Page 47 of Rafferty

Penn throws a wild punch and as he’s swinging, King inserts himself, holding his arms out to keep the opponents apart. North and I position ourselves in front of Penn who’s wiping at his bloody nose and staring daggers at the bikers.

“Enough,” Stevie yells, rushing in with Hendrix protectively at her back. She points at the two bikers. “Ernie, Sam… please, just stop. Not in my bar, okay?”

Ernie points a shaking finger at Penn. “That fuck nut started it.”

“Maybe so,” Stevie says, glancing back at Penn. I can see the loyalty warring in her expression because he’s a Titan, but Ernie is her customer. “I’m asking you nicely to let it go. I’ll handle this.”

The grizzled man gives Stevie a curt nod and he and the other biker move farther down the bar.

Stevie then wheels around and bares her teeth at Penn. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ve suddenly determined it’s because you’re an asshole. You started that and they just defended themselves. Get out of my bar and don’t come back.”

Holy shit, that’s harsh, but admittedly… well deserved.

Penn doesn’t look contrite at all as he pushes past me and North, heading for the exit.

King races after him, Willa on his heels. She’s a doctor and can look at Penn’s nose at least. They disappear into the night with the swinging door shutting out the cold behind them.

“Okay, everyone,” Stevie calls out. “Excitement’s over. The next round is on me.”

There’s a rousing cheer and everyone starts talking and laughing again.

Everyone but my teammates. We’re all shell-shocked not only by Penn’s appearance but by his violence. It was so uncalled for and I can’t fathom what he was thinking. Maybe King will be able to talk to him.

We all wander back to our tables, but the jubilant mood is killed. Tempe meets me, her hand going to my chest. “What happened? Is Penn okay?”

I’m dumbfounded. “I have no clue what that was.”

“That dickhead suffers from an anatomical conundrum,” Atlas seethes.

“Anatomical conundrum?”

“Yeah, he needs to get his head out of his ass.” Atlas glares back at the doorway Penn just exited. “That was not cool. He not only put himself at risk—we can’t afford to lose him to an injury—he put us at risk too because we would have defended him in an all-out brawl.”

“Why is he like that?” Tempe asks softly.

“No idea.” I bend down, brush my mouth across her forehead. “But he’s definitely got issues. You want to get out of here?”

She nods, her arms going around my waist. “Sure.”

We return to our table to gather our coats and Tempe’s purse. Farren approaches, a fresh beer in hand. “You want to play some darts? I can grab Atlas or North and we can play doubles.”

“Nah. We’re going to head out.”

My sister glances over her shoulder, the rest of the team settling back down at tables and resuming games. “I think I’ll stay.”

I consider that for a moment, a streak of protectiveness rearing. I trust my teammates to look after her, but since she rode with me, that means she’ll have to Uber it home. I nab Atlas as he strolls by. “What’s up?”

“I’m heading out but Farren’s going to stay—”

Atlas holds out his palm. “Say no more. We’ve got her covered.”

“Thanks, man.” We clasp hands, exchange backslaps.

We make our goodbyes to everyone else. Hugs among the ladies, fist bumps with the dudes. As we exit the bar, we run into King and Willa coming back in. King has his arm around Willa’s shoulders as they both rushed out after Penn without their coats.

“Is he okay?” I ask Willa.

“As best I can tell. He wouldn’t let me look at his nose. Insisted he was fine.”

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