He pressed a palm to his chest, feigning hurt as a friend of his came up beside him.
“Who’s this?” the redhead asked. He had freckles covering every inch of his face, but they didn’t hide the flush of his cheeks one bit. The man was just as drunk as Dick, if not drunker, by the sound of his slur.
“Beckham’s lady,” Dick answered, a bit of venom lacing the response.
“She’s cute,” Redhead commented.
Dick’s mouth quirked. I’d hate to be a fly on the wall in his head right now.
A glance to the bar showed my water waiting for me. I grabbed it, taking a long sip to rein in my annoyance. I didn’t have the patience for them right now.
“It was nice seeing you, Dick.” I laid on the sweetest tone I could muster.
I turned to leave, but Dick’s rough grip on my elbow had me jerking to a stop.
“In rodeo, we all shared girls.”
I wanted to vomit. “It’s a good thing this isn’t the rodeo then, isn’t it?”
“Beckham may have quit, but we still have bro code.”
I snorted. “From the looks of it earlier,” I said, trying to tug my elbow out of his grasp but failing without my water sloshing everywhere, “you two aren’tbros.”
Redhead stepped up behind me. His presence was laughable, really. This whole damn thing was. Because the second Beckham saw us?—
“Get your hands off her.” The command came from my right, and my head swiveled to find Beckham towering over Dick, his eyes incinerating him on the spot.
“Jesus, Beckham. You’re always so fuckingserious. We’re just having fun. Aren’t we, sweetheart?” Whatever Dick’s plan was here, it wouldn’t end well. Not for him or his idiot friend.
“You making provocative comments to me isn’t fun.But this is.” A furrow marred Dick’s brow a split second before I tossed my ice water at him.
A growl ripped from his throat, his fingers digging into my arm harder, but before he could so much as move, Beckham’s fist swung.
Dick was tossed back against the bar by the sheer force of Beckham’s punch, causing him to release me. My foot fumbled with the force of it and I tripped back a step. My back hit Redhead’s chest, but before he could even look at me, Bailey was there, joining the fight.
I took three steps away, careful not to slip on any water that had made it to the ground. From this angle, I could see how bad it was getting. Bailey pinned Redhead up against the wall beside the bar, and Beckham had his hands in Dick’s shirt, leaning him over the bar top.
“If you ever so much as look at my girl again, I’ll rip your goddamn eyes out and shove them down your fucking throat.” He shook him, digging his back harder into the bar. “Do you hear me?”
Dick sniffled once, blood trailing down his lips and chin.
When he didn’t answer, Beckham leaned in closer, voice rising. “Do you fucking hear me?”
Dick’s tongue lapped out over the blood, eyes shiny from the alcohol. “Loud and clear.”
Beckham looked like he was about to punch him again, but one glance at me had him shoving Dick’s chest and standing straight. Beck’s eyes fell to my elbow where I was unknowingly cradling it. He hadn’t hurt me, butbetween his phantom touch and the comments from earlier, I felt repulsed.
Beckham tried to rein in his anger, but standing in this bar—with all eyes on us and the two beaten men with a death wish—wouldn’t calm either of us down.
I turned around and squeezed past Bailey to get to the hallway, and didn’t stop until my feet hit the dirt alley out back.
25
BECKHAM
Parker was gone in an instant, cracking my crippling restraint. Seeing Dick’s hand on her arm, her skin white and her fingers trembling, had a different sort of predatory desire overtaking all my senses. It wasn’t only her I was protecting. It was her baby.
I’d never felt so fucking feral in my life. So ready to annihilate everything that could put them in danger. I could have taken Dick and his worthless friend on my own, but Bailey hadn’t hesitated when I split from the group. Wordlessly, we’d chosen our targets.
