UNBROKEN: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 2) (27 page)

I shake my head. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing—”

“I disagree.” He plops down on his own bed across the room and stares at his phone while Mandy lingers at the foot of mine with her arms crossed over her chest. “I never thought I’d see the day when I got laid more than you did, Kai. I’m worried about you. You’ve been a total killjoy ever since we came back from Europe.”

I cringe as he mentions it.

“Shawn…” Mandy says slowly. “That isn’t constructive.” She walks around the bed and sits down beside me. “Kai…” She keeps her voice low, too low for Shawn to hear her. “I think this will be good for you.”

“I’m fine, Mandy,” I tell her, matching her volume.

“And I agree with that,” she says. “But you
have
changed a little ever since…” Her words tapper off, but her eyes finish the thought silently.

Since Piper broke your heart.

I never told anyone about that week in Europe with Piper, not officially. Shawn still has no idea and mostly attributes my sulkiness to me “losing” that bet against him. Whatever. I’ll let him think that. It’d be better than telling him the truth and forcing myself to re-live it all over again in the process. But Mandy… she figured it out almost immediately and she never even had to ask Piper about it to confirm it.

It was written all over my face when I got back. Mandy has been Piper’s most trusted friend for years and has no doubt been witness to plenty of poor men falling head over heels in love with her, only to be cast aside like old clothing. She knew that face —
my face
— better than anyone. She also knows that Piper sure as hell isn’t sitting around sulking about it like I am. Oh, no. Not Piper
fucking
Lynch. She’s probably had all sorts of fuck buddies since she tossed my ass out.

“Come with us,” Mandy urges with a smile. “I promise you, it’ll be fun. Have I ever lied to you?”

I smile back at her. “No,” I answer.

“Exactly.” She shrugs her shoulders. “If it’s lame, we’ll leave and come back here with pizza and a bad movie. If it’s not… then you and whatever dame you bring back can have the room. Shawn will stay with me down the hall.”

Shawn finally glances up from his phone. “What are you two being all hushy about?” he asks. “You’re not hooking up again, are you?”

Mandy glances over her shoulder at him. “Yes, Shawn. That’s exactly right. Good job.” She turns back to me and drops the sarcasm. “So, what do you say?”

I take a deep breath. As annoying as Shawn is, he’s not wrong. I know I’ve changed and I hate it, but that’s what happens when a death viper rips out one of your organs, gnaws on it with sharp teeth, and shoves it back into your chest cavity. You think maybe it’ll heal over and start to work correctly again, but no. It doesn’t. It just sits there, eternally bleeding and malfunctioning until one day, you find yourself in a dead heap on the floor—
oh, my god.
What the fuck am I thinking? Who the hell is this asshole? No wonder my friends can’t stand me anymore. I’ve become a fucking worthless piece of—

Nope.

A surge of confidence charges through my veins. Piper Lynch is
gone
. She and I are over. Done. Dead. Buried. I’m in the prime of my life. She isn’t worth the heartache she left me with. She isn’t even worth the wad of tissues filling my trash can right now.

Fuck Piper Lynch and fuck this whole damn thing.

“Okay,” I say, nodding my head. “I’ll go with you.”

Mandy’s face splits with a big smile. “That’s the spirit, Kai!” She holds up her hand and I reach out for a quick high-five. “And like I said — if it sucks—”

“It won’t,” I say. “No, this is gonna be a good night, Mandy.” She smiles at me again and nods in understanding. I lay a friendly peck on her cheek and push myself off the bed.

“Where you going?” Shawn asks, his eyes peaking at me from behind his shaggy bangs.

I reach for my gym bag in my closet and stuff my running shoes inside, along with an extra shirt and a pair of shorts. “I’m going to the rec center for a run,” I answer.

“Sounds healthy,” Mandy notes, still smiling.

I flash her a wink as I toss the bag over my shoulder. Adrenaline fires through me, pushing me towards a distant, but visible, finishing line. I’m a young, strong, and fiercely attractive male specimen. There’s no reason in the world why I can’t bounce back from this and come out a better man.

Ladies, Kai Casablancas is back.

I grab the doorknob and pull the door open.

Or not.

I stare at her and I can literally feel rock bottom slapping me in the face.

Her hand floats suspended in the air, just seconds away from knocking. She slowly lowers it while I study her face. Deep blue eyes, staring directly into my soul. Skin white as cocaine. I can taste the cherry on her red lips already. Her raven black hair, which was once long enough to graze her belly button, is now trimmed short, sitting just above her chin. My heart comes to a dead stop.

Piper
fucking
Lynch.

“Hello, Kai,” she says. The ends of her lips twitch, teasing a smile just below the surface, but it never quite makes it out.

I push the door closed and turn back around.

“Or, you know…” I say to the room. I drop the gym bag to the floor. “We can just stay in and order a pizza.”

Chapter 3

Piper

Well, my mother was right.

Now that he’s seen my face, I know exactly what Kai wants. There’s only so many ways I can interpret a door being slammed in my face.

I flinch as the door opens again.

“Piper?!” Mandy squeals my name and throws her arms around me, her trademark giggle on the air around us. “Oh, my god! Oh, my god!
Oh, my god!
”

I laugh with her and some of Kai’s sting wears off a bit. “Hey, Mandy,” I greet.

She pulls away and feels the ends of my hair with her fingertips. “Oh, this hair is
so
cute
!”

“Thanks,” I laugh. “Felt like I needed a change.”

“Come in—” She grips my wrist and pulls me into the room. “Shawn, look!” she shouts.

