The Brody Bunch Collection: Bad Boy Romance

by Sienna Valentine

  6

  Ash

  “Oh, shit.”

  Not the best choice of words. I could only hope they wouldn’t be the ones etched into my tombstone.

  As soon as I heard the voice, I knew who it was. I also knew I was a major ass. And I knew exactly why the mention of the fair had sounded so damn familiar to me. I could now place where that nagging sensation was coming from.

  Slowly, I turned toward her, a grim smile on my face. “Hey, Tanya,” I said, my stomach plummeting at the sight of her scowl.

  Tanya… the girl I was supposed to be meeting here tonight. The one I’d made a promise to before Hannah and I hooked up and made our deal. The girl I’d forgotten all about while looking into Hannah’s eyes.

  Would either of them find that sentiment romantic? I was willing to bet not.

  And could I blame them? Nope.

  “You are such an asshole!” Tanya hissed, pushing on my chest. It didn’t do her much good, and part of me wanted to take a step back just to give her the satisfaction of having accomplished something. I could see her baby blue eyes were wet with tears, and not just from anger. Sure, she was furious… but she was also clearly heartbroken.

  Now that part wasn’t my fault. I’d made it clear to her what the ground rules were between us. If nobody got attached, then nobody got hurt.

  Still… to have completely forgotten her…

  I raised my hands in a show of surrender as Tanya came at me again. She was short, probably just north of five feet even, but chock full of spunk. “Easy there, love,” I told her, and instantly regretted it. Love was one of those pet names I threw around without any regard for how it might be misconstrued. It was how I referred to Hannah, and as far as she knew, it was a moniker reserved only for her. But now I’d shattered that illusion. Now she knew how meaningless the word was.

  Only it wasn’t meaningless when I said it to Hannah. I… I cared. Maybe not as much as she deserved, but… don’t we all have to start somewhere?

  “You told me to meet you here!” Tanya continued, hitting me with her purse. I flinched; might as well do something to make her feel good about herself. “You told me to wait for you, that we’d check out this little hideaway behind the mirrors and then steam them up together. Why?” She balled her hands into fists at her sides. “So I could see you with her?!”

  I was about to respond, clumsily, when Hannah butted in. “Not a player, huh?” I looked at her over my shoulder. She was leaning against the wall, arms folded across her chest, a distance in her eyes that hadn’t been there a moment before. At the drop of a hat, she’d refortified the same wall between us that I’d been so desperately trying to tear down. My heart clenched. Goddammit…

  “It’s not like that,” I insisted, trying to find my footing between two majorly pissed off women. “Look—she’s not…” I turned to the girl in question. “You’re not my girlfriend. You know that. We’ve talked about this. Repeatedly!”

  “And that makes it okay?” Tanya sneered. Where Hannah was cold as ice, Tanya was a ball of flame. She was shaking with fury, her beautiful face contorted with the magnitude of her indignation. “We’re not dating, or whatever, so you can just… humiliate me? With… with her?!”

  The way she spat out the word, it was like even acknowledging Hannah’s existence was insulting. My expression hardened. I should’ve known this was going to be a problem. Tanya and I had enjoyed a “friends with benefits” relationship for months now, which wasn’t something I normally did—I didn’t want to accidentally give anyone false hope. She’d insisted that wouldn’t be an issue. She’d told me, over and over again, that I could go as I pleased. Do as I pleased. Who I pleased. But there was always a look in her eyes, a faraway sadness she did her best to cover up. And the last couple weeks, she’d made attempts to get me to commit to something other than a good time. Little things, like going shopping with her or hanging out with her and her friends. Boyfriend things.

  I had refused every time. And I’d told her why. This just wasn’t our lot. Tanya and I were never meant to be real, honest-to-God lovers.

  That didn’t excuse what I’d done just now. But it sure as hell didn’t give her any license to talk to Hannah that way, either.

  Before I could intervene, Hannah waved a hand. “Whatever,” she said, stepping around me and heading for the exit. “I’m really not in the mood to deal with your man-whore bullshit, Ash. Or your hysterical tramp.”

