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He stumbled to the left, gripping the bar to steady himself. “I’m good for it, Ruby.”
“Didn’t say you weren’t. But it’s time for you to close out and go home. And, dammit, leave Ransom alone. He’s tired of paying for the chairs he throws you into.”
“That’s a true statement.” Nelson kept bouncing off my fist, but I knew the jackass couldn’t afford to pay for damages and I wouldn’t leave Ruby to pay for it instead.
I should probably stop coming in since something about my scent made people want to either punch me or challenge me. I lifted my glass again. The beer was damn good though.
The door opened and late spring air swept in. I kept my gaze on Nelson since he was probably two beers past intelligent.
“Then maybe you should pay for another,” he snarled.
The right hook came for my face, and I dodged it easily. My fingers curled tighter around my glass. Wouldn’t want to spill a perfectly good IPA.
“That’s it. You’re out, Nelson.” Ruby’s voice was sharp and no-nonsense.
“What? I didn’t even hit him.”
“Because you have piss-poor aim.”
For fuck’s sake, this mouth of mine would never learn. Or the brain that went with it.
Though his next swing was wide, he managed to clip my chin with his bulky class ring. Who the hell wore a class ring past senior year?
I thumbed away a bit of blood. Damn stone had sliced through my heavy stubble. “Nelson, don’t make me toss you out of here. I’m pretty sure the chair place Ruby buys from has them on backorder.”
“You son of a—”
“I’m five minutes late, and you’re already starting a fight?”
My best friend’s smooth, cultured voice came from behind Nelson.
Nelson reared back to swing again, and his elbow caught Clay in the gut. Clay let out awhooshand grabbed the shorter man by the neck of his jacket and shoved him into the bar. The stool skittered into the next one down, causing a chain reaction. The scrape of chairs and stools combined with the commotion from the drunk jackals across the bar rushing our way created the perfect clusterfuck.
With sincere regret, I took another drink of my beer before handing it to Ruby.
“Crap.” Ruby released a resigned sigh. “You weren’t even here five minutes!”
“I didn’t do it.” I ducked as a drunken arm came at me. What did I do to this guy?
Ruby threw down her towel and finished off my beer.
“Hey.” I frowned at her, feigning left as another fist came my way.
She pulled out her bat from under the cash register. “Don’t make me use this, people!”
I caught one of Nelson’s buddies’ fists as it came for my face. I squeezed until I heard knuckles pop and the guy yelped.
The heavy clomp of steel-toed work boots heading my way made me roll my eyes. Great, even more reinforcements.
I glanced over at Clay, who was holding his own. That was interesting. I didn’t think he remembered how to get his hands dirty.
Boarding school was a long time ago. Then again, much had changed since he’d swapped his daily suits for plaid and denim.
Some enterprising fool came up behind me and tried to grab my arms. His pal threw a punch. I dodged left and he landed a shot to the guy behind me. I shook him loose while he was stunned and spun to use it to my advantage. He was a blond with thinning hair and blood flooded from his nose and between his fingers as he clutched his face.
I probably didn’t need to add insult to that injury.
Before I could move out of the way, the guy who’d thrown the punch attempted to grab me. I was tempted to hurl him over my shoulder, but we lived in a litigious world. A quick Google search would show I came from money.
