“Yes. I’ve been wanting a good beer.” Janson rolled his eyes and turned towards the door. “Coming?”
I wanted to be anywhere else than somewhere she might hear.
“Naturally.”
It was a dive bar, a hole in the wall. The kind of place where no one asked why you were there, and no one really wanted to know. I loved that about McKenna’s. It meant that I could go there and sit for hours, and no one would bother me. No one would recognize me. Except Vick, the bartender, and a few of the long-time patrons, but they just knew me as “Grey” and nothing else.
“Hey man, been a while since you’ve been in here, what can I get for you?” Vick asked. He was already reaching for my favorite brand of bourbon.
“You know what I like,” I said, smiling as I eased down onto the stool. I gave him a wink, and he chuckled then slid the drink over to me. “Keep it coming, man. I’ve had one hell of a week.”
“Join the club, I’ve had fucking college kids in here all week,” he pointed over to the billiards room, and I heard it, the annoying noises of frat boys and asshats. Jesus, fuck they were loud.
“I can sympathize,” I said nodding to the man. “Get yourself something strong, on me.”
“So you are really going to go through with it?” Janson asked. He waved at Vick who handed him a beer.
“With what?” He was getting on my fucking nerves. I gripped the glass a little harder and took a swig of it. Alcohol. Sweet fucking alcohol. That was exactly what I needed.
“The marriage.” He acted like it was obvious, but I had no idea what he was talking about until he said it.
Fuck. Joanna.
I clenched my jaw. The marriage. Joanna was going to be bound to me no matter if she wanted it or not, all because I wanted to show her ass off at some fancy party. I ruined her life.
She was never going to forgive me but fuck. I would at least make her want me.
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I asked. “My father thinks it is the best course of action, her uncle is demanding it-” I shook my head. “She doesn’t fucking want it.”
“Is that the only thing you regret?” he asked.
“What?”
“Well, it sounds like you are more concerned with how she feels than how you feel.” Janson looked at me with knowing eyes. They were the same fucking ones my mom gave me when I presented Joanna to her.
Did they all fucking know my weakness?
I blinked. “I don’t like forcing women to do anything they don’t want to, period.”
“Right, but you sound like marrying her is a good thing.” Janson raised his eyebrow at me and took a swallow of his beer.
I thought about her, all of her. Her tight body. That smart mouth. It gave me the fucking tingles. What the hell was wrong with me?
“There could be worse things. I mean, I had to get married sometime-“my voice trailed off. My mother was right. I needed to settle down, and if I was going to do it, might as well have it be a woman like Joanna. A woman who made me hard just thinking about her.
“Seriously? And you aren’t itching to find another woman to dip your wick?” he asked, looking around the bar. There were some pretty woman there tonight. Trashy, but pretty. Normally I’d be all for it, but fuck, she was laying in my bed waiting for me.
And that was an offer I didn’t want to refuse.
“Wow, man. Wow.” Janson said then waved his hand for another beer. “Well, if that’s settled then we really need to talk what we came here to talk about.”
“David,” I said. Janson was pulling out all the fucking stops tonight. “What about him?”
“He’s been fucking sniffing around. Dipping his fingers into your shit.” Janson paused then looked me over. “You don’t even fucking know, do you?”
“Know what?” I asked. I may have been naïve, but it was clear I needed an education.
“Fuck, we got a lot of catching up to do.” Janson shook his head. “I saw him last night, with your father.”
“What?” he might have been a Fitzgerald bastard, but that didn’t mean daddy-dearest wanted anything to do with him. Sure, he gave him a job, set him up nice, but he didn’t openly admit who he was. Not that we didn’t all know. It just wasn’t done.
“He was beating the fuck out of the O’Malley boys with your dad last night. Turns out they owed a pretty big fucking debt. Something about heroin profits?”
I nodded. Part of my dad’s business was infecting the community with that poison, and those low-level shits were perfect distributors. Must’ve shortchanged him on the profits.
