by Lori King
Ryker looked as surprised as Mack felt, and their eyes met over her head. It was clear on his face that his younger brother was waiting for his go ahead before interfering in his date, but Mack couldn’t see a way out of it. If he didn’t invite Ryk along he was going to look like a selfish ass leaving him sitting alone at the bar.
“Of course he is, he hasn’t had dinner either.” Mack didn’t wait for Ryk’s response, he just nudged Claudia along sheltering her through the crowded bar until they reached the pocket of empty space around the tiny unoccupied table. He helped Claudia up onto the tall seat and passed her one of the tiny menus he’d memorized two years ago when he moved to Stone River from Austin. “Like I said, as long as you aren’t a vegetarian you can’t go wrong.”
She smiled as she opened the menu, “Nope, not a veggie lover, but I’m not a hunter either. I prefer not to see what my meal looked like before I eat it. Tonight a big greasy burger will be just perfect.”
Ryker looked a little bit buzzed as he dropped onto one of the other empty stools. “Greasy burgers and beer? Not exactly what I would have expected for you, city girl.”
Her eyebrow lifted and her lip curled, “Oh? What did you expect? Caviar and champagne? I might have grown up in the city, but I’m still a Texan.”
They managed to get their food pretty quickly, and afterwards they took turns getting their asses kicked by her at darts. Ryker seemed to be knocking beers back unusually quick, and his flirtations were becoming more aggressive with Claudia. Thankfully she didn’t seem to notice the subtle change, laughing and joking with the two of them equally.
Just when Mack was about to ask Claudia to dance again to get some distance from his tipsy brother, the song “Country Girl Shake if For Me” came on and the dance floor turned into lines of people all moving in the same general motion. Like a shot, Claudia was off her bar stool and dragging both Ryker and Mack to the dance floor with a laugh. “Come on, boys! If you’re as country as you say you are then you should be able to line dance.”
Mack fumbled to keep up with the steps as he watched her shimmy and shake in the motions of the dance. Her curvy frame swayed and jiggled in the most perfectly distracting way he could have imagined. It was clear by the look of pure primal lust on Ryker’s face he was thinking the same thoughts, and the knowledge disturbed him to the core. Catching his brother’s eye, Mack gave him a cold look as a warning and then watched in horror as the alcohol fuzzed version of his brother lost his mind.
Chapter Four
Claudia couldn’t understand what had happened. One minute they were all dancing and having a good time, and the next minute Ryker was storming away from them through the crowded dance floor and out the front door of the bar.
By the time she and Mack reached the parking lot, he was in Mack’s truck and gunning the engine so hard gravel shot up in the air. She spun away to protect her face, but really she hadn’t needed to. Mack’s large frame covered hers, protectively sheltering her from the storm of pebbles showering over them.
“What happened?” she asked just as Mack spun back around to glare down the road after his brother.
“Shit! He’s too drunk to drive right now.”
“Come on, we’ll take my car and follow him. We can’t stop him, but we can at least make sure we’re there if he wrecks.” Without pause, Claudia led the way to her car and jumped in the driver’s seat. If she wasn’t so concerned about Ryker, she would have laughed until she cried at the image of Mack folding his big frame into the small car. “Sorry, city girls don’t drive pickup trucks.”
Mack managed a wry grin before he shook his head, “No worries, I’m fine. Let’s just make sure my asshole brother is too.”
With him directing, she headed off into the dark countryside. It crossed her mind she should be more concerned about driving off into the dark Texas countryside with a strange man who was twice her size, but the gentle way he spoke to her and the manners he had, kept her foot on the gas. Look at it this way, you’re probably not the only woman to think serial killers don’t have manners, she thought and had to bite back a snort.
To distract herself, she started questioning Mack.
“What exactly happened in there?” His shrug didn’t ease her concerns at all. “Mack, seriously, is he always this short fused?”
Dropping his head back onto the headrest, he let out a big heavy sigh. She could see the tension in his square jawline and the dimple on his cheek twitched. “He has always had a temper, but lately…Jesus.”
