Page 64 of Skin Deep

“Don’t start, Wayne!” She was trying to get in between us. She turned toward me, her hands up. “I swear! We moved here from Nashville, and I broke up with him.”

“Why you explaining anything to this manure bag?” He pushed against her back, trying to get closer to me. “This the guy you been seeing, Harley?”

“Wayne! Stop!”

Wayne tried to grab me by the shirt from over Harley’s head. I took a step back and he pushed her out of the way. He tried to take a swing at me, but missed when I pivoted, hitting the wall instead. His fist got stuck in it. He was trying to yank it out, threatening me the entire time, spittle running down his face.

“What’s going on, Wayne?”

One of his buddy’s came around the corner. His eyes narrowed. “You the asshole my girl’s been flirtin’ with the entire night.”

“Fuck you,” I said, having enough of this shit.

We met in the middle of the hall. He was running his mouth and I didn’t have time for it. I hit him so hard in it that it knocked him into a table. The people sitting at it all stood, having no idea where it had come from.

A guy knocked into me from the side, and we started fighting. Then it seemed like the entire place was at it. Lach, Declan, and Owen were swinging, and so was Cash Kelly. I had no idea when he had time to roll his sleeves up, but it was like he was going to work on something messy.

Before I could get to where Kelly and Lach were, I noticed two guys moving toward them. They both held knives in their hands.

Kelly was about to back up into one of them. The guy was going to shank him in the kidney. The other one was trying to figure out a way to get to my brother. He was flinging guys and girls off him. The place was in mayhem, and the guy seemed like he wanted to make it quick.

At the last second, Kelly moved forward again, throwing the guy he had to the floor, barely missing the guy behind him. But when he turned, the guy slashed at his shirt. It caught Lach’s attention, and the same thing happened to him.

Sirens started wailing outside.

I started to rush toward them. Declan and Owen did, too. But the police started to raid the place. People were rushing out past them, but mostly everyone was stuck inside. The police went straight for the guys with knives, holding them at gunpoint until they dropped their weapons. I was put into handcuffs, and so was Declan and Owen.

The police were asking Kelly and Lach if they needed medical attention. Kelly shrugged them off and nodded toward me and my brothers.

If they didn’t let me go, this would be the second time I was arrested while working for Kelly. I had punched my sister’s old boyfriend, Scott Stone, after he’d disrespected her. He happened to be a detective.

The wholeif the house was on fire, what would you take?question came back to me. Except, I thought about my one call. When I’d been arrested the first time, I was going to sit it out, wait for them to release me. But this time, I knew. It would be her. I remembered her eyes the night the two giants came after me, and what she’d done. She had my back.

Her eyes, though. A sickening feeling came to my stomach at the thought. The detachment was something I’d never forget.

One of the cops who had been talking to Kelly told the one holding me to let me go. It wasn’t what Kelly had said that convinced him to release me—I wasn’t sure if he’d said anything—but the waitress came forward and told them Wayne had started it all.

The place started to clear out. None of us said anything to the cops but me. It didn’t look good for gangsters to be speaking to them. I had a pass on that because I represented them. I agreed with Harley’s version of things because she was telling the truth.

I wanted to rush the process up. I couldn’t get Georgina out of my head.

“I’m sorry,” Harley’s friend mouthed to me as she passed. “Want to call me latER?” Her lips formed the last two letters in an exaggerated motion as she held a pretend phone up to her ear.

Cash Kelly started laughing. He tilted his head back, roaring with it. He needed stitches, but he didn’t seem to care. Blood seeped through his shirt. Cash told the cop he had someone who would fix that for him, and Lach waved away the medical team.

“This is grand,” Cash said, squeezing me on the shoulder, then patting me after in the same spot. “Just. Fucking. Grand.”

I didn’t realize until we got home that I had three missed calls.

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