Page 50 of Fastlander Fighter

“Sorry,” she murmured.

“Stop apologizing.”

“I thought it was you at the door.”

“He’s not going to hurt you. He just didn’t know his place yet.”

“If he goes to the media, I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t give a single shit if he goes to the media,” Captain said with a laugh. “I dare him.”

Okay, so Captain had no fear of anything. Hot.

“I’m going to park the truck and move the booster seat over to my rig,” he said as she stood.

“Oh. Okay,” she murmured, eyes tracking him as he headed for the door.

He turned and came back. He leaned down and kissed her lips, his hand gentle on the back of her neck. “You’re okay,” he rumbled, and then made his way out the front door, leaving her staring at his broad back and thinking her heart was going to race right out of her chest.

That man…

Oooh, that man…

He had shown up at the right time, had probably gone a hundred miles an hour to get here when Ruger had called. He’d just known by instinct how to talk to her boy, and then had taken control of the situation so she didn’t have to think or scramble. And now he was going to spend quality time with her and Ruger, and take away the sting of the strange situation Ryan had caused.

Captain as a shifter was very complicated, but Captain as a man?

She’d never respected one more.

Chapter Fifteen

Fuck, his leg hurt.

Captain hid his limp and pulled down the tailgate of his truck to grab the two new bag chairs he’d bought at the grocery store Sloane worked at the other day when he’d gone in to visit her during an evening shift.

Fucking Ace, man. He didn’t usually get involved in the fights, but last night he’d been such an asshole. The claw mark on Captain’s thigh still hadn’t healed, but Ace was probably struggling to heal too. They’d gone at it.

“You okay?” Sloane asked from beside him.

“I’m always okay,” he answered testily.

Her eyes cooled and she nodded. “Okay. I’m taking Ruger to warm up.”

She walked away with Ruger, and Captain knew he was messing this up. He’d been short with her since he’d picked them up for Ruger’s Wednesday game, but fuck, he was in so much pain and pissed off at his entire Crew, and she wouldn’t understand. Why? Because she didn’t have to manage Crew dynamics. She was human. She was normal. Bad Crew meetings weren’t something he could lean on her for. It would shatter the view she had of him.

He was living two different lives—one in the human world, and one in the shifter world.

He shut the tailgate, shouldered the chairs, and followed them at a distance. He could smell the blood, and knew his bandages were probably soaked.

Fucking Ace. He wanted to kill him. You know what? It wasn’t only Ace, either. It was stupid Wreck, who had officially moved into the trailer park last night because stupid Damon Daye decided it was time for the pyromaniac to be a “more influential member of the Crew,” whatever the hell that meant. He was a liability, and had started a fight between everyone. Four of them had Changed, including one she-bear, and everything was on fire at home. Which he had to deal with immediately following this game, because his idiot brother had called a dozen times trying to get him to pick up so Captain could hear the order in his Alpha’s voice when Gunner told him to come back to the trailer park for whatever drama they were dealing with.

Right on cue, his phone vibrated in his pocket with a call. He was about to block everyone.

“Are you coming?” Ruger called from up ahead.

Captain forced a smile. “Be right there.”

Ryan and an even bigger entourage than the week before last took up the entirety of the bleachers, but that was fine. He’d bought the chairs so he and Sloane could sit away from them, and she wouldn’t have to hear the insults this week.

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