The bar was packed and I could barely hear the Sports Center highlights coming from the TV over the bar. My eyes looked to Sawyer sitting on the stool next to me as the room started to spin, making it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. Thanks to the farewell party the guys threw for me I’d been drinking since noon. The empty wing basket and a few other appetizer trays littered the bar top. I could feel myself running out of gas.

“Be right back.” Sawyer announced, as I heard his chair scrape against the wood floor.

“I have to call Faith. Save my seat.”

I nodded my head and lifted the neck of my beer to my lips, too engrossed in the television to even form a response. I heard Lucas tease him as he made his way across the room.

“You’re not even married yet, and she has you by the balls. Maybe she’ll keep them in a jar so you can borrow them every once in a while when you want to go out with the boys.”

“At least I’ll be getting it on a regular basis and won’t have to go looking for a random chick to bang every night like your ugly ass.”

Lucas’s mouth curled into a smirk. “Dude, your pecker is so small, she’ll probably need a search party and a magnifying glass just to find it.”

Sawyer flipped him the bird as he walked away. It appeared my friends hadn’t matured much since middle school, which was one of the reasons I was going to miss their adolescent banter.

My mind was still buzzing with everything this change would mean for me. I was uprooting my life and switching careers in a span of a week. I knew in my head that I would eventually adapt and move on, but that didn’t make the thought of leaving any easier. Thankfully, my family backed my decision 100%. Their support was comforting, especially since I was relocating to a city that I had visited only twice in my life.

My thoughts turned to Jack who had been quiet all afternoon. Normally, he was right in the middle of things, but he had seemed a bit somber and moody all day. I knew him well enough to know that he had something or someone on his mind.

“You want to tell me why you’ve barely said more than two words today? Are you really that depressed about my moving to D.C?” I smirked, draining the remainder of my beer.

“Dude, I’ll miss you like a five-day hemorrhoid.” He teased. “I guess I’m just missing my girl. The long-distance shit really sucks.”

I blinked twice to make sure I heard him correctly. “No fucking way. You really are serious about this chick.” I looked around and sniffed the air. “Did hell freeze over?”

His lips kicked up into a smirk. “Like you’re one to talk.”

Well that shut me up. I’d been trying to put my thoughts about Lexi away and tried to make this day be about celebrating and enjoying my time with the boys. We’d talked about everything from work, sports, chicks and who could bench press more at the gym. We were laughing so hard I was sure we looked like a bunch of drunken idiots. The entire day had been one big fucking farewell. But as great as this night had been, my mind had been elsewhere. The more I tried to drink Lexi out of my system, the more she invaded my thoughts, as I tried to come up with a good enough reason as to why she’d left me. No matter what road my mind took me down, I always ended up in a dead end. It didn’t matter where I was or what I was doing, she always seemed to find a way back into my head. In fact, she seemed to be the only thing I had thought about lately.

I kept glancing at my phone all day hoping to see a text or a missed call from Mac. I hadn’t heard from him since he agreed to do a little digging on my behalf. He told me he would call me when he had news. My patience was running low and my move was quickly approaching. I wasn’t going to be able to go forward until I was 100% certain she was okay. I sent him one last text message. If I didn’t hear back from him by the end of the night, I was booking a flight to Atlanta first thing in the morning.

Jack noticed my mood slip. “So, what happened between you and the blonde? It must have been serious enough to uproot your life and switch careers, not to mention give up a sweet state pension.” He asked, picking up a nacho chip and dipping it in the salsa. He popped the chip in his mouth as a smug smile spread across his face. If it got any wider, I was afraid it would split in half. It also didn’t go unnoticed that he intentionally flipped the attention away from him, the bastard!

“Brother, I wish I knew.” I said, and that was the truth. I’d played things over in my head a hundred times and I could never get to the point where Lexi’s leaving made any sense. So much for enjoying the party—my attention had completely left the bar. I started to think about everything that needed to be done and decided it was time to leave. I knew I would catch a shitload of grief from Sawyer and Lucas, but my buzz was gone and I really wasn’t in the partying mood.

