“You two start something in here, and I’ll call the cops.Take it outside if you’re gonna fight.”The bartender snatched away Jack’s empty beer bottle.
Jack watched the bottle disappear into the trash.“Rather have another beer.”
When on duty, he’d do whatever he had to in the service of his country and to protect his teammates.Off-duty, different story.He wasn’t a fighter.He didn’t have anything to prove and walked away if trouble started brewing.All he wanted to do right now was sit on this barstool and drown his misery in alcohol.
“Pussy.”Gregory sneered.“Afraid I’ll—”
“I’ve been afraid of things you can’t begin to imagine.You, not so much.”Jack slapped his hand on the counter as he stood.“A word of advice, though.You really ought to walk away while you still can.”
He should probably clue the douchebag in that he was messing with a SEAL, one highly trained in the art of combat, including how to kill a man with his bare hands.
Gregory snorted.“Quaking in my boots, pal.I’ll be waiting outside.”He took a step away, then paused.“You can leave with your pretty-boy face still intact.All you gotta do is get the fuck out of Nichole’s life.”
The miniscule obligation he’d felt to tell Gregory who he was took a hike.Jack was a firm believer in karma.Why else on a day he had zero fucks to give had he ended up in a biker bar that Gregory apparently frequented?He followed the man out.
“Look,” Jack said, stopping a few feet in front of Gregory.“This is bullshit.Nichole doesn’t want you in her life, and that has nothing to do with me.Respect her wishes, and we don’t have a problem.No need for fists.”
When Gregory came at him, Jack sighed.“So be it,” he muttered.
Using the man’s forward momentum against him, Jack leaned back, and when Gregory was close, Jack grabbed his wrist.He used his strength to twist it enough to hurt as he swept his leg behind Gregory’s ankle and tripped him.Gregory hit the pavement facedown, and Jack crouched, pressing his knee into the man’s upper back.
“Had enough?”
“Go to hell.”
He twisted the wrist harder.“I forgot to mention that I’m a SEAL, so oops on that.What that means is I know all kinds of ways to put a serious hurt on you without breaking a sweat.Witness the fact that you’re eating dirt right now, and I’m not even breathing hard.”
Maybe if Gregory knew he was messing with a SEAL, he’d be smart enough to go away and leave Nichole alone.When Gregory tried to buck him off, Jack rolled his eyes.The dude was an idiot.
“Here’s how this is gonna go.I’m going to let go of you.If you come at me again, I really will hurt you.If you bother Nichole again, I promise that I’ll make you sorry.So be smart and forget you ever knew her.”
He glanced up to see the bartender standing a few feet away, his arms crossed as he watched them.Jack stood and stepped back.“He’s not smart, this one,” he said to the bartender.
“You’ve had your fun, now I want both of you gone.”
Jack dipped his chin.“Works for me.”
The bartender disappeared back inside, and Jack was halfway to his truck when he heard footsteps pounding on the asphalt.Spinning, he wasn’t surprised to see Gregory heading for him.Well, he’d warned the asshole.As soon as the man’s knee was in striking distance, Jack kicked, the heel of his boot landing hard on Gregory’s kneecap.Gregory screamed as he crumpled to the ground.
Jack leaned over him.“Believe it or not, I’m still taking it easy on you.But my patience is wearing thin.This is your last warning.”
Jack jerked awake at the sound of loud motorcycle pipes.Where the hell was he?
He scanned the area around him, his gaze passing over the biker bar and then jerking back to it.He was trained to process intel, and what he processed had him frowning.He’d been in that bar only...he glanced at his watch.Two hours ago?
Damn it.He had the feeling he needed to remember.There was the doctor snatching Jack’s world out from under him, and then he’d stopped at the first bar he’d come to.Right, he’d been happily drinking until Nichole’s ex had shown up.
Nichole.
He fumbled for his phone in the pocket of his jeans.As he blinked to clear the haze out of his eyes, his gaze fell on his bloody knuckles.He frowned at them, then looked up, zeroing in on the bar’s parking lot.Nothing to be seen there, and he let out a sigh of relief.He hadn’t left a dead body in his wake.
At least he hadn’t been stupid enough to try to drive home.He remembered thinking that he would call an Uber, but then he must have fallen asleep.Since he still had no business driving, he made the call, arriving home thirty minutes later.
Seeing Nichole’s car in his driveway and her sitting on his porch swing, he almost told the Uber driver to keep going.She was the last person he wanted to see right now.His mood was too black, and he didn’t want to talk about his afternoon...none of it.Not his doctor’s appointment, not the shoulder that would keep him from returning to his team, not his fight with her ex, and especially not the parts he couldn’t remember.
