Betrayal - The Matlock Pack: Book Two

Chapter 12_Part 1 - Bells

Friday 22 January

~*Bells*~

“You’ve got to stop torturing yourself, man. Live in the now.”

Owen took another bite of his burger and cast his eyes around the darkened bar. He grinned eagerly when he saw Briar, Rowan, and Kadin sitting in the back. “It’s much more fun.”

I rolled my eyes at him and sighed in exasperation. “Don’t you ever get sick of chasing tail?” I grumbled. I was so tired of watching him approach a new girl every damn week.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you kidding? I’m living every guy’s dream over here!” He looked towards Briar with eager eyes, almost salivating. “The things some of these girls let you do to ‘em, man. They let you get away with almost anything.” Briar must have felt Owen’s eyes on her as she turned around in her seat, looked straight at him and gave him a ‘come hither’ grin.

I held my burger up to my mouth to hide my gagging. I didn’t need three guesses to see that they were going to be ending up together by the end of the night. Didn’t even need two. Although, I had to admit that it surprised me a little that he was after Briar again, and so soon. Owen was vividly descriptive earlier in the week as to what the two of them had got up to last Friday night. Being such a small town, he had to swing back to past f***s if he wanted to keep getting laid, but there’d always been a month or so between re-visits. A week’s turnaround was highly unusual.

“Oh, man. I can feel my d**k getting hard already,” he was muttering, still staring at Briar. “I wonder if she’ll let me fist her tonight. We were so close last week…” He startled when the burger he’d been slowly strangling in his hands while he was lost to his memories fell apart and dropped in his lap. “f**k!”

He was lucky we were such good friends, because he really was a right arse at times. I shoved more of the burger into my mouth while he grabbed a bunch of napkins to clear the mess he’d made. I tuned him out and chewed slowly to give myself more time to listen to the conversation going on behind me without being interrupted by the i***t opposite me.

It was great that it was such a quiet night at the bar tonight. Nat and Mac’s voices weren’t totally clear, but I could still make out the gist of their conversation. It was beyond obvious that Mac was trying to flirt with her, but she wasn’t giving him much in response. I let out a shallow sigh of relief at that, but jealousy still flared up and down my spine that someone other than me was interested in her.

Not that I had anyone to blame for my current predicament other than myself, nor could I blame someone else for approaching her. She’d still be mine if I hadn’t dumped her, if I had visited her at the hospital, if she didn’t have a male wolf…

If wishes were horses… If, if, if…

A french-fry hit me on the forehead, breaking me out of my melancholy. I glared at Owen, who simply put his hands up in a ‘what’ gesture, a frown gracing his forehead. “What the f**k, dude?” I picked up the offending fry and lobbed it back at him, where it smacked him on the shirt and bounced back to the tabletop, skidding to a stop just past his plate.

“Will you snap out of whatever funk has got you by the short and curlies? For f**k’s sake, Bells, it’s not like someone died.” He left the fry abandoned and picked up a handful more to shove into his mouth. “You dumped her. Move on.”

“It’s not that easy…”

“Sure it is,” he said, rolling his eyes at my words. “One snatch is much the same as another. Just find another warm body to lay your pipe for the night. A one-night stand’ll do you the world of good.” He popped more fries into his mouth and looked around the bar again, almost like he was hunting.

A low snarl rumbled from my throat as my vision turned red. My fingers twitched as I tried desperately to hold on to my sanity before I ripped his throat out.

After what seemed like hours, Owen finally turned his attention back to me. As soon as he registered how pissed I was, he held his hands up in surrender, his eyes as wide as saucers. “All right, all right. Jeez, cunt, chill. I’m just trying to help you out.”

The tinge of red in my eyesight gradually disappeared as I breathed through my rage. “That was a step too far, Owen.”

“No f*****g s**t,” he grumbled, letting his breath out slowly through his clenched teeth, his attention on the tabletop between us to avoid my glare. “I’m just saying, if you want her back that badly, you need to at least stop being the sad sack that you’ve been for the past week and talk to her.” He leaned back into the corner of the booth, letting his left arm rest along the seatback and his right elbow on the tabletop.

“I haven’t been a sad sack.”

He raised both his eyebrows as he looked at me incredulously, dropping his right arm onto the table and letting out a thud. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m just giving her space.” I didn’t know who I was trying to convince. Even I didn’t believe that.

“Oh, you’re giving her plenty of space,” Owen said, chuckling darkly. “Oodles of space. But you’re eye-f*****g her from the periphery of said space like a sad sack of s**t every chance you get. It’s f*****g creepy, dude.”

I raised my eyebrow at that. “Creepy? You want to talk to me about creepy?” If this wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black.

He lifted a finger and waggled it at me. “Takes one to know one. The difference between you and me is that everyone knows I’m a creep. I’m not disappointing anyone by being anything different to what they expect. But you? You’ve always been the good guy.” He waved his finger around to indicate the rest of the bar. “You could have any woman in the bar right now and they’d know they’d be safe with you.” His eyes darkened when they returned to unflinchingly meet mine, his face becoming deadly serious. “But they wouldn’t, would they? Not right now.”

