Cole
The entire worldhad tinted red.
I hadn’t punched Max in years. Too long, really, and I got a certain amount of satisfaction when my fist came back with blood from my brother’s split lip.
Blood Max spit out—like my hit was nothing. For all his failings, he'd always been able to take a punch like a fighter and come back swinging.
“Nice!”Max said, thumbing his nose and raising his own fists with a wild blood-stained grin.“I was wondering when therealCole would show up. Sunny, let me introduce you to him. I don’t think you’ve met yet.”
This fucking asshole.Sitting in view of everyone passing by, holding Sunny's hand across the table. Like she belonged to him. Not me.
The old anger pumped through my body like a drug injected, racing through my bloodstream, curling my hands into fists. Truly, Max might die today.
But then Sunny got in front of me. "Cole, no. It's not what you think."
“Be careful, Sunny,”Max warned.“You don’t want him to lose it and hit you, too.”
I squinted over Sunny's head at my lowlife waste of a brother, who knew I would never hit a woman. But I did try to moveSunny out of the way so I could hit Max again and again. However many times it took to make him stop talking.
Unfortunately, Sunny refused to be moved.
She placed her hands on my chest, her eyes blazing with anger.“What did you say to me about causing scenes?”
The red fell away from my eyes, and the world came back into focus. I looked up to see...lunch patrons—a few of them, some with camera phones out. They probably hadn't caught my first punch, but they were more than ready to record whatever I did next.
“Please, Cole, calm down,”Sunny said, keeping her voice low.
I stared at Max over her shoulder.Max. And the red threatened to overtake my vision again, blurring the edges of my sanity.
Sunny was right. I had to get out of there. Before I did something that irrevocably affected the Benton Worldwide brand.
I grabbed her hand and dragged her through the main part of the restaurant and out the front door.
There wasn’t a patio entrance, so I’d been forced to jump the fence.
As I stormed out of the restaurant, Tomas emerged from the driver's side of the Mercedes parked in the lot. "Do you want me to take her back to..."
The rest of whatever he said faded into the background as I cut right with Sunny toward my Jag, which was still idling, double-parked in front of the restaurant's outside dining area with the driver-side door open. All logical thought had disappeared when I drove up to see Sunny holding hands with Max.
“You sure you want to go with him, Sunny Delight?” Max appeared on the other side of the patio fence to watch me drag Sunny back to my car, like we were some kind of spectator sport he'd bought courtside seats to attend. He had that bullshit brand ambassador title, but he obviously didn't give two shits about making our beef public.
I opened the passenger-side door of the Jag with a hard yank.“Get in,”I commanded Sunny.
“Hunting us down and punching me just for hanging out with you?" Max continued his argument from the other side of the fence. "That’s not cool, is it? I’m not so sure you should be going home with him.”
"No, Cole, don't!"
I didn't consciously realize I'd started toward Max again until Sunny pushed me back.“Don’t make it worse than it already is.”
Then she looked over her shoulder at Max.“I’ll be fine. Please just stop, Max. I know hurt people hurt people, but it's not funny to upset your brother like this. It's just mean. And cruel.”
Something raw flashed across Max's face, collapsing his smug expression. If it was anyone else but my half brother, I might have mistaken it for regret.
But whatever it was, it quickly passed, and he looked from Sunny to me with another smirk. “Yeah, fine.I’ll stop. But Sunny, if you need anything…”
He pressed his palm to his chest and gave her a little bow in mock simulation of a true gentleman.“You know where to find me. I’ve just decided I’ll be sticking around to help dear, sick Grandma. At least until the March board meeting.”
Max's eyes clashed with mine before returning to Sunny."Then maybe you and me will meet up inNew York.Havesome real fun.”
