When Hunter did finally part his lips to say something, his eyes landed on something in the distance instead. His eyes hardened, a look of incredulity and rage crossing his face.
“That’s Carmen,” he stated in disbelief.
Asa didn’t turn back to see for himself, figuring that Hunter probably caught a glimpse of her dancing there with the other girls. “Yeah, so?” He lifted a shoulder into a shrug.
Hunter’s glare fell on him, making Asa feel wary all of a sudden. “You know.” He chuckled darkly. “I heard this dude mention something about Asa’s girl being here, but I shook it off because even though I knew you’re a reckless idiot, I didn’t think you were brain dead as well.”
Asa slammed his drink down on the countertop and took a threatening step closer, squaring his shoulders and straightening himself to his full height. It was the exact same stance as Hunter’s and gave him no advantage whatsoever.
“Watch… your… mouth,” he bit out, eyes flashing and daring Hunter to say something else.
Then again, Hunter had never been one to back down from a challenge either. So Asa wasn’t surprised when the other guy chucked his own drink to the side, the can rolling down the counter ’till it hit the wall.
“You brought her here!” Hunter snapped, fists clenching at his sides, a gesture that genuinely shocked Asa. Even though Asa himself tried to keep his temper in check occasionally, Hunter had never been one for self-restraint. “Here where half the guys are ones you’ve pissed off at some point and the other half hate me.”
“She need—”
“And guess what you and I both have in common, Asa?” Hunter stepped closer, shoving at Asa’s chest. “Carmen fucking West. And you brought her here, handing her over on a silver platter.”
“Would you stop being so ridiculously paranoid?” Asa retorted, beyond pissed now. “You think that way because if it was you in their shoes, you’d have done something horrible like using somebody’s loved one in order to get back at them! Goddamn, puta. And the only one with that exact same mentality here—who would actually stoop low enough to get at either you or me through Carmen—is Carson who doesn’t hate you, by the way, just me. So he’s not going to do anything either.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I do,” Asa hissed, wanting to throttle Hunter for digging a mountain out of a mole hill. “Because Carson’s the only one who even thought to go there and cross that line.”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know that?” he repeated his earlier question, but with a cautious tone this time.
“Well, he—” Asa stopped abruptly, knowing that he’d walked into this one and was probably digging his own grave.
“He what?” Hunter’s voice turned to steel.
“Oh, you know.” Asa tried shrugging it off, but obviously failed spectacularly at his attempt to do so because Hunter’s furious expression only seemed to grow darker.
“No.” Hunter forced through gritted teeth as if he was restraining himself from throwing all the knives in the kitchen at Asa. “I don't know. So tell me.”
Asa sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, he was just trying to get in my head, okay—”
“Did he threaten her?” Hunter asked, a short laugh of disbelief escaping his mouth. “The bastard threatened her, didn’t he?” He shoved Asa aside and began walking away when Asa grabbed his arm and yanked him back.
“Where are you going?” he asked, frowning at the moron.
“Where do you think, dumbass?” Hunter snapped, snatching his hand out of Asa’s tight grasp. “Rip his lungs out. Maybe even force it back down his throat.”
When he tried moving again, Asa stepped in front of him, blocking his way. “That’s a lot of anger from a guy who claims not to give a shit about Carmen at all.”
A frustrated growl rose from the back of Hunter’s throat. “Move out of my way, Asa. I’m not doing this with you right now.”
“Oh no, this is actually the perfect time to do it,” Asa snapped back, exhausted with Hunter’s inconsistent attitude.
Because one minute, he was tormenting Asa and the next, he was doing him a simple favour of getting him a drink. The other minute, Hunter was breaking Carmen’s heart and the next one, he was ready to break the limbs of anyone who so much as thought of hurting her.
“You know, maybe it’s you I should be punching the living daylights out of.” Hunter seethed, “Considering you’re the one who brought her here despite Carson directly approaching you about her.”
“Then go ahead and punch me!” Asa glared, curling his palms into fists. “Because I won’t fight back. If it helps you to curb your anger and stop you from creating a scene here with Carson, then go ahead. Take it out on me. We can go out the back and you can punch me to your heart’s content, but you’re not ruining Carmen’s night by causing havoc here.”
Hunter continued to glare at Asa, his jaw clenched, for several beats longer before he eventually let out a breath and his shoulders relaxed as he stumbled backwards. Hauling himself up on top of the counter, Hunter leaned his back against the wall as his legs hung over the edge.
“You really need to work on your anger,” Asa told him seriously.
Hunter didn’t respond to that.
“She always did like dancing,” he finally murmured, and it took every ounce of self-restraint in Asa to not choke with shock at the fact that Hunter was using a tone of voice that wasn’t cutting or venomous.
“Yeah, I just found out earlier today,” Asa replied, somewhat awkwardly. He didn’t know how to deal with this version of Hunter.
Asa liked sticking to the image of Hunter he had in his head—the cold-to-the-bone, remorseless, piece of shit bully
