Burn: Men of Inked Heatwave #2

by Chelle Bliss

  “What’s happening?” Joe questions, coming to stand behind her, eyes flickering around the room just like his sister.

  Fucking great. I rub my temples, wishing this family weren’t so far up one another’s asses all the time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice…sometimes. But other times, moments like this, it’s all just too much.

  James slides out of his chair and moves toward his wife, trying to usher her out of the room. “Nothing’s going on. Just having a chat with the kid.”

  Joe stalks in and sits in the chair James just vacated. “Can I talk to Pike alone?” His ice-cold eyes never leave mine.

  “You two going to be okay in here?” Izzy asks, always looking out for everyone. She’s such a ballbuster, but the woman has a good heart.

  “We’ll be fine,” Joe answers for us both, waiting for them to leave, eyes still burning with anger.

  “I’m sorry,” I blurt as soon as we’re alone. “I shouldn’t have brought Austin here.”

  Joe slowly rubs his hands together, grinding his teeth like he’s almost choking on whatever he’s about to tell me. “I talked to Gigi, and she really laid into me about how I feel about you and how I talk to you.”

  I raise both my eyebrows, but I don’t move another muscle. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He moves his hand to his face as he passes his fingertips across the stubble of his jaw. “It wasn’t pretty, but she reminded me of a few things. Listen…” He pauses, swallowing down what I assume is his pride. “Ever since I found out about you being with my daughter, I haven’t been nice to you. I have to keep reminding myself that she’s not a little girl anymore.”

  I give him a halfhearted smile. “She reminds me of that every day.”

  It’s his turn to raise his eyebrows.

  “I mean, she keeps telling me she can do whatever she wants. She sure as hell doesn’t listen to me,” I add.

  “I taught her to be strong and independent. I also taught her about loyalty and love.”

  “Your daughter is truly the most spectacular woman I’ve ever met, Joe. She’s everything,” I admit.

  “I’m going to back off, but if you fuck up—” he points at me “—don’t think I won’t kick your ass,” he threatens, scratching at his face like he’s having an allergic reaction to the entire conversation.

  “You can try,” I tease, winking at him, hoping to get back to the easy relationship we had when I first started at Inked.

  He doesn’t even crack a smile. “Now, about your brother.”

  Here we go.

  “We could use some help at Inked. We need someone to run the front desk. I realize he can’t work late once school starts, but maybe he can work a few hours in the evenings and on the weekends.”

  All I can do is blink.

  “You’ll be able to keep an eye on him, and he’ll get to know the rest of us.”

  Who is this man? I don’t know what Gigi said to him in their little chat, but whatever it was, it must’ve been a freaking killer.

  I blink again, waiting for him to say he’s totally fucking with me. “You really want him to work at Inked? I mean, he may be a total shit human being.”

  His eyes don’t even twitch as he asks, “He’s your brother, yeah?”

  I nod slowly because he is, but… “He’s my family, and now that our parents can’t raise him, he’s fallen on to me and is my responsibility. But I barely know the kid, Joe. Like I said, he could be a total fuckup.”

  “Are you serious, bro?” Austin thunders, standing just a few feet away, listening to our private conversation. “I’m just a responsibility?”

  Fuck. I rush from my seat, trying to get to him, but he’s already on the move.

  “You know what, fuck you!” he shouts, and everyone in the room flinches. He waves his hand around the room toward Gigi’s family. “And fuck them!”

  The wide-eyed looks from every Gallo make my stomach turn. They’ve been nothing but kind and don’t deserve this shit.

  “Austin, watch your mouth,” I grit out, trying to get my hands on him, but he’s too damn fast.

  The little shit dodges to the right, stalking toward the front door. “I’m out of here. I don’t want to be a burden to anyone, especially my own flesh and blood,” he rages before storming out the front door, slamming it so damn hard, the photos on the walls rattle.

  Before I can chase after him, a hand is on my shoulder, stopping me. “I’ll go talk to him,” Tamara offers, looking up at me with a sad smile. “He needs some time to cool off. That’s all. It’ll be okay.”

