“None taken.”
“Ayda?” Jedd offered, not daring to look at me as my head practically spun to throw daggers his way.
“Are you fucking stupid?”
“Just an idea.” He shrugged.
“Not Ayda,” I hissed back at him. “She stays out of our shit from now on. Besides—”
Deeks interrupted, finishing my sentence for me. “After the ass ripping she gave him last night, Ayda is about as high up on the popularity list as our president is, Jedd.”
“I’ll do it,” Kenny pushed out, his voice louder than it had been all day as he jumped to his feet, ran his thumbs around the insides of his belt and stared holes into the floor. “I’ll do it.”
“What?” Slater asked, as confused as the rest of us.
“I said I’ll do it,” Kenny hit back, lifting his head and turning it to the side to look back at Slater. “I’m good for more than guard dog and babysitting duties, you know.”
Slater burst out laughing, throwing his head back as the strong, rough bellow erupted from deep within his stomach. Soon Jedd was following suit, his hand running over the thick, black hair around his mouth as he tried to hold in what was trying to get out, but his shoulders were bouncing too much to hide shit. Harry was grinning as he shook his head, but my eyes soon found their way to Deeks—the one man who was seeing what I was seeing and didn’t find anything remotely funny.
“Jesus,” Slater huffed out, dropping his head to his chestas he tried to contain his laughter. “Whatever’s got your dick trapped in a vise, let us know so we can help free you up a bit, K. You’re funny as fuck this morning.”
“Screw you,” Kenny said through gritted teeth. “In fact, screw all y’all. I don’t need this shit today.” And with that, he took off, marching across the room before pulling the door open and slamming it shut behind him. Before I had a chance to join in with any of the banter in the room, I pushed up from my chair and marched myself out to find him. This was going to fucking end and it was going to end there and then.
Pulling the door closed behind me, I left my brothers and charged through the bar with my head held high and anger strewn all across my face until I eventually caught up with him outside on the porch.
Gripping the top of his arm, I spun him around, my fingers digging into the flesh under his T-shirt sleeve as I stepped closer.
“What the fuck was that?” I spat out.
Kenny tried to shrug me off, but I was unrelenting and soon losing grip on my relatively good mood. “Get off me.”
“Not until you tell me what the hell has gotten into you.”
“Does it even matter?” he said through a tired sigh. His shoulders sagged, his face turning away as he looked out at the yard.
“Clearly. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here, handling you like a child and about to put you on the motherfucking naughty step, would I?”
“Right,” he huffed out, his eyes rising back up to mine and narrowing. “’Cause Iamthe child of the group that no one listens to unless they want something, yeah? I’m just the dumb little kid with weird eyebrows and an irrelevant opinion.”
I searched his face for some sign that he was joking, but all I saw staring back at me was a man I’d never seen before. I felt a shitty stabbing in my chest that he could think any of that was true. So much so that I couldn’t think of anything profound to say at all. “What?”
“You heard me,” he snapped, pulling himself free as soon as my grip loosened. Taking a step back, he straightened up his cut and shook his head.
“You are mybrother.”
“Am I?”
“Your opinion is always relevant. Always. Don’t you dare suggest otherwise.”
“Or what? You’re gonna cut me off from my never-ending list of chores?”
“Chores?” I frowned hard, leaning closer and lowering my face to his. “I don’t ask any more of you than I do the rest of them.”
“Yeah, well that ain’t how it feels. You respect the others, Drew. Even Deeks has somehow gained more respect since Ayda came along. Let’s face it, she’s the only one any of them listen to anymore, especially you. May as well stick the pres badge on her chest and be done with it.”
“Careful,” I growled. “Be very fucking careful.”
“I’m past caring about being careful. It’s gotten me nowhere before and it’s not gonna get me anywhere anytime soon. You go back inside and let me know when you figure out what my next order is. I’m sure it will be filled with lots of dos and don’ts. Do this, Kenny. Fix that, Kenny. Be here, Kenny. Look after the kid, Kenny. But don’t you go too close to Ayda, Kenny.”
