Chapter Three
WELL, HE’D FUCKED that up right good.
Tyler stormed into the clubhouse, plowing into a thin man with a receding hairline as he burst through the door.
“H-holy cow!” The man stumbled backward, eyes wide and terrified.
“Fuck.” Ty reached for him, but he wasn’t quick enough.
The guy landed on his ass with a grunt. He gaped up at Ty as though he were the devil himself who had come to claim his soul.
Ty reached out a hand. “Shit, man, sorry.”
The guy shook his head and waved away the offer of help. “No worries. I’m good.” He climbed to his feet with a wince, wiping invisible dust off his navy pants. It was then Ty noticed the logo on his evergreen polo, Bugger Off.
Right. Curly had mentioned something about a pest control company coming out to spray for mice. Their clubhouse was a resurrected old farmhouse that came with a few unwanted guests. Maybe they should get a cat or two. A few good mousers would solve the problem better than this man.
Now standing, the guy refused to look Ty in the eye, but he didn’t move either.
For fuck’s sake. He didn’t have the tolerance today to deal with this shit.
“You need something?” Ty barked.
“Uh, no. Well, I mean… I was trying to leave.” He stared at the floor, practically trembling. The guy needed to grow a pair. What the hell did he think was going to happen? He’d lay out some mouse traps, then get robbed blind by the club?
Idiot.
“And now I’m blocking the door.”
“Um, yes?”
Christ.
Ty threw his hands in the air. “So, tell me to get the fuck outta your way. I’m not a goddamned mind reader. Jesus Christ.” He powered past the man who probably shit himself as he scurried toward the exit.
“They can fire me for all I care,” the guy mumbled, yanking the door open. “Never coming back here.”
Ty whirled around. “The fuck was that?”
Before the door slammed shut, he heard a squeak and the pounding of desperate feet on the steps.
“Say it to my fucking face next time,” he muttered as he ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I need a drink.” As he turned toward the bar, he caught sight of his cousin leaning against the open doorway of his office with his arms folded across his chest and a raised eyebrow. Now that his hair had grown past his shoulders again, he tended to pull it back to keep it off his face, but today, it hung long and wild with curls. Curls ran in their family, but Ty hadn’t been blessed with the hair women went wild over.
“What?” Ty snapped as he walked to the bar. Curly wasn’t someone he had to pull his punches with or censor himself around.
“Having a good morning?”
Ty grabbed the bottle of his favorite tequila and a glass. “Fucking spectacular.” He poured at least two shots worth into the glass, then downed it in two large swallows with his eyes shut and head tipped back. The familiar burn singed the back of his throat and nose.
So good.
But not enough to fix his foul mood.
He set the glass down, opening his eyes. Curly hadn’t moved an inch.
“What?”
“Nothing.” His cousin lifted his hands as though surrendering. “You just seem a little… tightly wound.”
“Fuck off.” Tightly wound. Bullshit. He wasn’t tightly wound. He was pissed off.
“Wanna talk about it?” Curly asked as he pushed off the wall and sauntered toward the bar.
Did he want to talk about it? Hell no. But he knew his cousin. The president of the Hell’s Handlers MC viewed himself as some sort of father figure to all the men in his club, Ty included. It didn’t matter that they were practically the same age and grew up wreaking havoc together or that Ty had managed his life fine while Curly was behind bars for over a decade. No, the man had a serious daddy complex.
Or he’s just a good man who cares about the family he created.
Dammit.
Ty sighed. It wouldn’t kill him to chill out a bit. “Want some?” he asked, lifting the bottle.
“Nah, ten a.m. is a little early for me.” Curly chuckled.
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have any vices. We get it.”
That got them both laughing because Curly had countless good qualities, but the man was far from a saint.
He swirled the bottle, watching the tequila run down the insides. “Came here from the hospital.”
Curly’s eyes flared in surprise. “Really? You visited the girl?”
“She’s not a damn girl, Curly.”
His cousin smirked. “Woman, pardon me. Did you visit the woman? What’s her name again, Kelly?”
“Kelsie. And yeah, I saw her.”
Curly nodded but didn’t respond.
Damn, the silence was worse than anything his cousin had to say. “What?”
“Nothing. Just wondering if she was a huge bitch to you or something? Maybe cussed you out and called you an ugly fucker.”
Ty stared at his cousin. “What? What are you talking about?”
“Well, you came crashing in here, knocked down my pest control consultant, and practically made the poor guy piss himself. I’m trying to figure out how you go from visiting Kelsie to being this irritated. So I’m asking if she was a bitch to you.”
“No. She was fine. She’s not like that.”
“So…” Curly rolled his hand, encouraging him to keep talking.
“So nothing.”
“Ahh, I get it now. Thanks for clearing that up. I assume this chat helped you feel better.” Throwing his hands in the air, Curly shook his head. “Talking to you is like talking to a teenager.”
“Can you quit with the sarcasm?” Ty poured another shot and downed it like the others. “She tried to kill herself,” he said before the burn had passed.
Those five words sobered the mood faster than anything else could have.
“Oh shit.” Curly ran a hand down his face, pausing to rub across his lips.
“Cut her fucking wrist.” Saying it out loud made him want to vomit. It could have gone bad so easily. If she’d sliced a little deeper or EMS took a little longer to get to her, they’d be having a very different conversation.
