Page 190 of Burn the Wild

“We leave her alone for twenty minutes and she’s already shit-talking,” I mutter.

“What do we do?” Ruby whispers.

Dakota shakes her head. “We stay out of the way.”

I tense as the guy grabs Fallon’s arm. She flinches like she’s been slapped. “You’re dead,” she growls, before wrenching her arm from his grip and balling her fist.

Before she can take a swing, Davis grabs Fallon around the waist and hefts her into the air. “Fuck’s sake, Fallon, you can’t go around punching anyone you want to.”

She wiggles in his tight grip. “Who wants to live forever, anyway?”

Davis swings her to the side, and instantly, Wyatt’s storming the floorboards. The immediate beeline, the manic look—he’s all in for Fallon.

But, from my vantage point, he’s in the wrong position. Before Wyatt can square up, the guy’s fist catches Wyatt in the jaw. My brother staggers back, slamming into the wall. Charlie hisses a breath.

Davis and I exchange a look. That’s civil fucking war right there. If someone touches our little brother, they die by our hand.

“Stay here,” I tell Reese.

Together, we step forward.

“Hey, man,” the guys bleats, lifting tobacco-stained hands. “That little bitch started it—”

Davis hauls back and hits the guy in the face. He wobbles once and lands on his ass in a puddle of beer.

I clap my twin on the back. “Still got it, brother.”

The fight’s over. The man’s down.

But Nowhere isn’t ready to quit.

The dance floor goes wild. Stomping boots. Flailing fists. Beer bottles break. Across the room, cake splatters the wall.

A hand grabs the front of my shirt. I just grin and deliver a one-two punch that has the guy sailing across the room.

Wyatt and Fallon are having some kind of stare down, and I make a note to tell them later to shit or get off the pot.

Davis ducks under someone’s arm, Dakota’s hand in his. “Outside. Now.”

My attention’s stolen by Ruby. She stands on a chair, dumping beer on the wild crowd. “Go get your woman,” I tell Charlie. He appears beside me, easily landing a knockout punch to Lionel Wolfington.

He arches a brow and grins. “Get mine? What about yours?”

That’s when I see her a bright flash of gold as Reese jumps on some guy’s back. Her tiny fists pummel his shoulders and it’d be fucking hilarious if I wasn’t worried about her getting seriously hurt.

“Shit.” I fly across the goddamn bar and hook my hands under her arms, grabbing her off the guy’s back. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” Reese’s voice is an exhilarated scream.

Charlie passes beside us, Ruby slung over his shoulder. “Don’t just grunt at me instead of using words, Cowboy,” Ruby tells her husband, but she’s laughing as he carries her out the front door.

I grab Reese’s hand and weave our way through the crowd. We slam out the back door. “Up here,” I say, grabbing the fire escape ladder that leads to the roof.

We climb and then we’re three stories above Main Street. Glittering lights. Jagged mountains. Lightning sparks in the sky.

I glance down, checking her for injuries. “You okay?”

“That was wild,” she says. Her hair is disheveled and her eye makeup smeared, but she’s never looked more beautiful. More free.

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