not there anymore, and though her sister seemed nice, I had to bail. Matt was cool with it, so we came to Naveah after, and now there were two drinks in for me, three for Matt, and a couple shots for the others.

I stopped talking and waited.

It took a second before Matt blinked, his eyes finding mine again. “What were you saying?”

“Right.” I was grinning. “Go. Do your thing.”

He was quiet a second, measuring me. “You won’t be mad?”

“Matt.” I gave him a look. “You’ve been eye-fucking someone over there this entire time. I doubt you heard a word I said.” I nodded again, jerking my head behind me. “Go. Do your thing. Have fun.”

“You sure? You did have your first day of classes today…” But he so wanted to go. I could see it, and I heard it in how his voice trailed off.

Another look from me.

“Right.” He laughed, dipped his head down, and knocked on the table. “Then let me out, sis.”

As he passed me, his phone buzzed. He checked it before showing me the screen, saying at the same time, “Sit tight. Your man is on the way.”

The text was from Kash.

Heading there now. Bailey okay?

Matt paused, his back turned to me now as he sent a response. Then he shoved his phone back into his pocket. He gave me a last wink over his shoulder, grabbed his drink, and turned to head down the stairs connecting our booth with the rest of the club.

“Francis! What the hell, man?” That was from Guy, his hands lifted in the air, but with a smirk on his face.

Matt just grinned. “You know where I’m going.” He motioned to me with his drink. “Watch my sister for me. Her man’s on the way.”

Guy’s eyes darted to me. His smirk never lessened, and he lifted his head up in response. “You know it.”