Page 43 of My Ruthless Alpha

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to have to keep an eye on you the whole time. I’m going to have fun, not babysit my brother.”

Miles’ brows furrowed with his determination. “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

“No.”

With a groan, he rolled his eyes. “You’re a jerk, you know that?”

“You’re a jerk!” Margo repeated as she headed towards the living room.

Beau heaved out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now look what you’ve done—Margo, don’t repeat that.”

She giggled, completely oblivious, as she went to play.

Ethan chuckled at Miles’ predicament through the slight chaos and ruffled his dark hair. “Just face it, kid. You’re not ready for the big leagues yet.”

The youngest Ellis brother grumbled to himself. “I’m not a kid.”

“You might as well be. Now quit complaining and help Faye clean up,” Beau told him, giving him that look of authority that even Miles couldn’t resist despite how much he likely wanted to.

Miles got up and did exactly that with another huff while Beau disappeared to get dressed. Ethan gave Sydney another indiscreet look, and she got up to join us in the kitchen to avoid his teasing.

I didn’t know what had gotten into Ethan, but I could tell it struck Sydney in a sore spot, and I could only hope he’d show her some mercy.

Chapter 20 - Beau

When Ethan and I pulled up together, the bar seemed busier than usual, but luckily, the guys already had a table and put in a quick order to get us started while the game was underway.

We sat closer to the bar than usual so we could have a better view of the crummy television to check out who was winning before getting down to business, but even so, it was hard to hear the announcers over all the noise.

“Damn,” Ezra muttered, glancing over his shoulder at the full bar behind us. “This place is so goddamn busy, you can’t hear a thing.”

“I wonder why,” Sebastian agreed, taking in the nearly packed place. “Even on a Friday night, it’s never this busy.”

I hummed and looked around, noticing how gruff the crowd looked while they played pool, laughing and talking amongst themselves. Still, nothing seemed out of the ordinary when it came to the type of clientele out for the night. They seemed to fit the bill of who you’d expect to show up at a rundown bar.

It wasn’t exactly the ideal place for a meeting—that much was clear.

Honestly, I was surprised we didn’t see more nights like that…with guys that seemed rougher around the edges.

We were pretty familiar with the locals, given how often we’d been there over the years, but I could tell that group of guys weren’t from around there.

“There must be an event going on nearby or something,” Levi said, voicing his observations while he took a swig of his beer.

“Let’s just hope they don’t scratch our vehicles on the way out,” Jacob muttered, shaking his head before returning his focus to the game.

Try as we might, paying more attention to the screen than the rowdy crowd around us was nearly impossible. Between their laughter and the obnoxious clank of pool balls hitting each other, it was almost maddening in comparison to how quiet the place normally was.

Still, I didn’t want it to detract from our night, even if it was distracting.

After a few drinks in, Ethan leaned back in his chair and lifted a brow in my direction as if trying to seem casual. “What do you think of Red?”

I gave him a vaguely incredulous look. “You mean Sydney?”

He chuckled. “Same thing.”

Rolling my eyes, I huffed. “She’s fine…nice. Faye knows her better than I do, but I’ve never had a problem with her. Why?”

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