A small smile touched his lips and he winked before walking over and taking a seat at a table by himself.
“Grant’s back in town for the summer. He seems different though,” Bethy said, apparently thinking the same thing I was.
“Yeah, he seems off,” I agreed.
“You play with fire and you get burned. Nan is all kinds of screwed up. She had to fuck with his head. I still can’t believe they were messing around though,” Bethy whispered.
“Nan came by the other day,” I said, looking back at Bethy then Della. “She still hates me.”
Bethy sniffed. “Who cares? Bitch.”
Della’s eyes went wide and I realized we were talking about people she didn’t know. It was rude.
“So, Della, I’ve been gone and I missed all the action. Tell me how exactly did you meet Woods? By working here?”
Della shook her head and smirked. “Not exactly. We met back in September... it was... kind of a one-night stand,” she said her cheeks turning bright pink.
This was going to be juicier than I thought. “Oh, this sounds fun,” I replied and leaned forward to hear the rest of it.
***
Nate was now taking a bottle. Bethy’s aunt, and my old boss, Darla had agreed to babysit for us so we could go down to the club’s bonfire tonight. It was the kick off to the summer season and it was a members’ only event. Rush hadn’t wanted to go but Bethy had called and begged. I felt guilty for not having enough time to spend with her anymore so I’d talked him into it.
Tomorrow was my doctor’s appointment and Rush’s patience was very thin. I was expecting him to go with me then attack me in the parking lot. I wouldn’t complain but I wasn’t going to give him any ideas.
Grant had called to see if we were going and so had Woods. He’d wanted to see if I would help keep Della company in case he had to deal with anything during the bonfire. Bethy was also supposed to be sticking close to her. They’d become friends, which only confirmed my belief that she’d be a good friend. Bethy was picky.
The fire was larger than any other bonfires on the beach because the city couldn’t control what happened on club property the way they could on the public beach. Bethy had said this party was the ‘don’t miss’ of the season. Which sounded good to me. Rush and I needed to get out.
“You sure you don’t want to go change into something else before we get out of this car?” Rush asked, looking over at me.
Frowning, I looked down at my new outfit. I’d bought it last week. It was a white linen skirt that hit mid thigh and a pale yellow off the shoulder top that just met the waist of my skirt. It only flashed skin if I raised my arms. “You said that at the house. Do you not like it?” Maybe my body wasn’t ready for me to wear something like this yet.
Rush grabbed my chin and locked his gaze with mine. “You’re mouthwatering, Blaire. I don’t like knowing that other men are looking at you.”
Oh. Well, in that case. “I am sure I don’t want to change. I like it when you get all possessive. Turns me on,” I told him with a wink and opened my door.
“You’re killing me, woman,” he said with a slam of his door.
Rush reached down and took my hand in his as we walked down to the beach. The sun had already set but the bonfire lit up our path once we got halfway. Bethy was waving at us and jumping up and down as soon as we stepped into the light.
“Guess she wants us to come over there,” Rush said with an amused tone.
“Good guess,” I replied.
Bethy was already three sheets to the wind when we got over to them. Jace only rolled his eyes when she staggered over to hug me. She smelled like tequila. “Hey you, you’re late!”
“No, they’re not. You just started drinking the hard stuff right off the bat and now you’re too drunk to know how long we’ve been here,” Jace piped up from his seat. He also looked a little annoyed with her.
I glanced around for Della but I didn’t see her. “Where’s Della and Woods?” I asked Bethy who smiled at me like she had no idea who I was talking about.
“I saw them a little bit ago but Woods had to deal with some of the staff smoking pot. Not sure what happened to Della,” Jace said.
Crap. We were supposed to be watching out for Della. “I might need to go look for her,” I whispered to Rush.
“I’ll go with you. Not sure I want you walking around alone,” he said.
“No. Just sit and visit with Jace. Get a drink. I’m just going to make one big sweep of the area and come back. You don’t have to come with me.”
Rush frowned and I pushed him toward the free chair beside Jace. “Go,” I ordered and looked back at Bethy. “I’m gonna go find Della,” I told her.
“Me too! I wanna go too!” Bethy said, raising her hand like she was in school.
“Nope. Your drunk ass is staying right here,” Jace replied.
Bethy stuck out her bottom lip and plopped down on Jace’s lap. “You’re no fun,” she whined.
I didn’t wait on her to ask again. I turned and made my way down closer to the fire. I saw several familiar faces. I got a hug from Jimmy and met his date for the night but I still didn’t see Della. I circled around and headed up to the outer reaches of the bonfire light to see if she was hiding in the darkness. I didn’t see anyone.
I started to turn around and head back to Rush when I heard a high pitched voice screeching. It wasn’t a frightened voice, more like one that was upset about something. I took a step closer to the parking lot and heard another voice, definitely female and very southern trying to calm the other voice down. I glanced back in the direction I’d left Rush but he didn’t see me.
I headed back to the parking lot following the voices. The closer I got I could make out more words. There wasn’t anyone in the parking lot so where were they? I walked over to where we had parked our car and stopped.
“No, please. Just, talk to Woods. I didn’t do anything. I swear. Don’t, ohgod.” The softer voice was scared.
“I’m done talking to Woods. You took what was mine. He chose you. Fine. He can have your skanky crazy ass. But first you’re gonna fucking pay for taking what was mine.” A loud slap and a cry of pain followed her words. “Hurts, don’t it, bitch? You’re a psycho. Why Woods thinks you can make him happy I don’t know. He’ll learn. He will fucking learn to screw with me,” the angry female said again and another cry of pain came from who I now knew was Della. I had no idea who the other woman was but she was hurting Della. I thought about going to get Rush but then she could have seriously hurt her by then.
I didn’t need Rush. I wasn’t sure who the psycho was but I could handle her. I reached into my purse and pulled out my key and quietly unlocked the door. Slipping my hand under the seat, I pulled out my gun and made sure the clip was empty then checked the safety.
I didn’t intend to shoot anyone. No need for it to be loaded. I just needed to scare the bully off and then call Woods. Hopefully, she hadn’t hurt Della too bad. Another cry from Della made me move faster. I followed the voices around a building.
I saw the other woman first. She was holding Della by the hair of her head and calling her crazy again. She was real hung up on the fact she thought Della was crazy. This bitch was pissing me off.
I held the gun and pointed it at the woman before letting her know she had company.
“Let her go,” I said and watched as the woman spun around still holding Della’s hair.. Della let out another sob.
“What the fuck?” the woman said, looking at me like I was the one who was crazy.
“Let go of her hair and step away from her,” I said, loud and clear so she didn’t misunderstand.