“She doesn’t want to file a report. She wants to forget it ever happened, but, Don, she saw a picture of this asshole this morning, and it was as if he was literally standing in front of her. She was shaking and crying.” He wished he never had to see such a terrified look on Kayla ever again. He’d hoped he could make her feel safe, but she’d pulled back from him.
“Shit. That’s not good, Dunc, not good at all. Well, I think you did a good job in calling me. Perhaps not with telling her story, but for giving me a heads-up. You know what we do, and you know we can trace him. We can keep a lookout for him and keep your girl safe, okay?” Hearing Donovan say she was his girl and that he could help calmed Duncan somewhat.
He hoped Kayla considered herself to be his girl so he could look after her. The way they’d left things made him feel as if she was trying to back away from him. She needed “room.” She wanted the two alpha males to let her be. Ha, she had another thing coming.
Duncan wanted her to be on the same page as him. He knew he was moving fast in figuring she was already his and that he could take care of her, but she had to be willing to be his. She had to let him know that he wasn’t a meddling bully in her eyes and that she understood he needed to take care of her. Duncan sighed into the phone at the thought of trying to get closer to her. He knew she had a big wall around her, and this morning it was getting even worse.
“I know you’ve got it bad, Dunc. I normally would give you so much shit for it. I’m almost sorry you’ve picked such a good woman, so now I can’t say anything about it. You did well, bro. I can see you two together, and I can see Kayla fitting in perfectly in our family of male chauvinist pigs.” They both laughed at that.
All of the Mills brothers had been in the front row for their brother Ronan and his ex Fianna’s final breakup. When Fianna shouted that Ronan was a male chauvinist pig, they all cracked up. Ronan was mocked for several years by his brothers for being a male chauvinist pig, and every now and then, it came back up in conversation between the brothers. Ronan hated it fiercely, but it was so easy to goad him, almost too easy.
“I’m seeing Kayla today at work, right? So, when she comes in, I’ll see what we can do for her. But she has to be the one to tell us to look out for the asshole. It’s important that Kayla takes the lead, okay?”
Duncan nodded, and when he realized Donovan couldn’t see him nodding, he said, “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Don. See you later at the dojo?”
“Yes. I’ll stop by later today. Maybe I can give our male chauvinist pig a run for his money.” They chuckled and said goodbye.
After Duncan hung up, he jumped into his car and drove home. His one-story house was close to Lucky, and he figured he would stop by there later today to see if Brennan had some advice for him.
Brennan had always been there for all of his brothers. After their mother died of breast cancer, their father had to work all the time, so he put the oldest in charge. Brennan made sure all bags had been packed for school in the morning, that Ronan finally dragged his ass out of bed, and did basically everything that was necessary to run a household with five boys between the ages of six and fourteen. Eventually the Mills brothers learned to not talk back to Brennan as much, and he transformed into the rock that every brother could depend on.
Even though Brennan was only five years older than Duncan, he had to grow up real quick because he had to be the responsible one. It made Brennan perhaps not the most fun brother, but he was the one Duncan always turned to when he had something on his mind. He definitely wanted to bring Brennan up to speed, but then he thought about what Donovan had said about telling Kayla’s story without her consent.
Duncan stepped out of his truck and entered his one-story house. He strode to his bedroom to grab his workout clothes. His self-defense class was about to start in half an hour, and he had to hightail it out of there to be on time. When he had everything in his gym bag, he jogged to his car. Duncan’s phone beeped, and he immediately checked the incoming text.
Unknown: Can we meet today? Need to talk to you about my sister.
Although he hadn’t said his name in the text, Duncan knew it was from Calum. He shot back a reply while sitting in the front seat of his truck.
Duncan: Come to Duncan Dojo. I’m there all day.
Duncan made it in time for his self-defense class to six women of the women’s shelter. After his final class of the day, which had started at four, he noticed Calum coming into the dojo. He was waiting for Duncan near the changing rooms when Cheryll strolled up to Duncan as if she owned the place. She wore, yet again, a too-tight spandex outfit, this time in a deep purple color. Her bleached blonde hair was down, and he could see by her determined steps that she was on a mission.
“Hi, Duncan, how are you? You still owe me a rain check, remember? This time you can pick the movie, or we can forgo a movie altogether.” She tried to act seductively with her pouty lips while hanging on to the ropes of the boxing ring with one arm, but it didn’t work on Duncan. He hated to spell it out for her, but he couldn’t let her carry this on any longer.
Ronan had been pissed because of her flirting with Duncan, and now Calum was watching this scene with narrowed eyes.
“I’m sorry, but that won’t be happening. I’m seeing someone, and I’m not interested.”
Cheryll’s eyes bugged out of her head, and her big lips pressed into a straight line. “Since when? Several weeks ago you weren’t, so it can’t be that serious. Come on, you know you aren’t boyfriend material. Do the girl a favor and quit while you’re ahead. Come with me and have some fun.”
Duncan laughed mockingly. “Ye know nothing about me, Cheryll. I don’t need to defend myself to ye. Stop with yer flirting and stop fucking with my brother’s head while yer at it. He don’t need no trouble, and, babe, yer definitely trouble.”
She gasped and her bottom lip started trembling, but she didn’t say anything back to Duncan. Turning, she marched straight out of the door of the dojo.
“Good riddance,” Calum said. “Duncan, I don’t want to say this, but if I don’t speak up, I’ll regret it later. So listen up. Don’t you ever take my sister for granted, you hear? I don’t want to see her cry over a guy ever again, you get my drift? Don’t know what your plans are, but you better show me that you’re serious about her.”
Duncan was about to punch Calum in his face, yet again.
“Go fuck yourself, Calum.”
Red-faced, Calum flew from his folding chair next to the changing room and got in Duncan’s face, standing chest to chest.
“Yeah, ye heard me right. Yer pissing me the fuck off. Nobody, and I mean nobody, comes into my dojo and tells me I’m not treating Kayla right. She’s been on my mind ever since we met. Fuck, I want nobody else. It’s yer sister who’s pushing me away, but I’m not letting her. She’s mine, ye hear?”
Calum took his time, eyeing Duncan and sizing him up. Duncan could feel his breath on his face and detect the throbbing vein popping out next to Calum’s eye, but he was not backing down. Not on this. He had to face Calum and let him know that he was not taking shit from him. They resembled two agitated bulls, waiting on the other to charge.
“Quit fucking around, guys. Duncan, we all know you’re serious about Kayla. He’s only looking out for her, am I right?” Donovan said calmly, and he couldn’t have entered the dojo at a better time. He was trying to defuse the situation by taking charge and setting the two bulls into their own pens by putting a hand on a shoulder of each and squeezing to give his words emphasis.