Shawn glances up from his bed with a smirk. “What’s up, girl?”

“Hi, Shawn,” I greet.

Mandy shakes me in her arms. “Oh, my god! This is so exciting! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asks.

My eyes drift to Kai across the room. He stands near a desk by the far wall, leaning back against it with his head down and his arms crossed about his chest. One thing is certain: He is not happy to see me. “I… thought a surprise would be more fun,” I answer. I watch him shake his head slightly, but he never raises his eyes.

“How long are you staying?” she asks.

“Umm… I’m not sure, actually.” I look to Kai again for a reaction, but he gives me nothing.

“Did you just get in?”

I nod. “Yeah, I came straight here.”
Come on, Kai. Blink or something.

Mandy releases my shoulders and steps into my line of sight, blocking him from view. “Oh, you’re probably
starving
then. That flight
sucks
.” She locks her eyes on mine. “How about we go get a late lunch and you can tell me all about what you’ve been up to…” Her subtle wink is far from subtle.

“Okay,” I tell her. “Sounds good.”

Kai pushes himself off the desk and makes wide strides towards the door. “I’m going to the gym,” he spits as he bends down and grabs a bag off the floor. He throws the door open and it closes fast behind him.

“I probably deserved that…” I whisper at Mandy.

She shrugs.

“You showed up at the perfect time, Piper,” Shawn says as he bounces off his bed. “Big party tonight.”

“Oh?” I ask.

Mandy hooks her arm with mine. “I’ll tell you about it at the dining hall. Come on.” She turns back to Shawn. “No boys allowed, honey. Sorry,” she smiles at him.

He holds up his hands. “No problem. I might actually catch up with Kai, do a few dead lifts or something…” He flexes his biceps in the air. They barely make dents in his shirt. Not at all like Kai’s still stunning physique.

Mandy waves goodbye to him and pulls me out of the dorm room.

***

“Oh, my god…”
I chew on the greasy and delicious burger. The flavors spread across my tongue, igniting all of the taste buds I had long forgotten about. “Of all the things I thought I’d miss, I never once considered an American cheeseburger would be on that list…”

Mandy chuckles at me from across the table and sucks on her straw to sip up the remaining soda hidden at the bottom among chunks of ice. The dining hall isn’t at all crowded, but I imagine more and more students will trickle in as evening draws closer. “And here I thought you came back here because you missed
me
…” she grins.

“Among other things…” I fill my mouth with sugary soda to wash down the elixir of potent flavors.

“Wanna talk about it?” she asks.

“More than anything.”

“Thank god.” She claps her palms together and gives them a rub. “I’m all ears…” she says.

I lick my lips and wipe them clean with a paper napkin while I do a quick scan of the area for prying ears. “I think I really fucked up.”

“How so?” Her eyes sparkle with amusement.

“I thought a clean break from Kai would be the best thing for both of us. I followed my instincts and for the first time, I think they were wrong.”

“Hmm…” She chews on her lip and taps her long nails across the table. “I’m gonna need a little
more
than that, honey…”

I sigh, remembering that I never officially told her the whole story about what happened that week in Europe. “Kai and I hooked-up in France,” I say. “And England… and Ireland… and Spain.”

“Yeah, no shit,” she smiles.

“What did he tell you?” I ask.

“He didn’t have to tell me anything, Piper.” She shakes her head. “Firstly, it was pretty suspicious when our plane took off from Paris and he wasn’t on it. Secondly, when he finally showed up at school a week later looking like an abused stray, it was pretty damn obvious who kicked him.”

“An abused stray?”

“Yeah,” she scoffs. “Whatever happened between you two over there
really
messed him up, Piper.”

“It did?” I sit back.

“Oh yeah. If it weren’t for me, I don’t think he’d say a word to anyone — except Shawn, of course.”

I eye the room around us. This isn’t what I expected. The fight we had that last day in Madrid before he left was a major one. I was sure he’d get back home and immediately be balls-deep in college girls starting from day one. Unlike myself. I’ve spent the last few months in a blinding sexual rut. The confident and seductive Piper Lynch fell off her pedestal. And she fell hard. “He said he loved me,” I admit.

“And you never said it back,” she says. It’s not a question. Score one for Mandy Black and her amazing perception skills.

“I couldn’t,” I say. “It never even crossed my mind…”

“But dragging him around with you to hotel rooms all over Europe was well within the realm of your capabilities,” she bites.

“Mandy…” I sigh.

“Piper, I love you…” she says, “but I’m siding with Kai on this one.”

“I
never
asked him to stay with me in Paris,” I argue.

“Did you ever ask him to leave?”

“No, but—”

“But
nothing
, Piper,” she interrupts. “You broke him. I’ve spent six months gluing him back together and today, I thought I made a little bit of progress… and then you showed up.”

It stings. A lot. “I’m sorry,” I say.

“Don’t say it to me, honey,” she says. “There’s someone else that deserves those words a little bit more.”

“If I had known it was this bad, I would have done something sooner,” I say.

“It was your idea to maintain radio silence,” she says.

I nod. I didn’t want her to know exactly where I was so that when my father inevitably grilled her about my whereabouts after she left Paris, she wouldn’t have to lie to him. I fall forward and rest my face against my hands. “Do you think he’ll forgive me?” I ask.

She shrugs. “No idea,” she says. “But you came all the way here, you might as well try and talk him into it.”

“I don’t want to talk him into anything…” I mutter as I sit back. “I just want to talk to him again. I can’t get him out of my head and I can’t go back to Europe until he’s out of my system.”