My teeth ground together as I glared back at him. “I don’t want anyone else, Owen. I’m just trying to repair things with her.”

“How the f**k do you think you’ll be able to repair anything if you can’t even say two words to her?” He picked up his beer, took a swig from it and placed it back on the tabletop to toy with it. “She’s sitting right behind you, being chatted up by someone decidedly not you, and all you could think to do was to send Murph over there to run interference.”

I grimaced. “She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

He let out a dark laugh. “f**k me sideways, dude. Have you even tried to talk to her since you dumped her?”

I let my head droop. As much as I was loath to admit, he wasn’t wrong. What was stopping me from simply trying to talk to her? Pride?

“That’s what I thought.” Owen sighed and shifted in his seat, so he was fully facing me. “Look. If you think you’ve f****d up, then own it. Fix it. Move forward.”

“I just want to go back to the way things were,” I mumbled, my hands ripping one of my napkins into little pieces.

“No can do, mate.” He lifted his beer for another gulp. “Life knows only one direction, and that’s forward.”

Laughter erupted behind me, and the sound made my heart twist with pain. Nat sounded so happy and carefree. In talking with Owen, I had lost track of what she was discussing with Mac, so I didn’t know what had made her laugh. It pained me that it wasn’t me who had made her happy.

Owen stared at me and sighed in resignation. “I’m sick of seeing you like this, man. Just say hi to her and see where things go from there.”

“I didn’t think you cared that much.”

He chuckled. “I don’t.” He turned his attention towards Briar and Kadin, who were leaving the back area of the bar. They’d be passing us on their way out, and it was obvious he wanted to nab Briar on her way past. “It’s purely selfish, I assure you. I want to be able to boast about kicking your arse in the sessions because I earned it, not because you’re so f*****g miserable, you give up as soon as we start.”

My lips pressed into a tight line as I stared at him. Only Murph knew about what I had gone through with Tatum, or how that affected the way I felt about Nat. I was still debating whether I should tell him when Briar and Kadin walked past.

Owen was out of his seat like a flash, making his way up behind Briar and wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her from the floor as she squealed, then burst out laughing. Kadin pivoted to see what had happened, immediately relaxing when she saw Owen. Putting her hands on her hips, she shook her head at their antics, a grin making its way across her face none-the-less.

I sat on the edge of my booth seat and watched this all unfold in front of me, realising that they were essentially in front of Nat’s booth.

“Come on, wench. Let’s go,” Owen growled in Briar’s ear, loud enough for everyone within a couple of metres to hear him. She cackled as he lifted her by the waist and carried her towards the front door, with Kadin following a couple of steps behind them.

I rolled my eyes and lifted myself from the seat to follow them out. I didn’t want to sit on my own in the booth. Sitting alone normally wouldn’t bother me, but I knew I’d end up forcing myself to eavesdrop on Nat and Mac if I remained, which would only torment me further. I glanced at Murph as I took a few steps forward to see what he was going to do.

“You’re leaving?” Murph asked, his arm slung easily around Cody’s shoulders.

I nodded, awkwardly letting my eyes roam the booth before resting on Nat. A sharp pain shot through my heart when I saw how close Mac was sitting next to her. “Hi Nat.” My words were soft, but as full of sincerity as I could make them.

A frosty silence was all I got in response. I gulped and turned my attention to the others in the booth. “Hi Mac, Cody.”

“Hi Bells,” Mac said, frowning slightly as he alternated his attention between me and Nat. He moved ever so slightly away from Nat, suddenly stiff and uncomfortable. I felt pretty sure he didn’t know about Nat and me, but he had always been a quick study. If he didn’t know before, he certainly knew now.

Cody raised her hand slightly from the tabletop and gave me a small wave before letting it drop again, her eyes cool when they met mine. Looked like I had to mend fences with her too.

Trying to hide my sigh, I turned back to Murph. “I’ll see you later, yeah?” I patted him on the shoulder and went to turn away.

His eyes narrowed at me, then lifted his arm from Cody’s shoulders. “Wait for me, dude. I’ll join you on the walk back.” He turned to Cody and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

Cody’s face was almost frantic at his words; a wide variety of emotions crossing her face in quick succession, before settling on what I could only describe as determination. She held her hand out to Nat, who grasped it. A second later, Nat nodded. Cody let her go, looked at Murph, and motioned for him to get out of the booth.

Murph did as he was instructed, with Cody hot on his heels. They joined me halfway between the booth and the bar edge, while Murph said his goodbyes and Cody waved at Nat and Mac.

I watched Nat carefully, as she looked everywhere but at me. Mac still looked somewhat uneasy, his movements tense and halting. He glanced at me with a tiny crease between his eyebrows, trying to figure out what to do. I made the decision for him, giving him a small, tight smile. “I hope you both have a good evening.”

Mac raised an eyebrow at me, then looked back at Nat, who was still actively ignoring me. He turned his attention back to me and nodded slowly. “You too, Bells.” His words were careful, considered.

My heart twisted in my chest alarmingly as I turned away from them. My right hand lifted to my chest, rubbing it to ease the pressure I was feeling, but I kept walking.

