I squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath as I brace myself for Joey’s lips to press upon mine.
I never should have come here. I want to be with Briggs. Even if he never kisses me or looks at me the way I look at him, I don’t care. I just want Briggs.
“Get your fucking hands off her.” A familiar, deep, booming voice drowns out the din of the bar.
Briggs.
Briggs
I homein on my girl the second I set foot in the Den.
Of course, she’s surrounded by men.
And not just any men. But Joey fucking Cartwright has his thick, heavy arm draped around her tiny shoulders.
I’ll kill him.
My hands form fists at my side. I don’t take my eyes off her as I stalk toward them. From somewhere, I’m sure I hear my mother sigh, but it has to be my imagination. And even if it’s not, I don’t care.
Mia’s back is to me, so I can’t see her face but I can tell by the way she’s holding herself so stiffly that she’s not happy. One of Joey’s lackeys, whom I recognize as Jimmy, is on the other side of her, with Rob sitting across from them all, facing my direction. But he’s too focused on Mia with a lecherous look on his face that I’m going to take pleasure in wiping off in a moment to notice my approach.
When Joey leans into her, I grab the back of his neck with one hand and haul him backward. “Get your fucking hands off her.”
He doesn’t have time to react before I toss him on the ground at my feet. I take another quick step and my fist connects with Rob, who has made the poor decision to confront me.
Mia jumps when he crashes unconscious to the table next to her, sending beer glasses flying.
“You just don’t know when to take a hint, do you, Wolf?”
Joey’s back on his feet, and he’s pissed.
But however angry he is, it’s nowhere near as furious as I am. I warned him, and he put his big ugly mitts on my girl. Again.
He swings a punch but I dodge it easily. Judging by his stagger, he’s at least four beers in.
Good. He’ll fall a lot harder when I knock him out.
“I warned you, Joey.”
“Fuck you.” He swings again, but this time I fire back. My fist connects with his nose in a sickening crunch, but he’s too stupid to back down.
“Briggs! Watch out!” Mia yells a little too late.
I spin around to see that Jimmy’s joined the fight and is in the process of swinging a chair in my direction.
“Fuck.” I grunt as the chair makes contact with the back of my shoulder.
It splinters into a million pieces.
Ma is going to be pissed.
“Bad idea, Jimmy.” I turn to face him, already swinging a punch as I do. It connects. As does the next one and the one after that. He falls to the ground on the third strike, and I hope he’s smart enough to stay down. I don’t want to hurt him any more than I already have.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a fight. It’s not my favorite thing to do, unlike my slightly older brother Jaxon. The rest of us have been in our fair share of fights, usually fights that Jaxon started.
With Rob and Jimmy out of the way, I turn my attention back to Joey, who seems to have a much harder time taking a hint.
Again, he’s found his feet and is swaying this time as he stands in front of me, blood pouring down his face.
