“Yo, Jet. Can you bring a case of Bud out and stock the fridge for me?” Colt called out from behind the bar as he hustled drinks for the row of sheep and ol’ ladies seated on the stools in front of him.
I got up from the table I’d sat down at more than half an hour before. It took all my self restraint not to pick up the chair I’d been sitting in only seconds before and throwing it across the room. Fist clenched, I stormed into the back, hating that my baby brother had bothered me when all I wanted was to get lost in my misery.
Picking up two cases of Bud, I carried them out front and would have slammed them down on the floor if Raider hadn’t appeared out of nowhere and taken them both from me. He didn’t say a word as he opened the cases and started stocking the fridge. I wasn’t surprised by how my brother was acting around me. They all seemed to be walking cautiously around me the last two days. Not that I could blame them.
Fuck, I knew I was losing my shit. I’d even snapped at Raven just that morning and made her cry. Cry, damn it. Raven. My baby. The girl I’d practically raised as my own instead of just my baby sister.
I started to turn away, wanting nothing more than to just go back to the table I’d sat at for the majority of the night, and wallow in my self-loathing. Colt turned from putting drink in front of two sheep and stepped into my path.
Hands balled at his sides, he glared at me. “Stop being a fucking pussy and go after her.”
I wasn’t going to punch my brother in the face. I wasn’t. Going to. Punch my brother. In. The. Face.
“You love her, you always have. We all know it. So fight for her, show her that you’re the man she deserves. Not the pussy walking around with a thorn in his paw.” Colt lifted his hands and pushed me. Hard.
It was so unexpected that it caught me off guard and his push sent me back a few feet.
Don’t punch him. Don’t punch him. Don’t punch him.
Well, don’t punch him in the face, damn it.
With a growl, I tackled Colt to the floor and started pounding on everything but his face. “Shut the fuck up. You know nothing. Nothing. I want her to be happy and I can’t give that to her.”
I was so lost in my head as I bellowed in my brother’s face and punched him over and over again that I didn’t even feel the arms trying to pull me off of him. Colt fought back, landing a blow to the side of my head, but I was too far gone to feel the pain from it.
“Fucking hell,” I heard a dark voice grunt above me, and some of the rage started to fade enough for me to realize what was going on around me even as I kept pummeling my brother in the sides. Raider, Bash, Spider and Tanner were all standing over me, trying to pull me off of Colt. “Get the fuck off him, Jet or I’m gonna knock your ass out,” Spider threatened.
“Do it,” I dared him. “Do it.” Maybe then I could get away from the pain that was tearing my fucking soul apart.
“What in the ever loving hell are you guys doing back there?”
My head snapped up, sure that the hit Colt had just scored against the side of my head was causing my mind to play tricks on me. There, between two sheep, stood the only person I would crawl on my knees to get to. It couldn’t be real, though. I’d sent her back to Southern California, to where she would be happy. There was no way she was here now.
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Right?
Distracted, I wasn’t expecting the punch to the face Colt delivered. My teeth snapped together and I felt the sharp edge of a back tooth cut into the inside of my cheek. Blood filled my mouth and my jaw started to throb, but Flick didn’t fade from my line of sight.
Wait a damn minute.
She wasn’t a dream?
That realization was enough for me to forgive my baby brother the direct hit to my face. I spit a mouthful of the blood onto his chest and shrugged off the others’ hands as I got to my feet under my own steam. Never taking my eyes off of the female only a matter of feet away, I moved forward and climbed onto the bar top.
Her blue eyes widened and the sheep around her laughed up at me like I was playing a game.
This was no fucking game.
Bending, I caught her under her shoulders, her light weight in my hands felt like heaven as I lifted her up to stand beside me on the bar top. Dressed in a pair of tight jeans and a top that hinted at the luscious tits underneath, my hungry eyes ate up the sight of her while my soul soaked up the fact that she was really there.
She came back.
“What are you doing here?” I breathed as I lowered my head and brushed the softest kiss I could over her lips. As hungry as I was for her, I knew if I took more than a small kiss I’d fuck her right there in front of everyone.
“I kind of live here,” she murmured, seeming almost spellbound as my breaths came in quick, short pants.
“Wh-what?”