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“Ellie, you know that’s not what I mean. Of course you’re not. I mean, it’s obvious that he likes you, and well, he is a very well-known man.”
“Please. I’m not interested. I don’t date, remember?” She started to walk from the room.
“We need this contract, Ellie. We’re one job away from laying off workers because it’s been so slow. If we land this job, we’re set for quite some time, never mind the publicity we’ll get, which means more high profile clients.”
She knew that construction and development firm was struggling. But they were still pretty well off.
“I’m still not going to lead him on in order to get this gig. He said he would sign the contracts.”
“Yes, at dinner with you Saturday night. Clear your schedule. Although I know you don’t have any plans.”
“Fine. I’ll clear my schedule, and I’ll go out with Renaldo, but if I get us this contract, I expect one hefty bonus check for snagging this job. And I mean big, Ernest. I don’t like playing games, and I certainly don’t like being bossed around.” She gave him a stern expression and then headed out of the room wondering how the hell she got herself into this.
Chapter 1
“I said that I’m fine. Just leave me the hell alone!” Hunter yelled at his brothers before limping from the room.
Justice ran his fingers through his wavy blond hair, and then looked at Seno and Mace, his younger siblings.
“I don’t get it. Is it me or is his attitude getting worse again?” Justice asked.
“It’s getting worse again. He’s in pain from overdoing it at the gym. You know that puts him in a wicked mood,” Seno said, and then poured the rest of his coffee down the drain.
“I thought he was past trying to prove himself to the world. What happened to Ray Anne?” Justice asked.
Mace snorted. “That bitch. I didn’t like her at all. I could tell that she was using him.”
“Hell, Mace, we know that she was using him but figured he was using her, too. It’s not easy for him to just jump into bed with any woman. Not with his hang-up about his leg.”
“Justice, we’ve seen the signs before. The self-destruction, the drinking, the pushing over the limit. We don’t need him relapsing. Quantum won’t take him back into the unit if Hunter fucks this up again,” Mace stated.
Justice thought about that a moment. If it weren’t for Quantum, the whole lot of them wouldn’t even be alive right now. Their team leader, their commander from the military, helped Justice, Seno, and Mace to save Hunter when he was captured and tortured by insurgents. Hunter had survived a roadside bomb when the rest of his team hadn’t. Then he was dragged through the streets and held captive for three weeks. It took Quantum and some friends in the government to locate Hunter and then to initiate a secret plan to go in and get him out of there. Justice, Seno, and Mace would never forget that mission, or the heartache and the difficulty they faced seeing their brother, the youngest of the four of them, cut up, bloodied, and dying. They all had the scars to prove that mission took place, but Hunter had the ultimate one, a prosthetic leg.
“I’ll talk to him in a little while. You know, try to settle him down, find out about Ray Anne. We also have plans to meet Quentin, Axel, Deacon, and L.T. at Casper’s tonight,” Mace reminded him.
“Oh yeah, damn, I forgot about that. Quentin called last night and said that Mariah and her friends were meeting for drinks at Ray Ray’s down the street and then would head over to Casper’s,” Justice added.
“I’m surprised they even let Mariah out of their sights,” Mace stated and chuckled. They all did.
“Like you wouldn’t act the same way if you had a girlfriend who looked like Mariah and after everything she went through and was nearly killed?” Justice asked. He felt that twinge of need in his chest. He and his brothers were close, but their lives, their pasts were so fucked up they feared intimacy. That was why they never took any woman seriously and pretty much stayed away from the ones who wanted to latch on. It was easier to not feel anything than it was to risk feeling something for a woman only for her to let him down. There wasn’t a woman he could count on, but his brothers he always could.
“You’re right. If we found the perfect woman who had all the qualities and things we each desired, she’d be right beside one of us at all times or at minimum in bed where we could thoroughly keep an eye on her,” Mace stated.
Seno laughed. “That didn’t quite work out with Renee did it, bro?” Seno teased Mace.
“Renee was fun, and I enjoyed the time we spent together but she wasn’t right for us,” Mace replied.
“She was never right for you either,” Justice added.
That bitch was so rude to Hunter. She made comments about his prosthetic, and about him not being whole. Justice was glad that Mace saw through her hurtful, true colors and got rid of her. A lot of women were like that. Superficial, not empathetic, and just not knowledgeable of the mental and physical difficulties involved with having a prosthetic leg. Their brother was whole, and he was more than capable of handling anything any of the
rest of them could handle. Proving that all the time led to days like today when Hunter was in pain from overdoing it at work and helping to train other soldiers like himself to defend themselves minus a limb or two.
“Yeah, definitely talk to him and calm him down, or he’s going to be hell to deal with tonight at Casper’s,” Justice stated.
They were all quiet for a minute until Mace spoke. “Do you even think it’s possible to find someone who could accept Hunter for who he is?”
Justice looked at Mace and then Seno. “Oh, I think it’s possible, but I’m starting to wonder if Hunter can ever open himself up to that kind of vulnerability and allow someone in. He’s been stuck in a wounded, defensive soldier state of mind for more than three years now. It’s going to take a miracle and someone with a hell of a lot of courage to break him down.”
