Page 27 of Past

I hear Blake's laughter all the way across the bar as I walk to take a seat next to Harley, who is drinking his beer.

"You all right?" I ask, because he has been quiet tonight. I mean, he isn’t a chatty fucker usually, but this is worse than normal.

"My younger brother is getting married before me. It's weird." He looks at me before drinking again.

“It is,” I say.

“You are two minutes older than him.” Harley laughs, and I chuckle.

“Two minutes might as well be two years with me and Seb,” I say, and he nods with a laugh.

"Are you coming with me to the fight tomorrow?" I ask, not wanting to bring it up, but I know I should. None of us go to The Cage fights alone. Sometimes, we get families of the men we fight trying to get revenge. It doesn’t work because there are always more than one of us. They would have to have a death wish.

Recently, Luke slept with someone’s girlfriend; he didn’t know her boyfriend’s brother had just been knocked out by Seb. The bastard brought eight of his friends and tried to take on Luke and me. They all paid for that mistake. It’s rarely happened over the years, but rumours are a good thing. Most people are too scared shitless to try it. Arthur, Allie's dad, helps in a way. People bet a lot of money on us winning and trick new people into losing their money by betting on someone else. That offers a certain amount of protection, the gangs who run The Cage under Arthur won’t lose out on their money.

"Yeah. I’m fucking pissed he is demanding you fight again. You did the last one.”

“I’m sure he’s making some money from it,” I say dryly. My ribs are still yellow from the last fight.

“Are you sure that Arthur isn't onto you and Allie?"Harley asks.

"Nothing is going on with me and Allie,"I say.

Harley raises an eyebrow before coughing, hiding a laugh I expect.

"There was something starting with us. She turned me down and won't speak to me," I say, hating to admit it out loud. Allie didn't even bother replying to me, which isn't like her. I went and watched her teach her dance class on Sunday; she didn’t even look at me and left through another door before I could speak to her.

If only I could forget the thought of her sweet-tasting lips, her smooth, creamy skin, and the way she made me want to fuck her all night, every night of the week, until she could never forget me.

"Hmm," Harley says before going quiet.

"You’re not going to tell me not to give up like everyone else?"I inquire.

"I think you’re a King, and when we find the girl we want, we don't give up." Harley pats me on the back. I grab a drink off the bartender while Harley pushes his black hair into a tighter knot at the back of his head. We are dressed all the same tonight, in shirts Blake made that say ‘Sebastian's stag do.’ My top is fucking pink because Blake is an asshole.I don’t even want to look at the tiara under my name.

"Dude, I love this place," Luke says, sitting in the seat next to me and running his hand through his messy, brown hair.

"You have red lipstick on your neck," I say with a smirk at my little brother.

"Huh? Thanks. That must have been . . ." Luke stops talking, clearly not remembering her name as he wipes off the lipstick. I shake my head at him; he is getting as bad as Sebastian was.

We order more drinks, and I end up carrying a singing Sebastian out of the strip club a little later with the rest of the group following. I manage to get him to the door before he laughs, standing straighter and walking off down the street.

"Sebastian, get your fucking ass back here!" Blake shouts my thoughts. We all follow as Sebastian starts running. Fuck, I didn't drink enough for this shit.

"Wait, stop," I shout as he goes around the corner of a building. I move faster and stop with a smirk as I see Sebastian passed out on a bench on the other side of the road.

"Look, what I found," Luke says, showing us a tube of red lipstick and handcuffs.

"Where the hell did you find that?" I ask, confused at the sight.

"Oh, the stripper; Crystal or something." He laughs as we walk over to stand over Sebastian, who is clearly out of it.

"Right, you get his top off, El, and I will draw. Blake, you sort the handcuffs, and Daniel takes pictures," Luke says, chucking the cuffs at Blake, who grins.

"He is going to kill us," Harley says as he comes across the road. I watch in amusement as he takes his phone out. I get Seb's shirt off and chuck it onto the metal bench. He is completely asleep.

"Get going with the lipstick," I say to Luke, who nods.

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