  Shit. She shouldn’t have said that. And I shouldn’t have let her.

  This was not deescalating the situation. This was not smoothing things over at all.

  Just as I stepped forward to try to put myself between the women, Tanya reached out and grabbed Hannah by the arm, pressing hard with her nails. “Who the fuck do you think you’re calling a tramp, bitch?”

  Hannah stopped. Just slightly, she inclined her head. Looked at Tanya’s hand on her arm. Then looked in Tanya’s eyes. “You really don’t wanna do that,” she said way too quietly. Too evenly.

  I seconded that sentiment. “Tanya, don’t…”

  “Fuck you!” Tanya replied. I wasn’t sure who she meant—me or Hannah. Probably both.

  She yanked Hannah toward her, digging those sharp nails of hers in deeper to her flesh, and I watched helplessly as Hannah went with the movement, using the momentum Tanya had generated against her. As soon as she was close enough, she grabbed a fistful of Tanya’s hair and jerked, snapping her head back so hard I heard her neck make a sound of protest. Tanya let go and shrieked, but Hannah wasn’t done. Silently, she pulled Tanya out the emergency exit of the funhouse and threw her, face-first, onto the ground so hard she might as well have body-slammed her.

  Chills gripped my spine. The whole time, Hannah’s expression had never faltered. Not once. There was no emotion there at all, really. Not even a smirk as she stared at Tanya, sprawled in the dirt. The bouncer in me was impressed that Hannah could handle herself, but the more human part of me was horrified it had come to this.

  “Fuck,” I said as the door alarm blared. I stepped around Hannah to help Tanya up, hoping like hell she was all right. The last thing anyone needed was for her to press charges.

  “You whore!” Tanya raged, clawing the air in the direction of Hannah’s face the moment I helped her to her feet. I circled my arms around her waist and sighed, holding her back. “I’ll kill you, you white trash piece of shit! I’ll rip your fucking eyes out!”

  “Goddammit, Tanya!” I hissed, clenching down on her, reminding her that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “That’s enough!”

  Hannah shrugged. “If she wants to go, we’ll go,” she said. I shot her a withering look.

  “Not helping,” I gritted, but she didn’t seem particularly interested in doing anything to make my life easier right about now.

  Worst of all, we were drawing a crowd. Tanya, despite my best efforts, simply would not shut the fuck up. She was still doing her damnedest to make it out of my grasp, flailing and kicking, slashing the air with her nails, and screaming all manner of four-letter words—and then some—at the top of her lungs. I could see a few men were eyeing me pretty hard, like maybe I shouldn’t be holding on to her so tightly, but I knew the moment I eased up Tanya would have an elbow in my face, wrest free from my grip, and Hannah would put her down a second time.

  Jesus. What the hell had I done to deserve this?

  Oh, right. I was an asshole.

  “Let her go,” someone said next to me, and I looked over to see security had arrived. Or at least, one guy had. His eyes were dark, almost threatening, under the brim of his SECURITY cap.

  I frowned. I’d worked a couple fairs myself, and every time, they’d given us a matching shirt to go along with that cap, making us stand out even more. But this guy was wearing a plain, black muscle tank that didn’t have any kind of logo on it at all. Was the carnival dropping their standards?

  I almost asked him about it. But Tanya was wriggling incessantly, hissing thr
ough her teeth like an angry cat. “You heard him! Let go of me!”

  With an exasperated sigh, I did exactly as I was told.

  Tanya teetered a moment and I reached out to stop her fall, but the security guard got there first. He engulfed her wrist in his massive hand. Jesus, he moved fast—someone with reflexes like that had to be one of us, one of the “muscle for hire” crowd. He glared at me as he set Tanya right and I took a step back, holding up my hands.

  “We’re cool,” I told him. “The girls got into it. That’s all.”

  The guard’s eyes shifted to where Hannah had been standing mere moments before. When I turned to follow his gaze, I could see that she was gone.

  Goddammit, Hannah. The last thing I’d needed was for her to go disappearing into the crowd. This just wasn’t my day.

  Luckily, the security guard seemed sympathetic enough. “Looks like you’ve got a runner. Do I need to track her down too? Make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble?”

