“Stay away from him,” Nash growled angrily. “You better get the fuck off our campus right now!”
“Relax, we were just about to invite you guys for a drink,” the brown-haired one continued to laugh, holding up his hands while looking at his brothers.
Emely crossed her arms and gave him a hostile look. “Which we gratefully decline.”
The DeLoughrey raised his brows, unimpressed yet curious before smirking at Emely as if this was all a game.
“Your sister?” he asked Nash, eyeing Emely closely. “She’s quite sassy.”
Emely blinked at him dismissively and Nash, I knew, was about to explode.
The black-haired DeLoughrey seemed to notice that, too, because he stepped forward.
“We have no intention of disobeying your rules, as long as you leave us alone.”
It sounded anything but compliant, more like a threatening, hostile statement.
Nash seemed to consider, then stepped toward him and lowered his voice. “You know I don’t give a shit? I don’t want you here.”
I swallowed.
“That’s right, get the fuck out of here!” Noah bellowed behind him.
Miles drank from his drink and raised both brows. “How rude.”
And in the next instant, his fist sped forward into Nash’s face.
I winced, and a murmur went through the bar.
“Damn it, Miles!” The black-haired man roared, and was already about to pull this Miles backwards, when Nash’s fist flew at Miles, hitting him right on the nose.
Miles stumbled back.
Students jumped up and backed away. Jenny held up her iPad, probably to film.
“Nash!” Emely gasped, and she went to pull her brother out of the ring that had somehow formed, but someone pulled her back. Hunter.
To get a better look, I stood up, still holding Larissa’s bottle, and made my way through the crowd.
“Not bad, Copeland,” Miles laughed, straightening up with a bloody nose, only to deliver another unpredictable punch to Nash’s chin.
I held a hand in front of my mouth, and before I could hesitate, I stumbled forward into the circle and leaned down to Nash.
“Nash?”
Nash snapped his eyes open and stared at me, literally piercing me with his gaze. Now I could see those beautiful eyes again. Only at this very moment did I realize how much I had longed for them.
Suddenly, Nash pushed me aside and jumped up on his own.
“Stay away from me, Madelin.”
Madelin.
My heart stopped.
Madelin.
“I just wanted to-” I stammered out, overwhelmed.
“I don’t need your pity.” He pressed out with a desperate look. “Are you spying on me again?”
Exhausted and humiliated by these accusations, it took me some seconds to find the appropriate words, but nothing came out. And then Ezra appeared next to us.
“Hey. What’s going on?” He stepped toward Nash. “I told you to stay away from my sister!”
Nash looked back and forth between me and him, turned away from me, and finally hit the table next to him, making me wince again.
Ezra wheeled around to face me. “Mady, you better go.”
It sounded cold. Like it wasn’t my brother who said it, but that black-haired DeLoughrey. And everything about this situation, Nash’s look, his words, his guys’ looks, and my brother’s pitch sent me stumbling backwards and finally out of the bar into the night, upset.
Tears burned in my eyes, but luckily for me, I wasn’t alone, or I would have broken my most important principle.
“Shit, I didn’t mean to get you involved,” someone cursed, and I realized it was that Miles DeLoughrey guy.
I saw the glass in his hand, and before I could really think, I reached for it.
“This will...” he began, but it was already too late. I spat out the sweet liquid. “...not satisfy you.”
