Loving War(52)

Arms try to wrap around me, but I’m swinging and connecting rapidly, my brutal training sessions with Jax finally paying off. One hit connects solidly with a face and breaks a nose, and then I turn and land another one across a jaw that has teeth crunching.

But five on one turns out to be shitty odds, and this time when arms wrap around me, they manage to hold me back as a bloody-mouth Pete steps forward with fury blazing in his eyes.

“Rich, pampered pricks like you shouldn’t fuck with guys like me, Sterling.”

A hard punch connects with my gut, the blow powerful enough to send my body in a reflexive curl, but the strong bastards holding me just lift me back up. Pete’s face isn’t as fucked up as I was hoping it would be, but I still manage to laugh.

“This rich, pampered prick kicked your ass all by himself. I didn’t need a bunch of gorillas holding you back to do it. I merely had an audience.”

Pete scowls and pulls his fist back. I stare, waiting without blinking, ready to take the hit without giving him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.

“Hands in the air! Hands in the air!” foreign voices yell. I figured they’d react quickly after getting a call from Dane Sterling.

I smile as curses are spewed, and Pete tries to run through the back gate. Unfortunately for him, there are two cops with guns drawn on the other side of that gate, their commanding voices threatening him as he slowly raises his hands in defeat.

“You, too! Hands in the air!” a cop yells at me, and I comply, smiling the whole damn time.

“My name is Kode Sterling. This is my brother’s club. I was jumped while trying to leave, and I want to press charges.”

“You motherfucker!” Pete roars. “This asshole jumped me months ago! If he’s pressing charges, then so am I!”

He can say that all he wants. Pete’s face has healed up nicely during these months, and Dane shredded the footage of that night long ago to cover our asses.

I frown when I see my phone has been trampled on the ground. That’ll have to go on my never-ending list of things to do—buy a new damn phone. Then I’ll have to wait on them to finish swapping all my info—

Cold steel on my wrists snaps me out of my inner reverie. I’m being cuffed like all the others, and the cop behind me leads me to the car to start making calls. He takes my wallet to search for ID, and when he feels satisfied that I’m telling the truth, he moves behind me to remove the cuffs.

“We’ll need the video surveillance to corroborate your story.”

I grin while nodding. “I’ll call my brother so that it’s all legit. He’ll come—” Dane pulls up, jumping out of the car with Rain and his sister, Britt, on his heels “—right now.”

The cop turns as Dane rushes over, and Rain runs to my side to investigate my injuries. Fortunately for me, they’re nowhere nearly as bad as they could have been if the police hadn’t shown up when they did. Five on one never ends well for the one. Not even I’m that badass.

“Any idea who these men are?” a cop asks me.

“Just the bald one that was running his mouth. That’s Pete Mercer. You’ll find he has a warrant out for his arrest for violating a restraining order held by Tria Noles.”

The cop calls in the information I just gave him, while Rain curses me for getting into a fight. I can’t wait to tell Tria that Pete is going back to jail. He just got caught jumping a Sterling in Sterling Shore. Big fucking mistake.





Chapter 18



TRIA



Rain is driving me nuts. I swear she calls me more everyday. I’ve already talked to her once today.

“Your sister is seriously freaking out. Maybe she’d feel better if she knew you were safely tucked away with Kode,” Brin says.

Sighing, I think that over. “I wish. Rain and Kode have history. I’m still dealing with that. My entire life revolved around everyone seeing Rain, but looking right through me. Kode is a lot like me in that respect. Dane is the shining star in their family. But at the same time, Kode was like everyone else. He never saw me until he stopped seeing Rain.”

I sound poetic again. More like a sad poet. Maybe some of Poe’s work won’t sound so disturbing if I read it now.

“So you think she has feelings for him? Or him for her?”

My laughter comes out before I can stop it, and then I shake my head. “No. Rain is beyond in love with Dane. She never saw Kode as more than a friend. And I don’t think Kode has any lingering feelings for her. I know he had the hots for her, but if it was gone that easily, then it couldn’t have been a very long crush.”

Obviously Kode developed a small crush for a short period of time. He’s an intense guy, so it just looked like a bigger deal than it was. Right?