“Yo,Beau! What’s up, man? Did you get that tat?”
“Whatthe hell is going on?” Beau asked, completely ignoring Zane’s attempt at casualconversation.
“Well,Dad’s in jail. Or rather hewasin jail. He’s out now. Sheriff Endsley’sat the house talking to him. Mom’s not too happy with him.”
“Whatdid he do?” Ethan asked, speaking slowly in an attempt to rein Zane in.
“Accordingto him, he snapped.”
“Whatthe hell does that even mean?” Ethan asked Zane and glanced at Beau. “You’regonna have to make this beast go faster.”
Beaunodded, and the engine roared as he accelerated.
“Zane,I need you to be serious here for a minute, bro,” Beau said calmly. “We’reabout half an hour out, but we need to know what’s going on.”
“Well,that freak show Jimmy, yeah, well, he’s gonna have a headache this morning.Might even need some makeup to cover up the shiner he’s sporting.”
Ethanstilled instantly. Jimmy? As in Jimmy Reardon.
Keepingcalm, Ethan said the following words very slowly. “What did Dad do?”
“I’llhave to let him tell you that part. I wasn’t there. But, I’m on my way to theirhouse now to see him. Sawyer is fit to be tied, so I just wanted to give you awarning. Head on over there when you get back. I’ll let them know you’re on theway.”
Ethannodded, realizing Zane couldn’t see him after it was too late and Zane haddisconnected the call.
“Youwanna call Sawyer?” Beau asked, his eyes focused on the road.
“Nah.We’ll hear about it soon enough.”
Twentyminutes later, Beau was pulling into the driveway of Ethan’s parents’ house.Neither of them wasted time getting out and heading inside. It wasn’t hard tofind where the commotion was coming from because there were at least seven oreight towering males standing in the middle of the living room in what appearedto be a screaming match. Ethan couldn’t tell who was winning.
Beaulet out a piercing whistle, and the ruckus died instantly, all heads turning tolook at them.Great. Way to call attention to us.
Ethantook a moment to do a mental roll call, noticing that there weren’t any womenpresent.
Goodto know.
“Whatthe hell is going on here?” Ethan barked, glancing from one man to another. Hisbrothers were surrounding their father, but Gage had the good sense to standoff to the side of the room, a mischievous smirk on his lips.
Atleast this wasn’t a critical issue. If it had been, Ethan doubted Gage would begrinning like that.
“Nota damn thing. Your brothers need to learn to mind their own damn business,”Curtis bellowed, sinking into his chair.
“Youare our damn business,” Travis argued. “And I’m not all that thrilled abouthaving to come get your ass outta jail last night.”
“Iwarned you,” Curtis argued.
“True.I did get a warning call.”
Ethanturned his head to see Sheriff Endsley sitting on the couch right in the middleof the mayhem. He wasn’t in uniform, which Ethan considered a good sign. Itwasn’t that the sheriff and his father were close friends, but they had startedto chat more, ever since the incident with Zane.
“Itold Mack to call him, did I not?” Curtis asked no one in particular.
Ethanlowered himself onto the arm of the couch, and Beau came to stand behind him.For some reason, having Beau there with him was comforting, not disturbing. Hefigured at this point, his family knew where he’d been so explaining himselfwasn’t necessary. Not that he would tell them if they asked.
“Whathappened?” Jared asked, sitting on the edge of the fireplace, his hands hangingbetween his knees.
“Dadwhooped up on Jimmy Reardon,” Zane offered and earned a round ofshut thefuck ups from the rest of them.