  “Yes,” Tanya said. “She was—”

  “No,” I interrupted her. “She was defending herself.” I lowered my voice a little. “Look, man… I’m a bouncer. I was just trying to get them to calm down. The other girl—she’s fine now. She’s not going to be a problem.” I looked at Tanya, hating the words that would have to come out of my mouth next. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can say the same for her.”

  As true as it was, I hated that I was having Tanya escorted from the premises by security. I hated that I’d caused her pain, and I hated that it had come to this. I’d ruined Hannah’s night, broke Tanya’s heart, and now the best I could do was keep them separated until Tanya came to her senses. She needed to go for a drive. Cool off. I knew, outside of her anger, that she was a reasonable person. But I also knew her well enough to know that if I let this go, she’d just launch herself at Hannah again. She needed time. Distance.

  I grabbed my wallet, fishing out a business card. Most bouncers, short-term security personnel, and other “muscle for hire” were independent contractors. It allowed us to set our own hours, choose our own jobs, and stay flexible, which was especially important for the boys in the reserves. But that meant you had to do your own advertising, so to speak, to make sure potential employers knew you existed. My business cards were nothing fancy, but they had my name and number on them, and I figured that’d be good enough for the security guard.

  “Here,” I said. “In case you need to bring me in later, have me explain things to your boss.” That usually quieted everybody down, knowing that someone else was willing to take the heat, should push come to shove.

  The guard took the card from me. He looked it over before stuffing it into his pocket and giving me a nod. Tanya glared at me from beneath a shock of her blonde hair as he brusquely, but not too harshly, dragged her away from the scene she’d made moments before.

  The crowd around us was finally starting to disperse, and that just left me feeling even worse. Now that I was no longer useful, the guilt hit me like a sucker punch. I tried so hard to be the guy everyone wanted, the guy who made everyone feel special. But my interest in Hannah was… abnormal. It wasn’t completely jiving with the rules I’d set for myself and others. And that had made me slip. And now the mask I’d so carefully constructed for myself—the charming guy who could make all your dreams come true, for just one night—was shattered.

  I moved through the sea of bodies, parting them easily, scanning the tops of their heads. Hannah’s hair was a beautiful, chocolate brown I reckoned came out of a bottle, but all the same, I’d never seen it worn so perfectly before. I searched diligently for that perfect shade, squinting against the neon all around me, until I caught sight of it again. Hannah had found one of those automatic photo booths and was slipping into it with another girl with spun gold hair.

  Beth?

  I navigated the competing tides of pedestrian traffic, using the advantage of my stature to clear a path to the booth. But once I got there, I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. So, awkwardly, I knocked on the side of it. “Hannah…?”

  She reached out, pulling aside the red velvet curtain between us. The look in her eyes was steely. Hard. “Not now. I’m talking to my sister.”

  She moved to close the curtain again and I took her by the arm. “Hannah, wait… Let me just…”

  She stopped. Looked at my hand. Then up at me. “You did see what I did to Tanya back there. Right?”

  I let her go, not because I thought she actually could—or would—hurt me, but because it was painfully obvious she really didn’t want me touching her right now. “Please, let me explain. It’s not as bad as it seems…”

  Hannah shrugged. “Seems like you’re a player, Ash. Just like I said. But hey, I’m not mad about that. That’s just you.”

  Funny. She sounded mad as hell.

  And just like Tanya, I could sense that there was no point in trying to reason with her until her fury had passed.

  “At least tell me what’s going on,” I said, much softer now, much less urgent. I was trying to slip back into the persona of the cool, calm, and collected alpha male, but the reality was I didn’t like how thoroughly Hannah withdrew from me. Something was off there. Something I wanted to fix.

  “Girl talk,” she snapped, withdrawing into the booth again before I could stop her. “Why don’t you see if you have any other jilted lovers hanging out around here, just waiting in the wings?”

  I scrubbed my face with my palms. “I told you, Hannah, it’s not like that. Tanya just…” But she was already talking to Beth again, and in a language I couldn’t even begin to decipher. What was that? German? Latin?