I went through the door, wrapping my jacket tighter around me before shoving my hands into my pockets. It wasn’t cold, but it made me feel slightly more secure.

“It must be hard seeing her with someone else.”

I turned back to the door to find Kadin leaning back on the wall next to the front door watching me, her hands clasped in front of her. I raised an eyebrow but remained silent, knowing that she’d eventually keep talking. It was against her nature to stay quiet when she wanted something.

“How are you doing, Bells?”

I took my time and chose my words honestly, but carefully. “I’ve been better.” Murph and Cody came through the door, hand in hand. They paused when they saw who I was talking to.

“Relax, guys. I just wanted to walk back to Building Two with people who weren’t liable to duck into the bushes for a quick f**k on the way.” Kadin pushed herself off the wall and took a couple of steps towards us. “You don’t mind, do you?”

I shrugged, then looked at Murph and Cody to see what they thought. They, too, shrugged, but reflected the uncertainty I assumed I wore clearly on my face.

“Good.” Kadin strode past us before pausing when she realised we weren’t immediately following her. “Or are you going somewhere else?” A seed of doubt appeared in her eyes. It was the first time in a long while that I had seen that particular emotion on Kadin. Typically, she was incredibly self-assured. I wondered what had changed.

“No, we’re headed back,” I said slowly, glancing at Murph and Cody for confirmation. They nodded, but their eyes still held that doubt that anything was this simple with Kadin.

A wave of relief shuddered through Kadin’s system. “Okay then.” She waited for Murph and Cody to walk past her, then for me to catch up to her before she started moving again.

Her voice was low when she began talking to me, even though I knew Cody and Murph could hear everything that was being said. “What happened, Bells?”

I frowned and shoved my hands further into my pockets as we walked. “In relation to what, Kadin?”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” she snapped before stealing a glance at the pair in front of us, realising that she may have spoken too loudly. She dropped her voice again. “What happened between you and Nat?”

“What makes you think something happened between me and Nat?”

“Goddess, you’re both as bad as each other, you know that?”

I tilted my head at her to give her a quizzical stare. “How so?”

“I basically asked her the same thing earlier in the week and she gave me the same non-answer you just did.”

I couldn’t stop the slight chuckle that escaped. “Did you think maybe you should take the hint and stop asking, then?”

Kadin waved her hand in my direction. “Pfft. You know what I’m like. If at first, you don’t succeed…”

“… pack your bags?”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for a Pitch Perfect fan.”

I coughed to get rid of the grin threatening to appear on my face and shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m a fan, per se. Sometimes you lose a bet.” I looked pointedly at Cody, who was suddenly walking just that little bit quicker in front of us.

Kadin threw her head back and cackled with amusement. “Ah. That’d do it.”

Again, I bit back my smile and kept walking.

“Seriously though, what happened between you two?”

I stopped in my tracks and stared at her in bemusement.

She rolled to a stop in front of me. “What? Can’t a girl ask?”

“A girl can ask. Doesn’t mean a girl will get an answer.”

She shuffled awkwardly from side to side. “I worry about you two, that’s all.”

I pulled my hands out of my pockets and crossed my arms in disbelief, staring her down. “Really?”

“What?” She focused on the ground between our feet, refusing to meet my eyes.

“Kadin…” I let out a long sigh, before dropping my arms and pushing them back into my jacket pockets. I started walking again when I noticed how far Murph and Cody were ahead of us now and how they were completely out of earshot of us.

Kadin almost skipped to catch up with me. “What?? I can worry,” she said, sounding defensive.

“I’m not suggesting that you can’t, but we all saw what you were like at Camp. I’m sure you can understand my hesitance in believing that you are at all concerned about either Nat or myself now, mere weeks later.”

“Geez, when you put it like that…” She let silence fall between us for a few steps before she started talking again, this time much softer than she had previously. “I’m trying here, you know?”

A twig snapped in the bushes to our left. I slowed my pace as I felt my hackles rise, but kept moving us both forward. I tried to tune into Wyatt, but we hadn’t really been on speaking terms ever since I dumped Nat. “Wyatt? Am I imagining things here?”

No response.

Fine. Let’s see if Kadin could sense anything. “Yeah, I know. I guess I’m just being overly suspicious.” I leaned into the word ‘suspicious’ to see if she would pick up my double meaning.

There was a slight pause as we slowed even further. She was following my lead in movement, but I didn’t think she had heard anything. Either that or she didn’t realise what I was alluding to. “That’s fair.”

Another twig cracked. Whoever it was, was keeping pace with us.

“Wyatt?! A little help here, please?” f*****g hell.

“You know it was Uncle Spence who put me up to all of that, right?”

I rolled to a stop and turned slightly towards her to consider her words. “Honestly, that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

“He put me up to a lot of things I wish I could take back,” she said quietly, regret dripping from each word. She took a deep breath before continuing. “I never would have dumped you last year if it wasn’t for him.”

I blinked back my shock at her admission and became very still. Silence fell between us again, which was why we both heard another twig snap.

We immediately turned around; our conversation forgotten. Our backs faced each other while we went into defence mode, our fists rising to prepare for whatever fight was coming our way.