Braden was waiting for me, leaning against the wall just inside the back door with his arms folded over his chest. When I came back into the bar, he straightened, and his arms dropped back to his sides. “You okay?”
“Uh.” Not really. It felt as if an invisible hand had punched a hole in my chest and then wrapped around my heart. “I’ll deal.” Luke was on stage, warming up with Emerson. The two grinned at each other, and, man, that hand squeezed around my heart almost painfully. Then my cousin saw me and sobered instantly. He glared at me.
Luke followed Emerson’s look to me. Our eyes caught and held.
“Bri?”
“What?” Braden had been waving at me. “Sorry. What?”
The corners of his mouth dipped down, and he saw Luke, too. “I don’t know, Bri. I don’t know. You just broke up with Elijah.”
That hand just kept squeezing. “Don’t worry. It’s not going there.”
“Right.”
He didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care.
“Subject change, please.” I nodded at Emerson. “Am I right to assume I won’t be playing tonight then?”
He sighed. “I guess. Will you stick around? I meant what I said. I want you back in the band. Stay. Hang out with us. Luke wants you in. I can tell. He just needs some hint from you, you know.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t even know what I wanted, though. There was a reason I’d been avoiding him for the last three years. Braden patted the empty stool at the end of the bar, and I slid on it and rested my hands on the counter. “Barkeep. That’s her name, right?”
He patted my shoulder. “I wouldn’t use that term.”
Kelly came over, shaking her head. With a half-grin, she poured a beer for me and slid it over the bar. “Here you go, and just so we’re all clear, your sister can call me that, but you, buddy, you better only be using that term as a safe word.”
I liked her.
Braden cocked his head to the side. “Safe word? I didn’t know that was a possibility.”
She chuckled, wiping her hands on a towel before resting a hand on the counter. She gestured to the stage. “I’m not saying it is. Aren’t you needed up there?”
He winked at me, but beamed at her. “It’s more fun here.”
“Get up there, Rock Star. You need to work all these single females into a thirsty frenzy. Sales go up the second you and that heartthrob singer of yours start crooning those notes.”
I really liked her. Catching the adoration and a hint of something more in the depths of my brother’s eyes, I shoved him away. “Hurry. Get up there and keep bringing in the cash, Brother.”
Tap, tap.
Luke leaned closer into the mic. “We need our drummer.” He was watching us. “Any day, Braden.”
A crowd had already congregated in front of the stage, and they all turned. A few waved their hands in the air. “Come on, Braden!”
“Yeah, Braden!”
“Come on, Hot Stuff.”
“#hotdrummerneeded.”
Someone laughed and added, “#hotdrummerneededinmypants.”
That sent another round of laughter around the bar. My brother saluted my beer in the air, then hit the bottom back of the counter and chugged the entire thing.
The crowd responded with whoops, wolf whistles, and cheers.
He pumped a fist in the air and hollered, “Let’s do this!” Then he pressed the empty glass to me and headed through the crowd, jumping onto the stage in one leap.
“Hey.”
I turned.
Kelly had leaned closer. She glanced toward the back door. “I saw you head out there with Elijah Turner, right?”
I nodded. “That was my boyfriend.”
“Good guy.”
My eyebrow went up at that. “He’s a drug dealer.”
She winked at me, handing a glass to a customer. “Good guy, just misguided at times.”
I snorted. “I’d like to think that.” But I did. Elijah had good in him. He just . . .wasn’t for me anymore. I shook my head. “Okay. I need a drink now. Braden took my beer.”
“Not a problem.” She gestured around the side of the bar. “We’re going to get slammed. Your brother’s band brings in the crowd, and we’re down a girl. If you help out later on, if we’re in a pinch, you can drink for free.”
“I don’t know how much help I’d be if I did drink for free.”
She laughed before moving farther down the bar. “You’d be surprised how sober you get when twenty people are shouting orders at you. Think about it, but help yourself until then.”
Shit. Free beer? Maybe I had come to the right place to deal with my break up. Laughing at my lameness, I slid off the stool to grab my first one. Braden hit the first beat on the drums, and Luke began singing. I went back to my seat, but as Luke kept singing and I kept hearing the band playing, that void reopened.
I’d need a second drink. Soon.
They took a short break ten songs in, and when they hopped back up, Luke’s voice came over the microphone. I heard the crescendo starting from Braden’s hands, and then Emerson joined in, building the bottom note.
I was going to be gutted by the end of their set. I wanted that. I wanted to be up there, creating the tension and setting the rhythm as Luke’s voice cast its spell.
“Hey, Bri.” Kelly came over to my end of the bar. She signaled around to the growing crowd. “You mind hopping in? You can do the beer. It’s not hard.”
“Yeah.” I stood and heard Luke’s words behind me. “Leaving my body, leaving my heart, leaving my soul, bloody and broken—” My knees were unsteady, and I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. Taking position behind the beer taps, I faltered.
He was singing about that night.
I had no idea he had written a song about it. They never asked to practice this song while they were in the basement.
