Page 116 of Other Side Of Never
Without another word, I turned and left, not stopping until we would no longer be a spectacle outside Susie Q’s window.
He stalked toward me.
I held up my hand.“That is more than close enough, Gary.What do you want?”
“My son,” he snarled, his face turning red.“Where is he?”
How did I ever find him good-looking?I mean objectively speaking, he was handsome enough in that nondescript sliced white bread man kind of way.It was his mannerisms, the way he had of making you feel like you were his everything, that fed the addiction.
But at fifty, the poison inside him was beginning to show on his face.
I pulled my shoulders back.Though he was a big man, his pettiness made him small.
Smaller than I’d ever be.
He stepped closer.“I know he’s been talking to you, now, where the fuck is he?”
I lifted my chin.
Perhaps it was a false bravado, but I knew Gabe was on his way.
I also knew there were enough people on the street that he wouldn’t try anything too crazy.
“Step back, friend.”
I startled as Daire, Harley’s husband, looking deceptively relaxed, eased his tall, lean, muscular frame alongside me.
“Who are you?”Gary sneered.
Daire smiled, seemingly showing all his teeth.“I’m a friend of Bridge’s here.”
Gary looked him up and down.Obviously, he didn’t see what every woman on the planet saw because he dismissed him.“She’s my wife.”
“Ex-wife,” Gabe growled from my other side.
Gary’s eyes bugged out of his head.“Another bodyguard?”
Gabe jerked his chin up, his eyes hard.“Sure, I can be her bodyguard.”
“Guys,” I began, feeling supremely uncomfortable being the center of such attention, even snug as I was in their testosterone sandwich.
Daire gave me an easy smile and a small shake of his head.“Better we deal with him, Bridge.We don’t need Hawkley showing up.”
Max sighed.“He’s on his way.”
I turned around in surprise to find Max right behind me.
Glancing down at me, he smirked, “Kian called in the cavalry to keep an eye out for him coming into town.Don’t be surprised if Susie throws down her oven mitts.”
I laughed.Despite the mountain of shit in which fate planted my flag, I laughed.
Daire knocked me with his elbow and grinned down at me while Gabe angled himself slightly in front of me.
Gary puffed up like a peacock.“I can buy and sell all of you.Step back.You don’t know what kind of trouble you’re inviting.”
Every hair on my body stood on end at the intense hostile energy wafting off the men flanking me.
I yelped in surprise when hard hands grasped my shoulders and unceremoniously moved me behind Daire, but my jaw dropped entirely when Kian brushed past me, wrapped his fist in Gary’s shirt, and kept walking until he held him up against the brick wall, growling, “What do you want?”
