His hands were on her hips, their bodies only an inch or two apart. I watched him lean in and whisper something into her ear. She laughed at whatever he said and my gut twisted.

"Your drink Mr. Cross." I turned around at the high-pitched voice and practically ripped the beer from her hand. She frowned and started to walk away when she suddenly stopped and faced me once again. "Don't waste your time on her, you can do much better." She sneered. I looked at her with cold eyes and snapped.

"Oh? And who should I go for? Girls like you who dress like sluts in order to get the attention of a man who will never want them?" The tray dropped from her hands as her eyes went wide. I ignored the tears and took a sip from the beer she'd brought me for the tenth time, "And let Devon know I want a different server." I didn't expect an answer, and I didn't get one. She turned around without giving me a second look and ran off like the coward she was.

Taking another drink, I turned my gaze back to the ground and instantly swore. My beer dropped to the ground, glass going everywhere. I took the steps three at a time. The men at the bottom saw me coming and immediately moved the rope so it was out of my way. I hit the bottom step hard and was tearing through the crowd. From the look on my face, people played it safe and quickly got out of my way.

At the center of the floor a circle of people blocked my view. I rudely shoved them to the side only to find my self frozen in place. Zach was on the ground, his hand holding his nose, blood slithering from between two of his fingers.

"You ever touch me again, and I'll break a lot more than just your nose!" Mia growled before she snapped around and caught sight of me. "I'm going home, don't bother following you piece of shit." She hissed before taking off for the exit of the club. I looked back to Zach and saw the guilty, pleasurable look in his eyes. I shook my head at him and took off after Mia.

By the time I got to her, she was already slipping into the back of the car that her uncle had set up for her before she had arrived at the beginning of the month. I ran up to her, standing at the doorway as she glared up.
"Mia, I'm sorry-"

"Is this some joke to you?" She hissed, "Is me being here a joke? Cause if it is, I can go back to Washington early."

"What are you talking about Mia?"

"I thought it was a little suspicious how everyone I met from your cliché hit on me, but thankfully your buddy cleared it up. I'm not some girl to place bets on. Tell your friend Marc he can find a new date for tomorrow. I'm going with Veronica!" With nothing left to say, she pushed my hand away and slammed the car door shut. I was left speechless, my eyes glued to the car speeding down the road into the darkness of the night.

After what seemed to be hours of standing there, I finally turned around and headed back into the club. I slithered my way through the crowd and up to the VIP area where I found the slutty waitress flirting with Zach. When she saw me, she sent me a nasty glare and walked away. Zach on the other hand couldn't meet my eyes.

There was so much I wanted to say, but I chose against it and instead grabbed the bottle of Champaign I'd had put out for Mia, and chugged until I needed to breathe.

The entire time Zach was watching me, the bruise around his left eye glaring at me from the side. Part of me wanted to give him a matching one on the right side. He was clearly the cause of Mia's anger, but if I got into it now, I'd be sending my friend straight to the hospital. I knew it and so did he.

Zach and I had our issues. We were good friends though not as close as Marc and I. We'd fought more times than I could count, each of us over stepping boundaries, myself included when I slept with his older sister three years ago. Still, we had talked it out and as far as I knew he had pushed the whole thing to the side, but after tonight, I had a feeling that I had been wrong the whole time. I knew I shouldn't be mad at him for whatever he said to Mia, but I couldn't help it. My relationship with her was the one thing that could push me over board.

"What did you say to her man?" I finally asked, tired of the silence beneath the music.

"Doesn't matter." He mumbled. I took a deep breath to try and keep myself under control, and then lost it.

"Doesn't fucking matter!? Mia literally just walked out on me! You know how I feel about her!"

"Oh yeah? And what about my sister?"

"Seriously!? I thought we were cool about that? I had apologized to both her and you!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it! You ruined her engagement! You ruined her, all because you couldn't keep your damn pants on! What makes you think I would let you be happy!?"

"So that why you remained my friend huh?" I sneered, facing him with my fists clenched at my sides, "Just to wait for some kind of happiness to appear in my life and the take it away?"

"You deserve that and more! You're a piece of shit man! You sleep with one girl and then leave her on the streets like a piece of trash! A man like that doesn't deserve happiness! You don't deserve her-" I lunged for him.

***
Roger

The sound of a bottle shattering as it hit the bottom of the trash can hit me the moment I stepped into the kitchen. She protested childishly when I took away the other bottle of red wine, but I never gave in. After I put the bottle away, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the living room.

"Mia what's wrong?" Her eyes met mine and then she dropped her head.

"I want to go home."   

"What did Killian do?" I knew it was him; he was the only man who could get her this upset. Mia was known for not letting guys into her life very easily, but I knew Killian held a spot in her heart. She would deny it if I asked, but I knew very well that she cared for him in some way.
"I don't think he did anything...."