“Two tall tap specials!” a waitress yelled from the side.
I jerked my head in a nod and reached for the tall glasses. Luke’s haunting voice sounded over the crowd’s growing buzz. “She healed me up, cared for my wounds. Then left and ripped them open once more. Broken. I was left broken.”
“Hey!”
I came back to reality at the waitress’s voice and saw the beer was overflowing. Cursing, I switched the glasses and glanced at Kelly. “I’ll cover the loss.”
She waved it off. “No worries. We all do it. I don’t normally advise this, but have a couple of shots. You won’t be drunk, but it’ll help tune out whatever you need tuned out.”
“Yeah.” I poured two shots of whiskey and downed them, and it wasn’t long before Luke’s voice couldn’t infiltrate my wall anymore. After that, I got lost in filling orders.
Two hours later, Kelly nudged my arm. “We’re doing last call now. I think we should be good.”
The place hadn’t emptied. It had just gotten more packed. “You sure?”
“Yep, I’ll take over here. Crystal came in. She’s the shot girl. That helped us.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Hey.”
I had started to walk back around, but paused and looked back at her.
She gestured to the garbage cans, which were overflowing, forming piles around the bins. “I know it’s a shit job, but do you mind taking those out? You’ll get a portion of the tips, too.”
“I thought my payment was free beer?”
She laughed. Braden hopped onto a stool at that moment, and her eyes darkened. She said to me, while eyeing him, “That payment’s not good enough for how much you helped tonight. Doing the garbage seals the deal. Anytime you want a job here, you got one.” Then she focused on Braden. “You guys sounded good up there tonight.”
He winked at her, leaning forward with his elbows on the bar. “Something extra was up Luke’s ass tonight. He sang his heart out.”
They both glanced at the crowd still standing in front of the stage. Luke was talking to a guy as a group of girls swarmed in behind him. Drunken, glazed eyes stared at him in hunger. Most of the girls had their hair matted with sweat, but they tried to look sexy, standing in their best seductive pose, waiting for Luke’s attention.
“No kidding,” I murmured to myself and went to the garbage bins. While pulling them out, I was rougher than was needed. When I hefted one bag out of a bin and set it down to reach for the second bin, Emerson shot past me.
“Hey!”
He glanced over his shoulder, an apology on his lips, but seeing me, they formed into a scowl. He turned back around and shoved out the door.
“Ass.” I rolled my eyes and finished pulling the bag out of the second bin. “Anything else before I take these out?” I asked Kelly who was laughing with one hip resting against the bar. My brother’s gaze was firmly on her breasts.
She was still laughing as she shook her head. “Nope, that’s it. Thanks again. Your tip will be waiting for you. We tally them all up and split evenly.”
I nodded, tightened my hold around both bags, and started pulling them down the short hallway and through the back door. Dragging both toward the dumpsters, I heard someone yell out from behind me.
Turning around, I saw three guys in a scuffle at the corner of the parking lot. I started for them, abandoning the garbage bags. As I got closer, I saw that it was two guys holding a third guy against the wall. They were tucked in the back corner of the parking lot where, of course, the garbage dumpsters were located.
“Best damn luck in the world,” I muttered to myself. Now what? I had no intention of going anywhere near that fight.
“Where’s the money?” One guy reared back and delivered a punch to the guy’s stomach, causing him to double over and clutch himself.
I’d need to get security to clear that up. As I left the bags where they were and started back inside, I heard a snarl back, “I told you. I’ll have it after tonight.” Oh hell. I stopped and turned around. That was Emerson, the great and unconditionally loving cousin of mine. Still. Security. That wasn’t technically me helping him, just doing my duty as a Good Samaritan. They could clear the fight, but then I heard the scrape of a bat being dragged over the ground.
Security might not get here quick enough. They were on the other side of the bar. I’d have to fight the crowd just to get to them.
“I told you—” Emerson was saying again when the first swing came, connecting with his stomach. He bit off his sentence and folded over.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. We were going to get killed.
I surged forward, moving faster. “Hey!” I yelled, now running for them. They stopped their assault on my cousin and assessed me. I guess they figured I wasn’t too much of a threat, because the second guy wrapped his arms tighter around Emerson, bracing him for another hit.
I could already hear Braden’s voice in my head, to get my ass away from this, but my feet weren’t moving back to the bar. Apparently, I felt some sort of loyalty to my cousin. Huh. Who knew? Weaving around the last car, I stopped just out of their reach and yelled again, “Let him go!”
Emerson’s eyes were wide. I wasn’t sure who was more surprised, he or I. Either way, I was there. I rolled my shoulders back, and my chin rose. I knew how to fight. Although those times had been taking on girls or when I was in a scrap with Braden and Luke when we were younger against whomever we had a problem with back then.
I’d never fought a grown man before. I was so screwed.
“Or what?” The first guy, the leader I assumed, stepped toward me. He rubbed his hand at the side of his mouth. When he moved into the streetlight, I saw there was blood on his knuckles. He was tall with bland features. His thick eyebrows sat over eyes that were set deep in his face. His small mouth, which was too close to his very large nose, gave his face a permanently pinched look to it. “What are you going to do?”