Sometimes my dad liked to collect the debts himself.
“And he brought the apple of his eye along?” I asked bitterness dripping in my voice.
My dad liked David. Thought he was a good business person. But he wasn’t ever seen with him, at least not in that capacity. “That bastard.”
It was usually me.
Fuck.
He was stepping into my role. My dad had always planned for this. Always. Raise two rival sons, hone them off each other, and then whoever was the most powerful would come out on top. He expected the other one to sink to the bottom, of the Bay.
I could feel the tension rising in my arms. The anger spreading through my face. My father had made the first move. He’d put David in a position where I had to counter.
It was deliberate, and I knew it, but that didn’t mean I could resist the bait. Fuck. I was too angry to think, I needed to bash some fucking heads.
Then I remembered Vick’s problem. I stood and grabbed the now full glass and headed towards the pool tables.
“Where are we going?” Janson asked.
“To have a little fun,” I answered, the smile on my face vicious. “Let Vick know we’ll cover any damage to his place.” I winked at him and headed right for those entitled assholes with the pool sticks and their smug faces.
Someone was going to get a beating on the house, just like my drinks.
“Jesus Christ, Greyson,” Janson swore at me, but he was right the fuck behind me.
Joanna
“What the hell happened to you two?” I asked, trying to hide my horror as the two of them stumbled into the penthouse. Janson had a busted lip and bloody nose, and Greyson was going to have a shiner in the morning.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Greyson asked. His voice was dark and angry as he glared at me. They weren’t exactly stealthy as they banged on the door, trying to steady themselves while they searched for their keys. I’d opened the door before they even inserted a key into the lock.
“Because you woke me up?” I tried not to let my disdain show. I assessed them with new eyes. What I assumed was shit-face drunk was just slightly buzzed. I could tell by their hand-eye coordination that they were a little inebriated, but there was no slurred speech, no outrageous behavior.
They were just clumsy half beaten assholes.
“Did you take the beating, or are the other guys worse?” I asked, pulling them both in and shutting the door behind them.
“Put on some clothing.” Greyson’s face was red with anger and I looked down. I was wearing a nightgown, but the soft silk left very little to the imagination. And outline of my breasts, my hips, even the texture of my nipples showed through it. Still, the way he said it tempted me not to do as he asked. It begged me to do the opposite. I wanted to strip off and tell him to go fuck himself.
But I walked over to the bedroom and grabbed my robe.
“To answer your question, it was two on five and I feel really bad for their parents. They’ve got some drunk and disorderly charges to deal with on top of the hospital bills.” Greyson seemed pleased with himself even when Janson looked surly next to him.
“You beat up kids?” I asked.
“College men who were under the impression that they were in their physical prime. Don’t worry, we disabused them.” Greyson grabbed me and pulled me down into his lap. It was then that I smelled the wave of bourbon on him. He reeked of it, and yet it set off his own scent and his cologne and just the smell of it on his breath was slightly intoxicating.
I pushed away from him but he only held me tighter. “You are a fucking brute.”
“I know it,” he smiled and then swooped down to kiss me, his lips bruising mine as he took my lips. I couldn’t fight it, not for long. I didn’t want to. I melted right there in his lap.
“Hey, asshole,” Janson said as he sunk down into the leather chair. “You seriously going to do this right here in front of me?”
“What, you wanna watch?” Greyson said a smirk painted on his face.
Janson screwed up his lips and glared. “No, I wanted you to fucking get off the couch so I can get a head-start on this fucking hangover.”
“You didn’t need to drink the whole bottle of gin Vick offered you for ridding him of those idiots,” Greyson answered. He stood and pulled me up with him. I didn’t really understand what they were bantering about, but I didn’t care. He had his arms around me and that was all I wanted. No matter what argument my rational mind came up with that was the truth. I wanted to be there, wrapped up in his arms. No matter what he did.
“Fee for services rendered. Pest extermination.” Janson explained. “We were helping the barkeep with those kids. They were assholes.”