“Stop it!” Katya yelled, running up to their side and grabbing someone's, anyone's, arm. “Stop it, that is my parents car you're scratching and denting! Stop being ridiculous!”
She managed to wiggle in between them, though she wasn't sure she was helping matters. She got jostled around as they all stumbled all over the garage. She yelped and shouted, pushing at chests and pulling at clothing. Having absolutely no effect at all, though at least being in the way seemed to make it harder for them to throw anymore punches.
The way my luck has been going, I'm going to get hit in the face.
Luckily, she didn't have to wait for that to happen. She was aware of someone shouting, then Wulf was abruptly yanked away from the mix. Liam had wrapped an arm around her at some point, and he held on tight, keeping her from falling over.
When she looked up, she was shocked to see her father there. Standing behind Wulf, one hand gripping his arm, the other the back of his t-shirt. He looked equal parts shocked and pissed off, his eyes bouncing between all of them.
“I don't even want to know what's going on, but it ends right now. You two are guests in my home,” he growled through clenched teeth. “I won't tolerate this behavior.”
“I'm so sorry, Dad. I -” Katya started, but her father shook his head, silencing her.
“Not right now. Right now, I'm too angry to talk about this. All three of you need to go separate ways,” he informed them. Katya pulled herself free of Liam, skittering away. When no one else moved, her dad took a deep breath. “I said NOW.”
Humiliated at not only being treated like a child, but at having acted like one, Katya felt her face turn bright red. She nodded her head, but it was Liam who moved first. He stormed out of the garage, striding out of sight around the door frame.
Wulf was guided by Mr. Tocci's hand through a side door into the house, and Katya was left alone. Feeling small and embarrassed and ashamed of herself. She waited a couple minutes, then she went through the door to the house, too. Slowly made her way through the living room, hurried down the hallway, then dashed up the stairs. When she got to her room, she slammed her door shut and leaned back against it. She was breathing so hard, she was almost hyperventilating.
“What just happened?” she whispered to herself. “What the hell am I doing? What am I doing!?”
17
Liam strode across Katya's backyard, ignoring all the strange looks he was getting. He didn't like being rude or making people uncomfortable, but if he stopped to smile, or tried to talk, all the rage that was still rushing through his veins would come pouring out his mouth.
He wound up circling around the house till he came to a glass door that led into the kitchen. He wasn't sure where he was going – he was now surrounded by middle aged women drinking wine. He smiled tightly at all of them, then remembered his moment with Katya in the pantry, a couple hours earlier. It was a good sized room off the very back corner of the kitchen, next to a stack of recycling tubs.
He headed into it, slamming the door shut behind him. Then he leaned over the large utility sink, taking several deep breaths. As he looked down, he saw that his knuckles were bleeding. A misplaced punch had landed squarely on Mr. Tocci's Lexus. He hissed and turned on the water, running his hand under the stream.
“That looks bad.”
Liam spun around so quickly, he knocked over a bucket and mop, causing them to slam to the ground. He glanced down at them, then back up at his intruder.
A woman was sitting at an odd angle on a step ladder in the corner, her hands behind her back. She must have been there the whole time – he'd intruded on her, actually. He didn't recognize her, hadn't met her over the course of the barbecue. He assumed she was a friend of Katya's.
“Sorry,” he finally grumbled. “I didn't know anyone was in here.”
“I'm hiding out. Looks like you're doing the same thing,” she said, nodding at his hands.
“Yeah. Just needed … a moment,” he managed to say, reaching over and grabbing a towel.
“Not a fan of family functions?” she asked. He chuckled while he dried off his hands.
“This isn't my family, and no, I'm not the biggest fan of this function.”
“Tell me about it. Need to relax?” she asked. He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.
“Uh … what did you have in mind?” he was curious. She smiled and moved her hands to her lap. She had a joint between two fingers, a thin trail of smoke curling up from one end. He'd interrupted her little smoke fest.
“The way you came bursting in here, I thought you were busting me,” she said, then took a long drag from the joint. As she inhaled, she stood up and turned around, picking up a purse from the floor. Since she'd been sitting down, he hadn't realized how small she was – she had to have been a foot shorter than him. But goddamn, she had the most amazing ass he'd ever seen. He was openly staring at it when she turned back around. She was holding her breath and holding the joint out to him.
“You know what? Yeah, fuck today,” he sighed, then he took a hit. She nodded and puffed out the smoke.
“Tell me about it. Some days just can't end soon enough,” she groaned, shoving her hair over her shoulder.
“I was having a good time, till this,” he said in a tight voice as he held the smoke in his lungs. He held up his bloodied hand, then exhaled.
“How'd that happen?” she asked.
“Hit a car.”
“What did the car do to you?”
“Nothing. I was trying to hit an asshole,” he explained, taking one more drag from the roll before handing it back. She smirked at him and delicately ground out the cherry on the joint.
“Looks like you missed,” she told him, dropping the roach into a small canister before shoving it into her purse.
“I'll get my chance again later,” he assured her.
“Let's hope you have better aim by then.”
He frowned. At first glance, she had seemed nice. At second and third glance, she had definitely seemed sexy. But now she was coming across as kind of bitchy, and bitchy was the quickest way to look ugly, in his opinion.
“Look, I didn't mean to intrude, Miss ...” he fished for her name.
“Halsey,” she answered.
“Your name is Halsey?”
“Miss Halsey,” she corrected him. “So who was the asshole?”
“Some guy,” he sighed. “Wulfric Stone.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh god. My next question was gonna be did he deserve it, but now I know the answer.”
“Not a fan?”
“He's pretty much the biggest asshole I know. We go back a long time, though we haven't seen each other in years,” she told him, pulling a phone out of her back pocket and glancing at it.
“So if you don't like Wulf, and don't like parties, what are you doing here?” Liam asked. She ignored him, scrolling down her screen. “Are you Katya's friend?” More silence. “Did you go to school with Wulf?” Nada. He sighed. “You know what? I've had a bad fucking day, and I'm all full up on dealing with assholes, so if you'll excuse me, I've got a revenge fight to plan, and a girl to beg forgiveness from, so thanks for the toke.”