“Gotta stake my claim, and I didn’t think you wanted me to pee on your leg.”
“No. I actively discourage urinating in public. It’s unhealthy. I also think you should put your shirt on.” She holds up a small towel and presses it against my pecs.
“You so hungry to see Chief Finley’s abs?” I tease.
She makes a gagging sound. “I’d rather pour acid in my eyes.”
“One of us has to make the sacrifice then.”
She giggles, and Sam groans.
“Be careful,” she says, sobering up. “Someone could get hurt.”
I grin broadly. “That’s the whole idea.”
CHAPTER20
EMMA
“This is not goingto be good.” I run my tongue across my bottom lip. It doesn’t hurt, but the mark is noticeable. “How does Vincent even know about Finley?”
“He’s got a bullshit detector?” Sam responds from beside me. I pull my eyes away from Vincent’s chest, which all the female population around and some of the male are staring at.
Sam shifts on his feet. “What?”
“What?” he repeats back to me, running his fingers through his short hair.
“Samuel Keeland.” I glare at my partner. He holds his hands up in defeat.
“Okay, maybe your brother and Vincent pulled me out of bed in the middle of the night to ask me some questions.”
“Of course Vincent did.” I shake my head. No wonder he hadn’t pushed me for more information. That also explains why he slipped into my bed an hour later than usual. He hadn’t been giving me space. He went to do a bit of recon. I don’t know if I should be annoyed or find it sweet.
“This is not going to end well.” I thought maybe Vincent did have a bullshit radar as Sam first tried to suggest and was going to rough him up a bit. This is far worse.
“Well, if he did that to your lip, then he deserves whatever is coming his way.” Sam shrugs. I should have seen the red flag when Sam hadn’t asked me about my lip. I’d been lost in LaLa land thinking about Vincent since I’d left the house.
“It’s not going to change anything.” That’s something I’m learning the hard way. All the small things I’ve done to Blake haven’t made him stop his behavior. Sure, we can dish out karma and payback all we want, but it hasn’t changed Blake. The only thing it’s going to possibly do is get Vincent’s ass into trouble, and that’s the last thing I want.
“He’s so fucking cocky. How does he not see the freight train headed right for him?” Sam smiles, folding his arms over his chest as he watches the field. Vincent says something to Ezra, causing the man’s mouth to form into a wicked smile. I already know what that means.
One of the teenage boys hikes the ball to Blake. The ball barely leaves the kid’s hands and my brother and Vincent pat the boy without hurting him so Ezra has a straight shot at Blake. Blake starts to throw the ball, but Ezra is already in front of him, knocking the ball out of his hands before he slams into him. Blake grunts, stumbling back and landing on his ass.
“It’s touch!” he shouts from the ground.
“Oops,” Ezra mutters, walking back to the other side. Blake scurries to his feet as more people gather to watch the game, realizing one has started.
“You want to play quarterback?” Blake tosses the ball to one of the teenagers.
Sam chuckles under his breath. Blake doesn’t want to be tossed on his ass again. Too bad for him, it’s not going to matter what position he’s going to try to play. No matter what, these men are going to knock the shit out of him. Vincent gave Ezra his hit, and I’m guessing he’s going for the rest.
I’m not wrong either as we watch the game unfold. Vincent and my brother aren’t stupid about it. I thought Vincent might take Blake out with one shot and this whole thing would be over. No, they are drawing this out with small but powerful hits as they pretend to graze him with their shoulder or collide into him.
So much for Vincent not toying with his prey. Or maybe he’s doing this just for me. When he turns to wink at me, I know I’ve hit the nail on the head. They let the kids score a few times, and they do the same.
“That man can move.” Melody comes out of nowhere to stand beside me. She’s right. Vincent might be big, but damn can he move fast for his size. The man is in full control of his body.
“Eyes on my brother.” I bump her shoulder with mine.