I knowwhere Sev is outside before I even see his face.
Like that very bad thing is about to happen.
After what I’ve been through, I can spot trouble like it’s a fucking neon, flashing sign. And Sev’s always lit up like a fucking Christmas tree.
His tall, broad frame is right at the edge of the fire pit out back, and within a moment after stepping outside, I see him raise his fist at someone for a punch.
I flash back instantly to the other times he’s tried to start fights at my parties. He isn’t fucking getting away with it now.
My heartbeat skips into a high rhythm instantly.
“Don’t you dare?—”
It’s already happening before I can intervene.
Sev throws a cleaner punch than anyone I’ve ever seen, and the guy he’s hitting falls back onto his ass on the lawn, groaning in pain.
My chest clenches.
No. Not here.
Not here in Onyx House. That’s a line I don’t let anyone cross.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I call out as I cut across the lawn, catching Sev off guard.
My hands are at the top of his shirt, gripping it tight before he can react. The fire pit is on the lawn right by the deep end of the pool, and the shimmering water sparkles behind him, casting him in a silhouette.
“I was here to seeyou, Sheriff,” he tells me. “Then something else needed my attention.”
His head comes up just a little further and his eyes catch the glint of the light from the fire, illuminating them.
I can smell whiskey on him and it mixes with the scent of his skin, pulling me back to last Saturday like a magnet.
His scent.
His body.
His cock, pushing inside me.
The guy he punched is taking off across the lawn.
I don’t let myself think for another second. I shove Sevan backward hard and he teeters at the sudden movement. At first he doesn’t fall, but then he stumbles, losing his footing for just long enough. The people on the shallow side of the pool gasp, their eyes glued to me, now.
Sev falls backward into the deep end of the cold water.
And then I see it: the small, jutting stone at the edge of the pool that isn’t as smooth as the others.
The stone that Sev must have fallen against as he tipped into the water.
The stone that’s now streaked with something dark.
My heart drops like a broken elevator, falling fast in my chest and going cold.
“Fuck,” I say, the word coming out barely louder than a breath.
Then all I see is red.
Dark, blooming red on the water, pooling out from Sev as he swims to the top.