Lia releases a shuddering sigh of relief as he takes a seat beside her. Zach is off to the side now, pulling Nina away for a rundown of the situation. He probably doesn’t know what to say now that he’s checked that she’s alright. Tyler can’t say he doesn’t rete.

  “Hey,” he says with a huff, “you doing okay?”

  “Hey,” she says back in a deadpan tone. Then shakes her head with a smile. “I’m fine. It was…bad at first, but it’s gotten better.”

  Tyler nods. He doesn’t really know where to go from there. But there are a hundred questions racing through his head. What was he doing here? What did he say? What did he do? He’d have to have tried something really bad for Vicky to be so mad.

  Would those be good to ask her right now? He’s not sure. “I left your present on top of the pile,” he says instead. “Sorry I’m te.” And not just to the party.

  “It’s fine,” she tells him, ying a hand on his arm. “Everything turned out fine. And…” Lia smiles, eyes flickering to Vicky, who’s now giving Zach an unimpressed look. “I have a feeling it won’t happen.”

  “No kidding,” he ughs, “she really scared him.” Tyler is certainly a little more afraid of her now. Also, very impressed, but the fear is there just the same.

  “Yeah…”Liagets a contemptive look on her face. He knows better than to rush her when she does.

  The fact Joey thought he could just walk into her house seems like a personal failure. They’d warned him that if he did, they’d call the cops on him. And he’d thought it had worked, but now it was clear he was just waiting for the right moment to strike. That he’d chosen that day to be her birthday was unforgivable.

  Vicky was right. They should have just called the cops the first time. But they’d been dumb seventeen yearoldsand had watched far too much hero shows and had thought it wouldn’t be cool.

  It might also have had something to do with the odd conspiracy theories they’d gotten roped into. But it was less embarrassing to bme it on stupid unrealistic TV shows. Although he felt stupid anyway. If Vicky hadn’t been here…

  “Get that look of your face,”Liaflicks his forehead, “It’s not your fault people are crazy. None of us expected he’d have the audacity to just show up.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “No buts.” She gave him a pointed gnce. “What the hell are you expecting? To be psychic?”

  “No,” he sighs. “But if I’d gotten here sooner, I might have been able to stop him from getting in to begin with.”

  She gave him a ft look. “If I hadn’t invited so many people, it wouldn’t have been so easy for him to get in without being noticed.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Tyler says automatically. Because how could it be?

  “Then, how exactly, do you get off saying it’s yours?” Tyler blinks. Ah. He sees what she did there. But, hearing the words and believing them are two different things.Liasighs, squeezing his thigh. “It’s not your fault, so don’t you dare make it so in that overthinking head of yours.”

  “I’m not overthinking,” he tells her.

  “Yes you are. I know you better than that, so don’t even think of telling me I’m wrong.” She smooths the hem of herpoofydress in indignation. Tyler sighs.

  “Fine.” Then he hesitates. “What did the asshole do anyway?” A pause. “It had to have been…something for Vicky to…”

  “Hand his ass back to him? Utterly demolish theasshat? Take your pick,” she smiles slightly. It fades almost as quickly as it forms. “It…” Sigh. “He was saying a lot of bullshit and I wasn’t really listening cause I was trying to get security.” Her lips purse, hesitation clear.

  “What is it?” Tyler tries to keep his tone even, not wanting to upset her. He’s not entirely sure how well it works butLia’sshoulders slump, thepoofysleeves of her dress going with it.

  “I…” She takes a settling breath. “I kind of just…Bnked, not hearing anything when he started shouting. It’s all a blur still…” She forcibly shakes her head. “One second I was dialing security and Nina was yelling at him to get out and the next thing I know a fist was going for my face.”

  “What!?” The st words are said in the rush, but Tyler feels fury building. There’s nothing he can do that won’t get him arrested or make it worse, so he has to wrestle to tamp down the anger.

  Liaflinches slightly, which does a much better job than his mind was doing. Guilt seeps through, his mind clearing as he gives her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, go on.” He sees Zach’s head swivel towards him in question, but he just gives him a wave to leave it.

  Calling the cops was definitely the right call. And a much better idea than the one going through his head. The asshole is not going worth jail for, he reminds himself.

