Barry stepped forward. “What’s going on?”
“We can’t let Miles leave. The asshole may have hurt Vanessa.” He may not like the woman, but no man had the right to touch a woman that way.Ever.
He was coming around the bar, toward Miles, when the door opened and Dayne stepped in.
Cody frowned, taking in the man’s bloodshot eyes. His disheveled appearance. The small drops of red on his white shirt. Blood?
Dayne wobbled on his feet. Drunk. The asshole was drunk.
“Get out of here, Dayne.” It was Barry who yelled the words from behind the bar.
But Cody was still watching the man closely. There was something…unhinged about him. And it wasn’t just his intoxication.
Dayne laughed, but the sound was all wrong. When he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his hair, Cody’s eyes narrowed on his knuckles. Bruised and bleeding. He’d been in a fight. Had clearly hit someone more than once.
Cody took a step toward the guy. “What are you doing here, Dayne?”
“You always thought you were the fuckin’ king of the town, Walker,” Dayne slurred. “Bossing me around. Thinking you run the fuckin’ show.”
What the hell did that have to do with anything? “I’m gonna ask you one more time.Whatare you doing here?”
When the asshole didn’t answer, Cody took two more steps toward him…
Only to stop when Dayne pulled a pistol from behind him and aimed it right at Cody’s chest.
CHAPTER 31
Cody’s muscles locked, outrage rising inside him that this asshole was pointing a weapon at him in his own bar.
“Dayne,” Cody growled, voice low and dangerous. “What the fuck are you doing?”
His smirk only made Cody’s blood coil in his veins. “What I should’ve done a long time ago.” He stepped forward and stumbled, making Cody’s muscles tense. The guy could easily pull the trigger without even meaning to, that’s how fucking wasted he seemed.
“You’re drunk,” Barry said firmly from behind the bar. “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“Something I’ll regret?” He laughed, and the sound made Cody’s skin crawl. “I do a lot of dumb shit. The fires, for instance…those were pretty stupid. Started because I was bored in this shitty town. And I like the rush of power.”
Cody’s hand fisted…the other still holding his phone. “That was you?”
“Sure was!”
“You lit my car on fire?” Harper asked.
Another low laugh from Dayne. “I did. Thatwasn’tso smart though. I was kind of drunk that night, just wanted you to leave.Attacking you in the alley didn’t work, so drunk Dayne thought settin’ your car on fire might scare you the fuck away. Didn’t think about the fact you wouldn’t have a car to leave in.”
Harper gasped, and Cody cursed himself for not carrying his Glock on him.
Suddenly, details from his conversation with Eastern came back to him. His gaze flew to Dayne’s bloodied knuckles. “Did you beat Vanessa tonight?”
Pain crumpled the other man’s expression. “I didn’t wanna hurt her! I told her she wasn’t allowed to leave me—and she was gonna do it anyway!”
“You…” Miles rasped. “You’re the guy she’s been cheating on me with?”
“I’m ten times the man you are!” Dayne shouted before shifting his gaze back to Cody. “And I gave hereverything. But she kept making me so angry! Always visitingyou. Talking toyou. Goin’ on aboutyou. And tonight, she was screaming at me to leave her house. Saying she didn’t love me. That I was neverpermanentfor her.”
Cody watched Dayne carefully, muscles tightening every time he swung the weapon around.
“We were fine!” Dayne yelled. “Everything was fine between us untilshegot to town and ruined us.” Suddenly, Dayne switched his aim from Cody to Harper.
