Destroy You (Destroy #3) Read online

  He set down the bar rag he was holding on the counter. “As it happens, I just got off work. Lucky, huh?”

  If one of the guys were here, they would try to run a background check on him before I could even say two words to him. They weren’t wrong, though, and no matter how sexy the guy was, I wasn’t about to get into a stranger’s car.

  “Where is this place? No offense, but I’m not getting in your car,” I said.

  Trent rolled his lip ring with his teeth, looking like he was trying to keep from laughing. “It’s down the block. We can walk.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll have dinner with you.”

  We were stopped several times as we made our way through the bar, mostly by women. They batted their overly made-up eyes and shoved their breasts forward in an effort to steal his attention from me. I was irritated, but I didn’t show it. I’d just met him, and I knew well enough that a dinner invite wasn’t a commitment. Hell, a commitment didn’t seem to prevent a guy from getting his rocks off with any willing slut, either.

  “Sorry about that,” Trent said as soon as we were outside. “The women that come into the bar think they know me, and they get a little possessive.”

  “That probably gets irritating.” At least it would irritate the shit out of me if dinner turned into something more.

  “C’mon, the diner is just around the corner.” Trent placed his hand on the small of my back and led me down the block.

  “Trent! Trent! Wait,” a girl shouted as she ran toward him.

  His hand tensed against my back. He didn’t need to say anything. I knew I was about to be left for another girl for the second time in the same day. Happy freakin’ birthday to me! It was definitely time to go home, pull the covers over my head, and pretend this day never happened.

  The girl, and she was a girl at maybe eighteen or nineteen years old tops, caught up to us. She threw her arms around his neck and held on tight. Unlike how he was with the women inside the bar, this time he didn’t discourage her attention. She was beautiful, in a waifish kind of way. Her hair was brown with random highlights that were nearly orange and hung in loose, deconstructed waves under a knit hat. She had on a little bit of makeup and only to accent her honey-colored eyes. She was dressed like a Seattle hipster with baggy shorts over tight stretch pants. The entire look was completed with a T-shirt advertising an obscure band, and a men’s flannel shirt. She even had a nose ring that flattered her perfect button nose.

  I had to admit they made sense together. He was the classic bad boy with his tattoos, piercing, and overall badass swagger. I bet he even rode a motorcycle. She gave off a similar “I don’t give a shit” vibe. They’d probably get married and have a bunch of hooligans within the next few years.

  Whatever. I was so over all this bullshit. Maybe Jeremy would still be open to a night of chick flicks and asexual cuddling.

  “I’m obviously in the way here. I’ll just see myself home.” I didn’t wait for them to separate before I stomped off toward my house. Jeremy, Aiden, Reed, and Cameron would lock me in a tower if they caught me walking home in the dark by myself, but I refused to wait for one of them.

  “Toni, wait,” Trent yelled.

  I refused to stop and practically ran down the road. It wasn’t my finest moment, but after encountering two cheating douchebags, I deserved to go home and lick my wounds as fast as I could get there.

  Chapter 2

  Trent

  “Trinity,” I snarled through clenched teeth.

  She gazed up at me with feigned innocence. “Trent,” she said, mimicking my tone.

  I knew from experience that prying her arms free from my neck would be pointless. Unless I wanted to be rough with her, she wouldn’t willingly let go. I was afraid she’d like it too much if I did that, so instead I kept my arms to my sides and waited.

  Trinity blew out a frustrated breath and dropped the fake innocent act. “Fine. I need a favor.”

  “Of course you do,” I replied and stepped away from her the moment she took her arms off my neck.

  She moved back into my personal space and trailed her finger down my arm. “Trent, we could have fun. You used to like spending time with me.”

  “Cut the shit, Trinity,” I sneered. “Don’t treat me like one of the guys that will fall at your feet and do whatever you want for a chance to roll around with you in the sack. I don’t think with my cock.”

  “Sure you don’t. You were outside with the Latina with the giant rack for her conversational skills,” she shot back.