Her only response was a raised eyebrow, but he grimaced anyway.
“A year ago, Ryker was a professional football player. In fact, he was one of the best, and he made it to the bowl game a couple of times during his ten year career after college. He had it all. Money, fame, and a future.”
“What happened?”
“Damn it. He should be telling you this. It’s not right I’m exposing his secrets for him.” After another silent pause he sighed heavily, “He took a hit during the first game of the season late last summer, and it tore up his shoulder. At first they said he just needed surgery and physical therapy, but after the surgery the doctors told him he was done. His body couldn’t take the impact of another serious hit without making his arm completely useless forever.”
Claudia shook her head, “I don’t understand. Lots of players get sidelined because of an injury. Couldn’t he have taken a job as a coach or a broadcaster or something?”
“Oh that’s not where the story ends. He got robbed by his accountant and business manager while he was recovering from surgery. The two disappeared with all of the money he had, leaving him high and dry. Basically he was back to square one. He had to sell off his house so he could afford to live and pay his portion of his medical bills. He moved in with me until he figures out what he wants to do with himself, but it’s been almost a year and all he does is mope and drink.”
Claudia glanced over at Mack to see him running his hand through his blonde curls. He looked miserable on his brother’s behalf, and it tore at her heart. It wasn’t fair Mack would take on Ryker’s troubles and then have to deal with him pulling an immature stunt like this.
“Okay, so he’s taken a few lumps, but that doesn’t give him the right to act like an ass. What sent him running out of the bar?”
When Mack directed her to turn onto a gravel driveway, but ignored her question, she grunted. “Fine, don’t tell me, but if it’s going to be like that don’t bother calling me again. I don’t need this kind of drama in my life.”
“Wait, Claudia—”
She shook her head, “No. I agreed to go to a bar for a beer and a dance. I did not agree to get wrapped up in your sibling’s issues.”
The car rolled to a stop in front of the smallest dung brown cabin she had ever seen. The porch light was on, and Mack’s truck was parked in front, so clearly Ryker made his way home safely. Studiously staring ahead, she waited for Mack to get out of the car.
“Please, Claudia, give me a minute to hash this out with him and then let him apologize. I know Ryk, he’s probably already feeling like shit for storming out. Please? Ten minutes and then follow me in, okay? I really like you, sweetheart, and I don’t want our first date to end like this.”
Her brain was telling her to put the car in reverse and get the hell out of dodge, but her heart was inside the cabin with a hurt and angry man who needed someone to knock some sense into him.
“Five minutes and if I come in and he’s still acting like a toddler, I’m out. Got it?”
The smile that spread over Mack’s face made her body tingle. “Got it. Damn you’re sexy when you’re riled up.”
In a flash he was slamming out of the car and into the cabin in three leaping bounds. She barely saw the back of his head disappear through the doorway before she was left sitting in her car in the middle of nowhere alone. Dropping her head to the steering wheel, she cursed herself for giving in.
Didn’t she have enough on her plate alrea
dy? Her father was determined to build on the land he had purchased, but the town was putting up roadblocks and fighting him every step of the way. If she didn’t manage to pull a miracle out of her ass and make it happen, her father would never forgive her. And yet, here she was getting herself hip deep in the middle of some stupid family drama between two cowboys she wasn’t even sure she liked.
Immediately she chided herself for lying. She knew she liked them. Both of them. And hearing about the Brooks family had just put deliciously naughty ideas into her head about what she could do with them. She knew she was asking for trouble, but her gut told her fate dropped these two sexy Texan’s into her lap for a reason. She just had to figure out if it was to help her, or hurt her.
*****
Ryker was sitting in the easy chair with yet another beer in his hand when Mack came in. He knew he had acted like an ass, but when he saw Mack giving him the stink eye over Claudia’s head it triggered an explosion of emotion in his chest. Here was a gorgeous woman, who liked beer and dancing, and wasn’t afraid to stand her ground and give him some shit, and he couldn’t have her because his brother got to her first. It fucking sucked.