  I knocked again on the photo booth. Hard. “Either you come out here and talk to me, or I’m coming in there.”

  “…hou vol,” Hannah said quietly—I was guessing to Beth—before she pulled the curtain back again and hissed distinctly at me, “Seriously? You won’t fit, you moose. You’ve got shoulders like a goddamn linebacker!”

  I glared at her. “Yes, seriously, Hannah. Look…” I lowered my voice. If Beth wasn’t sitting so close to her, I wouldn’t have bothered—she was really pissing me off—but I gathered that the best way to win back her good graces right now didn’t involve getting her in trouble with her sisters.

  “The whole reason I’m here,” I whispered just loud enough for only her to hear, “is because you wanted me to be. You wanted protection—you wouldn’t tell me from what, or from who, and normally those would be two major red flags for a guy like me, but I agreed anyway, because you’re hot as hell and you seemed like you really needed a… a friend. Ally. Whatever. And the whole reason you’re here tonight, with me, is because you made me enlist my brothers—two of the most insufferable pricks in all the world—for the job of protecting your sisters. You’re strong as hell, Hannah. I see that now. Both inside and out. But if you could handle it yourself, why would you have gone through all this trouble, huh?” I didn’t like how pleading my voice sounded, but there it was. “Now come on. Tell me what’s up. I know it’s not just Tanya. It can’t be.”

  For a long moment, I really thought Hannah was going to argue. She looked like she wanted to. The hand that clutched the edge of the curtain was fisted tight, knuckles pale. Her eyes were hard and glinting like malachite, like absinthe before you pour the water over the sugar cube. She was a pillar of defiance, her expression a challenge. Go on, asshole, she seemed to say without even opening her mouth, try to get me to trust you again. I dare you.

  I didn’t blame her. Not really. But I still needed to know what was going on.

  Finally, she lowered her hackles and glanced around us. I could see her gaze shift over the faces in the crowd, hypervigilant, completely aware of everyone and everything that surrounded her. Lowering her voice, she pulled back the curtain so I could see Beth and said, “Beth caught the tail end of our little funhouse adventure.” I reckoned by her tone she didn’t mean the fun part of that adventure, only the violent end it came to. �
�I was filling her in when she told me…” Slowly, she swept her eyes back to meet mine. “Someone grabbed Sarah.”

  My muscles coiled hard, ready to propel me in whichever direction Hannah pointed. “Where? When? Did Reid…”

  “Relax,” she said, though it seemed she could stand to follow that advice herself. “She’s okay. Wyatt saw them just a few minutes ago, getting off the Ferris wheel. Reid took a punch, but they’re both okay.”

  I glanced at Beth. She smiled at me and waved. I waved back at her, forgetting for a moment the gravity of the situation. God, she was just so… spunky. It was like being followed around by a tiny cocker spaniel.

  When I looked back at Hannah, I was reminded again of what this could mean. Her gaze was far away and her teeth were embedded in her lip, peeling the skin off it. I wanted to stop her, but she looked so lost in thought I wasn’t sure it was safe.

  “Why?” I asked Hannah. She didn’t answer, so I asked again. “I mean… did Wyatt say why?”

  Beth was the one to answer. “He said the guy might have been drunk. Apparently, intoxicated men grabbing women whichever way they please is something that’s not so uncommon out here in the English world.”

  I winced. Now that was a condemnation if I’d ever heard one. “It’s not…” I started to say, but that was a lie. With a sigh, I admitted, “Yeah, okay, but thankfully there are guys like Reid to stop guys like that.”

  “Lucky Sarah,” Hannah murmured. She looked at Beth. “Where’s Wyatt now?”

  “Getting me cotton candy,” Beth said. “I asked him to so I could speak with you privately.”

  “Is this kind of secrecy really necessary?” I asked them both, arching a brow. “I mean… doesn’t it benefit me and my brothers to know what’s going on so we can help protect you from it?”

  Hannah shook her head at me with a look. One that said, You wouldn’t understand. I hated when people looked at me like that—like they assumed I was dumb. Like I couldn’t possibly be strong and smart.