“What makes you think I’d join your little good-boy biker band?”
The fucker looked me dead in the eyes and said, “You meet the criteria. You’re a vet, and you’re obviously fucked up.”
I envisioned myself kicking the screen door into his face and then beating the living shit out of him. It would be therapeutic. But I resisted. Who was he to call me fucked up? I was doing something with my life. He was cosplaying a badass. “Says the shithead hustling little old ladies out of their grocery money.”
“We do n—” He shook his head. “Look. Your mom is worried about you, dumbass. She said you showed up drunk out of your mind Monday. Medical discharges can be rough, and if you want to talk, I have a lot of experience helping brothers get through this shit.”
Mom had sold me out to strangers. “She has nothing to worry about,” I said through clenched teeth. I would have to have a talk with her when she got home. “As for you, you can fuck right off.”
“Yeah. I can tell you’re doing fine. Proud and independent, needing no help from anyone. No survivor’s guilt whatsoever, is there?”
This guy was a dick who shouldn’t be treating anyone, much less veterans. There had to be someone I could report him to. “You’re not the club president, are you?” I asked. He couldn’t be. The bastard was too confrontational to run anything but a mosh pit.
He smirked. “Nope. I’m the club shrink.”
“With all the grifting they’re doing, you’d think they could hire a real one.”
Sage laughed.
I’d always been a smartass, and now that I was out of the service and without the threat of extra duties or worse for insubordination, it felt freeing to finally speak my mind. I knew there’d be consequences, and fully expected him to throw hands, so his laughter caught me off guard.
“You’re an asshole,” Sage said, but oddly enough, it sounded like a compliment. “I’m gonna enjoy working with you.”
“Yeah? Well, don’t hold your breath because I won’t be around long.”
“Right. Doctors Without Borders. You ship out on the twenty-second.”
Had Mom told him my fucking underwear size? There was no need for these guys to know anything about me. Or that she’d be home all alone again soon. I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him.
Sage sighed. Then, he tugged a business card out of his wallet and slid it into the crack between the screen door and the frame. “Take my card. You’ll need it when you grow a pair and stop shotgunning service to drown your fucking grief.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Amusement rippled across his lips. “Sure it’s not. That’s okay. You’re not the first to lie to yourself, brother, and you won’t be the last.”
“Don’t psychoanalyze me. You don’t know me, and I’m damn sure not your brother.”
His face curled into a knowing smile before he turned around, heading for his bike. “We’ll see.”
6
Mercy
“YOU SURE YOU can’t have dinner with us?” Beth asked as we walked home after work.
“I can’t tonight either, but thanks again for the offer.”
I felt like a jerk for blowing her off all week, but the budget had demanded all my free time. Having submitted the revisions to the board this morning, my evenings were finally free. But it was Friday night, and I had plans I needed to follow through with. Besides, it was best if Landon and I didn’t spend too much time together on account of the way he kept looking at me like I was edible.
And I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth-watering ass.
It wasn’t entirely my fault. The sidewalk was narrow, so I had to walk behind him and Beth, and the bastard had caught me looking Monday and had been taunting me with jeans that demanded I check out the view ever since.
I was in the middle of contemplating why I so desperately wanted to take a bite out of Landon’s ass when Beth gasped and froze. Catching up, I peered past her shoulder and saw why. Multi-colored Christmas lights decorated the roof, windows, and doorway of her house.
Beth let out a sob.
The anxiety that flashed across Landon’s expression did something funny to my chest. “Mom.” He reached for her. “I’m sorry. I?—”
