“It was spontaneous.” I held up my hands and shook my head, inching up to her. “Nate was at Madoc’s house, and Jax and I went over to confront him.”

“You threatened him? What were you thinking?” she accused. “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “I appreciate the gesture, but it’s not worth it. Now everyone’s talking about us again, Jared. They all know what this is about.”

I looked around and—yes—people were eyeing us again. Talking and laughing, not to mention whispering. The grins weren’t snide or spiteful, but it was still talk.

And Tate was sick of it.

“Why didn’t you take me with you?” she asked.

I lifted my shoulders a bit and exhaled a bitter laugh. “It seemed like a bad idea to put you back in that mess. You’ve been through too much. I didn’t want you to get emotional—”

“Emotional?” Her voice erupted like an air horn in the otherwise hushed hallway.

Glancing around, I inched closer, feeling my nerves heat up with her obvious anger. “That’s not what I meant—”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this this morning?” Her wall was up, and I stood there in f**king awe of how close I’d been to her a moment ago. “Another video, Jared!” she burst out. “I should’ve known about this.”

“I didn’t know it was being recorded!”

What the hell? Why was she mad? If anything, she should’ve been happy that I defended her honor! Of course, Nate walked away without a scratch, but the video cut off as my blade went in his face. People would assume the worst until Nate showed up to verify that he was fine.

Tate was overreacting, because she didn’t know what had happened.

“That’s the same excuse you used last time!” she retorted.

“‘Excuse?’” Was she really implying that I knew about the sex video? “You’re blowing up about nothing. Again! Just like my f**king car!”

I ran my hand through my hair and blew out a breath.

“Look.” My teeth were bared, and my voice was low. “K.C. brought Nate over to Madoc’s house last night—”

“K.C. was in on this?” she interrupted. “And not me? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Oh, for f**k’s sake.

“I didn’t have a chance,” I gritted out, waving my hand. “You crept into my room and jumped on my c**k so fast this morning—”

“Ugh!” she growled and slammed her knee right between my legs.

I hunched forward and fell to one knee.

Shit, shit, shit … I moaned as a white hot pain shot through my groin.

Jesus Christ, Tate!

My eyes squeezed shut, and I breathed in and out quickly, trying to keep my legs from collapsing underneath me.

My f**king dick was on fire and nausea rolled through my stomach in waves. Holy mother…

I sucked in breath after breath, trying not to vomit…or cry.

Tate was gone. I didn’t see her leave, but I felt her absence.

And there I was. Alone, and stupid in a hallway full of people I couldn’t see, because I was blurry-eyed and shaking.

Tatum Fucking Brandt.

She was going to kill me.

Chapter 41

Weight hit my shoulder, and I sank forward a little farther.

“She does that well, doesn’t she?”

Madoc.

He helped me up, and I leaned against the lockers, trying to stay upright. The initial shock had passed, but I was still in bad shape.

That sucked, and I never wanted to feel that again.

“The video?” I grunted, wanting to sound tough but my voice cracked like I was almost in tears.

“Your brother.” He nodded. “I saw him catch the show on his phone last night when you weren’t paying attention, but I had no idea what he was doing with it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Until this morning when he emailed it to me.”

“Goddamn, you two,” I cursed. “And you thought it would be a good idea to send that to everyone?”

“Yeah.” He nodded resolutely, his eyes lighting up. “I thought it was a perfect idea to send it to everyone. Let them see that piece of shit whimpering. Give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“Well, Tate’s blaming me now.”

“Well…” he started laughing, “I didn’t know she’d react like that, but you knew you had that coming, right?”

He was laughing? Yeah, this was real f**kin’ funny.

“She overreacted.” I stood up straight, trying to nonchalantly massage my dick back to life in a hallway full of people. “I took the high road last night. Besides, after what that dickhead did, did she really think I was going to do nothing? And why did it bother her anyway?”

The questions just kept coming. Tate shouldn’t have been that angry.

Sweat covered my neck and back, and I felt like chasing her down and throwing her over my shoulder.

“Tate’s got baggage, thanks to us. Trust issues,” Madoc continued and walked around in front of me. “Look.” He lowered his eyes and shook his head. “Normally, I couldn’t care less about who you screwed or what kind of trouble you got yourself into. I’ve sat back and let you self-destruct. But Tate? She’s our shortie. Now, go fix your shit.”

I watched him walk away, more and more baffled by how my friend continued to surprise me.

Was he right?