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“What was I supposed to do? You’re never going to approve of me dating anyone.”
“Dating?” Jace spewed. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me? You’re dating this lowlife?”
“He’s not a lowlife!”
“Peach—”
Jace interrupted, “Peach?” He cocked his head to the side in a threatening manner. “That better not mean what I think it does, motherfucker.”
My heart was pounding so profusely I found it hard to breathe. My lips parted and my chest heaved with each passing moment that escalated between us. Panic began to set in, and my mind started running wild. I anxiously tried to gather my thoughts, but they were as stuck as my feet were glued to the floor beneath me.
“Please stop. Don’t do this.”
Ledger argued, “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? Now are you going to answer my question? What the fuck are you doing with him?”
“I work here.”
“Since when?” Reid asked.
“Why does it matter? I’m eighteen, I can do what I want.”
“We don’t give a shit if you’re fifty,” Reid informed.
“Does Dad know you’re here doing this to me?”
“No.” Jace shook his head. “We didn’t want to burden him with your shitty ass decisions.”
Hayes’s hands fisted at his sides; I felt them behind me.
Jace didn’t miss a beat, stepping closer to us. “What, motherfucker? You’re just going to hide behind my baby sister?”
“I’m not a baby!”
Hayes didn’t back down. “If you keep disrespecting her. You’re going to find out real fucking quick what she means to me.”
“Means to you?” Jace baited. “You mean more than just her pussy?”
“Oh my God!” I shouted. “Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not my father! None of you are! If Daddy knew—”
“That you were at a police station,” Jace bit. “Bailing out this Outlaw?”
I gasped, mentally chastising myself.
Everything happened so fast that I didn’t think about the cops reporting back to my family about seeing me yesterday.
Jace declared, “Or that you were here when it got raided last night? Which part do you think our father needs to know?”
All I could reply was, “It’s not what it looks like. His dad owns part of this bar too. He’s an Outlaw. Not Hayes.”
“Fuck, Teeny,” Reid rasped in a tone I didn’t recognize. It was laced with pure distress and worry. “What have you gotten yourself into? Do you have any idea who these men are?”
Hayes ordered, “That’s enough.”
“Oh, motherfucker,” Jace warned. “We’re only getting started. She doesn’t know, does she?”
Jace’s harsh and demanding tone only added to my fear. For a quick second, I wondered if they could smell it on me, but I didn’t budge.
I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
If I did, I’d lose Hayes and refused to give him up without a fight.
“Know what?” I asked, finding my own voice again.
I stared into Jace’s dark, soulless eyes. For the first time, I didn’t see my loving brother staring back at me. All I saw, was the man who went to war and came back broken.
I took in his daunting, eerie composure, the way his hands hadn’t left his sides, not hiding the fact that he was strapped. I took in every last detail of him.
Especially how he was ready to throw down with Hayes. Almost like he’d been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
I focused on my breathing.
In and out.
One.
Two.
Three.
In and out.
One.
Two.
Three.
Until I repeated, “Know what?”
There was no mistaking the energy in the bar as I silently prayed this this was just another bad dream. Another nightmare I’d soon wake up from screaming and drenched in sweat.
I waited for a response, digging my nails into the palms of my hands to keep from passing out. The sudden silence was deafening. I felt it deep in my bones and to the bottom of my being.
The concrete floors were solid beneath my bare feet as the sound of my hammering heart echoed all around me. My eyes scanned the room, overwhelmed by the turn of events.
Four of the most important men in my life were ready to go to war with each other. I wanted to crawl into the empty space I’d been living in, seek refuge within myself was the only way I knew how to cope.
Survive.
Live again after my mother died.
Thinking about her usually granted me peace not misery like it was in that moment. I wrapped my arms around my stomach in a comforting gesture. Just based off their stalemate, I knew whatever happened next was going to hurt badly.
With no remorse.
With no mercy.
With nothing but the truth I was still begging for.
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?”
Reid taunted, “Why don’t you tell her, Hayes? Since she means so much to you.”
I spun, staring only at Hayes now.
The haunted expression on his face imprinted on me. It would forever be a part of me.
Exactly how his truth would be.
Hayes
How does that expression go?
