Emmett leaned back into the sofa, face blank, shirt still spattered red.
Ashton stepped forward. ‘Emmett, whatever happened, this isn’t the place to deal with it. He needs a hospital. Unless you’re really planning to let him bleed out in your sister’s living room.’
‘Mr Laurent,’ he said, flat and clipped. ‘This is my family’s problem. Not yours.’
Under any other circumstances, Ashton would’ve walked out or started swinging.
Instead, he took half a step back and adjusted his tone like he was trying not to spook a wild animal.
‘Emmett. I’m not here to interfere. Cassian’s a friend. I’m just asking you to let him get medical attention. He’s in no shape to argue. Neither are we, if something worse happens tonight.’
‘He’s not dying,’ Emmett said without even looking at Cassian. ‘I didn’t go for the kill. He brought this on himself. He thinks he can sneak into my sister’s bed under my nose? He’s lucky he’s still breathing.’
‘Barely,’ I muttered.
‘He didn’t sneak in,’ Yvaine snapped. ‘I invited him. And I’m not twelve. I don’t need you vetting my relationships.’
Emmett didn’t answer.
Ashton tried again, still measured, still painfully calm. ‘I think they both know what they’re doing. Maybe there’s some misunderstanding here. Let him get checked out first. Then you can yell at him all you want.’
Emmett rose from the sofa in one sharp movement. His shadow blocked half the light.
‘Misunderstanding? I walked in and found a man I trusted with my sister half-naked in her house. That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s betrayal. You’re friends with him, Mr Laurent. You know exactly what he’s like. If it were your sister he was screwing, would you be this calm?’
Ashton moved past Emmett and grabbed Cassian under the arm. I took the other side.
Cassian didn’t even lift his head—just groaned once, breath rattling.
We started dragging him towards the front door.
Emmett didn’t block us. He just stood there, breathing hard, jaw flexing.
Yvaine hurried after us.
‘Stay right there!’ Emmett’s voice cracked through the air. ‘He goes to the hospital, fine. But you’re not going with him. Sit your arse back down.’
‘Emmett, please! Just let me check on him. If he’s fine, I’ll come straight back.’
‘You broke his nose, probably cracked a rib. We’ll have to pay the damn hospital bill. The least I can do is go with him.’
Emmett stepped forward. His tone dropped to a low grind. ‘So now you’re defying me for him?’
‘No. I just—he’s in rough shape.’
‘Yvaine Carlisle,’ he said through his teeth, ‘you walk out that door with him, you can forget you’ve got a brother.’
Yvaine froze halfway through the door.
Ashton and I were already outside, shoving Cassian’s sorry arse into the back seat.
His nose was bleeding again.
Yvaine clenched her jaw, turned, and followed us anyway.
‘Emmett, don’t be dramatic. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.’
She jumped into the car.
Cassian’s injuries turned out to be mostly superficial—bloody, yes, but not serious.
The bulk of the bleeding had come from his nose, with a few scrapes on his arms and hands from the fall.
Emmett’s fists had done the rest.
No broken bones, no internal damage, just a face so bruised and swollen he’d be unrecognisable in family photos for the foreseeable future.
As a doctor tended to him, I dragged Yvaine out by the wrist and shoved her into the nearest stairwell.
‘When did this start? You and Cassian? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?’
She looked like she wanted to crawl into the floor tiles.
‘My birthday,’ she muttered.
I ran through the memory: She was hammered. Couldn’t walk straight. Kept trying to escort me home, even though she could barely talk.
I left in a cab. Cassian offered to take her back.
But there was no flirting at the party. Nothing even close.
So whatever happened, it happened after they left together.
‘You weren’t even making eye contact that night. You’re saying you jumped him after the car ride?’
‘Yes.’ With me, she could be frank.
‘So you two have been together for what, months now? And I had no idea.’
‘Well, we are not exactly together...’ she mumbled.
‘Was it a one-night stand?’
Yvaine nodded. Then: ‘Well, more like a string of one-night stands. We’d just get together when we have the time, you know.’ Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel[f]ire.net
I stared at her. ‘I shouldn’t have let you leave with him. You were drunk out of your mind.’
‘You don’t have to feel guilty. He didn’t make any moves on me. That night, I puked on him in the hallway. He stayed to clean up. Took a shower. I saw him without a shirt. Liked what I saw.’
I stared. She didn’t blink.
‘He didn’t drag me into anything,’ she added. ‘I was the one who started it. It was one night. At least, that was the plan. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t supposed to be serious.’
‘And now?’ I asked slowly.
She shrugged. ‘I think I like him.’
I rubbed the centre of my forehead. ‘Yvaine—’
‘I know what you’re gonna say. That he’s a flirt. Emmett already gave me the same speech. I’ve heard the stories too.’
‘I’m not trying to break you up,’ I said. ‘But he’s not exactly boyfriend material. Ashton filled me in on the ride here. Said Cassian’s decent in a fight, generous with his mates, and loyal in the ways that count, but he goes through women faster than he goes through razors. Half the time, he’s in a new bed before the old one cools off. That’s probably why Emmett lost it.’
Yvaine nodded. ‘I know. But he said he’s done screwing around. It’s been over a month since my birthday, and he hasn’t touched anyone else.’
I smacked the back of her head. Not hard. Just enough to hopefully knock some sense into her.
‘And you believed that? You, who could have anyone, decided to get tangled up with a confirmed playboy?’