AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Freddy’s voice contained a certain high-school-confrontational tone to it. Chris snickered behind Max.
“What do you want, Freddy?”
“Just thought I’d stop by, see what was up with you.” He reached out, picked through the pretzels in the bowl and finding one he liked, popped it in his mouth. He may have been acting nonchalant, but anger vibrated just below the surface. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?”
It was as if Max was stuck in some B teen movie complete with bad actors, horrible sets, and an overacting bully. Chris wouldn’t quit laughing, which was making it hard to concentrate on Freddy. Besides that, they now had the interest of everyone in the bar. Which meant someone woke up the drunks.
“Sure, why not.” He turned to Chris, who looked ready to fall out of his chair and burst into laughter. “Chris, this is Freddy. Freddy, this is Chris.”
Chris cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you, Freddy.”
Freddy nodded in his direction. “What brings you to our neck of the woods?”
Chris coughed trying to cover a laugh. “Just thought I’d drop in and see Max.”
“Oh, do you work for Chandler?”
Well, of course Freddy would think that. With Chris being black, Freddy wouldn’t think they were friends. Chris threw Max a speaking glance. He would only take derogatory comments like that for so long.
“Nope, just visiting the mainland for a bit.”
Apparently, Freddy didn’t know what to say to that because he dismissed Chris and turned his attention back to Max.
“Like I said, with you dating Anna I’m surprised you’re here.”
Just the sound of her name had every muscle in Max’s body going on alert. He’d known from the beginning what this was about, but still, having the dickhead say her name sent a swift kick of anger into his bloodstream.
Chris picked up on it. “Don’t let him get to you.” He said it so low only Max could hear.
Giving Chris a short nod, Max said, “Freddy, I really don’t want to pretend to be friends, so why don’t you just tell me what the hell you want and then leave me alone.”
The jackass snickered, then sneered at him. “Well, when I saw her earlier, she said you two were an item.” He shrugged. “If I had a woman like that, I definitely wouldn’t be sitting in a bar getting wasted.”
At first, a rush of warmth filled Max’s chest. The fact that Anna admitted to their relationship was a good sign. Even so, anger slowly replaced it because Max knew the bastard had probably propositioned her. Max clenched his jaw and mentally counted back from ten. Beating the shit out of Freddy wouldn’t do any good and would be bad for business. Leaders of the community didn’t get into drunken fights in redneck bars. Although it was very tempting.
He forced his voice to stay calm and took another sip of beer before asking, “And, your point would be?”
Bristling with irritation, Freddy slammed his beer bottle down on the bar. Max watched as the bottle overflowed. Damn, they’d been having such a good time before Freddy showed up.
“My point? If I had a nice piece of ass like that, I’d be home attending to it.”
A red haze of fury clouded Max’s vision, but apparently the idiot was too stupid to notice how quiet it had gotten and just how angry Max was because he kept going.
“Not like I don’t know exactly what you’re missing, Chandler. I had a good taste of it in high school, but from what I heard she’s learned a bit since then.”
When Max looked over at Freddy, he was smiling, not knowing he pretty much had signed his death sentence with that comment.
“Seriously, Freddy, I think you need to rethink your choice in conversation,” Chris said.
Freddy laughed as he looked past Max at Chris. “What? Like he’s going to defend the little slut? Everyone knows she’s just a way for him to blow off a little—”
He ended on a gasp as Max stood, wrapped his fingers around the bastard’s neck and lifted him off the ground. His eyes bugged out, and he raised his hands to claw ineffectively at Max’s grip. He could squeeze just a little more, snap the bastard’s neck.
“Let’s be very clear here, Freddy.” Max raised him high enough that he had to look up at him and Freddy kicked his legs trying to do anything to save himself. “Anyone says anything about Anna Dewinter, and I’ll make sure they regret it. Right now, I’m contemplating on whether or not to kill you.”
When Freddy’s eyes rolled back in his head, Max tossed him on the floor. Freddy sat up, shook his head a couple of times, but he was fine.
“Well, fuck, Chandler,” Chris muttered.
