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They’d hurt Jess. Alex and Nate had put their hands on my family more than enough times to warrant retaliation. I’d always held to the belief that physical violence was only needed in defense, but this time, we were on the attack.
It didn’t matter where they went, where they tried to hide. It didn’t matter who their friends or connections were. It didn’t matter if I had to do this in public or private.
They had hurt our girl. They’d stepped so far over the line that they’d fucking shattered it.
I wanted to hurt them in return. All I could think of as we slowly made our way through the crowd, on the lookout for our targets, was how badly I wanted to hear them fuckingscream. It wasn’t a wild desire; it wasn’t hot with rage or frantic. The desire to hurt them was calming. It was meditational. It felt good to dwell on thoughts of their agony.
I was furious, yes, but that word didn’t encompass this feeling. It couldn’t convey the monumental sense of needing to see vengeance served. I wasn’t so moralistic and self-obsessed to think that this was the righteous choice, or even agoodchoice.
This wasn’t about right and wrong; it was far beyond that. The only thing I cared about was protecting my people,my family.
Nothing and no one came before those I loved.
We stalked through the crowd, on constant lookout. Lucas got a displeased nod from the bartender, who looked evenlesspleased when he spotted the rest of us. He kept wiping down the same cup repeatedly, watching us nervously. He wouldn’t interfere, but someone else might if we weren’t careful.
“There,” Jason said, and I followed his gaze. Nate and Alex were seated at a corner table near the restrooms, hunched over glasses of beer. The lighting in the bar was dim, but Nate’s face was obviously reddened, his eyes bloodshot.
“Looks like the big man took the brunt of that pepper spray,” I said. The pistol under my jacket felt heavy; I passed it to Jason as I turned, keeping it low. He tucked it away under his shirt in one quick movement.
“Well, would you look at who it is?” Alex drawled, when he spotted us approaching his table. Nate glowered at us, his eyes so puffy and swollen I was surprised he could see us at all. “You’ve got big fucking balls to walk into Billy’s, Reed.”
It was true; we usually avoided this place. Billy’s Bar was a real dive, a little hole in the wall that filled to overflowing almost every night. It wasn’t our type of crowd, and I could feel the odd looks from people around us. Especially knowing that my father had been hanging out down here, I could only imagine what the regulars had heard about me.
“And you’ve got no balls at all, considering you attacked two women who haven’t done shit to you,” Jason said. Lucas was silent, but I’d warned him to be on the way over here. The last thing we needed was for him to run his mouth and escalate before we were ready.
“Attacked?” Alex scoffed. “Is that what that bitch told you? That Iattackedher? Fucking typical. Why the hell do y’all trust anything she has to say?” He sipped his beer, his lip curled into an ugly smirk. He felt safe here, confident. He didn’t think we could touch him.
“Jess isn’t a liar,” Lucas said, his voice even. “You put your hands on her, McAllister. You waited until she was alone, until there was no one around to help her. You’re a fucking coward.”
Alex rolled his eyes, his foot tapping rapidly on his stool. Nate folded his arms, turning away from us as he muttered, “This is fucking bullshit.”
“We need to settle this,” I said. “No more sabotage, no more fucking stalking. Man to man.”
“We don’t need to settle shit,” Alex said. “Fuck off.”
Jason laughed, causing Alex’s head to snap toward him. “Figures. You’re such a tough guy, Alex. Harassing women when they’re alone, but you start cowering the second you see someone your own size.”
Nate looked like he wanted to leave, but Alex’s anger was getting the better of him. He lurched out of his chair, jostling the table and splashing his beer across the wood. Jason grinned as Alex got in his face.
“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve to talk to me like that,” he said, all tightly knotted rage while Jason looked like he was about to laugh again. “You want to fight me yourself, pussy?”
“Hey, take it outside!” the bartender suddenly shouted. Alex and Nate exchanged a look, while I walked over to the exit near the restrooms, shoving open the door to the back alley.
“Who’s the pussy now?” Jason said, when Alex didn’t immediately follow him out the door. But his taunting did the trick.
Nate shoved me hard the moment he stepped into the alley, charging toward me with his fists clenched. The alley was long and narrow, lined on one side with overflowing dumpsters. Nate slammed me against them, his hand clenched in my shirt as he pulled back his fist.
He froze when he felt my knife press against his throat.
“I would move very slowly if I were you,” I said. He gulped and his throat bobbed, the blade digging into his skin. “My hands get really damn twitchy and I’d justhateto accidentally slice your jugular.”
Nate was so distracted by trying to figure out how to respond to a knife at his throat that he didn’t notice me swing back my arm until it was too late. My fist slammed into the side of his head, his eyes rolled and he stiffened, then he dropped to the ground with a heavy thump.
The second he hit the asphalt, I was on top of him. Blood spattered as my next punch crushed his nose, and I kept striking despite how limp he was. His lip split; his eyebrow did too. He didn’t make a sound other than to grunt, his breath barely wheezing out of him. The world closed in around me, and the sole thought that remained in my mind was how much he could have taken from me.
He could have killed Lucas. He’d tried. He hadn’t fucking cared.
He had helped hurt Jessica; he’d threatened her. He’d been ready and willing to use her like a pawn in their sick, twisted vendetta against us.