  I nod, knowing he’s not going to listen to me right now. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t listen to me either. I fucked up. I didn’t mean for my words to come out that way, and I sure as fuck didn’t expect for him to hear them.

  “I’m so sorry,” I say, looking around the room at the people who’ve been nothing but nice, making me feel welcome.

  Gigi’s at my side, wrapping her arm around me and placing a hand on my chest. “It’s all going to be okay,” she says softly and so damn sweetly.

  “Pike.” Joe motions for me to come back to the scene of the emotional crime, but there’s a different look in his eyes. It’s not murder or hate, but…understanding and sadness?

  I move toward him, but Gigi stays with me, watching her father, assuming he’s going to pull the asshole card.

  Joe rubs the back of his neck, eyeballing his daughter before glancing at me. “I’ve dealt with a lot of teenagers in my life. Sure as hell dealt with emotional ones too. Have three girls, and you’ll know the sheer and utter chaos they create.” He gives me a smile. “Your brother’s going through some shit. Your words hurt him. Let him cool off and he’ll come back, but you need to make sure he knows exactly how you feel. Don’t hold back, and don’t give him enough rope to hang himself either. Be firm yet kind. What happened here can never happen again.”

  I nod, feeling the knot in my stomach grow tighter. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize for him. You did nothing wrong, son.”

  Son. I blink. Did Joe Gallo just call me son? No one, and I mean no one, has ever called me that. Not even Colton Moore. It was always some mix of bastard and fucker with a few other slurs thrown in to remind me what an insignificant piece of shit I really was. But here, in this moment, with this man who isn’t my biggest fan…he called me son.

  I swallow, somehow finding my words. “How long do I give him?” I croak, trying to keep the emotion from my voice. Because…it’s just a word, dumbass.

  “Let him come to you.” Joe ticks his head toward the dining room where we’d just been sitting.

  “Let’s eat, have a drink, and wait him out. Tamara will bring him back.”

  “What if he doesn’t come back?”

  Joe laughs, slapping me on the shoulder. “Where the hell’s he going to go? We’re in the middle of nowhere with nothing for miles except bugs and trees.”

  Gigi tugs at my hand, drawing my attention away from her father as he walks away, leaving us alone. “What set him off? He was just outside flirting with the girls, and then that.” She waves her hand toward the door, wrinkling her nose.

  I glance down at my feet and shake my head. “I fucked up.”

  “I can see that.” She moves in front of me, touching my face with her fingertips, making me look at her. “But how?”

  “I said dumb shit like I always do, but this time, he heard me.”

  She grimaces. “Stop being so hard on yourself. We all mess up sometimes. I’m sure once he calms down, you’ll be able to explain.”

  I close my eyes, leaning my head forward until our foreheads touch. “Your family has to hate him.”

  Gigi snorts and pulls away from me so I can see her. “Please, temper tantrums are nothing new around here. He may have used a little bit more colorful language than usual, but it’ll be just a distant memory in a few weeks.”

  I force a smile on to my face, but it’s totally fake. “Yeah. Maybe.�
�

  “Hey.” She bumps my shoulder, probably feeling my I don’t believe a word you’re saying vibe. “My family knows he just lost his mom and his father too. That has to be weighing pretty heavy on him. I’m sure I’d be a complete asshole if I were in his shoes.”

  I shake my head, drawing in the longest, deepest breath, trying to calm myself. “You’re right,” I tell her, which gets me an eyebrow raise.

  “Can you say that again?” she asks, a crooked smile crossing her face.

  “Why?”

  She pulls her phone from her back pocket, shaking it in my face. “I want to get that for posterity.”

  Fuck me. This chick.

  10

  Gigi

  “I’m going to choke him.” Pike runs his fingers through his hair as he hunches over his legs while we sit on the couch in his living room. “I swear to God…”

  “Stop.” I rub his back, rolling my eyes. “They’re on their way back. It’s not that big of a deal.”

  Austin wasn’t the first person to throw a fit and storm out of my grandparents’ house. Lord knows he isn’t going to be the last. There isn’t a person in my family who isn’t overdramatic, and Austin seemed to fit right in within the first hour.

