Son of a bitch! This was theverything he didn’t want to happen.
Uncrossing his arms and shaking them out, he closed his eyes and rolled his neck and shoulders, clenching and unclenching his hands. He wasn’t the kind of man that gave a damn if a woman hopped off his dick and climbed right on top of another—that’s how little he was invested inwho they were as human beings—but he drew the line at some manipulative bitch walking intotheirhouse trying to pit one brother against another. That shit was not going down, not today.
Opening his eyes, Big Country zeroed in on Sienna Red and watched as her friends faded away until she and Lynx were the only ones talking and dancing together. If it wasn’t for the peril his friend faced, Big Country would leave and go on over to Sylvie’s, where release was guaranteed. But he was stuck here, prowling the perimeter of the dance floor, waiting for the moment Sienna Red took things too far.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that asshole Marine, Drake Carver, coming up behind the woman and sandwiching her between him and Lynx.
Who thefuckdid Carver think he was?
Sienna Red smiled back at the Marine, looped one arm around his neck and the other around Lynx’s midsection, and the three of them rocked to the music on the cusp of some kind of dance-floor-ménage scenario.
Big Country was well on his way to losing his shit, and it wasn’t because of her; it was because he couldn’t tolerate the disrespect she was showing Lynx and his puppy-dog emotions. For him, Lynx, or London to jostle around for position was one thing, but for Carver to jump the line—
Sienna Red laughed at something Lynx said and planted a lingering kiss on his jaw.
Fucking woman.Big Country’s mind roared—hell, maybe he’d yelled it out loud the way folks turned toward him, looking surprised. He didn’t give a damn. She needed to be set straight to rights. Women didn’t come into Mama’s House,hishouse, thinking they could play some bullshit game of seek-out-the-best-man-in-the-room-and-destroy-his-fucking-heart.
Plowing through the crowd, he pulled the woman from between Lynx and Carver, and dragged her to him, intentionally crowding her space.
“You come in here trying to catch some poor bastard with the promise of your body and I get it, that’s what women do. But let me tell you something, little darlin’, it ain’t going down that way, not tonight.”
She arched her brow and smirked at him.Smirked. He growled and dipped his head lower, their faces so close that their heated breaths battled for dominion.
“Little man,” she said, her silken lips brushing against his as she spoke. “What you’re holding on to right now is a grown-ass woman. Let me tell you something about grown-ass women, because apparently you haven’t had the honor of meeting one before. We don’t back down from men who try to pull this caveman bullshit, so walk away like the overfed boy that you are, or limp away, these are your only options,darlin’. Be wise in your choice.”
Big Country straightened. Who the hell did she think she was giving ultimatums to, he started to say, but then he crossed his arms over his chest, took a mental step back and tried to make sense of her, of this whole situation.
Drake Carver—son of a bitch that he was—didn’t seem inclined to give him the time to do so. Sidling close to Sienna Red, Carver placed a proprietary hand on her hip as if the gesture would make Big Country tuck tail and scamper away.
“Look here, boys,” Big Country called out, catching the eye of nearly every man in the place before settling his gaze back on Carver. “Let’s not drag this out. This woman’s off-limits from this moment on. We all got a clear understanding of my meaning, yeah?”
The meaning was that if you weren’t Brood, you didn’t touch her, you didn’t look at her, she didn’t exist in your world. Now, he and Lynx, they would have a conversation about the woman’s nature soon enough, but until then, no other man or woman in Mama’s House would have the right to say different.
Carver didn’t remove his hand from Sienna Red’s hip at Big Country’s declaration, grinning as two of his Marine buddies walked up and flanked him.
“Well, well. Looks like I’ve got a challenge on my hands,” Big Country announced.
Sienna Red rolled her eyes and motioned to the tall dark-skinned woman she and Lynx had been dancing with, then to another woman, who was already close to the entrance. “Lou, can you and Eliza pull your cars around front?” she asked.
“That what grown-ass women do, Sienna Red? Shake their asses, get men riled up, then run away without facing the consequences? If that’s the case, darlin’, your grown-ass ain’t no different than every common-ass woman I know…at least as far as I can tell. I may be wrong.” He knew he wasn’t.
For a moment he sincerely believed she was going to punch him in the balls. He smirked, daring her to try it.
“Stormy!” a woman called out, and the tempest in her eyes winked out as if it never existed.
“I don’t know what your issues with women are, but I’ll be damned if we stay here and end up in jail or the hospital just to find out.”
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about jail. Up here, we got our own brand of justice.”
“Come on, Stormy, the cars are out front,” the sole Asian women in her group urged.
“Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here before the symphony banjos and squealing pigs begins.”
“Aw, darlin’, only backwoods amateurs fail to cut the pig’s throat before it starts to squeal. We’re all professionals here. I guarantee, you wouldn’t even hear death coming.”
“We’re leaving,” she said flatly.
“I think that’s best,” he said, equally as flat, then looked at Carver and his crew. “You ladies won’t want to be here when the blood begins flowing.”
