Page 56 of The Untamed

I’m wondering why we haven’t alerted ourselves to the men yet. Rowdy has rocked to a halt, slightly lowered as he listens.

“Lack of options, man,” Jace says with a snigger. “Have you seen her choices?”

“She certainly can’t,” CJ tosses back. “I guess it would be good for your ass to be fucking a blind chick.”

Destiny?

They’re talking aboutourfourteen-year-old sister?

Where Ryder and I tense with realization, Rowdy is already tearing toward the duo. I’m frozen in place, wondering if he’s going to blow both their heads off.

Crack!

I suck in a sharp breath as I watch CJ collapse onto the forest floor after having been smacked in the head by the butt of Rowdy’s rifle. Jace, shocked by the surprise attack, scrambles away and stumbles over his own feet. Ryder and I rush forward—to do what, I’m not sure.

Rowdy snags Jace by his flannel shirt and shoves him up against a tree. His rifle falls to the ground and he produces a wicked-sharp knife he got while visiting Uncle Atticus during the time that changed Rowdy—a knife that could end this pervert with one well-delivered jab.

“You even look at my little sister and I will carve your eyeballs out,” Rowdy snarls. “If you touch her, I’ll carve them out and make your dipshit cousin eat them.”

“Dude,” Jace grinds out. “We were just fucking around and being stupid. No one really wants to fuck her.”

Rowdy digs the blade into Jace’s flesh just below his jawline, piercing the skin and producing a dark red rivulet of blood that races down his flesh. “Stop talking or I’ll cut your fucking tongue out too.”

He’s going to kill him.

CJ groans from the ground. Rowdy tenses but leaves his back to him, choosing to focus on the threat in front of him. Because we’re family and have his back, me and Ryder step near CJ, making sure he doesn’t rush our brother or some shit.

“I’m sorry,” Jace mutters. “Man, I really am sorry. It was unacceptable. I get that.”

Rowdy tilts his head to the side, the tension in his shoulders and back never leaving. “I don’t believe you and I don’t fucking trust you.”

Once I make sure Ryder has a watchful eye on CJ, I slowly creep toward our older brother. When Jace sees me, relief flashes in his eyes. It unnerves me that he sees me as his savior. He was just talking shit about fucking our baby sister and thinks I’m going to save him.

Because he can sense I have some weird thing going on with Logan?

Am I that transparent?

What he doesn’t see is my unwavering desire to protect my family. Not his. Mine.

“You can’t kill him,” I say, gently touching Rowdy on the back. “But you can kick his ass. That shit he deserves.”

Jace’s eyes narrow to slits and something dark passes over his expression. Before I can interpret it, Rowdy releases him. Briefly. In the next second, his knife is tossed away and he’s charging Jace.

“Oof!” Jace grunts as Rowdy sacks him.

Rowdy, now straddling his adversary, raises his fist and then slams it down on Jace’s face. I shy away from the brutality, choosing to look back at Ryder. Ryder smirks, his boot firmly planted on CJ’s spine, keeping him sprawled out on the earth.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Rowdy is relentless in putting the beat down on Jace. Just because I don’t want to watch him bloody him to a pulp doesn’t mean I don’t agree with it. It would have been different if Jace were talking shit about Raegan. That girl can handle herself and could probably give him a similar ass whipping that Rowdy’s doling out.

But Dez?

Destiny is innocent and fragile. She’s a sweetheart who deserves to be loved and protected. Not lusted after by men who have no business saying such things.

Yeah, Jace has earned every punch.

“He’s going to murder him,” Ryder says in a conversational tone. “Shame.”

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