When Lucas came back from the bathroom, I asked all the guys to belly up at the bar. I winked at the beautiful bartender that had been serving us all afternoon and asked her to pour another round of Patron. Within minutes there was a line of shot glasses in front of us, brimming with clear liquid. I grabbed my glass and encouraged everyone to do the same.

“Guys, thanks for putting this party together. This isn’t goodbye, but just so long for now. So, to all my friends, I make this toast.

We drink to those who love us,

We drink to those that don’t.

We drink to those who fuck us,

And fuck those who don’t!

Everyone roared with a “here here” and we tossed the shots back. I watched as their faces soured at the taste of the tequila, but everyone managed to finish it.

“Fuck! This shit tastes like gasoline.” Lucas muttered.

Almost immediately, Sawyer piped up and said, “I’m buying the next round, but this time we’ll do something that doesn’t taste like shit.”

After doing a couple shots of Jack Fire, I stood from the stool to steady my feet. The room started to spin making it hard for me to focus. I didn’t want to leave, but I needed to start packing. My mom and sister were taking me to breakfast tomorrow morning and if I didn’t stop I was going to have a massive hangover. Something I could not afford. My move date was only two days away, and I hadn’t started putting anything I owned into boxes yet.

My Uber got me back to my apartment in about 15 minutes. On the way home I felt guilty about leaving the party early, but I knew I would regret it tomorrow if I didn’t.

I walked in the apartment and I still couldn’t get over how quiet and empty the place felt. Lexi had been gone for a couple weeks and the smell of her perfume still lingered in the air. I looked around the room and started to take inventory of everything that needed to be packed up and wasn’t sure where to start.

I reached in the fridge and grabbed a beer and started to pull my dishes and glassware out of the cupboards. My apartment looked like a Costco warehouse with all the empty boxes. I grabbed a huge stack of old newspapers from the utility room next to the garbage chutes on my way up.

One by one, I started grabbing items and wrapping them into the sheet of newspaper. Over a mindless five minutes, I had finished the glasses and started to do the same with the dishes.

I had just finished using an entire newspaper and was reaching for the next copy when I paused and looked at the print on the page.

There it was as clear as day. It was a picture of Colton’s father posing with both the Mayor and Commissioner Devane. What the fuck? I ran my hand through my hair and skimmed through the article. They were standing together outside a ribbon cutting ceremony of a building dedicated to… Holy shit! My eyes must have been playing tricks on me because the building was being used as a shelter for abused woman and it was called the Hunt House.

Motherfucker. I threw the paper across the room. Everything started to make sense. I knew she’d lied to me. What kind of sick fucks were they? My stomach bottomed out as I reached down and picked the article back up. My face paled on the date. The answer to all my questions was right there in black ink.

I surged to my feet and stalked over to my laptop. Venom filled my veins. I fired up my screen and curled my hands around my beer. I went right to work, pulling up my good friend Google.

I dragged my fingers across my jaw when I saw a recent picture of the two of them together. That picture wasn’t there when I checked yesterday. Trust me, I had been checking on a daily basis. I wanted to reach into the fucking screen and squeeze the life out of that son of a bitch. Damn it to hell. The look in her puffy blue eyes, combined with the tight smile falling from her lips, fucked with my mind. I was going to beat Colton within an inch of his life. Every male instinct screamed at me to demolish him, but first I needed proof. I picked up my cell phone and called Captain Brown.

“Hello.”

“It’s me, Brad.”

“I know who it is. I got caller ID, you know. Shouldn’t you be out, celebrating?”

“I left early. Listen. How close are you to the commissioner?”

“Are you in some sort of trouble?”

I rolled my neck and cracked my knuckles. “No. But I could still use your help.”