Page 88 of Ace of Spades
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I warned you that if you stole one more beer, you’d regret it.” Nate stood toe-to-toe with Dirty Dan. Nate was ready to hurt someone, and Dirty Dan would do just fine.
Dirty Dan smirked. “Like I never heard that from you before, but you’re all bark. I don’t think you have the balls to take me on.” He guzzled the rest of the stolen beer, then smacked his lips as he reached across the bar and refilled the mug.
Rage filled Nate’s brain. He saw nothing but the asshole he was going to beat to a pulp.
That’s right. Beat the shit out of him, boy,his father’s voice said in his head.
Nate’s heart stopped, or at least it felt like it did. He wasn’t his fucking father. He stumbled back, and as he became aware of his surroundings again, he saw his brothers watching him, concern on their faces. Like a drunken man, he lurched away, heading for the office.
“Knew you didn’t have the balls,” Dirty Dan called after him.
Dirty Dan was wrong. He had the balls, he just chose not to use them for violence. Dirty Dan should consider himself lucky he wasn’t about to be dead.
“Get the hell out and never come back. Aces and Eights is closed to you forever,” he heard Court say to Dirty Dan.
“Keep an eye on things,” Alex said to their bartender.
Damn pesky brothers. They were following him. He was tempted to lock them out of the office, but they’d just stand on the other side and bang on the door until he let them in.
He went straight to the bar, poured a shot of whiskey—which he hated, so it was the only liquor he allowed himself when needing a stiff drink—into a glass. Downing it, he grimaced. Christ, that was awful. But it gave him the burn all the way down to his stomach—which he craved—without making him want more. He set the glass on the minibar counter, then faced his brothers.
“Go away.”
“Not a good sign when you’re drinking whiskey, so we’re not going away,” Court said. He plopped down on the black leather sofa. “Talk to us.”
Alex planted his ass on the other end of the couch. “You came close to losing it, bro. And it wasn’t because of Dirty Dan. The two of you have always played a game of him stealing beer and you catching him. Hell, you have as much fun over that as him. What’s really bothering you?”
“Do either of you not understand what ‘go away’ means?”
Court and Alex exchanged a glance, then Court said, “We know what it means, but when this is the first time our big brother needs us? Not gonna happen.”
“What he said,” Alex said.
“I don’t need you, either of you. So I mean it. Go away.”
Alex lifted his feet, putting them on the coffee table and crossing his ankles. “Now I’m definitely not going away.” He glanced at Court. “How about you?”
“Nope, not until he tells us what’s going on in his head.” Court put his booted feet on the coffee table, too. Both his brothers looked as if they weren’t about to budge.
“I think he’s in love,” Alex said.
Court frowned at Alex. “And that’s a problem because?”
“Because he’s afraid, maybe?”
Nate would willingly die for the two idiots he claimed as brothers, but he was going to kill them if they didn’t shut up.
“Of what?” Court asked.
Alex shrugged. “Until he starts talking, all we can do is guess.” Alex eyed Nate. “Or we could take him down, torture him until he tells us why Dirty Dan came within an inch of dying tonight.”
“There’s an idea.” Court looked at Nate. “Which is it going to be, bro? Talk or fight? We’re up for either.”
They weren’t going to leave him alone, but he didn’t really want them to. He wearily sank down in the desk chair. Even though he’d grown up with these two men, they’d never talked much about their father and what the bastard had put them all through. That they each hated the old man was a given, and it had never been necessary to put that sentiment in words. The less they thought about him, the happier they were.
“I’m growing moss under my feet, bro,” Alex said. “Spit it out. What’s bugging you?”
