“Iplan to. But, I’m serious, E. Don’t fucking hurt him.”
Thesound of boots scuffling on concrete echoed in the shop and Beau turned thecorner just in time to come face to face with a scowling Zane.
“Everythingok?” he asked, trying to act as though he hadn’t heard what they’d just said.
Zanesmiled, a gesture that seemed incredibly forced. “Good. I’ve got to run someerrands. You want to meet up at Moonshiners later tonight for a beer?”
Beaumanaged to keep from looking over at Ethan, but he wasn’t sure how. “Let me getback to you on that. I’ve got to take care of something this afternoon.”
Zanelooked over at Ethan and then back to Beau. After nodding his head once, hetook off. It was clear by Zane’s reaction that he knew something was going on.Beau wondered whether they’d been that obvious. Then he wondered whether thefact that Zane sensed there was something between them would send Ethan backinto hiding.
Therewere plenty of questions and not nearly enough answers, but the only thing Beauknew for an absolute fact… he wasn’t about to let that happen.
Chapter Twelve
??
“Sonuvabitch!”Zane growled when he walked through his front door, slamming it behind him hardenough to rattle the windows.
“What’swrong?” V questioned from her position on the couch, her laptop resting on herlap.
Zanedidn’t answer her, he simply stalked to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.After wrestling with the cap, he finally managed to open it and downed half inone gulp, never even tasting it.
“It’sa little early for that, don’t you think?” V asked sweetly.
Zaneglanced over at the clock on the microwave. It was almost noon. That wasn’t tooearly in his book. After another swallow, he looked over at V, wondering whyshe wasn’t pushing to make him talk. After all, he’d dodged two of herquestions already.
Whenhe met her eyes, he saw that she was smiling. Oddly enough, he didn’t get angryat her even though his mood had taken a serious downturn after his conversationwith Ethan a few minutes ago.
“Sowhy are you home so early?” V asked, setting her laptop on the coffee table andrepositioning herself on the couch.
“Nothappy to see me?” he retorted, downing the rest of his beer before tossing thebottle in the trash can.
“Ofcourse I’m happy to see you.”
“Thenwhy aren’t you naked?” he asked sarcastically, an unavoidable grin forming onhis lips. The thought of V naked, that always made him smile. Hell, any thoughtof V made him smile. She had a way about her that soothed his soul.
“Becauseyou’re spoiled enough already.”
Ok,so this wasn’t getting him anywhere.
Zanejoined her on the couch, sitting at the opposite end and leaning his head backon the cushion.
“Whathappened?”
“Ethan’san asshole.” Zane peered over at her momentarily.
Vtilted her head to the side, watching him carefully. “What did he do thistime?”
Zanereturned his gaze to the ceiling and then closed his eyes, sighing heavily. “Itwasn’t what hedid, it’s who he’s about todo.”
Apparentlythat attracted V’s attention because she shifted suddenly and eased closer tohim. “Who is he with?”
Zaneopened his eyes and glanced over at her, not lifting his head from the cushion.“You don’t even want to know.”
V’ssmile was so radiant, Zane thought he’d be blinded for a moment.
“Beau?”
