He pushed both hands into his jeans’ pockets, giving me that almost smile he was famous for—the one that said so many things to me without saying a word at all. I could tell even he was kinda proud of the way we’d both handled the situation with Tate.
“Hound for life,” Drew repeated quietly, nodding Tate’s way even though his eyes were on me.
“For life,” I mouthed at Drew and held his gaze for a moment longer before turning my eyes to my kid brother. “When do you think they’ll bring him in?”
“If he’s already accepted, they’ll probably ease him in to work with coach until the end of the school year. He may takeover full-time before then if he’s comfortable.”
“He’s the most arrogant son of a bitch I know,” I said, rolling my eyes. “So it will be sooner rather than later. His pride won’t stand by and let him take orders from coach for too long. He’ll learn the ropes and push him out.”
“This is gonna suck,” Tate grumbled, dropping to the bed and reaching behind him to where Libby was now pressing herself against his back in support.
“We’re all going to be here to back you up,” Libby said, grinning up at me. “I’m pretty sure we can do some damage without lifting a damn finger.”
Drew hissed as he sucked in a breath, cringing and scrunching his eyes up before he turned back to face Tate. “Speaking of damage…”
Tate and Libby both looked up at Drew, their eyes wide and waiting.
“May as well lay all our shit down while we’re dishing out the bad news.” Drew blew out a breath and raised his brows, rocking back on his feet. “I may have already lifted a finger.” He paused. “Or five. Hard. Against Jacob’s head. Smashing it down onto the counter at Rusty’s. Pretty much cutting off his air supply for a good few minutes.”
Tate’s eyes widened even farther, his teeth grinding together as he studied Drew’s face.
“Bit of a miscommunication kinda thing.” Drew shook his head, feigning breeziness. “Sure he’ll have forgotten it already.”
I laughed casually and leaned my head against Drew’s shoulder. “Jacob baited everyone in that diner, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try the same with you, Tate. He’s going to use me, Drew, Libby, and the whole damn club to try and get areaction from you, but you can’t bite. You react first—you lay a single finger on him, and you’re off the team. It’s a zero-tolerance team and he’ll know it. He starts with that shit, you walk away. I don’t care what he says to provoke you. You got me?”
Tate’s eyes widened, his fingers running along Libby’s arm where it was hung casually over his shoulder. I could tell he wanted to argue, that he wanted to be the one to shut Jacob up, but he also knew I was right. If he lifted one finger in anger to Jacob, his football career would be over. The only other option would be to move so he could attend another district, and that was just impossible.
“Walk away?” he parroted. “A, I know how bad he can be. You know what he was like when I was a kid. When you weren’t around…” He shook his head. ”It doesn’t matter, does it? He’s screwed me.”
“No. I don’t care how it looks. He gives you a hard time, you come to Drew or me.”
Drew pulled a hand out of his pocket, balling it into a fist and holding it in the air with a smirk plastered on his face. “Happy to miscommunicate a bit more if I have to. But you won’t need me to. You’re going to show him you don’t care. If he tries to talk bad about me, you don’t care. If he bad mouths Ayda, you don’t care. It takes the power away from him. You take away that power and people like him have nothing. Not a single thing.” Drew pulled on the edges of his cut, rolling his shoulders before he turned to look at me. “Now I think I should get out of here before I say something I shouldn’t. Things are going pretty well. I don’t want to be the guy who shoves his foot in his mouth. Time for you to take over, darlin’.” He winked.
With a small nod of thanks, I whispered the wordsI love youafter he kissed my temple and backed toward the door, leaving Tate, Libby, and I alone again. Before the mood became too somber, I play punched Tate in the shoulder Libby wasn’t occupying and smiled down at him.
“Could be worse,” I said.
“How do you figure?”
I smiled and grabbed for the controller he’d dropped on the bed behind him. “Jacob could have been a complete angel with not a mark to his name. I have a lot of history on that man that will make good ammunition if we need to use it.”
“Like what?”
I smiled and sank down to the cushions again, folding my legs under me. “You two eat, I’ll talk.”
Chapter Eleven
DREW
By the time Ayda left Tate’s room, I’d managed to sink into a semi, whiskey-induced coma. In a rare moment of camaraderie, Jedd, Slater, Deeks, and I had been sitting around the bar while Harry slid shots our way every two seconds. The Hut felt busy that night. Some of the whores were keeping themselves occupied in the corner, giggling and slipping their bodies around a few of the other men. Kenny, Tate, Libby, and Sloane had taken ownership of the two leather sofas and were playing some shitty game I didn’t know the name of, looking like the young bloods they were.
I was enjoying the time with my brothers, feeding off their barking laughs with a goofy grin on my face as they talked about their younger days, all the things we’d gotten up to as a club, and the tricks gone wrong we’d had to put right. A lot had happened in the last couple of days. In the last few hours, actually, and it felt good to have some of that load taken off and spend some time with my friends.
My family.
There was a seat sitting empty next to me, and the moment I caught sight of Ayda out of the corner of my eye, I slyly glanced her way and watched her blonde hair and cuteass sashay my way. Every time I saw that smile aimed at me, something inside me got all twisted up. She was the chick who had come along, tipped me upside down and made me realize I’d never been in charge of who I loved. It was always meant to be her. She was always going to be mine.
Fucking fate had stepped in and delivered her at my clumpy feet and reckless mouth.