  “It’s been fun, as always. Since you’ve wrecked my plans for the night, I’m going back to work.”

  Her bottom lip trembled. “Don’t be mad. You’re the only one I have. If you’re mad at me, I’ll be alone,” she said quietly.

  Seeing Trinity vulnerable went against the natural order of things. I hoped there was a soft part of her buried deep under the sarcasm, bitchiness, and barbed wire.

  “Okay, I’m listening.”

  She pulled down her sleeves and scratched her arms through the fabric. I’d been so pissed at her interruption, I didn’t bother to take a close look at her. Her eyes were slightly glazed, and she was twitchy. “What are you on?” I demanded.

  “Nothing, Dad,” she lied.

  “Bullshit, Trinity, tell me.”

  “God,” she complained. “I’m not on anything. Look, I’ll get help from someone else. Don’t want to put you out or anything.” She stomped off.

  She probably needed money or a place to stay. I’d given both of them to her freely in the past and been burned by her each time. There was a point I’d have done anything to save Trinity, but she wouldn’t let me when it was still possible to save her. The girl that stood before me earlier was not the same girl I grew up with.

  I headed straight for my office, located in the storage room, where I could avoid my customers and hopefully finish the liquor order for the next month. I turned on my computer and banged my head against my desk while I waited for it to start up.

  Toni was a stranger, and blowing my chance at getting to know her shouldn’t bother me this much, but it did. There was something about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but for the first time, I was interested in getting to know a woman beyond what she looked like naked.

  It didn’t help that I hadn’t been laid in a couple of weeks. Not that there weren’t plenty of opportunities, but I’d grown bored with the party girls that frequented the bar. Hookups with them were always the same; they wanted to indulge in their bad-boy fantasy, and I wanted to get off and get out. It wasn’t romantic, and I only offered no-strings sex with absolutely no promises of a repeat performance. Hell, most of the time I didn’t even bother to learn their names.

  Years ago, I took to calling all women I hooked up with by stupid pet names after I accidentally called a woman by the wrong name. I learned quickly that pissing off a chick when she had my cock in her mouth didn’t end well for me. Now they were all Baby or Sugar, and I made certain all of them knew I was only with them until the condom came off.

  I was an asshole. I knew it, and so did they, but then again, the women I went for were about as interested in getting to know me as I was them. A bartender with tattoos and a lip ring was fine for a night of fun, but I didn’t fit into their post-college plans. Of course, I never told them I owned the bar, because that might have made me respectable enough for them to want to fix me.

  Honestly, I never cared what they thought about me until Toni walked into my bar. For the first time, I wanted someone to see beneath my ink and piercing and want to get to know me. Years of meaningless fucking had added up to make me feel empty, and I wondered what being with someone I cared about would feel like.

  My mood took a nosedive when the guy she was with opened a tab and started buying her drinks. They didn’t spend the evening hanging all over each other, but there was obviously a closeness, and I was immediately envious of it. Needless to say, I was confused when all of her friends left her alo
ne. Why would anyone, especially the asshole buying her drinks, want to be anywhere else?

  Once she was by herself, the fake smile she used on her friends disappeared. I wanted to know what a real smile looked like on her. Even more than that, I wanted to be the reason she was smiling. That was a new one for me, and I was even more surprised when I heard myself asking her to have dinner with me.

  When I found out she was having a shitty birthday, I wanted to fix it for her. At least that was the reason I gave myself for asking her out instead of trying to get into her panties. My best friend would say it was because I have a hero complex, but mostly I wanted to get to know her a little.

  “You know you’re going to go after her, so you might as well get on with it,” Melody, one of the other bartenders and my best friend, said from the doorway.

  “Toni?” I asked, confused.

  She cocked her head to the side, studying me. “The girl from the bar?”

  I nodded.

  Melody shook her head emphatically. “No. I think chasing down a girl you just met in the bar after she ran away from you is not the way to get a date. It’ll get you a restraining order, though. I was talking about Trinity.”

