Protecting What's Mine(103)

“Coffee’s ready,” Aldo called from the kitchen. “I made some of that green tea crap for you, Dreamy.”

The nickname did it.

Mack put her face in her hands, yelped when she bumped bruises. “I hate everything.”

Ty came back inside with the slam of the front door. “Cold out there. But I got some interesting news from the PD in your mother’s neighborhood,” Ty said, leveling her with a cool gaze.

Her story, her past, was leaking out, the poison oozing out and affecting the people near her.

“You’re pressing charges,” Ty told her. “I will not leave this house until you agree.” To prove his point, he toed off his boots and made himself comfortable in the armchair facing the fireplace.

Aldo shoved a mug of coffee at him.

“Pressing charges is just going to make it all worse,” she insisted.

“See that?” Luke asked, pointing at Ty. “That’s what you do. You stick.”

She’d wanted Linc to stick.

Wished she could have had the guts to ask him to stick. But neither one of them had tried hard enough. And that said something.

“You sticking around?” Luke asked Ty.

“I’ve got all the time in the world, till the doc here sees the error in her ways.”

“Same,” Aldo said.

“I have an errand to run,” Luke said, rising.

“Keep your left up,” Aldo told him, setting a mug of coffee in front of Ty. “My turn, Dreamy. Let’s talk about vulnerability.”

“Oh my God. You guys. You’re the most masculine girlfriends I’ve ever had.”

“I watched a lot of Oprah when I was recovering from having my leg blown off,” Aldo said cheerfully. “And then Ty made me read this book.”

“Did you watch the ‘standing in her shoes’ bit?” Ty interrupted.

“Fuck yeah I did.”

Ty pounded a fist to his chest. “Every time. Gets me right here”

“I need a drink,” Mack sighed.





50





Linc’s office door burst open. It had taken him over an hour to get rid of the women. He rose, prepared to brush off the next well-meaning busybody. However, he wasn’t prepared for Luke Garrison rounding his desk and connecting his fist with Linc’s face.

“What the fuck, man?” Linc demanded, holding his jaw.

Luke’s fist flew again, and he barely managed to dodge it, sending the blow glancing off his jaw.

“You knocked some sense into me once. Now it’s my turn, you stupid jackass,” Luke said.

Linc blocked the next shot and threw a defensive punch to the gut.

“That’s the spirit,” Luke grunted, grabbing his arm and dragging Linc over the desk. The computer monitor tumbled to the floor.

“What is your problem?” Linc demanded, shaking free. He delivered a quick jab to the jaw and took satisfaction in watching Luke’s head snap back.

“Hey, chief—Shit.”

“Stay out of this, Lighthorse,” Luke insisted. “This idiot needs his ass kicked.”

“No argument here.”

“Whose side are you on, Lighthorse?” Linc complained. Luke took advantage of the distraction and landed two gut punches, knocking the wind out of him.

“You finally have a woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, and you were just looking for an excuse to fuck it up.”

“Told you,” Brody said to someone else in the hallway.

“I didn’t fuck it up! She’s the one who shut me out,” Linc argued.

They exchanged rapid-fire blows.

“What the hell is going on—oh.”

There was a crowd growing in the office doorway.

“Any action on this?”

“Normally I’d go with loyalty and say the chief, but Garrison is pretty pissed.”

“There’s a difference between shutting out and shutting down, you moron,” Luke said as they grappled. He threw an elbow that made Linc’s face sing.

“She gave up first,” Linc said, grunting as he tried to get Luke in a headlock. They went down in a tangle of legs and unintelligible swearing.

“Did you even look at her when you were unleashing a lifetime of bullshit insecurities on her?” Luke demanded.

“Fuck you, asshat.”

“Did you see the bruises?”

Linc froze, and his opponent took advantage. Luke rolled, taking the top and hammering his fist into Linc’s face twice.

Linc tasted blood and fear. Mackenzie was hurt. “What bruises?”

Luke pulled his fist back again, but Linc held up his hands. “Goddammit! What bruises? Is she hurt?”

Luke grabbed him by the shirt front and shook him. “That’s something you should have figured out for yourself instead of piling onto her like an insecure dumb fuck.”

Energized by a new fury directed at some unknown threat, Linc threw Luke off him and jumped to his feet.

“Daaaaaamn,” Skyler said when she got a good look at him.

His face felt heavy and swollen. There was a cut on his forehead that was clouding his vision with a steady trickle of blood. He wondered if his nose was broken. He looked back at Luke, who was using a chair to pull himself up to his feet. The man had a cut under his eye and one on his jaw. Bruises were already starting to bloom around his cheek and eye.