The guy holding Emerson pushed him to the ground and started toward me. It happened so fast. Emerson hopped back to his feet, looked at me for a split second, then rushed around both men and grabbed my wrist. He tried to pull me behind him to the bar. I went with him, but my other arm was restrained. I jerked backwards, out of Emerson’s hold.
He stopped and braked between a row of cars as he looked at our new predicament. They had me, and he was the free one now. The indecision was clear. Then he started shaking his head and cursing.
Was he…no way…and yes, he did. I watched, my jaw falling to the ground, as my cousin sprinted for the door.
Asshole!
I didn’t have time to plot my cousin’s murder. Bringing my arm up and around, I forced the guy to break his hold. He had to let go, or his wrist would’ve broken from the angle I forced his hand to move. As soon as I was free, I scurried away, treading backwards. Both guys tilted their heads to the side as they watched my every move, and they both wore the same menacing expression. The leader, whom I nicknamed as Thing One, was tall and thin while the other, I called him Thing Two in my head, was shorter and stout. He was built similar to Emerson.
“I almost feel sorry for you, girly. You came to help that piece of shit, and he left you?” Thing One laughed.
Thing Two raked his beady eyes down my body while running a hand through his greasy hair. “She looks nice and ripe. Too skinny for my normal appetite, but still a good ride.” He wet his lips, winking at me. “Is that what you came out here for? I bet you like it rough, huh?”
I had a knife. Elijah always made me carry one, but I didn’t think I could do much damage with it. I didn’t want to get close enough to them. “You guys might want to stop and think about this.”
“Oh, yeah?” Thing One laughed. The sound was sickening. “Or what? Honey, you came out here. Your friend abandoned you to us. Maybe that’s his way of paying me back?” He turned to his friend. “What do you think? Maybe we’ll let Emerson off the hook if we can get a good night from her?”
His friend shrugged, his eyes darkening with lust. “Sounds good to me.”
“Yeah.” The leader started to reach for my arm. “Sounds good to me, too.”
I braced myself. This was really happening. Reaching into my back pocket, I started to pull the knife out when a body shot past me, took hold of Thing One, and slammed him against one of the garbage bins. Someone growled, “You’re dead, asshole,” and another thud as a second body shot past me, too. Thing Two was punched and tackled to the ground.
Luke had Thing One pinned against the bin with a hand to his throat. His features were tightened and strained as he delivered a punch to the guy’s face. Once he let him go, Thing One fell to the ground and tried to block Luke’s blows, but there was no stopping Luke. He hit him again and again in the face, then kicked him in the stomach. The quick assault stunned the guy. He didn’t fight back, just tried to recover and block any more hits.
Emerson was attacking Thing Two. After delivering a couple of kicks of his own, he stopped and looked at Luke. Both guys weren’t fighting back, so Luke and Emerson stepped back toward me, shielding me. Luke pointed to the back door of Rowdy’s. “Em, go and get that garbage. Bring it over for Bri.”
Emerson nodded and went back.
“Bri?” The leader looked up. “Brielle Masterson?”
Luke seared me with a look, then stepped in front of me to completely shield me from the guy’s view. “Yeah, asshole. You think we’re bad? She dated Turner. What do you think he’d do to you?”
The guy coughed some blood out and pushed himself to a sitting position. “We didn’t know, but it doesn’t change the situation. We’re not scared of Turner.”
Luke clipped his head from side to side. “Doesn’t matter. Go near her again, and I’m sure you can test that theory—that you’re not scared of him.”
Emerson came back with both garbage bags. He tossed both into the bin and closed the lid. Ignoring the two guys on the ground, he swept past me and said to Luke, “If she wants in, I’m fine with it.” Then he said to me, “We’re even with this.”
He didn’t wait. He left, heading to the street instead of back to the bar.
Luke said to the guys, “Get lost. I mean it.” Turning, he took hold of my arm and began guiding me back to the bar. Once we were through the back door, he glared at me. “What were you thinking? If you see two guys hiding by the garbage bins, you don’t approach them by yourself.”
Emerson hadn’t told him.
I didn’t even groan. I should’ve known better. Cousin of the Year was not an award he’d be winning. Ever. “I…it’s done. Whatever.”
He cursed under his breath, then went around me, and opened the basement door. Before going down, he glanced back. “Are you really done with Turner?”
I nodded, feeling pinned in place by his piercing gaze.
“Luke?”
A girl waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. Of course, he’d have a girl waiting for him.
He ignored her and said to me, “Elijah deals drugs, and that brings problems. We have enough problems of our own. We don’t need him around, so if you’re really done with him, you can join the band. We have a gig out of town next Thursday. You have until then to decide.”
He didn’t wait for my answer. He went downstairs, took the girl’s hand, and led her back into the basement.
What a perfect ending for the night. I had a sudden urge to start my own bar fight.