Ranger:still love me though eh?
Finch:Always
That got me. Cos I loved her too, and maybe if we’d been different people, fate would’ve done something about that. But there wasn’t a romantic bone in Finch’s smoking hot body, and in any case, I couldn’t think of a single reality where I was good enough to lick her boots. That she’d let me fuck her brains out for a little while way back when still felt fucking surreal.
Ranger:luv u too
Finch tapped out of the conversation with an emoji. I scowled at my phone. I hadn’t seen her in a while, and I missed her something rotten, which only added to my stinking mood as my gaze swept the yard and landed on the little bastards who’d grassed me up.
Decoy and Mateo’s squidshits were hanging out by Liliana’s painting wall, no sticks in sight, but their presence still gave me pause. With Decoy behind the bar, I’d assumed Folk had taken Ivy home, meaning I was stuck here till he came back tomorrow now I was too buzzed to ride. What time did kids go to bed these days?
Didn’t know.
Didn’t care. I moved on, but not quick enough. Ivy noticed me, grabbed Liliana’s hand, and hurtled across the yard in my general direction.
The next six seconds were a blur as the bar door opened behind me and the same hulking idiot who’d called me a bitchstumbled down the steps into the path of the tiniest girl heading my way.
Ivy didn’t see him—she was moving too fast, too happy and free, but he saw her.
“Fucking kids. Place is a creche these days.”
Despite his growl, they were still on a collision course. His hand flew out, to strike her or push her away, she’d never fucking know.
Cos I floored the cunt first.
[ 5 ]
RANGER
Violence came as easy to me as breathing. I bodied the old git into the ground, stomping on his chest, aware of other people filling the space behind me. Shouts. Threats. Hands grabbing for me and missing, which was annoying. I honestly didn’t give a fuck if ten other people jumped in. Bad odds didn’t scare me.
I got low in the motherfucker’s face. “I saw you.”
He was ripped away from me before his fucked-up lips formed a response, and it was my turn to be propelled backwards, my feet touching air, until a brick wall hit my back.
There were only a few men who could move me like that and not die, and Locke Halliwell was at the top of that list. Big. Blond. Handsome as hell when he wasn’t frowning up a storm. “Goddamn it, brother.” He restrained me, pinning my arms at my sides. “Calm your tits. It’s broad fuckin’ daylight.”
My brain had already checked out.
Adrenaline pumping, it took my body a minute to catch up, fighting Locke’s hold on me. Losing, cos this lovable prick wasstrong.
I simmered down.
He got in my face, gripping my chin. “Take a breath before you kill someone.”
“If I wanted him dead, he would be.”
Truth, and Locke knew it. We’d been friends and brothers a long time. He knew killing didn’t bother me, and he let me go, still crowding me, in case his assessment of me was all wrong. “What the fuck was that about?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him, but footsteps sounded beyond him and top-level Rebel Kings descended on us.
Nash.
Rubi.
Folk.
I swallowed the truth. “Didn’t like the look of ‘im.”
