Decision made.
He didn’t give her time to block him or guess what he was doing. Amid the cheers of the crowd he moved forward, bent, and had her over his shoulder in a second, one arm anchoring the backs of her knees as she screamed in outrage.
Just for effect, he reached up with his free hand and slapped her shapely bottom as laughter and catcalls echoed behind them.
“You ass,” she cried out, but she stilled her struggles.
Well, she stilled them for a few seconds. The feel of her hand smacking at the back of his jeans had his lips curling in amusement as he stalked out the front door.
“Hey, Graham, you have a wildcat on your hands!” Elijah Grant laughed as he moved to Graham’s side.
Although the other man carried a beer for effect, he was as sober as a judge on Sunday. Dark hazel eyes watched the area carefully beneath lowered lids, and if Graham knew Elijah, there was a weapon hidden somewhere beneath the sweatshirt, jeans, and boots he wore.
Probably several.
“Elijah Grant, I’ll just have Zoey kick your damned ass,” Lyrica threatened him furiously.
Elijah grimaced, then a grin touched his lips as they entered the parking lot. “Tell her I like my doms in black leather instead of baggy sweats. If she dresses the part, I might let her try.”
A furious snarl tore from Graham’s burden as Elijah chuckled at her response.
“Why didn’t a Mackay collect her?” the other man asked then. “She doesn’t give her brother or cousins near that much trouble.”
“Hell if I know,” Graham muttered. He was still trying to figure out what the purpose of it was himself.
“So what’s your count at now?” Elijah asked.
His count. After this, how many favors did he still owe the Mackays?
“Hell if I know,” he repeated with an edge of anger. “I wasn’t aware I had a count until recently.” Until the Mackays had needed someone to follow Lyrica and her sister Zoey when they took an overnight shopping trip to Louisville just before summer ended the year before.
“Yeah, they get a man like that.” Elijah sighed.
“Graham Brock, let me down this minute,” Lyrica ordered. “I swear if you don’t let me go I’ll tell Kye how to run those damned bimbos of yours out of the house within hours. I know how to do it. Ask Declan. I swear I’ll do it.”
Graham glanced toward the heavens, praying for patience. If she didn’t stop, he was going to end up doing something neither of them would appreciate once they came back up for air.
“Poor Declan,” Elijah murmured. “Really, Lyrica, you and Zoey should leave the man alone long enough to get him some. Let him enjoy his freedom.”
Declan Mackay, Natches’s adopted son, had been fighting a war with his cousins almost since the day they’d arrived. It wasn’t a cruel war. It wasn’t one of dislike, not really. But it was an amusing one.
Reaching the Viper, Graham nodded to the door and waited as Elijah hurriedly opened it.
“Your chariot awaits, princess.” Graham snickered as he bent, turned, and expertly maneuvered her into the passenger seat. He’d perfected the move during those years when he’d had to collect his baby sister from parties. Though she’d been about fifteen at the time, he thought in disgust, not twenty-four.
What the hell was Dawg Mackay thinking? Kye would shoot him with his own gun if he attempted something like this now.
At least Lyrica didn’t attempt to jump from the car.
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she stared straight ahead, silent and furious.
“Think she’ll consider the fact that this is Dawg’s fault, not yours?” Elijah asked, the laughter waiting just below the surface more than evident in his tone.
“No.” Closing the door, Graham raked his fingers through his hair in resignation, his gaze meeting the other man’s. “Why do you think Dawg likes to cash in his favors this way? It’s so much easier than facing the music himself.”
The music being his sister’s fury. Lyrica was widely known to be the one sister who had no reservations when it came to getting even with her brother. She’d spent two months living in his home when she was twenty, making his life hell with such simple teenage maneuvers that Dawg had sworn to her that he wouldn’t interfere in her life as he did with her older sisters.
He didn’t keep that promise when it came to certain parties though.