“Kasey!” Wynn yelled from the edge of the bar.

Normally, yelling would’ve startled me, but the music was so loud that even yelling, his voice was almost drowned out.

“Uh oh,” Cooper whispered as he slipped past me. “Sounds like someone’s in trouble.” But he gave me a teasing smile that made me instantly think that Adam had shared some juicy gossip with him.

I ambled over to Wynn. He was leaning against the bar, eyes only for me, and when I was opposite him, he leaned in so he wouldn’t have to shout anymore. “If Chad comes to the bar, he’s not allowed to buy anything.”

“He gets free drinks?” I asked, just to be sure.

“No. He’s not allowed to drink anything at all. Water, sure, alcohol? Never.”

I blinked. “Uh, okay.” I wanted to ask why, but didn’t dare. The club was open and busy and people were packed, and what did it really matter anyway?

“He’s mentally ill,” Wynn said, leaning in further to speak against my ear. His stubbly cheek rasped against my smooth one. “Alcohol interferes with his meds and can induce mania.”

Oh. Yes, that made sense. Mania, huh? Some forgotten memory came back, of listening to my brother speaking about this bloke who was bipolar. Must’ve been Chad. Or probably, anyway. He was the reason Kian knew Wynn, after all, had to be. Which meant he must be the friend Wynn had used to sleep with before his boyfriend died—and Chad shacked up with not just one but two lovers.

“He won’t be getting any from me,” I promised, and I hoped I would manage to keep that promise. I wasn’t good at saying no. And standing my ground against someone wasn’t my forte either. It was so much easier to simply back down.

“We’ll be in my office. We’ve got some catching up to do.” He ran his thumb over my lower lip and cheek quickly, then he was gone, retreating to the back of the club where only employees were allowed.

“Not that much trouble, eh?” Cooper waggled his eyebrows playfully.

“No.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Where’s Adam anyway?”

“On the other side of the bar tonight. Or he should be, anyway. I don’t think he’s arrived yet.” Cooper gave me one last smile, then turned back to the group of guys clustered around his side of the bar.

I focused on mine and for once things went okay. No one wanted some fancy drink that wasn’t on the main menu, so that was good.

“We’re out of Captain Morgan!” Cooper shouted an hour later. “Could you run out and get a new bottle? No, make that more than one. Best to have some reserve.”

“Yeah, sure.” I switched places with another bartender who’d been in the back washing dishes, grabbed the key to the storage room, and got three bottles. I grabbed one Vodka too, because the one I’d used earlier didn’t have much left in it and I wasn’t sure if we had one extra or not.

I hurried back behind the bar. I changed out the top of one of the Captain Morgan bottles, put it on the shelf, then stacked the rest of them under the bar, out of sight from the customers.

“I’ll be on washing up duty for a while, okay?” I told Cooper, who was the one in charge tonight when Adam wasn’t here.

He gave me the thumbs up, so I escaped all the noise and the bustle of the club to the dishwasher and the dirty glasses. The next tray was only started though, so I had to go back out and gather up more dirty glasses.

Oh well. It’s better than being behind the bar.

I hadn’t seen anything more of Wynn, or Chad for that matter. They’d stayed cooped up in his office and a small part of me wondered what they were doing in there. Wynn had said they’d used to sleep together before… but no. Wynn wasn’t the kind of guy to sleep around and hadn’t he said that Chad had two lovers? Surely he must already be sexually satisfied. And Wynn had just fucked me, so he was too.

“Kaz!”

A hand shot out from nowhere and locked around my wrist, squeezing hard. For a minute there I thought it was Wynn—but then I realised the person had used my nickname, not my real name, and my blood froze. I turned slowly and came face to face with Alistair.

Al didn’t look happy. His face was all pinched, mouth pressed into a line, eyebrows drawn together in a glare. “Come with me.”

I dropped the glasses I’d been holding in my other hand as he dragged me with him towards the employees-only area—and the back door. “Al, no—” If only I could get my hand out of his grip, I could make a run for it to Wynn’s office… but I was too weak. The grip he had on me would bruise and it hurt and I didn’t stand a chance.

The back door loomed in front of us. He slammed it open, then shoved me through and up against the alley wall before he slammed it closed again.

“Three days,” he said, voice low, dangerously so, as he turned slowly to face me. “I’ve been waiting three days to hear from you. And nothing.”

“I moved out. I left a note.” I cowered against the wall. If I tried to run for the street, he’d only have more of an excuse to hurt me. “That should’ve been enough.”

He stalked towards me and I reared back as far as I could, but the wall didn’t give. “You can’t just leave a note. You can’t just grab all your stuff when I’m not home and decide you want to move out. That’s our place.”

“It’s your place. It’s your name on the lease.” My name wasn’t anywhere. Not even on the mailbox. For all intents and purposes, no one even knew I lived there if I didn’t personally tell them.

He slammed a palm against the wall right next to my head. I flinched, but there was nowhere to go, so I had to stand my ground. “Weren’t you going to tell me face to face? What? Are you too much a coward to say it out loud? So you leave a note?”

I was a coward, but who wouldn’t be when faced with him? If he didn’t understand why I’d chosen to leave a note instead of facing him…

“Kaz.” Now his other palm slammed against the wall, on the other side of my head. He loomed over me, trapping me there in the alley, against his body. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to because Wynn was in his office and he had no idea I wasn’t behind the bar any more. “You don’t understand how difficult it is for me—”

“Difficult?” I choked out. “How difficult it is for you? What about me?”

“It’s not about you,” he snapped. “You have no idea what it’s like to be me. What I struggle with.”