“What in the ever-loving hell is your problem?” Mack’s chest was all puffed up like he was a man on a mission and Ryker snorted.
“Nothing, I was just feeling like the third wheel and figured I better get my ass out of there before I fucked up your date. What’s your problem?”
Mack had a temper, but it wasn’t obvious. In fact, it was rare for him to get really worked up about something. Ryker was always the one who lashed out when he was upset. As a kid he was always trying to have fun, but when things didn’t go his way he was easily pissed off. It was just one of the many differences in the two brothers. Their mama always compared Ryker to a hand grenade and Mack to a nuclear bomb. Both had the power to blow up and cause damage, but one was a lot more long lasting and had a greater impact with his anger. Secretly, he always envied Mack his control over his emotions, but at this moment it looked like he might have lost that prized possession.
“My problem? Really? Look you little prima donna, I know you’re unhappy, but sitting here in a chair with a case of beer and a chip on your shoulder isn’t going to give you any kind of future. You just risked yourself and everyone else by getting behind the wheel when you were too drunk to drive.”
Ryker laughed, “I was fine! I am fine! I made it here safe and sound, so take your teat back, nanny goat, and mind your own business.”
“My own business is sitting out there in her car wondering what the fuck she did wrong to send my brother on a suicide mission.”
The words were like a knife to his gut. When he stormed off he never thought it might hurt Claudia. He just knew he needed to get away. “Why did you bring her here?”
“I didn’t bring her. She brought me, because if you didn’t notice you stole my goddamn truck and left me high and dry at Robin’s.”
“You could have hitched a ride.”
“That’s it! I’m done playing up to your melodramatic hissy fit. Grow up, Ryker! You got fucked over, you failed, you dropped the ball, whatever you want to call it. You can’t go back and change it, but you sure as hell can’t wipe the slate clean and start over if you won’t let go of it. You are going to pull your balls out of your ass and apologize to her, or I’m going to kick your ass, little brother.”
Ryker stared at his older brother in shock. Sure, Mack had given him a similar lecture six months ago, but he was nowhere near this angry then. It was as though Ryker hurting Claudia had set something off in Mack. “I didn’t mean to upset her.”
Mack visibly dropped as the air and tension seeped out of his lungs. “I know that, but she doesn’t.”
“It was just too hard to watch her, and you, and know she was untouchable.”
That grabbed Mack’s attention, and his jaw fell open, “What?”
“I’ve spent a decade dating women who couldn’t hold a candle to that little firecracker, and you found her first. Not only that, but she seems genuinely interested in you, and you have nothing. No money, no house, nothing. I just don’t get it.”
The screen door creaked, and Ryker mimicked Mack’s groan when he saw Claudia’s angry visage come through the door. Cocking her blonde head to the side, she folded her arms over her chest and asked, “Are you telling me all of this was because you were jealous?”
Forcing his shame down with a gulp of his beer, Ryker gave a sharp nod. “S’pose so, sweet cheeks.”
“So you actually thought it would be better to climb behind the wheel half lit and stupid, rather than just speaking up? What kind of an immature, selfish asshat are you?” Her hazel eyes were snapping fire at him, and her full lips were clenched in a tight pucker. She was beautiful to begin with but when her temper was hot, she was a sight unlike any other. His cock twitched in his pants as he skimmed his eyes over her curvy form.
Her breasts would overflow his hands, and her hips were the perfect extra curvy size to hold onto from behind. Add in the view of her plump ass and the slope of her tiny waist and she was a pin up brought to life, complete with a blonde mane of hair. He could already envision her on her knees with her soft lips parted to suck his cock and his fist wrapped in her long locks, God she was incredible.
“Excuse me, buddy, but my eyes are up here. If you can’t remember, I have no problem blackening both of yours for you as a reminder.”