If he’d even know about it.
“I’m sorry, brother. I know the two of you formed a special bond whi—”
Ty reared back. “What the fuck? No, we didn’t.”
“Ty, you can’t tell me you don’t care about the gir… woman. She looked at you like you hung the damn moon. And you hovered like a mother hen when she was here. It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “You’re crazy. I helped rescue her. What kind of dick wouldn’t want to make sure she was okay? That’s all, it was nothing more. Any deeper connection is all in her head. Don’t go looking for unicorns when it’s just a damn mule. Told her the same thing.”
“You told her that?” Curly’s jaw dropped.
“Yes. I don’t want her getting any whacked-out ideas. For fuck’s sake, Curly, she’s half my age. I don’t need her trailing after me like an eager puppy with some misplaced hero worship.”
Curly ran a hand through his hair. Or he tried, but it snagged on the curls halfway through, so he gave up. “Okay, the pieces are starting to come together now.”
“Shut up. This isn’t a damn puzzle.”
“While you were there, did you dole out any other words of wisdom to the young lady recovering from a serious trauma?”
His stomach turned as heat washed over him. “I mighta said something else,” he mumbled.
Curly’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
Another shot of tequila was required before he could confess his sin.
“Four shots in ten minutes? Shit, you must have said something really dumb. Come on.” He waved his hand. “Spit it out, cuz.”
Nope. Not saying it.
Curly merely arched an eyebrow.
Fuck. The guy spent thirteen years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Ty didn’t stand a chance against him in a battle of wills. He set the glass down and shoved the bottle away. The last thing he needed was to be plastered while in such a foul mood. That’s when shit tended to go south fast. “I told her she was stupid.”
“What do you mean?” Curly’s forehead scrunched.
“I said she was stupid for…” He shrugged.
Curly’s mouth opened and then snapped closed. His face went from interested to pissed so fast Ty would have missed the transition if he’d blinked. Lucky for him, he caught the whole shift. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, I did.”
“Jesus, Ty.” Curly rubbed his temples. “Do you have any idea how fucked up that is?”
“I do.” He reached for the bottle again, only for Curly to smack his hand.
“Do you really?” If this were a cartoon, Curly’s face would be fire-engine red, and smoke would be billowing from his equally red ears. “Because that’s about the worst thing you can say to someone struggling to that extent.”
“I know that!” he shouted, gripping his hair. “You think I don’t know that?”
Curly stared at him across the bar. “I’m not sure right now. You are acting out of character.”
“I know it, okay. I didn’t even mean it. I just… I walked in the room, saw the bandages, and I-I don’t even know.”
“You had a big feeling?”
He rolled his eyes. “Really, cousin?”
“Really.” Curly nodded. “You felt something for that woman, and it freaked you the fuck out, so you decided to be a dick and make sure she didn’t develop ‘hero worship’ or whatever bullshit you were spouting a few minutes ago.”
“No.” He shook his head. That wasn’t it. For Christ’s sake, she was so goddamned much younger than him. He’d felt shock and sympathy, of course. He wasn’t made of stone, but nothing more. “I asked her why she did it, and she wouldn’t tell me shit. It pissed me off, so I snapped. That’s all. Nothing deeper.”
The smirk Curly wore said what he thought of that proclamation, but thankfully, he didn’t call Ty out on any more bullshit. Instead, he said, “I assume the ol’ ladies aren’t going to let her get away this time. What’s the plan? Will they have her stay in the shelter?”
He shrugged. “No idea. That’s up to them.”
“So you don’t care if they bring her here and she stays on club property?”
The thought of it made his skin prickly and hot. “Yeah, why would I have a problem with that? I told you I cared what happened to her. I want the ol’ ladies to help her out.”
“And if she becomes close to them and starts hanging out all the time, you’ll be good? Maybe, eventually, she’ll start dating and bring a date by for a party…”
Ty slapped his palms on the counter and speared his cousin with a death glare. “What the hell are you getting at?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to make sure you’re cool.” He shrugged, posture all calm and chill, but that damn smirk remained.
Smug asshole.
Of course, his words had Tyler envisioning the very scenario he described—Kelsie with a man. Some random asshole smiling at her, making her laugh, touching her, and putting his mouth on her. He swallowed a growl.
“This is ridiculous,” he said, flipping off his cousin. “You’re trying to get under my skin, but you can’t. She’s a woman I helped rescue. That’s it.”
“Well, then, I guess it’s settled.”
“Yep,” he said, popping the ending sound.
“Great. I got some shit to do, so I’m gonna lock myself in the office for a bit. Will you be around?”
“Yeah, Jinx has the shop today. You need me to do something?”
“Nah, just curious.” He rapped his knuckles on the bar. “Later, cuz,” Curly said before turning and ambling toward his office.
Ty watched him leave, and though Curly kept quiet, his words echoed loudly through the quiet clubhouse.
Eventually, she starts dating…
Starts dating…
Dating…
“She can do whatever she wants. She can do whoever she wants. That woman is nothing to me,” he spoke toward the closed door of Curly’s office.
Seconds ticked by, and though he was alone, he swore he could hear his cousin laughing at him.
“Fuck this.” Ty grabbed the tequila and stomped back outside.
Curly could go straight to hell.