  “How did you know she ran off?”

  Mel raised her eyebrow. “It was either that or the rumors I’ve heard around the bar about your stamina were vastly overrated.”

  I rolled my eyes and ignored her comment. “Do you think I should go after Trinity?”

  “Fuck no, but what I think has never stopped you.”

  My shoulders slumped. She was right, of course. I could never let Trinity suffer the consequences of her actions. I twirled my lip ring, a nervous habit I’d developed since getting the piercing. “It’s just if I don’t go after her, I’ll wonder where she’s staying and how she’s getting money.” My guilt would get me every time. Unfortunately, Trinity knew me as well as Melody did, and she played it against me.

  “If that girl starts walking the streets, it won’t be your fault. You can’t save everyone, Trent. What has chasing after her ever brought you besides trouble?”

  I didn’t have an answer for her. “I know you’re right—”

  “But you’re going anyway.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. It didn’t matter that I believed I was probably going to fail.

  “Go, then. I’ll keep things running here,” she said supportively.

  I stood up and left my unfinished paperwork. “Thanks, Mel,” I said on my way out the door.

  I didn’t have to go far. Trinity was sitting outside the door of my apartment above the bar.

  “I see I’m pretty predictable,” I griped.

  She shrugged. “You were mad. You usually come around after you’ve cooled off.”

  “What was the favor you needed?” I asked.

  “I need a place to crash for a few days.”

  “You’re twenty years old now. When are you going to get your shit together?” I asked, not for the first time.

  “It isn’t that easy,” she mumbled.

  “Why? What is hard about finding a job, any job? You’ve got friends that will let you stay with them, Trinity.”

  “I owe some people money.”

  “Shit. What are you into now?”

  “I’ll take care of it myself. I just need a place to crash. Can I stay here or not?” she asked petulantly.

  “Tonight the couch is yours, but only tonight. You have a home you can go back to,” I reminded her.

  Trinity glared at me. “You know I can’t go back there.”

  “Only because you refuse to follow any rules—”

  “Can I have the couch or not?”

  “For tonight,” I replied. I let her in and went back down the stairs to get away from her.

  I could access my apartment from a staircase inside the storeroom or from the alley entrance to the bar. I’d love to have a house, but I spent so much time working that it was more convenient to trudge up the stairs after the last drunks were kicked out of the building.

  Few people knew I owned the bar, and I had no problem letting them think I was only the manager. Melody wanted me to keep it a secret because of Trinity and her associates. She was afraid I’d be robbed or worse because of something Trinity was involved in. As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point.

  When I walked out the back entrance of the bar, I plopped down on a crate I’d overturned to use as a makeshift bench. Melody stepped out and lit a cigarette.

  “Those things are going to kill you,” I said.

  Her lips curled in a snarl. She took a drag and slowly blew out a stream of smoke. “Not as fast as I’ll kill the next guy who orders a drink while staring at my tits.”

  Melody frightened and fascinated most men, except for me. It was hard to be fascinated by someone you once watched eat sand. She and I had been friends since we were in diapers, and for a brief period of time she lived with my family after her mother was in a car accident. She was like family to me, but I could still recognize she was stunning. Melody was tall at five foot ten inches. Her hair was black and kept in a short, wavy, twenties-style cut with bright blue streaks. Her eyes were an icy blue that displayed every emotion the moment she felt it. Mel was a mysterious mixture of vintage and modern, leather and lace, and soft curves and hard lines. The combination made her popular behind the bar, but it was her toughness that made me comfortable putting her back there.

  “Did Princess get settled in?” she asked.

  I rubbed my hand over my head. “Yeah.”

  Melody threw her cigarette on the ground and snuffed it out with the sole of her combat boot. “You know what happened with the chick from the bar tonight is going to keep happening as long as you let Trinity use you as her personal savior, don’t you?”

  I dropped my hand from my head and looked up at her. “What am I supposed to do, throw her to the wolves?”

