Ice Cold Love

Part 11

Warning: language

Ronan's POV

I was with Mason and some of his friends, lounging in the dining area, when I felt my phone buzz over and over again in my pocket. I chose to ignore it, assuming it was just messages flowing in one of the millions of group chats Mason and Hunter had put me in. They had always been more on the social side, and I don't know why they felt the need to constantly include me, but they did.

Mason was talking to his friends animatedly, the conversation broken only by drunken laughter. I didn't register anything they said. I'd barely drank any alcohol, and I was still sulking after my encounter with Conner. I wasn't sure what to be angrier about, the situation I was in or the bullshit Conner spewed at me.

"Erm, Ron?" Mason called. At the sound of his voice, I broke my gaze away from the space on the carpet I was glaring at and looked at Mason, who was sitting on a sofa next to me. He had his phone in his hand and he was looking at it with his eyebrows furrowed. "What?" I asked. I didn't feel like being pulled into the conversation he was having with his other buddies, who I recognised as being some of the basketball boys.

Rather than respond to me, Mason turned to his friends with a smile on his face that was faker than a Barbie doll. "Hey, you guys can hang out here, I just gotta go do something real quick," he said, making my eyebrow quirk up. One of them nodded at him, but the other three didn't even acknowledge his words, too immersed in whatever conversation they were having.

Mason got up and grabbed the bottom of my sleeve before tugging on it. When I looked up at him from my seat, I saw his jaw was clenched and his muscle had tensed up. I realised he was angry as I made to follow him. "Don't tell me there's been another fight Mace, I'm not in the mood," I said, annoyed.

There's always a guy that gets too aggressive at parties like these, and as much as I didn't care about a fight, I was worried. Only something serious could get Mason this worked up. He was leading me towards the back of the house, and the music was still going, people were still dancing. So there hadn't been a fight.

"What's going on man?" I asked Mason, completely bewildered. If it wasn't a fight he was pissed about, what was it? Mason stopped by the back door, the one that lead to the pool, and looked at me, his green eyes bright with rage. "Hunter texted me," he paused, his eyes darting all over my face, as if to see my reaction, "he said something happened with Isabelle."

It took me a moment to process his words, and when I did, I felt my blood boil. "What the hell happened? Is she alright? Where is-" Mason cut me off. "She's asleep. I don't know what happened mate, but that's what we're about to find out." He tilted his head towards the door and opened it. His grip on the handle was so tight his knuckles went white.

I didn't understand what was going on, and I was furious. If anyone touched even a hair on her head I was ready to tear them apart. Was she alright? Was she hurt? How the fuck did anyone get near her when she was in my room with the door locked? Imagines of Isabelle flashed before my eyes, each one more worrying than the next, and a list of all the possible things that could have happened formulated in my mind.

Mason took a step closer to me. "Ronan, she's alright. Hunter just checked on her, and Derik's sitting outside her room," the information helped me feel slightly better, but my anger didn't subside. I'd thank Derik later if I remembered to.

She's alright. Izzy's alright. I repeated the thought again and again in my mind as I stepped outside onto the wooden deck with Mason in tow. There was a woman sitting on one of the patio chairs and her head snapped to us as we stepped out of the house. "Where's Hunter?" she questioned, her voice slightly croaky.