"I'm giving you the damn courtesy to know what's up," I said.
Tate smacked me on my back. "You ain't giving us the whole story, though."
"Nope," I said. I grabbed my shot glass and threw the whiskey back. I flipped it over and slammed it on the bar. "Not a chance."
"Tell me you're some broken-hearted lover," Axel said. "Waiting for that one special woman to come back into your life."
"Eat shit," I said.
"Nailed it," Axel said. He looked at Tate and made a gun with his fingers and shot. "See, I got the wisdom of divorce. I've been through the entire process beginning to end. This guy here got lost somewhere in the middle of it."
"You don't know the half of it," I said.
"Then tell us," Axel said.
I looked right, then left. "Not a chance. We're not some high school chicks looking to share stories." I stood up from the bar stool. "I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Nobody look for me. If anything changes, I'll get in touch with someone."
"Have a safe trip," Tate said, waving a hand.
"I'll spot you your first lap dance at the strip club when you get back to take the sting away," Axel said and laughed.
I turned around, shaking my head.
That's when a fist came flying right at me.
I somehow moved out of the way just as a guy flew right by me and into the bar. Axel jumped back and looked at me with what the fuck? eyes. Tate just glanced over his shoulder and shrugged.
I grabbed the asshole by the back of his shirt and pulled. He spun around and tried to hit me again. I blocked his hit and threw a punch to his gut. I didn't want to hit a stranger but I had to calm this guy down a little.
The guy stumbled back to the bar and threw his right hand out, hitting Tate's shoulder and spilling his beer.
It was like poking a sleeping bear.
"Shit," Pecker yelled from across the bar.
I thought he was yelling because a drink spilled. No. He was yelling because Tate slowly stood up and cracked his knuckles.
"You," the guy at the bar said in a breathless voice, eyeing me.
Tate wound up and threw a right, hitting the guy in the jaw. The guy flew to the left, straight into Axel's arms.
"Holy shit," I said. "What the hell is this?"
Axel threw the guy back to a barstool. The guy was holding his jaw. He looked at me. He looked at Axel.
"It was you," he said to Axel.
"What?"
"You're hitting on my girl."
"Oh, shit," I said, shaking my head.
I almost took two punches for no good reason at all. Because Axel was hitting on a taken woman.
"This is your problem, brother," I said to Axel.
"You tried to hit my friend," Axel said. He grabbed the guy's shirt. "You take cheap shots like that? Huh? You want to do this the right way?"
Axel stood the guy up and threw him back. He put up his fists.
"Goddammit, Tate," Pecker said from behind the bar. "Control your boys."
"Not my problem," Tate said. "We're off the clock."
The guy just held his jaw as Axel stood there ready to fight.
Fuck.
I stepped in between the two. I grabbed them each by the shirt. I looked at Axel. "Go get a drink. Find someone else to mess with tonight." I pushed at him. Then I looked at the guy who tried to hit me. "And you. You ever try to fucking touch me or one of my brothers again and I'm going to break your jaw. Now pay your fucking tab and get the fuck out of this bar."
I shoved the guy back.
He put his hands up and stumbled away.
I looked around the bar and realized that was my cue to get the hell out of there.
I did, going back to my apartment, and I had a few more drinks there. I got good and drunk and stood on the balcony of my apartment and looked out into the night. I swayed as I gripped the railing tight.
My mind peeled itself away from reality, slipping back into everything I thought I knew. What was supposed to happen. What I believed in and what should have happened. Goddammit, if she could have only seen me now. Not the wild guy acting like a fool outlaw. Not the guy that did a little time behind bars. Not even the guy on the beach running his own shop. But the guy right now. The guy who was living life waiting for a day like tomorrow to make everything right.
To fix everything.
I shut my eyes and lowered my head.
I didn't want to bury another ring in the dirt.
I woke up on the balcony and popped up. My throat was dry as hell and my head gently throbbed. That was nothing a bottle of water and a couple ibuprofen couldn't fix. I grabbed some coffee and changed into a fresh set of clothes. My room still smelled a little like Mary, so I opened the windows and let it start to air out. I sat on the edge of the bed for a second, rubbing my face.