She frowns at me. “Why? Is everything-?”
“Everything will be fine. This isn’t that kind of trouble. I promise,” I assure her. “I just need to have a talk with a few people and then we’ll all join you both.”
Liam holds out his hand to her. “Come on, baby,” he says with a wink. “Shane will sort this out in no time and we can get back to our evening.”
She nods at him and gives us both a faint smile as though she doesn’t quite believe us.
ChapterTwo
MIKEY
Declan Boyle is glaring at me with so much hatred, I swear he would slit my throat right now given half the chance. Not that he’d ever get it.
I can handle him though. What I don’t like is the way that his wife, Heather, is looking at me — like she wants a repeat of what happened six years ago. God, I was so fucking drunk I barely remember it, but what the hell was I thinking? She’s not even my type. All false tits, pouty lips and fake hair.
Still, now that I got a wife of my own, I completely get why Declan tried to decapitate me with a piece of wedding silverware — and why he’s still kind of pissed about it. There is a vital difference between me and him though — if anyone other than my brothers ever did touch my wife, I would cut out his heart with a fucking spoon. No matter who told me that I couldn’t.
Declan and his brother, Kian, along with their cousin, Evan are staring me down. Two women dressed in sequined dresses stand beside Declan’s wife, Heather, and they all stare at me too. How the hell they got tickets to this event without me noticing I don’t know. They must have booked them under one of the girl’s names. Kian and Evan aren’t hitched yet so I assume the other two women are their dates.
Conor stands between us all in no mans land while we wait for Shane. Nobody who knows him would dare pick a fight with Conor Ryan, but tension is ratcheting up. Declan’s father, Roy Boyle, is well respected and he has a lot of loyalty and good men behind him. The last thing any of us need is a war with his family.
Suddenly Shane walks up behind me.
“Gentlemen,” he says in greeting. “Do we have a problem here?”
“Ask your little brother, Shane,” Declan snaps.
“I already know he doesn’t have a problem. I’m asking you,” Shane snarls at him. “You got five seconds to answer me before I have you all thrown out of here.”
“We didn’t do nothing wrong,” one of the women squeaks, her huge lips pulled into a pout.
“Declan?” Shane asks as he steps closer.
“Tell him to stay the fuck away from my wife,” he points a finger at me.
I pull a face in disgust but that only seems to make Declan even more pissed at me.
“He has no interest in your wife, I assure you.” Shane takes a step closer, grabbing Declan by the wrist.
From an outsiders viewpoint, it doesn’t look like he’s doing much at all, but the pain on Declan’s face says otherwise.
Shane is a strong fucker. He is the only man I know who can tear a man’s ear off with his bare hands. My brothers and I have tried to emulate that particular party trick many times over the years but have never been able to come close.
He bends his head closer to Declan’s. “Now either fuck off to your own little booth and stay out of our way, or leave. The choice is yours. But you ever point a finger at one of my brothers again and I will cut it off. Do you understand me?”
Declan glances between his wife and me. She’s clearly drunk — but I suppose you kind of have to be to get through being married to her boring, fat fuck of a husband. He’s a sleaze-bag too. Hitting on any woman within a two mile radius when he thinks nobody is looking. The fact that she walked straight up to me when she saw me and tried to give me a kiss didn’t exactly help matters. I pushed her away obviously – I mean I am only interested in one woman, but still, this asshole seems to think it’s my fault.
“We’ll stay away,” Declan mutters.
“Good boy,” Shane replies as he releases him from his grip and Declan immediately rubs his wrist. “And keep your wife away from him too.”
“Yeah, I’m very happy with my own wife, thanks,” I add, just because I feel like I need to say something.
Shane rolls his eyes at me and inclines his head toward the basement stairs, telling me it’s time to walk away.
“I hear you all are,” Evan laughs. He clearly thinks it’s funny. He thinks that he’s funny — that is until he sees the murderous look that flashes across my oldest brothers face as Shane stops in his tracks.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Shane snarls as he advances on Evan.