But Chris didn’t hint at knowing anything about what happened between Kenzie and me, he just tossed me one of his famously nasty homemade protein shakes and leaned back in his chair.

Ugh, I didn’t miss these. Still, I shook it up and chugged it, trying to assess the situation.

“MacKenzie told me how the doctor visit went, and I wanted you to know that I’m behind you in this. I’ve asked all the guys at the gym to help out. We’re going to get you in shape for the next doctor visit.”

Chris was a good friend. Knowing that he’d had my back this whole time made me feel even shittier about trying to take MacKenzie away from him. He was, after all, a decent guy, and she deserved that.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m excited to get back into it. I know I can be ready.”

“Good. That’s just what I wanted to hear. I saw you were out there training with Jonah, and I don’t want to keep you from it, but I just talked to MacKenzie and I had to share. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but things are going kinda slow with MacKenzie and me. For a while there, I thought maybe she wasn’t into me, or there was someone else.”

I shrugged, trying to keep my shit together. I didn’t have a clue in hell where he was going with this, and was thankful that he’d remained seated. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk to MacKenzie about what Chris knew. For the safety of everyone.

“Well, that’s about to change.” He got a smug grin on his face as he nodded like I knew what he was talking about. “She just agreed to go to Vegas with me.”

I forced a smile and gritted out, “Great.”

I wanted to come clean with Chris. As a friend, I knew I should, but I was starting to wonder if his knowing would do more harm—to him and the rest of us—than good. Besides, they were finally taking their relationship to the next level. Maybe it was best to just leave it alone.

As all these thoughts swirled around inside my head, I realized I was irritated that I couldn’t be happy for him, and for them. And I desperately wanted to be.

I also wanted to fucking punch something. Repeatedly.

Twenty-Eight

Ian

Winning the fight in Vegas was crucial, but that didn’t mean I was going to forget about Sophia. Family was important. I’d lost sight of that for a while, and ended up missing how messed up Sophia’s life had become. I vowed that would never happen again. Not on my watch. Because if it was a choice between the fight in Vegas and saving my kid sister from doing drugs, Sophia would win, hands down.

But I didn’t plan on it getting to that point.

Ever since I’d found out Sophia was snorting that shit, I’d been checking in with her face-to-face every evening. She seemed clean, as was evidenced by how exhausted and bitchy she was. She continued to nag me about lending her money, but that was not going to happen. Instead, I took her grocery shopping and paid her bills. She also wouldn’t stop whining about how bored she was, so in order to shut her up, I took her along with me to go drinking with Cade.

Cade was already there, seated at one of the cracked red leather booths when we arrived. “You look like shit,” he said as Sophia and I slid in across from him. The comment could have been targeted at Sophia since she did look like hell, but he knew better than to insult my kid sister. The douche was talking to me.

I rubbed my hand over my hair. “Fuck, man. At least let me get a beer in me before you start talking trash.” I signaled for the waitress and ordered. “A light tap for me and a cola for her.”

Sophia pouted, but she was only nineteen. I was no idiot, I knew she had a fake ID and drank all the time, but she wouldn’t be doing it on my watch.

“Sophia, I’m surprised to see you hanging out with losers like us. What gives?” Cade winked at her as if it was an innocent question rather than an acknowledgment of the elephant in the room.

“Ian thinks I have some sort of ‘problem’ just because I like to have a good time.” She glared at me, but it didn’t matter what kind of mood she was in, she couldn’t pass up a chance to see Cade. She’d always harbored a schoolgirl crush on him. “He’s trying to make up for our parents being gone all the time.” She shrugged and a hint of a smile came to her face. “You know Ian. His intentions are great enough to save the world, but he’s too stupid to focus his energy in the right direction.”

“Speaking of misguided idiots, what’s going on with you and MacKenzie?” Cade asked.

I took a long pull on my beer before I could answer. “I don’t know which one of us you’re calling an idiot, but MacKenzie is off-limits as a topic of conversation. You want to talk about your girlfriend’s menstrual cycle or your new fuckin’ skin moisturizer, whatever, just not MacKenzie.” It was going to be hard enough to see her with Chris at the gym every day. I was done talking about my feelings on the issue.

Cade was stunned somewhat silent. I took the opportunity to pound the rest of my beer and waved the waitress over. “Another one of these.” It was one of the last nights I could drink before full training mode kicked in, and I planned to spend it somewhat inebriated. Maybe even make Sophia drive me home.

Sophia took a sip of her soda, then looked up at me. “Is that the chick you were making out with on my sofa?”

Fuck. “Sophia, damn it, we’re not talking about this.”

Cade leaned forward over the table. “Who were you making out with on her couch?”