Page 41 of Forgotten Prejudice

The scent of his cologne and the comfort in his touch was already enough to make me feel better, and I breathed him in, savoring the familiar scent.

“I am. Thank you for coming.”

A whistle made us both look aside at Kai, who was walking next to Soren’s Range Rover while pointing at it with his thumb. “That’s a nice ride. Didn’t tell me your boyfriend was loaded, Ashy.”

Soren’s brows frowned, and he fixed his glasses before pulling me a bit closer.

“And you are?” he asked, his voice cold.

“I’m the best friend.” Stopping before us, Kai brushed his dirty palm over his shirt before offering it to Soren to shake. Only it wasn’t a friendly gesture but one full of venom. “Didn’t Ashy tell you about me?” He tilted his head and dropped his hand while Soren continued to stand tall.

Removing his attention from Kai, Soren nudged me toward the car. “We should hurry up. It’s already too late.”

“Why the rush?” Kai slapped Soren’s shoulder with the back of his palm. “We’re just getting to know each other.” He grinned. “I want to know everything about the man who loves shoving his dick inside my best friend.”

Soren didn’t answer him but instead looked at Kai with pure disdain.

“By the way, aren’t you too old for him? You like fucking high school kids or somethin’?”

“Kai!” I yelled, but Soren stopped me with a hand on my arm.

He then took off his coat and put it over my shoulders. “Ashton, it’s cold outside. Would you get inside the car, please?”

“But—”

“Don’t worry.” He smiled at me with such kindness, and I wondered where he’d gotten this insane amount of patience from.

“But what about my truck?” I then asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” He rubbed my arms with his hands. “Just wait inside.”

Not wanting to argue, I left Soren’s side and was about to get inside his car when Kai sneered.

“Who knew you were such an obedient pup?”

Angry, I held open the car’s door. “He’s wasted on drugs, Soren, so it’s better to ignore him.”

“Don’t worry, beautiful. Just wait inside.”

“Beautiful?” Kai huffed, rolling his eyes.

I didn’t hear the rest of what Kai said because I’d already closed the door, but from the look of it, their exchange of words wasn’t pleasant. Soren remained as calm as always while Kai kept moving around, his face twisting with rage and spite whenever he spoke. The situation made me uncomfortable, especially when I knew they were talking about me. Every now and then, Kai peeked at me from behind Soren, and the look in his eyes… If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was jealous. But why would he be? He had his chance with me and made it clear nothing would ever happen.

He didn’t want me. Not the other way around.

A few minutes later, Soren got inside the Range Rover. “I contacted the towing company before coming here. They’ll be here in about an hour. They have all the details, so we don’t need to wait,” he said after closing the door.

“That’s great, but—” I looked outside where Kai was still standing. “—what about Kai?”

“What about him?”

My brows drew close. “Aren’t we taking him to the hospital?”

Soren sighed. “He said he’d rather spend the night on the hills than get inside my car. So can we please go now? It’s late, and I’m tired.”

I knew I was putting Soren in an awkward position. He had no reason to care for Kai, even less so after the way Kai had spoken to him. This was also not his mess to clean up. The fact he’d come here to pick me up was more than enough, so asking him to help me with Kai was ungrateful. Yet, there was no way I’d leave Kai behind.

I took Soren’s hand in mine and brought it to my chest. “Please let me try to talk to him one last time. I can’t leave him alone.”