Page 18 of My Escort (A Different Kind of Escort)

“That’ll work.”

“I got it covered, bro.” He points at me.

I catch the cuts and bruises on his knuckles. “How are you going to explain those? Beam hit you there too?”

He glances at his hand. Opens and closes it, making a fist. He looks up at me. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I told you to wear gloves.”

“Yeah, but it dumbs down the punch. Won’t hurt the fucker as much when I hit him in the face.” He grins.

“You need to protect those things. We need them for the business.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I know,” he says.

He won’t listen to me. Neither of them do. “Where’s Lix?”

“At the gym. Should be home soon.” He stares at me. I see his little wheels changing direction in his head. “Did she say anything?”

“Fuck.” I let go of the back of my neck. “Yeah, and I tried to walk away, but she wasn’t having it. I think we’re good, though. She said what she needed. Hopefully, that’s the end of it.”

“That’s some shit. I wouldn’t know what I’d do if I saw a Julia on the street or at the store or something. Was it weird?”

Weird? No.

Fucked up? Yes.

The way my body reacted to her pissed me off. She’s a victim. A man brutally attacked her. Hurt her. Made her feel defenseless, stripped her of her strength and power.

And sitting across from her in the restaurant, all I could think about was fucking her.

I’m a selfish shithead.

“It was messed up,” I say, not about to tell my brother she fucked with my control.

We all have our mother’s heart, but we inherited our father’s anger. It’s probably why none of us has a girlfriend. We trust ourselves to save them but not to be with them. Not permanently. Not that we’d hurt a woman. We’d die first.

It’s more like a roller-coaster ride. The first time you get on one, you don’t know if you’ll shit your pants or have the best ride of your life.

We’re afraid of the shitting part.

What if what our father gave us comes through in the relationship? I could never live with myself if I scared a woman or made her feel threatened. I’m sure I’d control my temper and keep it shielded from her, but none of us has ever tested it.

Instead, we take what dear old Dad handed down to us, and we use it to protect women from pieces of shit like him.

I’ll never understand what a man gets from hitting a woman.

I hope Cole crushed that guy tonight.

“But you’re good with taking the job?”

“I’ll get through it. It’ll only take a couple of months. I’ll just steer clear of her.” I pick up a pen and tap it on the desk, aware the proclamation will prove more difficult than not. “We start Monday. I want everyone on this. Is the Weaver job almost done?”

“I had Joe and Erickson over there with Lix and me today.”

“See if you can get them to work the weekend. Pay them double time. If we’re going to get this done on time, we need to finish the Weaver job. We’re going to need everyone on GrandMark.”

“You gonna be there this weekend too, boss?”

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