Chapter 52

Noah

I needed these girls to piss right off now. Trouble is, I couldn’t think of a polite way to say that.

Knox didn’t do polite.

“Nice to meet you,” he said to the three of them, his tone making clear that wasn’t actually the case. “We’re gonna go and play pool now.”

“Ooh doubles?” the brunette said. Was it Saffron or Amber, I couldn’t remember.

“Singles,” he said and then turned without saying another thing.

“He doesn’t play well with others.”

Why the hell was I babbling that out? I felt bad because I knew exactly what this was. Dave’s leer our way had made that clear. He’d invited the girls to the pub, no doubt geeing them up into thinking we were interested in meeting women, when he knew otherwise. It was that manipulation that had me trying to explain things to the girls without actually saying what the story was. I wanted to stand there with my arm around Millie, for all of us to declare our relationship to the entire pub and send the women scuttling, but that’s not what we’d agreed to. Dave exploited that need for secrecy now, smirking into his beer.

“Anyway, have a good night.”

What the hell did Dave tell these girls? Because after a brief conversation amongst themselves, they came strolling over to the pool table Knox was setting up.

Only to be intercepted by Charlie.

“Excuse me, ladies.” He cut them off at the pass. “Looks like this pool table is taken, but there’s a free one over there.”

He should’ve had their attention. Girls usually took a first, second, and third look at Charlie, but their collective focus narrowed down on Millie. I made a small angry sound, ready to step forward if things got nasty, but that’s not what happened. The women retracted back to the closest table, sitting down to watch us play.

“We wanted to tell them to piss off,” I hissed at Millie as soon as she got in earshot.

“I was just about to.” Knox frowned as he chalked the end of his cue. “That’s why I came over here, but they followed us.”

“I saw what was going down and figured Godzilla had more pressing matters to attend to,” Charlie added.

Millie snorted, then smiled, and I felt a rush of relief, sure this was going to scare her off. Instead, she just grabbed the cue Knox passed her and shook her head.

“This is all bullshit.” She looked back to where the blonde was plastered against Dave. Rhett stared at the girl and then our colleague with a growing frown. “It’s just a set up. Dave’s trying to push our buttons.” She marched around to the white ball and leaned down low to take her shot, the three of us letting out a little groan in response. Her arse looked so fucking perfect. “And we’re not going to let him succeed.”

“But we might at this game of pool.” Charlie said to Millie as he shook his head. “Damn, babe, I didn’t know you were a shark.”

She expertly potted two more balls before straightening up.

“Your turn.”

She didn’t specify who, and both Knox and I stepped forward at her command, then looked at each other sheepishly. In the end, I took the next go, deliberately positioning myself as close as I could to Millie, even though it wasn’t the easiest shot.

“So you’re cool with this?”

“Are you?” she muttered under her breath. “Those girls are gorgeous.”

“I didn’t notice.” I leaned down and took my shot but just sent the white ball spinning uselessly, barely tapping the one I was after. “I never do. There’s only one girl for me, you know that.”

“I do now.” She pulled away from me and nodded to Charlie. “It’s your shot.”

“Hopefully they get the bloody point now.” Knox came to stand beside us, scowling openly at the girls. “I was pretty bloody rude to them.”

“Which means there’s something going on here,” Millie growled, but not at the girls. She stared at Dave until he turned around, nodding in our direction. “I knew I should’ve nailed him harder in the nuts when he didn’t vomit afterwards.”

We all started to chuckle as Charlie leaned over to take his shot. The girls’ focus sharpened, following his every move. The girl with that brown hair that’s dyed to fade into blonde slid off her chair and sauntered forward. She watched him pot one ball, then another before sliding over to lean on the pool table cushion.

“Hi…”

“Um… hey.” Charlie moved away from her, taking another shot, but she followed like a lion on the hunt.

“I’m Savannah.”

“Uh huh.”

“Do you want to junk punch Dave now or shall I?” Knox asked Millie, watching the woman chase Charlie around the table with a frown.

“Or we could tackle the situation head on.”

Millie left her cue leaning against the table, moving smoothly to take the spot next to Charlie. He let out a little sigh when she was close. Our girl thrust her hand out, forcing Savannah to deal with her.

“Hey, I’m Millie.” Savannah just stared at her hand. “Did you want the table next so you and your friends can play? Usually, you just leave a gold coin on the cushion.”

“We’re not here to play pool,” Savannah said with a slight sneer and went to step past Millie, but our girl shifted sideways to intercept her.

