“Is he alright?” Boone asks, tossing me a look as hegives a nearby table their food.
“One of his military friends committed suicide.” I swallow tightly.
“Why the hell is he working?” Boone asks, crossing his arms over his chest. It’s moments like this that it's clear they’re twins. They share the same scowl, but Boone uses it so sparingly that it can be easy to forget they are.
“I begged him to go back to bed, but he refused. Said he had too much to do today,” I say.
“I’ll keep my eye on him, see if I can use some Jedi mind trick…” He nudges me, and I give him a pathetic smile in return. I do my rounds, keeping an eye on some rowdy people at the back of the Hollow, and end up at the table where Kaia is sitting with guys from her station.
“He’s still crying about that!” Lee says, leaning on Kaia. “He had to take his truck to Lorette to get them to service it.”
“I hope he transfers out of our district. He’s such a pussy,” Kaia shakes her head and pounds back a shot of tequila.
“He didn’t deserve an angel like Rhea anyway,” Lee flirts. I try to ignore him.
“Shut up, Ramos, you’re too much of a coward to ask her out. It's the only reason she ended up on a date with that chode.” One of the other guys teases. Lee Ramos is handsome, all dark hair and tawny skin with sharp green eyes and a smile that makes women weak in the knees. But he’s goofy and a player. Even if he had, I would have told him to fuck off.
“Rhea.” He pushes up out of the booth and leans against the wall next to me as I try to watch the crowd for trouble. “What do you say?” He’s trying to be cute, but he’s yelling over the music, and my interest is in the way Brighton watches like a hawk.
“Lee, sit down before you get put through a wall,” Kaia warns, but he doesn’t listen.
“Oh, come on, Rhea, just one date. I’ll show you how a real man treats a woman,” he inches closer, but I don’t dare take my eyes off Brighton. He’s gone completely still—like a predator.
“This idiot is being stalked like a field mouse, and he has no idea,” Kaia barks out a string of laughter.
“What the hell are you talking about?” He scoffs and makes the mistake of touching my arm. I blink, a groan leaving my lips, and when I open them, Brighton is gone.Shit.
“Flirting with Reaper is a death wish,” Kaia stands up and backs away from the table. I know what she’s doing because I’m doing the same thing.
“Is that supposed to be cryptic, Keegan?” Lee laughs.
“Nope, that’s a literal problem you’re about to have,” she whips her head around and spots Boone before I do. She cups her hands over her face, and at the same time as she yells his name, Brighton comes out of the crowd, and without warning, sucker punches Lee in the side of the face. Lee crumbles to the ground, and I try to lay hands on Brighton, but he’s got blinders on and drives a boot into his side.
“He was just flirting, he’s drunk!” I say loudly, hoping it gets him to stop.
Boone is moving towards us as fast as he can, but the crowd is becoming tight around the commotion, and Brighton is already hauling Lee up by the collar, completely unfazed by the amount of eyes on him.
“Let him go, it was innocent, he wasn’t getting anywhere with it!” I do my best to get between them, but Brighton turns his back on me walking Lee backwards through the sea of bodies toward the front door. “Brighton!” I yell, chasing after them as Lee’s boots scrape clumsily across the floor.
“Shit!” Boone flies out of the crowd from the left and manages to duck beneath his brother’s arm, successfully placing himself between them. “Let go of him, Bri. You know you’re not angry at this little weasel. You’re just tired, man,” he urges him to listen. “Brighton!” He snaps when the calm technique doesn’t work. “Cut it out!” Something about the phrase makes him stop, and his grip loosens on Lee.
“You out,” Kaia moves fast, cutting Lee off before he can say anything idiotic that might relight the fire that’s been put out. “Now, come on, move your stupid ass.”
Boone works Brighton back and gets him into the kitchen away from everyone’s gaze as Judd screams over the sound of whispers and music that everyone gets a free round.
What the actual fuck just happened?
Idon’t know how or when Boone got me upstairs, but I’m sitting on my bedroom floor against the wall, and he’s standing in the doorway wearing his best scary look.
“What the hell was that?” He asks.
“I saw red,” I say, using the palms of my hand to clear my vision.
“You don’t get to do that—not here,” Boone sighs. “We need the Hollow, Bri. And if you start swinging on every guy that hits on our bouncer, we’re going to get shut down.”
“My—” I start to argue.She’s mine.I don’t know how to explain to him that Rhea fixes something that I thought was irreparable. “Just because she’s the bouncer doesn’t mean she has to put up with harassment.”
“Oh fuck off, that wasn’t harassment, and you know it. You saw your girlfriend getting hit on and went full asshole because you’re in a bad mood.” Boone says. It’s rare he speaks to me like this, because he walks on eggshells to keep things like tonight from happening. The guilt eats at me, knowing that I’m a burden to them even when I think I’m doing good. PTSD doesn’t warn you before it destroys your life—it just does.