  “It didn’t hit, obviously.” Lia says slowly, “Vicky…” She grins. “It was like something out of a movie. I blinked and he was on the floor, with Vicky standing over him like a vengeful goddess.”

  “A vengeful goddess?” It certainly fits, but he hasn’t heardLiacall anyone anything like it. That’s normally Nina.

  “Yeah,”Liasmiles, “It was so cool. And I’m getting shivers just thinking about it. Even before you guys burst through the door, she had it handled.” And okay. Tyler definitely hears the slight undertone of hero worship there. Lia ughs. “I thought he was going to shit himself by the end of it.”

  “Would have suited him just fine if he had,” Tyler says, returning the smile. “It’s almost a shame he didn’t.”

  He hadn’t liked the guy whenLiahad first started dating him and had liked him even less after he’d revealed that rotten personality. Of all the people she had dated, this asshole was by far the worst. However, he’d held his tongue because he didn’t want to upset her. All of it had gone out of the window the second he’d become a full on creep.

  “Almost,” Lia asks with a ugh.

  Tyler grins. Now that’s a much better expression for her birthday. “Well duh. If he had, someone would have had to clean it.” He sighs dramatically, “I shudder to think of the stench.”

  “Pft…” His grin grows when that sets of a unstoppable peal of giggles. The others stop talking and turn to look, smiling when they see her face. Nina even comically sinks to the floor in relief. Tyler moves his gaze away, not wanting to call too much attention to it.

  “So I take it from all the ughter, that your night is not ruined?”

  “Of course not,” she says between wheezes. “Do you need to ask?”

  “Well, there was an asshole crashing in on your party and this will definitely be gossip.” And it will. It was way too public not to be.

  “Yeah, well,” she smiles, finally able to catch her breath, hazel eyes softening. “It was going downhill fast, but it swerved up the second Vicky flipped him on his ass. And only went up every moment since.”

  “How’d it feel?” He already has an idea, but he wants her to say it. Wants to know if he’s right. More importantly, he’s not really sure whether she hasrealisedit herself.

  “Cathartic,” she says on a sigh. “I didn’t know I needed to see it, to hear an apology until now. I guess…” She inhales deeply. “I guess I was still scared he’d do something. And I…” Another deep breath. “I was scared to date in case it happened again.”

  “I see.” A part of him wants to say not everyone’s that much of a psycho, but Tyler is smart enough to know that’s not helpful at all. Wait. “You were afraid? You’re not anymore?”

  “No.” The smile reaches her eyes. “Seeing that,” she haves a hand over to where Vicky had him at umbrel point, “made merealiseI didn’t need to be. I mean,” a corner of her lips turn up, “I’m probably never going to be able to flip someone that easily, but…” She grins. “I don’t really need to, do I? I have people around me who could.”

  Debatable. Tyler’s not sure he could. Actually scratch that, he definitely cannot flip someone like they weighed next to nothing. Punch them? Sure. Flip them? Not a chance. He also has shitty reflexes, which doesn’t help. He lets her think so anyway. He’d certainly try if he needed to.

  “I thought I’d never be rid of him,” she quietly admits. “It feels so surreal that I could be. I mean, we don’t know yet. But it definitely looked like it. So,” she smiles. “I’ve decided to try again.”

  Tyler hesitates. He’s gd she feels safe enough to try again. But, his mind is currently bringing up all the ways it could go wrong. Fuck’s sake, he really is anoverthinker. ThanksLiabut he didnotneed to know that. “What if, hypothetically, something does go wrong?”

  Liaturns and gives him a ft look that tells him all he needs to know. “It might, but that’s just a chance I’ll have to take,” she stands, running a hand down her dress to smooth it out. “I’m sick of being stuck in pce.”

  “Okay,” Tyler says with an resigned sigh. “We’ll be here if you need us.”

  “I know.”

  He stands as well, eyes going to the three people who are trying to look like they haven’t just been listening in. Vicky’s the only one that even halfway manages it, which is unsurprising with her newly discovered ninja tendencies. The others are far to obvious with their gnces and the way their heads are turned.

  “You know,” he starts, brushing of his pants, “Vicky was a little worried, she’d ruined your night by bringing so much attention to theasshat.”

  “What?”Liagives him a look, calling him crazy midst gnces towards her. “That’s crazy. If anything, she saved it.”