“Then what are you here for? Charlie’s potted enough balls that he’s not going to have to drop his trousers and run around the table bare-arsed, so that can’t be why. Though…” She slapped her hand down on Charlie’s arse and the dickhead gave a theatrical shiver. “I can understand why you’d be so keen to see this in all its glory.”

Savannah took a step backwards, her lip curling into an attitude of disgust, but Charlie turned to Millie.

“Spank me harder next time.”

“Oh my god, what kind of brother-sister relationship is this?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

I was walking around the table and so was Knox, converging on Savannah, which had her friends joining her, ready to back her up.

“Aren’t you her brothers?” Savannah asked, pointing at the three of us.

“No.”

“So you’re not super protective of them and trying to ruin their chances at happiness,” the brunette said to Millie.

“No.”

Savannah sighed before looking back at Dave. “That prick.”

“What did ‘that prick’ say?”

Knox folded his arms, making clear that he wanted answers and now.

“Amber started dating that idiot a week ago,” Savannah explained. “We keep telling her she can do better, but apparently he love bombed her into oblivion.”

“Amber always has had terrible taste in men,” the petite girl with long, black hair said, tossing it over her shoulder. “Half the time we come along on dates just to stop her from doing something stupid.”

“‘David,’” Savannah said his name like it was a kind of poison or something, “said that there were some guys at his work that were seriously hot.” Her eyes slid down Charlie’s body again until Millie stepped between them with a meaningful look. “With an overbearing sister who always cock blocked them. He asked us to come to the pub and see if we could help.”

“That dickhead…”

My hands were forming fists, just as they had when I heard what Dave had tried to do with Millie, but this time he was within punching range. A fight would get us banned from this place, but it’d be worth it.

“You’re not their sister,” the brunette said, pointing at Millie. “Oh my god, you're the girlfriend, right?” Millie nodded. “I am so, so sorry. We’re totally girls-girls.” She turned to her friends and they all nodded empathically. “We’d never make a move on another woman’s man. So which one’s yours?”

“Um…”

Millie’s pause was telling, and the girls’ eyebrows shot to their hairlines before they all started laughing.

“All of them?” Savannah looked at us with fresh eyes. “Damn, girl, show me your ways.”

“It’s something we’re keeping really, really quiet,” Millie said as she eyed the room around us. “We all work at the same place.”

“Say no more.” The brunette mimed locking her lips. “Well, enjoy yourself and your harem of hotties, because we’ve got another job to do.”

“Amber needs a wakeup call, stat,” Savannah said.

“She’s leaving, even if I have to drag her out by her hair,” the girl with the black hair said. “She deserves better.”

“All women do.” Millie stood taller, then stared across the room at Dave. “If he’s been dating your friend for a week, that means he tried it on with me during that time.” Her focus swung back to them. “And he looked like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. You need to get your friend the hell away from him.”

“On it.”

Savannah and her friends didn’t say anything more, striding across the room. Dave looked shocked, then irritated, and my hand gripped the cue tighter when I saw him grab Amber’s arm.

My eyes suddenly became laser sharp, catching the way her flesh dimpled, the skin going white around it. A little look of pain had my teeth grinding together. No, no fucking way was he getting away with this shit, I thought furiously, because I knew what this was like. To have someone stronger, harder, faster hurting you, and even when you tried to jerk yourself away, you failed. That powerlessness threatened to overwhelm me, shove me right back to high school, but I knew I wasn’t there. I was big enough, strong enough, to put Dave down, and that’s just what I’d do.

Only for Millie to stand in my way.

“He wants a scene.” Her voice was cool and calm right when I was feeling anything but. “A fight would be even better. If you lose your shit at him, then he can blame anything else that comes up at work on the fact that you obviously hate him.”

I didn’t want to listen. I shook my head, as if that would dislodge her cool reasoning, but it didn’t. My eyes went to her, always to Millie.

“He can’t keep getting away with this shit.” I tried to keep my tone civil but failed. “He can’t keep having a crack at you, Millie.”

I wanted to get close to her, hold her against me and press my lips to her hair. I wanted to breathe her in, feel her against me. It was only then I’d be able to slow my heart rate, convince myself that everything was OK.

“He can’t, but right now…” She turned around in time to see a very angry group of women berating Dave so loudly, hands waving, that he was forced to down his beer and scuttle away like the rat he was. “He’s got other problems. Those girls look like they could take him out in the car park, whereas you…”

She moved and placed all the balls back in the triangle, setting them up for a new game.

“Need to see if you can win this game.” She removed the triangle and hit the white ball, potting several balls straight away. “We’ll play this as a round robin. Whoever ends up beating me gets to take me home tonight.”

Suddenly I couldn’t have given the slightest shit about Dave. I grabbed my cue and went to survey the table.