Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“You know I love you, June. Don’t act like that.” He sighed.
“Act like what? That I’m hurt? I haven’t heard from you. I haven’t seen my nephew in over eight months. You just drop me like a hot potato when dad dropped me off. I’ve needed you, and you weren’t there. You’ve always been there, and then suddenly you’re just gone. No explanations, no nothing.” I hadn’t realized I was crying until James wiped the tears from my eyes with the palm of his hand, and wrapped me up tighter.
The door to the room closed quietly behind us, and I noticed that we were alone now, the three of us. Sebastian had stood, but wasn’t coming any closer. Although, that might have had something to do with the glare James was throwing him.
“Fuck,” James growled. “You Mackenzie brothers sure know how to hurt your sister.”
“What?” Sebastian barked.
“What, what?” James asked with a raised brow.
“What are you talking about? What did Cash do to hurt June?” Sebastian asked, tension radiating from his pores.
“Cash is Sam, in case you’re wondering. June is me. They call everyone by their middle names. Except for Sebastian. He won’t go by his middle name.” I said, smiling with glee.
“Why?” James asked, obviously intrigued by the smile that had erased the tears from my eyes.
“Don’t you dare, June.” Sebastian growled.
I eyed him and thought about how hurt I was. Still was.
I knew he wouldn’t be happy with me, and probably wouldn’t speak to me for weeks. However, I figured, so what? The man hasn’t spoken to me in seven months, what were three weeks?
“Do what?” I asked, fluttering my eyes at my big brother. “Tell James that your middle name is Sue?”
Sebastian reached out for me in the next instant, but James suddenly thrust his body in between Sebastian’s and my own, barricading Sebastian from me by using his own body.
“What the hell? Your parents in love with Johnny Cash or something?” James asked after Sebastian backed off, and returned to the other side of the desk.
I watched the calculation in Sebastian’s eyes. How his eyes flicked from me to James, wondering what the connection was and why he was protecting me. Honestly, I’d like to know the last one myself.
“My father is, what you could say, a fan.” Sebastian explained reluctantly.
“Daddy goes by his middle name, too.” I supplied.
James eyes focused on mine, and a smile turned up the corner of his lips, before it disappeared when he focused on something towards the side of my face. His hand rose, and the pad of his thumb traced the apple of my cheek, and I winced.
“Fuck! What the hell?” I asked, raising my hand up to cup my cheek.
“Bruised.” He explained, and then his glare turned from the swelling on my cheek to Sebastian. “What the fuck were you thinking letting that happen to your sister?”
Sebastian held his hands up. “I didn’t know my sister was here. Nor did I know what was happening until it’d already happened. My man was just watching over my back.” He explained.
He hated explaining. The tick in his jaw highlighted that fact, and I had a feeling that James somehow knew it.
“Well maybe if you paid attention to your sister a little more instead of going out of your way to ignore her, you’d know more. That, or pick better people to watch you’re back. She was a defenseless woman. You don’t treat women like that. She could’ve been anyone; been there for anything. Look, I have one more fight tonight. Y’all take that time to figure your shit out. And if you hurt her, I’ll kill you. You’ll never see it coming.”
With that succinctly put statement, he left.
“Well, the man is sure hot for you. Did he fuck you yet?” Sebastian snapped.
My eyes went from the empty doorway to Sebastian’s hate filled face.
He had some massive chip on his shoulder, and I sure wasn’t going to stand here and let him berate me for something I’d never even done. I didn’t even know why he was mad. Hell, I never said one single word about the trashy women he saw. Not one single word about the hoe bag of a woman he got pregnant.
Then I berated myself, because that hoe bag, Lindsey, was dead. She couldn’t defend her actions anymore, and I had no room to talk. I didn’t have the best track record when it came to men, and I’m sure it bothered Sebastian that I was seeing someone, and he didn’t even get to run a background check on the man.
“Well?” Sebastian hissed when I took too long to answer.
“Go fuck yourself.” I said before turning and following the sounds of cheering.
James was fighting again, except this time it was the bear-man I’d seen fucking that woman earlier. He was easily twice the size of James length and width wise. His hair was a wild mass of snarls around his head, and his beard was tamed by a ponytail holder. It reached down to his chest, and I couldn’t help but think that was a bad idea to give someone a ‘handhold’ when it came to a fight, but who was I to say anything?
I’d been taken down earlier by some man, and I had no ability to fight back. Hell, I didn’t even know how to fight back, other than throwing a punch when they were distracted. I’d always had my brother there to do it for me. Now, I wasn’t sure what I had.
Chapter 10
Are you going to do something, or just stand there and bleed?
-Tombstone
James
Peter’s (Portal to the crowd) fist flew past my head like a fucking wrecking ball, and I pivoted, narrowly dodging his other fist by millimeters. Motherfucker, he was quick. Even quicker than the last time we’d fought. The kid was really learning how to fight. Not that he’d win. I’d been doing this since I was fifteen.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of pent up aggression. With no father to tell me how to channel it, I started punching an old punching bag that Max’s father had in his tool shed. Not one to be outdone, Max had started, too. Then the fights started happening.