Chapter Four
Jakob
You know what’s worse than having your bartender call out on a Friday night?
Having both your bartenders call out. I’ve been manning the bar by myself all night.
Not that I hate it, I actually love this shit.
The thrill and adrenaline that pumps through your veins during a busy shift behind the bar is like no other.
It’s stressful, don’t get me wrong, but I live for this.
I wouldn’t have opened a bar if I didn’t.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not pissed that my staff is flaking left and right.
It would be nice to have another person to help me cover the bar, or hell, two so I can actually work through the mountains of things I have stacking up in the back.
I’ve been slinging cocktails, popping tops , and shamelessly flirting with my patrons for hours.
‘Knipe’ is my baby. I opened it when I was twenty-four with nothing more than a dream and an enthusiastic drive.
It was just a run down building until my Papa, Dieter, and I completely tore it to the studs and built it back up into what it is now.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Mine and Dieter’s buddy, Miles, who works construction, helped out on the weekends.
Now it’s the busiest bar in German territory.
Honestly, it’s one of the busiest bars in the city.
We get people from all walks of life. As well as those affiliated with other families too, they’re allowed to stay until they start shit, then they have to go.
I’ve just served the group of women celebrating someone’s upcoming wedding when the front door opens and something draws my eyes to it.
None other than my sister and Mac come walking in.
Mac’s more than three years sober now. Where he used to look like that one guy from the vampire movie as soon as he walked in here when they first started swinging by to visit, he now looks calm and relaxed as he allows her to drag him past the crowds of people, the high top tables, and the dance floor before making their way to me.
As soon as she’s close enough, I lean over the bar and hug her.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask in surprise as we separate.
“Well, we were coming to drag you out of here at a decent hour, but we now see that’s not going to be a thing. What happened to your bartenders?” Mac asks, scanning his eyes across the space like he thinks they’re going to pop out from a dark corner to surprise him.
“Ally’s sick and Liam had a family emergency.” I run my hands through my short hair.
“Need help?” Mac asks, mirth dancing in his green eyes.
Lee and I look at each other dumbfounded before turning our eyes back to him.
“Have you lost your last functioning brain cell, Quill?” She yells.
His smile that he was biting back breaks through as he laughs loudly.
“Breathe, Beautiful. It was a joke.”
My lungs deflate and my head falls forward. “Don’t do that shit, Mac. I thought I was going to have to help my sister bury you tonight.”
He pulls my sister in close and grins down at her, “You wouldn’t kill me– right?”
“Let’s never find out, huh?” She smiles back before turning her attention back to me. “So, no dragging you out tonight?”
“Afraid not. You guys get out of here, though, I’m fine.” I give her a reassuring smile just as three more people saddle up to the other side of the bar.
I don’t wait for their answer. They aren’t going anywhere, and they’ll still be here when I get done with the new people on the far side of the bar.
Automatically, I move over to help the new customers as well as a handful more people behind them.
It finally settles down enough for me to go back to Lee and Mac.
I see him twirling her around the dance floor to some old love song instead of waiting where I left them.
Between serving customers and watching them spin around and dance, the next few hours fly by.
I’m making a round of lemon drops for the bachelorette party when someone saddles up on the bar to the side of me.
I’m too focused on what I’m doing to notice who it is.
After finishing up with them and closing tabs for a few people, I bring my focus back over to the new person. Only they aren’t new at all.
Natasha sits perched on the bar stool, her bright blonde hair falling pin straight down her back, and her true blue eyes raking over my body with a barely contained sneer.
I look down at my sneakers, faded jeans, and gray henley with a black and gray plaid shirt over top of my shirt, trying to figure out what she’s looking at.
“What are you doing here?” I ask with disdain. She quickly schools her face, which tells me she wants something.
“Don’t be like that, Jake. I came to see you. I’ve missed you.” She bites her lip seductively.
“Yeah, I’m not interested. I’m actually extremely busy right now, so you should probably get going.” I’m trying to dismiss her gently, but I’m about as subtle as a bull in a china shop, and I think I just poked the bear.
She looks around my busy bar before her eyes land on Lee and Mac, and a look of trouble covers her features. “Oh, I see. Do they know? I mean, they probably should, right?”
My heart lurches into my throat, “Natasha, stop it.”
“Stop what?” She asks with all the faux innocence she can muster. “I’m just making an observation.”
“What do you want?” I bite out.
“The usual. Tomorrow at seven. Don’t be late.”
She lets the malice shine in her eyes as she hops off the stool and without another word, struts out of my bar. While I stand here riddled with anxiety about the secrets she wields to get her way.
* * *
Quickly catching the biscuit that’s thrown at my head, my laugh rings through the empty three bay garage at my brother’s shop.
