Page 11 of Bodyguard By Night

Instead, I used his momentum to swing him into the bar and Ruby rapped his fingers with her bat. The bald dude howled, and then he cradled his hand against his chest.

Ruby wasn’t afraid of being sued. No one here had balls big enough to try it.

I shuffled and dodged my way over to Clay, so we were back to back. He was a few inches taller than me, the damn mutant. Now that I knew he actually knew how to fight, I was hedging my bets his way.

“This wasn’t what I was thinking when I said let’s go for a beer,” he muttered as he threw out a jab.

“They keep wanting to start shit with me.”

“Then why do you keep coming back in?” He grunted as he used one of his long legs to kick a third guy spinning through the brawlers.

The guy went down with a howl. A knee shot always worked.

I hooked my arm through another idiot’s arm and sling-shotted him back toward the pool tables and out of the confined space around the bar. “Really good beer,” I said with a grunt.

“I have good beer.”

“You have a girl.” I put the thinning blond into a headlock. Jackass had come back for more even with blood staining his teeth.

“What? Why? Rach likes you.”

“Three’s a crowd, man. Besides, no one wants to watch you play kissyface all the damn time.”

“Kissyface?” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Who the hell says that?”

A flush climbed up my neck. I was hanging out with Laverne too much lately. I was rehabbing one of her old roll-top desks for the lodge. The woman lived to hover.

I shoved the blond toward the now open door. Another arctic breeze signaled new blood. I only hoped they weren’t looking for trouble.

Why would I get that lucky? “Shit.”

“What?” Clay followed my gaze. “Eh, crap.”

Two of the Manning brothers were standing, legs spread, their weight on the balls of their feet. Justin Manning was rubbing his hands together. Hayes, the older, usually more responsible brother, mirrored his stance.

“Hey. Looks like we got here just in time,” Hayes said with a wide grin.

“Fuck.” I growled as someone got a rib shot in while I was distracted. Forgetting the earlier responsible Ransom, I cold cocked the asshole and watched him go down.

Clay turned. “Damn.”

I shrugged. “I’m tired. I just wanted a beer and to play darts, man.”

“I’d kick your ass.”

“You’d try,” I said genially and ducked, knocking out the blond dude when he came back for more.

“Hell,” Ruby shouted from behind the bar.

I winced. “Sorry, Ruby.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She had the bat up, ready to swing.

Justin, the lankier of the two brothers, put some burly bearded dude in a headlock and waved at us. Pure joy lit his face. He was a damn troublemaker. “Hey, guys.”

I gave him a quick nod then grunted when Nelson came swinging through once more. I deflected a punch. The wiry bastard had a cannon of a fist when he planted it right. I twisted Nelson’s arm behind his back and shoved him into the corner of the bartop. His ribs took a good shot, but he was feeling no pain.

Adrenaline had made him even more of an asshole.

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