“What?” Knox asked, turning to look in the direction of my stare. But I’d already forgotten about him.
Recognizing Sarah’s date, Seth, I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, this is too good to be true.” Setting a hand on the bar top, I jumped over it, clearing the counter easily.
I’d been looking for this douche for weeks. It was like providence that he showed up on my turf.
“Yo! Gamble!” Knox called after me. “What the hell are you doing?”
I waved at him over my shoulder. “Be right back.” But I didn’t plan on returning anytime soon. I had some ass to kick.
Seth was turned away from me by the time I reached him. He looked to be hanging out with about three other guys as they tried to hit on these two chicks who looked beyond wasted.
“Hey!” I yelled from about ten feet away. “Seth! Remember me?”
Seth and his friends looked over. When his gaze collided with mine, his eyes widened, and I saw his mouth form the words, “Oh, shit.”
Oh, yeah. That’s right, asshole. Piss those panties you were quivering in, cause your grim reaper was here to take you home to Satan.
Immediately lifting his hands as he backed away from me, he cried, “Look, man. I didn’t do anything to her, I swear.”
“Oh, so you didn’t make a bet with your pals here to get two hundred bucks for nailing the cripple?” I asked, advancing on him anyway. “My mistake.”
This time, he—plus a couple of his friends—whimpered, “Oh, shit.”
I swung, and swung hard, putting everything I had into it.
It dropped him flat, a complete knockout the first punch, which pissed me off because I’d wanted to hit him a hell of a lot more than once.
Rounding on Seth’s wide-eyed friends, I demanded, “Which one of you fuckers is Sandman?” He’d been the most persistent douche in the texts Sarah had shown me, pushing Seth into banging her.
When the tallest of the remaining three visibly gasped, I flattened him next. But he didn’t go down, thank goodness. I got in a couple more punches before two of his buddies tried to pull me off.
“Wait your turn,” I snarled at them, shrugging them away like the pesky pecker gnats they were. “I’ll get to you next.”
But I only got in one more punch on Sandman’s bloodied face before I was pulled away, and for good this time.
“Easy, kid,” Knox’s deep voice rumbled in my ear. His large arm banded around my neck, effectively trapping me in a headlock. I growled and tried to pull him forward with me, but we only made it about a foot before both Asher and Remy appeared in front of me, purposely coming between me and the guys I wanted to kill.
“What the hell set off his Mr. Hyde?” Asher asked Knox while Remy took my face in both her hands and gently, but firmly, said, “Hulk, no smash.”
I growled at her but stopped struggling against Knox’s hold.
Unable to let the remaining bastards get away with what they’d done, I glared at them over her shoulder. “Do you shit-faced motherfuckers even care that you ruined her? It took her years to gain what confidence she had only for you assholes to come along and shatter it all because of a stupid fucking bet. I hope you’re proud of being the worthless pathetic losers you are.”
“Okay, okay, what’s going on here?” Pick had finally made it to the scene. Shit, we must’ve made quite a commotion if he’d heard us all the way from his office.
“Seems to be something to do with Sarah,” Asher answered his brother.
“Yeah,” Pick murmured. “That makes sense. Nothing riles the kid up more than someone messing with his girl.” He turned from me to eye the guys I’d been trying my damnedest to annihilate. Sandman was clutching his bloody nose while two of the others were helping a now conscious Seth struggle to his feet.
“All right, fellows,” Pick told them. “Time to move along and get out of my club.”
“What? You’re kicking us out?” one of the douches I hadn’t gotten around to hurting asked incredulously. Then he had the balls to point at me. “He’s the shithead who jumped us. Why does he get to stay?”
I growled and surged toward him, hoping for a chance to mangle his face even a little, but Knox held on to me firmly while Pick seared me with a hard, staying glance. Then he turned back to the others.
“Let me ask you something. You boys do an injustice to a young lady named Sarah?”
The guilt rolling off them was palpable.
Pick nodded as if he expected as much. “You know...Sarah’s sister-in-law is my wife’s cousin,” he went on, making the idiots cringe. “I helped her buy her first car. She calls me Uncle Pick.” He stepped closer to them, narrowing his eyes. “No one fucks with my niece and then tries to drink in my bar. I told you once to leave, now get the fuck out before I set the kid loose on you again.”
This time, no one argued with him. They tripped over each other in their scramble to reach the exit.