Page 38 of Beg for You

I shot to my feet, about to go over there, because that shit was not fucking okay, but Bull was already halfway across the room. The idiot was too busy still harassing Quinn to notice Bull bearing down on him, and he grabbed her again.

Bull looked like he was about to commit murder. His growl could be heard across the room, over the music. He fisted the back of the other guy’s shirt and yanked him out of his seat, shaking the shit out of him.

“She say you can touch her?” Bull roared at the guy while giving him another shake. “She give you permission to put your fucking hands on her?”

Quinn’s eyes were wide in shock over Bull’s reaction, along with everyone else in the bar. Including me. My cousin never raised his voice.

The guy in Bull’s fist didn’t get a chance to answer, because Bull was marching him across the room—although march was probably too generous a word since the asshole’s feet weren’t actually touching the floor—and fired him out the door.

Bull slammed it after him and strode back behind the bar, ignoring everyone’s stares, and picked up a cloth. He started wiping down the wooden surface hard enough to take off the varnish.

“What the fuck was that?” The guy needed to be dealt with, no doubt, but that was something else. “Logan?” I said, using his name—not something I did often, but again, what the fuck?

“What are you planning to do about Lyall?” he asked, going right back to our previous conversation like he hadn’t just flung a guy out of his bar with enough force to get the guy airborne.

Okay, fine. He didn’t want to talk. I wasn’t exactly in the talking mood either. “He deserves to pay.”

Bull threw the rag in his hand down on the bar. “I agree, but this can’t end well, not for you, and not for Cassy. You know that, right?”

I nodded.

And didn’t that just fucking suck.

Chapter Ten

Cal

I followed my client out to the waiting room. She was young, and her friend had taken pictures and giggled nonstop while I inked SpongeBob SquarePants on the other girl’s ass.

Dane straightened, gaze lifting from his phone, when we walked out, offering them both a charming but dirty-as-fuck smile. My baby brother had no trouble finding company when he wanted it, and going by the wicked glint in his eyes, he’d just found a couple of new friends. Even with the new black eyes he was sporting.

His eyes came to me and the glint vanished, replaced by a dark emptiness that hurt to look at. I hated it. It hadn’t been there before he was thrown into the system, but now there were demons, ugly and relentless, and I had no idea how to help him. He had so much anger inside him, and his way of dealing with it was usually with his fists.

He excused himself from his new fans and strode over to me. “A minute.” He motioned to my workroom and I followed him in.

Dane spun on me as soon as I pulled the curtain, looking pissed off.

“You’ve been fighting again,” I said.

His nostrils flared. “The fucker was asking for it.”

Jesus. “Sure he was. What do you think Everly would think…if she knew you were in another fight?” Everly Williams was Dane’s best friend and the most important person in my brother’s world. She’d been in the same foster home as Dane. They’d been through a lot together. Now living in different towns, they texted constantly. If anyone could get through to him it was her, and I wasn’t above bringing her up to try and do the same. Because if Dane carried on like he was, Bull wouldn’t be the only Calero to know what it was like to spend time behind bars.

Dane’s jaw tightened, knowing exactly what I was doing. “We’re not talking about me.”

“We sure as hell need to.”

“I’d prefer to talk about you, big brother.”

I frowned when I heard the accusation in his voice, when I took a closer look at him and saw that there was something seriously bothering him—and it had nothing to do with fighting.

“You have another appointment. They’re due any minute,” he said, his golden-brown eyes so damn dark all of a sudden they were almost as black as mine.

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain the attitude you’ve got going on.”

“It’s your new friend Cassandra. She called this morning asking for an early appointment. She gave her full name this time,” he fired at me. “You wanna tell me what in the fuck you’re doing with a Deighton?”

I’d hoped Dane wouldn’t work out who she was as well. He’d never had anything to do with the family, had only ever met Chris, and since I’d been dealing with Cassy and her appointment times, he hadn’t needed her name.