Fischer Automotive doesn’t open for another thirty minutes, but it’s Monday, which means I’m here to eat breakfast with my brother before the bay doors are rolled open and he sweats his ass off all day in his navy coveralls.
Dieter is just two years younger than I am.
It was obvious who was the oldest when we were kids, but now not so much.
We’re not kids any more so we both stand at a respectable six foot four inches or so.
We have the same dark brown hair, except where mine is just about an inch long, Dieter’s is long enough that he keeps it up in a bun at his nape when he’s at work.
Our ice blue eyes are identical to our Papa’s, whereas our sister’s eyes are green like our Mama’s.
Dieter and I have worked our asses off since we were eight and six to protect our baby sister from anything that could stand in her path.
That doubled when Lelonie came to live with us when we were almost eighteen and sixteen.
We take Monday mornings to ourselves and hang out before life gets busy. Once those doors roll up, I go home and crash out until I have to be at the bar again. While he goes back to work and clocks out at the end of a long day to go be the best Papa to my niece.
“So, again? How long are you going to let her do this shit to you before you break the cycle?” Dieter pulls me out of my own thoughts.
Pulling the wrapper off of my breakfast sandwich, I lean back on a mountain of tires and shrug as I take a bite.
“I can’t let it get out, so forever, I guess.” Dieter knows everything about me, which means he’s the only person outside of the situation that knows what happened.
“You can’t let it get out, or he can’t?” Dieter raises an eyebrow at me in question.
“You know the answer to that is both. Drop it, D. It isn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, the shit she does to you sounds like a fucking cakewalk, J.” He rolls his eyes. “You come in here looking like that again, and I’ll kill the fucking bitch myself.”
He gestures to the bruise blooming from my cheek to my jawline. “I hear you.” I grumble out.
“Make sure you do, because I’ve watched you do this shit for years to buy her silence, and I’m over it.”
Changing the subject, I bring up the one topic that can always turn both our moods around.
“So how was my girl this morning?” I grin thinking about our perfect princess.
Hannah looks just like her Mama did. She gets her determination and fire from her Papa, but she’s gorgeous just like Michelle was.
It’s just D and Hannah now, and one day I’m convinced he’ll get his second shot at love.
Until a woman literally falls into his lap though, he’s content just being a good Papa.
“Mad. I’ll have you know I’m the ‘worst hair person ever’ now because I couldn’t do this weird braid thing that wraps around her entire head.
Forget that I’ve spent hours mastering French and fishtail braids.
No, that’s not good enough anymore. Now I have to make a fucking crown out of braided hair now.
” He shakes his head in amusement. “I threatened to send her to Uncle Cub’s after that. ”
“Interesting, because I don’t remember my security cameras going off.”
“That’s because she said, ‘No, Cub can’t even put my hair in a pony. I guess normal pigtails will do.’ Sorry, dude.” He shrugs like he didn’t just sink my heart down to my toes.
“Damn, she’s getting harder to impress. It used to just be painting some nails, having a tea party, and watching princess movies from sunup to sundown. Now I’ve got to learn a whole new skill set.”
“Welcome to the club.”
After we eat and finish catching up on the past week, I leave him to his work.
Ethan, one of our best friends and also one of his employees walks in as I’m walking out.
He daps me up, and we make quick plans to all grab drinks on Friday after work before he saunters inside to piss Dieter off for the day.
Don’t get me wrong, we love Ethan, but when you’re together as much as they are, I’m surprised they survive being stuck in this hot-as-sin garage all the time.
I have to get some actual sleep before going into the bar tonight, so I shake myself awake as I make my way to my bike.
Leaving the bar at four in the morning just to be at my brother’s shop at six is the worst part about Mondays, not that I’d ever tell him that.
No one else is on my sleep schedule, which means I end up deprived of it most of the time.
I’m unwilling to miss out on shit just because my job has me nocturnal.
Shaking the sleep fog from my brain, I pull my helmet on and start my bike.
I pull away before turning down the street beside the shop and heading down the road to my house.
I pass Lee’s house and peek to make sure nothing noisy is happening.
All is quiet, just like every other morning, so I continue on to my house.
About a dozen driveways separate mine and my sister’s house, which is just how I like it.
Dieter’s house is the next street over, and one of these days I’ll convince Annie to settle down here too.
Pulling up into my driveway, I’m shocked to see a bike identical to mine pulled up to the curb in front of my house.
The only difference being the colors of the bikes, Declan’s burnt orange to my midnight blue.
Colors that couldn’t be further from each other… much like the owners of the bikes.
Pulling into the now open garage, I shut off my bike and take my helmet off. I’m not even turned to face him yet when Declan grabs me by the forearm and spins me around, almost knocking me off balance. Rage and what looks like concern shines in his emerald eyes.
“What the fuck is that?”