Raw Deal (Larson Brothers #1)(4)

“I should go after her,” she said, taking a few steps to do so.

“Wait. Please.” Mike put a hand out but stopped short of touching her. “I might be crazy for being here. I know it’s the wrong time. I just wanted to know if there’s anything . . .” He drew a breath. “Anything I can do.”

Savannah pulled her full lips between her teeth as tears welled in her eyes. She wiped at them, every movement seeming frustrated. “I think you did enough.”

“You have to know that was not my intention.”

Her eyebrows rose. “I have to?”

Shit. He sucked at this. “No, I only mean I hope you understand. Maybe you can’t right now, I don’t know. I don’t even know who you are, I just wanted Tommy’s family to know I’m sorry.”

“Tommy was my big brother. The woman you just scared away was his wife. They had only been married a couple of years. She sees your face in her nightmares. There’s nothing you could ever do that would even come close to replacing what she’s lost.”

“I know,” he told her. He could see the resemblance between the siblings now: the dark hair, dark eyes, chiseled features. “I see Tommy’s face in my nightmares too.”

Something softened in Savannah’s expression. Zane clapped a hand on Mike’s shoulder, a let’s get the hell out of here gesture. His little brother had been right all along; he shouldn’t have come. He gave Savannah a nod and turned to head back to the Escalade.

A simple, soft “Wait” behind him stopped him in his tracks. He looked back. She cast a glance at the rest of her family, then took a few steps forward to close much of the distance between the two of them. This close, he could smell her: a faint hint of something sweet and mysterious. This close, he could see that her hair caught a few reddish highlights in the sun. “Would you meet me somewhere later? For coffee? If you really want to talk, I’ll listen.” Relief rushed through him, though the direct way she looked at him made his heart do strange things. It was as if she could strip through his mind layer by layer, exposing the truths at the core. She was welcome to them, but she might not like what she would find.

“I would love to, Savannah. You name the place. This isn’t my town.”

“Coffee and beignets, then. Café Du Monde, two hours?”

“Works for me. And thank you.”

“I’ll listen, but I can’t promise anything more than that,” she said warningly. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the congregation begin to break up. She noticed the direction he was looking and glanced over. “I have to go. If you think Rowan and I were rough on you, you’d really better get out of here before my mother sees you.”

Now Zane was tugging at him in earnest. Without another word, Savannah turned to go back to her family. Zane practically had to drag Mike away from the sight of her—the sway of her hips was mesmerizing.

“Feel better now, dumbass?” Zane asked as the two of them hustled to the waiting Escalade.

“She is f*cking incredible.”

“Oh, Jesus, man. No.”

Mike waved him to silence. “Don’t worry. I know.”





Chapter Two


Luckily, no one except Savannah and Rowan had noticed their unexpected guests, and Savannah hoped Rowan could be convinced to keep that encounter a secret for now. Savannah wasn’t one hundred percent certain how her parents would take the news of Michael Larson showing up at Tommy’s memorial, but she had enough of an idea. She didn’t want to witness any tirades the information might trigger, especially since she was meeting the man for coffee later.

Yeah, where in the hell had that come from?

She didn’t know, but gut instinct told her to hear him out. He’d traveled here, apparently—though she couldn’t remember from his stats where he was from, he’d said New Orleans wasn’t his town. So he’d cared enough to search out Tommy’s home and funeral arrangements somehow. The information hadn’t been broadcast nationwide, and they’d done their best to keep it private.

Rowan waited beside Savannah’s parents’ pearl-white BMW, arms crossed, head lowered, but at least she seemed composed. “I can’t believe that just happened,” she said as Savannah approached.

“What happened to spitting in his face?” She nudged Rowan’s arm with her elbow, earning the ghost of a smile.

“Well! He was the last person I expected to see.”

“I know. Me too. But, Rowan, he seems really remorseful. Would it make you feel better to—”

“No,” Rowan said, shaking her head. “No. Not now and probably not ever.”

Sighing, Savannah nodded. “I understand.” Looked like she was going to have to keep her coffee meeting a secret from her sister-in-law, too. Slipping away from them all in a couple of hours would probably be no easy feat even if she did think she would enjoy the time away.

It wasn’t that her family drove her nuts. They drove her freaking insane.

And Michael himself . . .

He’d been nothing like she expected, though to be fair she hadn’t known what to expect, hadn’t ever thought she would come face-to-face with him. All she’d seen of him before the fight was his glowering, barking threats and taunts. She knew he was Michael “Larceny” Larson, but in his early fighting career he’d also been called the “Red Reaper” because of a tattoo of the grim reaper on his chest, done in red instead of black. That nickname had made a bit of a comeback since Tommy’s demise.