  “Why not? That’s where she wants to be. It’s not like what you have been doing has worked. Don’t you think it’s time to let her figure some things out on her own? It’s called tough love.”

  “I told her she could only stay tonight,” I agreed.

  Melody patted me on the head. “Good boy. Just for that, I’ll throw you a bone.”

  “I’m not a dog, Mel,” I snapped. What was with the crazy women in my life?

  Melody put her hand on her hip. “Do you want to growl at me, or do you want me to help fix your shitty night?”

  I waved my hand, motioning for her to carry on.

  “As I was saying, I know that guy who was buying your pint-sized hottie drinks earlier tonight. He’s in my Econ class. Since it’s summer, there’s like ten people in that class, and I bet I can find out a way for you to run into her again. All you need to do is make sure Trinity is gone in the morning. I doubt you’ll get a third chance with Toni if you blow it again.”

  I looked up at her and smiled. “Now who’s coming to the rescue?”

  Chapter 3

  Toni

  I settled down on the couch for the fifth night in a row with a pint of Cherry Garcia and a spoon. My plans for the evening were simple: binge-watching old dramas on Netflix and consuming large quantities of junk food. I wasn’t nursing a broken heart, but my pride had certainly taken a hit. And to think I’d almost fallen for Trent’s game the same night I’d caught Miguel cheating. One thing was clear to me: I was a magnet for assholes, and it was best if I never dated again. The ice cream would make sure I didn’t once my ass expanded to the width of the couch.

  Jeremy sauntered into his living room and plopped down next to me. I tried to ignore him, because he’d been nagging me for days to leave the house. I didn’t even live with him, but Kate had been working extra shifts, and he insisted I not stay at my place alone all the time. He was right; being alone in my state of mind would have sucked, but I wanted to be allowed to wallow. However, ignoring him was like trying to stare at the sun. It was only possible for short bursts and usually gave you a headache
.

  He reached over and snatched away my ice cream. “Enough. You smell and you’re going to get fat, then I’ll be the only man that loves you.”

  I rolled my eyes and tried in vain to take the ice cream back. “Sounds good to me. Now give me the carton and you won’t get hurt.”

  He set the half-empty container down on the coffee table and grabbed my wrists. “I love you too much to watch you sulk any longer. Plus, I can’t stand to be around you anymore if you don’t shower. Either you get up and go on your own, or I’m going to toss you in. Choose.”

  I huffed, paused my show, and tossed the remote onto the couch. “Fine. You win. I’ll shower, but then I’m going back to watching that.”

  Jeremy shook his head. “Nope. You’re going to get dressed and go listen to a band with me tonight. A girl from my class is a singer or something, and she invited me to come to their gig tonight. I couldn’t invite Cameron, because we aren’t talking, but I don’t want her to think I’d be interested in her, either.”

  “Cameron still avoiding you?” I asked, trying to get the focus off me.

  He sighed. “He probably would if I were trying to talk to him, but I’m taking a step back. It’s time for me to try to find someone who’s actually interested in me.”

  Jeremy nudged me to move, and I groaned. “Do I have to do this?”

  “Yes,” he insisted. “And if you try to wear your sweats tonight, I’m going to cut them off you and set them on fire.”

  He would do it, too. I had no doubt about that. “You suck,” I grumbled.

  Jeremy was already dressed, not that it mattered; he’d look great in a towel. Asshole. Begrudgingly I let him drive us the few blocks to my house and rushed into the shower before he started going on again about how bad I smelled. Shit, I was depressed; I didn’t need to know how gross I was, too. As I stood under the massage setting of the showerhead, the hot water felt divine, and I had to admit, my mood picked up a little. After soaping up, I figured I might as well shave. Once I stepped out, I studied my butt in the mirror. I so was not getting fat. Jeremy was just being an asshole, but just in case, I should probably cool it on the ice cream. The more I considered it, a couch-sized ass didn’t sound appealing after all.