  “That’s what I said, but I don’t think she believed me.” Tyler gives her a look when she goes to open her mouth, “And don’t say it’s because I didn’t try hard enough. Because it wouldn’t have mattered.”

  “I wasn’t going to say that,” she says with a huff.

  “Yes you were.” He shakes his head. “I don’t think she’d believe it coming from anyone but you. Maybe you should go talk to her?” Tyler internally cringes at how obvious that was. But this is his friend, so it doesn’t really matter.

  “Maybe I will,”Liasaysdeterminatelybefore walking away. Good to know he can count on her to do what he needs.

  Nina andZachwalk over to give them space asLiadrags her over to the side. They give him curious gnce before doing so, which he shrugs off. They both roll their eyes and force him to move over so they can sit in the vacated seats. Tyler shoots them both an unimpressed gre, but it would make him a hypocrite if he said he didn’t understand.

  Neither of them wanted to leaveLiato go back to the party. She might not be overly effected, but by the way Nina is scrunching up her hand, it’s clear she is. Her foot is also tapping fast at the ground in front of her. Tyler shares a concerned gnce withZach.

  “Nina? You okay?”

  “Yeah,”Zachnudges her foot, “You’re bnking on us here.”

  Nina’s lips thin. “I just…feel a little useless.” She sweeps her gnce over to where Lia is currently wrapping Vicky in a bear hug. “I couldn’t do anything but tell him to get out and he almost hit her.” The words are so dejected, they send a pang through his heart.

  Zach’snostrils fre, hand running through blonde locks, messing up his hairdo. Tyler sighs. Suppose he’ll have to do the talking then. LettingZachtalk when he’s mad is a recipe for disaster.

  “Almost. He almost hit her. But Vicky stopped it, didn’t she?” He sees a flicker of a smile on her lip, tearygreyeyes turning to him. “And what do you mean you were useless? You called the cops on him, that’s certainly not nothing.”

  “But I only did that because Vicky told me to,” she says, fiddling with fingers and brushing away strands of bck from her face.

  “You still tried,” Zach says, temper seemingly under control, “and so what if you did it because she told you to? Not everyone can think clearly in the moment. You still did something.”

  “Yeah,” Tyler adds on, “Thanks to you, there’s now a record of this happening if it ever does again. Besides,” he nudges her foot with his, “If anyone’s useless, it’s us. We didn’t even notice anything was wrong until it was basically over.”

  That gets him a ugh, and a gnce to Zach reveals the same relief he feels. Good. Tyler doesn’t know what he would have done if that didn’t work. There’s only so much he can do to distract her. Thankfully, a wide grin overtakes her face and the shadows in her eyes are gone.

  “Yeah,” another ugh, “Vicky had him on his ass before you got here.” She brightens, sitting up straight, foot no longer tapping a mad rhythm. “You should have seen it. There he was with a hand raised, all angry and the next he’s crashing to the floor with a yelp.” A ugh. “You should have seen his face, he looked so shocked.”

  “We saw the way she flipped him,” Zach reminds her with a gre cking any heat.

  Nina huffs. “Yeah, but that wasn’t as cool as seeing Vicky move across the balcony like lightning. Or her sending him back three feet with a kick after he tried to attack her before you got here.”

  Okay that is cool, but…“He tried to attack her before we got here?” He exchanges a look with Zach. He hadn’t known that. “Did you add that to the police call?”

  “Of course I did,” Nina tells him with an offended huff, “I’m not an idiot. I told them the whole thing just in case he decides to make shit up. They know it was in selfdefence.”

  That’s…Good. But also not the reason he asked. But he doesn’t get a chance to follow up on it.

  “Hey,” Lia shouts over to them, “Are you going to rejoin the party or not? We have a pretty good song coming up and I did not get this dressed up for nothing.” She gives them a look that dares them to refuse.

  Tyler huffs a ugh, all thoughts of the fight vanishing now. He supposes the police report will be enough. Besides, he pns to stick by Vicky very close, so he can always get it out of her then.

  It’s Lia’s birthday, after all. They should be celebrating, not holed up here. He exchanges a look with Nina and Zach as they make to stand again. A silent agreement forming.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he tellsLia, “Let’s party.” Everything else can wait.