  Pike lifts his head, eyes blazing. “Not that big of a deal?”

  I push his face back toward the floor. “He’s a teenager. They do this stuff all the time. I’m sure you did too.”

  Pike grunts, his back muscles tensing under my fingertips. “Not if you didn’t want to get your ass beat.”

  The frown on my lips is immediate. “Promise me you’re not going to hit him.”

  His eyes are back on me, neck craned, those beautiful brown eyebrows drawn inward. “Do you seriously think I’d hit him?”

  My shrug is barely there, but Pike catches it. I grimace and try to make up for it by saying, “Never.”

  Pike straightens as my hand falls down to the couch near his ass. “Listen, darlin’, and listen good.”

  I nod when he pauses, straightening my back too because I know this is going to be a short but deep conversation.

  “I have never put my hands on anyone in my family. I will never put my hands on my brother.” He squeezes my hands in his. “Even if the little fucker hits me first, I’ll never lay a hand on him.”

  “I believe you,” I confess because I’ve never seen Pike be physically menacing to anyone unless he hated them and they totally deserved the anger.

  “I’d never touch you either. You could stab me in the thigh with a butter knife.” I wince because who the fuck would do that, but he just keeps on talking. “There isn’t anything you could do to make me hurt you.”

  “I know.” The man would and almost did take a bullet for me. He’s never, even when I’ve been a complete asshole, shown any type of anger or hostility toward me that’s caused me to so much as flinch. He’s always sweet in that Pike kind of way.

  A few of his fingers brush the hair away from my cheek as his eyes search mine. “I need you to know what I’m saying is true. Never. Never. Never would I lay a hand on you. I’m not built that way.”

  “I know,” I repeat, and I’m being one-hundred-percent truthful, but the look in his eyes tells me he’s not believing a single word.

  “No. You need to believe what I’m saying. I saw too much bad shit in my life.” He shakes his head, pain all over his face. “I’d never want that type of shit to touch you. There’s nothing worse than a person you love laying their hands on you in anger, making you not only feel the pain of the strike, but the bite of their words.”

  My stomach clenches. “Pike,” I whisper, moving my cheek into his touch. “I know with everything I am, you’ll never hurt me. I promise.” I place my hand over his. “I can’t imagine what you went through as a kid, and I never want you to feel that way again.”

  “In ten years, I’ve never allowed anyone close enough to me to give me that kind of hurt.” His eyes sweep across my face as he traces the edge of my chin with his thumb. “Only you, Gigi.”

  “Only me?” My mouth hangs open. Only me. That’s a pretty damn big deal. Pike isn’t the first man I’ve let get close to me. I have two assholes in my past and the scars from the horrific end to those relationships to prove it too.

  He nods ever so slightly. “I never wanted to give anyone that power over me. I swore I’d never let anyone else in, but you…” His voice trails off.

  I lock on to those green eyes that first captured my attention. “I’m glad you let me in,” I whisper.

  The door creaks open, and neither of us moves. “Stay calm,” I mouth to him with my back to the door, seeing the vein in his neck start to pulse.

  A second later, Pike swings his gaze to the front door, and his fingers tighten near my neck. Two distinct sets of footsteps stomp on the tile, followed by two different giggles.

  “Hey, bro,” Austin barks before laughing again. “Sup?”

  “Aussie, what’d I tell you about how to talk to him?” Tamara chastises him, slurring her words a bit.

  I close my eyes and count to five, knowing when I turn around, I’m not going to like what I see.

  How do I know? Pike’s about as hard as a piece of granite and barely breathing.

  “I love when you call me that,” Austin tells Tamara before there’s a loud umph and my body dips from the weight.

  Pike follows the movement with his eyes, looking over my shoulder like every promise and word he just said is about to go right out the window.

  Uh oh.

  “You can sit here, TamTam,” Austin offers playfully, and I hear the sound of his hand slapping something.

  “Do not sit on his lap,” Pike growls, his eyes narrowing but not moving from his brother.