"What do you mean?"

"I went to one of his clubs and ran into one of his dumb friends. He asked me to dance and I was okay with it...that was until he decided to get a little handsy. I tried to tell him to stop but he wouldn't listen. Next thing I knew his lips were on mine. I shoved him away and that when he mentioned something about how Killian was smart to make the bet, how I was one stubborn girl. I lost it and punched him in the face." Thinking of a man forcing one on her had my blood boiling. I wanted to beat the guy; he had no right touching my niece in any way.

"But you don't believe him?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"It's not that I don't believe him, it's just I don't see how Killian could do something like that...he knows I'm not the kind of girl to be messed with like that."

"Did you talk to him about it?" I knew the answer before she said it.

"I yelled at him and slammed the car door in his face."

"That doesn't sound like you." I knew my niece. In fact, this whole thing didn't sound like her. Mia was a tough girl, putting her anger above all her other emotions. Unless it was over her father or friend, she never cried like this.

"I started my period." She mumbled into my shirt and I froze. If Mia and my wife were alike in anyway, it was how they acted during that time of the month. To put it nicely, they we're crybabies - thankfully for only the first day. Sighing, I rubbed her back as carefully as I could.

"Please go to bed." I whispered. She didn't respond but I felt her head move. Looking down, I found her glaring at me. "This is an issue for your aunt, not me."

"Ass hole." She mumbled and then pulled away. I watched her walk away, when suddenly my phone went off. The number was unknown but I still answers.

"Yes?"

"Is this the line to Mr. Cross's security?"

"You're talking to the head honcho, what's up?"

"We need you to come pick him up."

"Where is he?" I asked the man on the other side. The caller let out a small sigh and responded.

"Jail."

***
Mia

The car came to a screeching stop. My uncle was out the door before I could even unbuckle my seatbelt. I sighed as his body flew up the stairs and into the station. Giving myself a quick pep talk, I unlocked the car door and got out.

I moved up the steps and into the station without a word. Cops were sitting at their desks. A few of them had 'guests' sitting next to them, their hands locked behind their backs with shiny metal hand cuffs. As I moved to the back where my uncle stood talking to an older man, one of the guests lunged from his chair. I froze, the prisoner - a 6 foot, probably about 250 pound, lumberjack looking kind of man - pushed the cop in charge out of the way and ran down the middle isle. My eyes darted up, meeting the man's sharp gaze, and immediately knew he planned on shoving me out of the way.

Some woman yelled at me to get out of the way, but I pushed her voice aside and stood my ground, my fists clenched.

1....

2....

3....

The throat or the nose?

Wait till the distances closes, step to the side...

He was on me. Stepping one foot away, I twisted my body, kicked my foot out, grabbed onto the back of his neck, and pushed his upper body downward. In a matter of second, he was face down on the ground. He started getting up, but before he could even get up an inch, three cops were on him. They pulled him up and shoved him into another chair, handcuffing him to the chair itself instead of nothing.

"Thank you." A skinny cop with a receding hair line and dull brown eyes said as I began heading back towards my uncle.

"No problem." I grinned. Fighting was like heaven. It always made me happy, the feeling of someone falling face first into the ground, whimpers of pain escaping their lips as a limb twisted just enough, it was amazing.

After stepping up to my uncles' side, I began listening to the conversation that had been paused by the incident just seconds earlier.

"So yes. I am really sorry Roger, but it had to happen."

"No," my uncle sighed, "This was the right thing to do. Hopefully the kid will learn his lesson. Does his father know?"

"Yes. Called him the moment I saw the kid walk through the doors. He was the one told me to call you."

"Good. Any charges need to be paid?"

"Nope. But you might want to get his hand checked out. Just follow me." My uncle nodded in response and the three of us headed through the glass door behind then and down a flight of concrete steps.

The moment we hit the bottom step an inappropriate comment was thrown out from the left side cell. I kept my eyes forward and continued to follow. A few whistles came from the third cell, two unwanted remarks from the opposite side, and one extremely rude question from the fourth. I was about I scream at all the unruly bastards behind the bars when we finally stopped in front of a cell with only one occupant. His green eyes found mine, and I felt myself frozen.

He was ashamed, and the gleam in his eye that I normally got when he saw me, was gone.
"You're free to go kid. Sorry for having you all the way down here." Killian didn't say anything. He grabbed the jacket next to the bench beside him and moved to the door that was now open.

"Thanks again Fred." The man smiled at my uncle and took his hand.

"Next time we talk, let it be without me having to pick someone up."

"Hopefully." The two exchanged a few more words and then we were gone. I slid in the back next to Killian with nothing to say. There was something different about him, and as I watched him from the corner of my eye I realized very quickly that the boy I grew up with, was slipping through my fingers.