Page 1 of Fierce-Michael

PROLOGUE

“Hey,” Michael Marshall said to his buddy Owen. “How have you been?”

He held his hand up to the bartender at Fierce. He didn’t know the guy, so it had to be someone new. Brody Fierce was his cousin Alex’s brother-in-law and Michael came in here often.

“Not bad,” Owen said. “Work is kicking my butt this week and I need a beer.”

Since it was a Wednesday, Michael found that funny. “We’ve got two more days to go this week. How are you going to manage it?”

“Like I have been doing,” Owen said. “A stiff drink at the end of the night.”

“I’ll take number five,” Michael said when the bartender came over. He’d been browsing the beer list on the wall.

“The same,” Owen said. “Can we get a menu? I’m starving.”

Two menus were slid in front of them at the bar. They were off to the side and he looked down, saw one of the specials and made up his mind fast.

“What’s going on?” Michael asked. “You said you needed to talk to me about something. Everything okay?”

“It is with me,” Owen said. “But it’s something I heard.”

“About me?” he asked, lifting his eyebrow. That never sounded good.

“Remember Electra?” Owen asked.

“The chick I was dating months ago?” he asked. He’d met her at a bar where Electra worked. The two of them hit it off, but he soon realized how immature she was and a month later they parted ways. He’d avoided that bar since. No reason to stir up any more drama.

“Yeah,” Owen said. “Her.”

“What about her?” he asked.

“I heard she’s pregnant,” Owen said.

“Good luck to whoever that idiot is to be tied to her for years,” he said, shaking his head. “She is a ditz. I’m not sure she’d remember to feed herself let alone a kid.”

Owen picked up the beer that was set in front of him. Michael did the same and they ordered their food.

“Well,” Owen said. “She looks to be about seven months pregnant. I asked around when I noticed it.”

Michael frowned and did the math in his head. “You’re sure?” The beer he’d been thinking of all day was not going down as smooth as it normally did.

“Positive of what I was told,” Owen said. “I stopped there last week with a few guys from work. She didn’t seem to notice or remember me.”

“Not surprising,” he said.

Owen had only met Electra once and he’d agreed that she was a complete airhead and wanted to know what the hell the two of them talked about.

The simple answer had been not much, but they’d spent a lot of time in bed. That was pretty much the only thing the two of them did, talked about, or had in common.

Michael didn’t think he was much of a scholar, but he never got a blank look in his eye if someone asked him what animal a steak came from. That was only one of the more interesting conversations the two of them had.

“Are you going to talk to her?” Owen asked. “I can see it in your eyes. There is a possibility of it. Unless she was sleeping with more than one person when you were together. Or if the person I asked about how far along she is was wrong.”

“Fuck,” he said, his throat closing and the beer not even helping. “I’ll have to see what is going on. I’m sure it’s nothing though.”

“But you can’t let it go either,” Owen said. “You’d want to know, right? Or did you think she’d at least reach out to you?”

“I’d hope she would have,” he said. Jesus Christ. This was too much to think about.