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“What’s up with you? What’d that napkin do to piss you off?” Reed asks, leaning on the bar.
Her eyes slide to Jamison before she looks back to Reed. “Guy problems.”
Reeds eyes ping-pong between the two step-siblings. “Between you two?” he asks, unable to hold in his surprise. I don’t blame the guy. Back in high school, everyone expected Jamison and Rayn to become an item at some point or another. But as close as the two are, they’ve never been more than just friends. As far as I know anyway.
Rayn chokes on her drink, forcing Jamison to slap her back. Picking up a fully intact napkin, she dabs her mouth.
“Are you serious?” she wheezes out.
Reed shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe? How in the hell am I supposed to know if you two aren’t bumping uglies behind closed doors?”
“Because we’re siblings,” she offers.
“Step is the keyword here.”
Rayn rolls her eyes. “In our case, it does. Jamison and I have known each other since we were toddlers. Even if our parents weren’t married, it would be like sleeping with my brother.”
Because I notice everything, I don’t miss the slight tightening of Jamison’s shoulders.
“Okay, so if it’s not Jamison, then what other guy problems are you having?”
“Just an old boyfriend who keeps messing with me,” she mumbles.
Jamison’s jaw twitches at the same time Reed’s eyes turn flinty.
“What do you mean messing with you?”
Rayn’s head jerks up at Reed’s tone. She licks her bottom lip before she answers.
“Following me around, calling all hours of the night, showing up at my work, sending me creepy things in the mail.”
“Leaving fucking marks on her arms when he grabbed her a couple of days ago.”
She glowers at Jamison before moving her eyes back to Reed. Seeing the darkness enter his gaze, she reaches across the bar and lays a hand on the back of his. “There’s no need to worry though. Jamison took care of it for me.”
Reed’s smoldering eyes slide to Jamison. “What did you do?” he asks through his clenched teeth.
“Enough to leave him with a hefty hospital bill.”
“Good,” Reed grunts. “He fucks with her again, call me and we’ll both take care of it.”
“He’ll do no such thing,” Rayn snaps. “If,” she holds up her palm in Jamison’s face when he opens his mouth to speak, “he does something else, I’ll be calling the cops, like I should have done in the first place.” She scowls at Jamison. “He’s lucky he wasn’t caught beating the crap out of Danny already.”
“He’s lucky he’s only got a couple broken bones in his face,” Jamison counters.
“And he’ll continue to be lucky if I never get my hands on him,” Reed adds darkly.
With an irritated huff, Rayn grabs her drink, spins on her stool, and gets to her feet. “Since you two can’t be reasonable, I’ll take my company over here.” She shoots daggers at the two men as she walks to my other side and plops down on the stool. “Bryan is smart and agrees with me, don’t you?”
Tipping the bottle of Jack to my shot glass, I pour until just before it reaches the rim. Looking Rayn in the eyes, I lift the glass to my lips. Before I toss the harsh liquid back, I tell her truthfully, “I’d be right there with them, given the opportunity. Any man who puts their hands on a woman and leaves marks or not, deserves to have the same thing done to him.”
Not getting the answer she wanted, she aims her scowl at all three of us before she gets back up from the stool and flounces away. All three of us watch as she angrily walks across the room and stops at a table where a group of women are sitting. I turn back to face the bar, noticing both Reed and Jamison still watching her.
“And I thought my problems were bad,” I mutter down at my glass.
“What was that?” Reed asks once he drags his attention away from the table of women.
“Nothing.”