  “When did Mr. Badass Biker dude turn into such a party pooper?” Tamara teases, her shadow covering me as she stands somewhere behind my back.

  “Calm down, big guy.” Austin snorts. “We’re just having fun, and Tam’s my new BFF.”

  I close my eyes again, trying not to lose my shit because if we both do…it’s game over.

  “Actually, she’s my only friend.”

  “When school starts, all the girls are going to be all over you, Aussie. You’re going to have to fight them off,” Tamara tells him.

  I let out a sigh, turning to find my cousin leaning her hip against the couch just above Austin as he kicks back, one ankle resting on the knee of his other leg. “A guy can dream, TamTam,” he mutters.

  What. The. Fuck?

  Five hours ago, these two didn’t even know each other. Now…now, they have cute nicknames for each other?

  TamTam and Aussie.

  Puke.

  My gaze travels up Tamara’s body and lands on her flushed cheeks from too much sun and… “Have you been drinking?”

  Tamara shrugs, unable to hide her lopsided smile. “We may have grabbed a few twenty-fours.”

  My eyes widen, darting from Tamara to Austin. “What the hell? You’re both underage.”

  Tamara taps her purse slung over her shoulder. “I still have my ID from Daytona.” She winks.

  I glance toward the ceiling and mutter, “Dear God,” before sucking in a breath. I’m going to lose my shit. “He’s in high school, Tam. High school!” I glare at her.

  She wrinkles her nose, leering at me. “Hey, Ms. Prude. I know you had a hell of a lot more than a twenty-four or two when you were his age—or mine, for that matter.” She throws her chin at Pike, and I know she’s talking about that night. “Hypocrite much?”

  Oh. My. God.

  I suddenly sounded like my father or mother. Take your pick. They were both the same when it came to underage drinking and partying. But now the words are coming out of my mouth about a kid who isn’t even my own. I shake my head, trying to remember I’m not the mom of these two assholes. “I’m not a hypocrite.”

  “You so are,” she argues with a smug grin as she rests her bent arm on Austin’s shoulder. “Never thought I’d see
the day you’d turn into Suzy.”

  Pike’s hand is on my leg, squeezing tight enough to draw my attention away from the giggling idiots. “Let it go,” he says softly. “Just let it go.”

  Tamara moves, wedging herself between my back and Austin’s side. “What are we going to do tonight?” she asks like nothing happened earlier and it’s just another day.

  “We’re going home,” I tell her, leering over my shoulder at her.

  Her eyes widen, and she jerks her head back. “The party’s just getting started, li’l cuz. What’s at home besides nothing?”

  She has a point. I still hadn’t had time to buy any furniture. Hell, there isn’t even a spoon or a coffee cup in the kitchen. Everything is in my parents’ garage, waiting to be picked up. Well, not everything. I still have to buy things. So many things too. But who has time to shop when death and mayhem are falling all around? Not this girl.

  “Fine, I’m taking you to your parents’, then,” I demand, pushing her away from me when I try to stand.

  But I don’t make it to my feet before Pike’s hand is around my wrist, pulling me back onto the couch. “Stay here tonight.”

  I blink. “Here?” I repeat.

  “Please,” he begs.

  “I have Tam to consider.”

  “So? I have Austin.”

  “Sleepover!” Tamara shouts, fist-pumping the air.

  Austin nods with a smug grin I wish I could wipe right off his face. “Nothing sounds better.”

  Sweet Jesus. Nothing about this sounds like a good idea. “I don’t think…” I mutter.

  “I’ll feel safer if you’re here,” Pike says, cutting me off as I snap my lips shut because I feel safer here too.

  “Pike,” I breathe.

  “I need you here tonight,” Pike admits, his eyes pleading with me to say yes.

  “Ew,” Tamara gags. “I don’t want to listen to you two bumping uglies all night.”

  I shoot my cousin a death look. “You better shut it before I shut it for you.”

  She sticks out her tongue, proving we’re never too old to act like immature kids. “Whatever,” she mutters, snuggling a little too close to Austin.