He flinched at her anger, because he knew he had been caught fantasizing, but then he chuckled at her sass. Thinking about how many women he had known in his lifetime who’d salivated at the chance to have him ogle their breasts. Claudia Schmidt was probably one of the few who wasn’t flattered to have his attention, but then what did he expect? He wasn’t a star football player anymore, or a millionaire. He was just a down on his luck disabled has-been who barely had two nickels to his name after he paid his legal team for building a case against that lying thieving bitch of a manager and his pussy accountant. Why would this rich man’s daughter, this businesswoman, want someone like him? Hell, if he tried to kiss her right now she would probably retch.
“I didn’t really consider how you felt about the matter. I just knew I needed to leave. I shouldn’t have forced Mack to take me along tonight. Sorry.”
She was eerily quiet for several moments, her face completely devoid of emotion, but her eyes were turbulent. When she spoke her voice was steady, and yet something in her stare assured him she was anything but calm.
“You’re sorry. That’s it. We’re supposed to just go on like nothing else happened because you’re sorry you broke the law, risked your life, and acted like an ass?”
“That’s right, duchess. That’s it in a nutshell. I fucked up, so sue me. Oh wait, you can’t because I don’t have shit for you to take. Can’t get blood out of a turnip. Why don’t you climb down off the pedestal you’ve put yourself on and mind your own business. I don’t know why I thought you were so hot in the first place. You’re just a spoiled little rich girl who thinks she’s better than everyone else. Go back to Austin, duchess. You don’t belong here.”
The words tasted like shit as they fell off his tongue, but he couldn’t stop them. Instead of sending her running, she flew at him in a rage slapping the beer bottle from his loose grip into the wall where is shattered and splashed all over the floor. Her booted foot planted in the center of the recliner’s footstool right between his spread knees and she shoved it down throwing him forward. He barely managed to avoid toppling out of his seat into her.
“Do you know what? I think you’re a stubborn jerk who is so deep in his own pity party he can’t see the forest through the trees. You have one big thing going for you, Ryker Thompson, and he’s standing right there,” she gestured to Mack who was gaping at her actions in shock. “Believe it or not, I think he loves you in spite of yourself. You might have fallen on hard times, but the only reason you’re a loser right now is because you are allowing it to happen. No, yo
u are welcoming it with open arms.”
Ryker stared at her in stunned fascination. Did she really just call me a loser? Yes, I believe she did, and she’s right, but it doesn’t mean I want her to know it. Jumping to his feet, he purposely stepped forward into her space to make her retreat a step. “What do you care if I’m such a loser? Disappointed the poor cowboy doesn’t have a rich brother you can sweep up so you don’t have to go without?”
“Ryker, that’s enough damn it!” Mack’s temper was barely contained. Ryker could see it on his face and in his body language. If he pushed him any harder they would end up brawling. Hell, a good brawl might be just what I need.
“Why? You want me to keep my mouth shut so you can get laid? She’s pretty but her pussy ain’t made of gold.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before the pain of Claudia’s fist impacting his nose set in and he fell backwards over the recliner and into the wall. The crack of his skull against the plaster never even registered in his brain before he blacked out.
*****
“Holy shit, Claudia! You have a hell of a right hook. Ryker? Damn it to hell, he’s out cold. Fuck.” Mack was dragging his brother out from where he was crumpled half on and half behind the now broken easy chair.
She hadn’t meant to hit him, but his arrogant attitude and insults just stung too much. When he went after Mack, she couldn’t stop herself from fighting for him. Her whole hand throbbed all the way up to her elbow, and her own pain was the only thing that kept her from laughing at the fact she had just knocked out a man at least twice her size with one punch. Sure, the chair and the wall did most of the work, but damn it, she started the chain of events, and he deserved it.
“I’m sorry, Mack—” Her voice cracked as she clutched her aching arm to her belly and stared at the unconscious man in the middle of the floor.
Mack checked his brother’s head to make sure he wasn’t bleeding and then shook his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. He earned every bit of the pain he’ll feel later.”
