Free Shark Out of Water (Grab Your Pole, #3) by Jenn Cooksey

waste of life, you worthless piece of shit,” Jeff said, shaking his head, the fight in him having been deflated quite a bit. Now he just looks disgusted.
    “Agreed. But just so we’re clear, next time …I hit back,” Tristan warned, and with that self-assured dismissal of Jeff, he turned around and walked away with the two guys I didn’t know following him at a distance.
    Mike turned around to leave too, but Pete was rooted to the spot, still coiled and ready. It took him a minute, but when Jeff saw Pete still standing there, he transferred his anger at Tristan onto Pete and went on the offensive again.
    “And you, you fuckin ’ lap dog …how can you even fuckin’ sleep at night?”
    “I sleep like a baby, Jeff, how ‘bout you?” Pete said so quietly I had to inch up a little closer so I wouldn’t miss anything.
    “How the fuck can you actually still be friends with that lowlife fuckwad?!” Jeff asked, getting fired up again and closing the gap between himself and Pete.
    “What I can’t get past is how you can’t be,” Pete replied and I swear to God, it sounded like he pitied Jeff.
    “Do you even know what he did?” Jeff yelled at Pete’s back as he turned to leave.
    “Nope, I know what he didn’t do,” Pete answered over his shoulder, about to take a step away.
    “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Shit, you sound like that cold bitch sister of Cam—”
    He moved like a snake and before I could even move a muscle to stop him, Pete had wheeled around and with one, gnarly haymaker punch, he knocked Jeff flat on his ass. I grinned to myself. I fuckin’ knew Pete was gonna have the last word here.
    Jeff wiped the blood from his nose and looked at it, stunned. Then, very calmly, but with obviously restrained rage, Pete said, “That was a wakeup call. It’s about fuckin’ time you open your goddamned eyes and realize shit isn’t always what it fuckin’ looks like,” he started to walk away again and then when Kate ran up crying and crouched down next to Jeff, and Melissa hurried over to me, Pete turned back and asked, “Where’s Camie?”
    Shit. I completely fuckin’ forgot about her.
    “ Please tell me neither of you guys left her alone with that guy who was talking to her,” I said to Jeff and Kate.
    “ What guy?” Pete asked and that element of danger was suddenly back.
    Rather than hemming and hawing, because I know better than to do that with a guy like him, I looked Pete straight in the eyes and just told him, “His name is Scott. I don’t have any hardcore proof, but my gut tells me he’s really bad news.”
    Kate paled and then Jeff said, “She’d already met him before tonight and yeah, the guy’s a douche, but I didn’t get any psycho vibes from him…besides, we didn’t have a choice…when Tristan showed up, she fuckin’ freaked out and took off with him.”
    I got the impression he was uncomfortable admitting that piece of information and I don’t blame him. Jeff dropped the ball and he knows it.
    Pete stared at him, hard, like he was deciding whether he would go to Jeff’s funeral or not and then he said, “Because you’re eventually gonna wake up and it’s gonna be tough for him to trust you again as it is, I’m gonna do you this one favor…I’m not gonna tell Tristan you let his girlfriend go off with some guy none of you even know, but if I were you, I’d start praying right fucking now while you’re down there to every fucking God who’ll listen that nothing happens to her and that she makes it home tonight without a single hair out of place, because if something happens, you and I both know, no witness protection program, no amount of running or hiding will stop him or Jillian from hunting you down and when, not if, when they find you, nothing on this earth will keep you even remotely safe.”
    With that threat still hanging in the air like a fucking scythe, Pete calmly turned and walked away. I gotta say it though. DAMN. That guy knows how to