“She got herself into some trouble recently. And I’m exploring all possible avenues to try and bring justice.”
“Oh, yeah?” I said, half-defiant, half-pretending like I didn’t know what was going on. “What happened?”
Mason finally looked up at me. His eyes blazed with anger. I tensed even more.
“She went out with a Bandit.”
Wait…what? What?
“A Bandit?”
Was Mason speaking in code? Like saying I was such a dick for sleeping with her that I was like a Bandit?
“Yeah, some guy named Jason, she said.”
Wait.
She lied.
She lied to her brother about us.
Holy shit.
“She said that she didn’t know it at the time, that he was a Bandit. Said that he started acting like a stalker and creeper recently and asked me to take care of it. The description she gave sounded like one of the Bandits, though I didn’t think his name was Jason, thought it was Miguel or something.”
She lucked her way into describing a real Bandit. Christ almighty.
“In any case, I need to kick his ass and teach him a lesson to stay the fuck away from my sister. I was going to ask you if you could get the Sheriff involved, maybe have him arrested a couple of times, but if Steele’s better for that, maybe you can help me kick his ass?”
I was trying my best not to show how fucking lucky I felt. Hannah had spoken to Mason, she had mentioned relationship trouble…and somehow she had not mentioned me. She’d lied to cover my ass.
I was both utterly relieved and feeling enormously grateful to Hannah. I’d underestimated her. I’d obviously not understood her fully.
Really, I owed her.
“Well, damn, sounds like a real dickwad needs to be taught a fucking lesson, huh?” I said with a laugh that was as much a shield against the truth as in response to my own words. “Yeah, you know I’m always down to kick some fucking Bandit ass.”
“Good man,” Mason said, clasping my shoulder. “You know I take protection of her seriously. I’m not going to just fucking let this moment go by without help. I appreciate you being willing to partake.”
“Of course,” I said with a chuckle. “Not Connor, though? Not Zack?”
“Oh, trust me, I’m getting them in, and I’m getting Brock and Steele in too. It just so happened you were the first person on break I could talk to. Everyone else is getting in on this.”
That left me a little less reassured. Yes, everyone would be down to kick a Bandit’s ass, but everyone knew that wasn’t true. And if Butch didn’t want us murdering Bandits because it would escalate things past what we were ready for, then nothing would get us there faster than all six of us kicking the ass of one of them. It seemed like a great way to ignore the advice of our elders, basically.
“Well, you know I’m in,” I said. “What’s the plan? How soon can we fucking go?”
“Miguel, Jason, whatever the fuck his name is, I believe he works as security at Buckhead Saloon on Mondays, maybe more days, but definitely on Mondays. The bar isn’t going to be that crowded then. I say we go there, fuck shit up, and wreck the ever-living shit out of him.”
“I like it,” I said with a relieved grin.
“Good man,” Mason said, patting me on the shoulder. “I’ll let you know more details as we move forward. But for now, plan on beating the shit out of him Monday. Don’t go crawling to any of your Sapphire whores.”
I laughed much harder than I should have at that. I guess I was just feeling quite relieved. And besides, I actually wasn’t seeing any of the girls at Sapphire right now. After my week with Diamond—which she had cut off two days early, disappointed with my lack of enthusiasm—she’d been less apt to send women my way.
Not that I was in any sort of mood. Call it a self-imposed slump if you will.
But as Mason walked away and I had a chance to finally breathe easy about everything that happened, I had to recognize how much of a solid favor Hannah had done me. She’d saved my ass. I…
