Page 41

He changed direction. Straight toward Clayton.

“Oh,” Jade said beside me. “That’s not good.”

“No.”

Declan walked past the stage without saying a word to me.

That somehow irritated me more.

Clayton stood before he reached the table.

“Chief.”

Declan caught the front of his shirt and drove him backward into the wall.

The table went silent. Everyone else hung back.

Even Rook, Ruckus and Micah.

Not me. I hopped down from the stage.

Jade caught my wrist. “Be careful. He looks violent.”

“Not with me,” I assured her. I shoved my feet into Mom’s platforms without fastening them properly, then charged after Declan.

By the time I reached them, he had Clayton pinned against the wall with one forearm across his chest.

Clayton looked more annoyed than afraid.

That was probably because Clayton had spent his entire life being manhandled by brothers as big as he was.

Declan’s voice was low. His Texas drawl got slower when he was angry. Smoother too. Somehow that made it worse.

“Is that what you want back there?” he growled. “All those guys, looking at her like that? That it? You want to put her on display?”

Clayton’s expression hardened. “It was a joke. Chill the fuck out, Chief.”

“You chill the fuck out.” Declan shoved him harder against the wall. “What the hell were you thinking? You brought her here.”

“She wanted to stay.”

“You brought her.”

“I brought her to Asa’s birthday party. She made friends with a stripper all by herself.”

Ruckus made a strangled sound several feet away.

Rook elbowed him without looking.

Declan didn’t even blink.

“All those guys,” he continued, quieter now, “every fucking one of them now has that picture in their head. Her up there like that. Forever. You okay with that?”

Clayton stared at him. Something changed in his face. Not fear. Not confusion.

For one strange second, he looked almost thoughtful.

Then it disappeared.