“Can’t you struggle on your own instead of dragging me into it?” My bottom lip trembled and I was this close to crying. That I could still stand there and have a conversation with him was a miracle in itself. All I wanted was to curl into a ball and hope he’d be satisfied with one hit or one kick and then leave me to it. “I’m not your punching bag. I never volunteered to be that.”

He gritted his teeth. “If you could just act fucking normal—”

“Normal!” That came out almost like a shriek. It would’ve horrified me if I wasn’t already so damn scared. “I am normal. I’m a human being, I’ve got feelings and wants and needs. Just because I don’t fit into your perfectly macho, ‘straight’ world doesn’t make me abnormal.”

“You’re such a fucking girl,” he snarled. “Just look at you. You’re this close to crying.”

So he could see that, huh? I didn’t think he ever saw anything but himself. “There’s nothing wrong with showing emotions,” I whispered. “Just because I’m a little more emotional than most people doesn’t make it right what you—” I gasped as his palm slapped my cheek.

“Shut up, Kaz. Don’t you dare start crying on me.”

I covered my cheek with my hand, staring off to the side at the ground. “What do you want with me?”

“Move back in.”

“No.” My voice shook, but it held. It held enough for him to hear it, for it to hold some sort of conviction behind it. “I won’t.”

“Kaz…” His voice had a warning tone to it now. “I’m struggling here. You know that. You know my parents won’t like it if I’m gay.”

“That doesn’t make it right, what you’re doing.” My cheek throbbed, but at least it had only been a slap of his palm and not a hit of his fist. “I shouldn’t be afraid of you.”

“Afraid of me?” That seemed to surprise him somehow. “Kaz, we’re a couple, you and I.”

“Not any more,” I whispered, contemplating whether to duck under his arm and make a run for it. But no, he’d catch me and then he likely would use his fist. “I’m done.”

“I’m not done!” He hit the wall several times in anger and I cowered, the tears overflowing. “Don’t fucking cry! You always do that!”

“I’m sorry!” I didn’t mean to, but he was scaring me and I knew what he was capable of and I was all alone… I wanted Wynn. Wynn would help me, if only he knew I needed it. My new phone was in my locker and I had nothing on me that would be of any help.

“I can’t be openly gay, you get that?” He leaned close, face hovering close to mine. “Once I finish my engineering degree, I’m gonna get a good job. I can’t let being gay stand in the way of that. People discriminate against gay people still, you know.”

“Not everyone does,” I mumbled.

“No, maybe not, but some do.” He stared hard at me. “And you’re not exactly subtle are you?”

“Then just let me go,” I begged. “I won’t be a bother to you. I’ll stay away.”

“But I don’t want you to!” He grabbed the front of my shirt now, shook me twice, and then pulled me in close. I braced my hands on his chest for balance—but he seemed to take it as something else as his face came closer.

“No, don’t!” I looked away. Don’t kiss me! “I’m with someone else now.”

He stilled. Dangerously so. “What?”

“You’re the one who i-insisted on an o-open r-relationship.” I didn’t like the way his grip on my shirt tightened, the way his body froze up. “It goes both ways. When you were out sleeping with other p-people, so was I. And I f-found someone I like better th-than y-y-you.” It wasn’t technically the truth, because I hadn’t been out shagging people; it was only Wynn.

He shoved me back and my head hit the brick wall hard. I managed to stay on my feet simply by clinging to the wall.

“You cheated on me?” he snarled.

“It wasn’t cheating,” I forced out through the stabbing pain in my head. “If it was, then you were cheating too every time you went straight.” I had no idea if he’d slept with other guys or not, but I knew for a fact there’d been many girls.

His fists clenched and unclenched, his body rigid. “It’s not the same.”

“It so is!” I shouted, tired and in pain and resigned. “It is the same. Sex is sex no matter what, and if you want to be with someone you don’t go and dip your dick in any other hole that feels good—or that makes you feel straight!” Why he couldn’t just admit to being bisexual was beyond me—it always about him not wanting to be gay, but the fact he could be with girls… didn’t that automatically make him bisexual? If he was actually gay, could he keep having sex with the wrong gender?

I sure couldn’t get it up for females—their parts did nothing for me. If he liked both, then good for him, but he could admit it and stick to it, and figure out if he wanted a relationship or if he wanted to sleep around.

“You can’t have it both ways, Al. Either you want to be with someone, and only them, or you want to shag around. It’s one or the other; you can’t have both.” Not that I would take him back even if he swore and begged, but maybe the next poor person who got involved with him wouldn’t have to suffer the way I had.

“You know nothing!” he yelled and the fist came flying too quickly for me to duck.

I fell, bracing my fall with my hands, but they still scraped against the uneven ground. I spat blood and I wasn’t sure if it was my lip that was split or if I’d bitten myself. All I knew was I tasted blood and it didn’t taste good.

He stood over me, breathing heavily. “You can’t leave me, Kaz,” he said then, and his voice was begging me. “You can’t leave me.”

“I already have.” My knees hurt too. The back door was a way off. Could I crawl over there? Would he grab me again if I tried? “I already have, Al. Please. Just leave me alone.” My tears mixed with the blood and my body was wracked by deep sobs. “Please just leave me alone.”

“Kaz…” He took a step towards me, but stopped when the back door was slammed open.

“Kasey?”

The familiar voice washed over me and now I sobbed from relief. Wynn’s here, he’s not going to let Al hurt you anymore. “Wynn!”

He stepped out, took one look at me on the ground, then he lifted his dark gaze to Alistair, who stood frozen.

“Wynn,” I sobbed. Help me, was what I wanted to add to it, but the words wouldn’t come. The sobs overtook me to the point I couldn’t speak and it took all I had just to breathe through them.

But Wynn seemed to understand. He walked towards me… and then flew past—and there was a crunch as his fist connected to Al’s face.