by Sophie Oak
“I’m not giving you a beer.” Sawyer rolled his eyes at Seth.
“Hey, you should get your hands off her.” Logan seemed to have stopped worrying about his moms once he finally caught sight of what was happening with Holly.
“Hey!” Seth followed his friend’s eyes and stopped bitching about his lack of a beer. He came off his stool and started making his way toward men who outweighed his skinny ass by a hundred pounds of muscle. “I don’t think she wants you touching her.”
“You two kids better step the fuck back, and blondie there can come with us, too.” The biggest of the mean assholes, whom he now numbered one through five since he would prefer to kill them in a neat order because when it came to killing, he was a little OCD, managed to get a hand in blondie’s hair. He tugged back.
“My name is Laura, bastard. I’m the blondie who’s going to kick your ass.” She struggled, trying to get those killer heels into his foot.
Max took a punch to his gut, but it oddly seemed to make him happy. He threw himself at his opponent, his fists flying.
Everyone got in on the action. Almost faster than his eyes could track, the entire bar erupted in pure chaos. Bishop sighed and eyed the door, hoping for a clear path out. The truth was none of this was his problem. Holly had come to the wrong place looking to get laid. The blonde chick was obviously in some sort of trouble, likely on the run from something she’d done. The two kids were obnoxious, and a near-death experience would just toughen them up. Max Harper seemed to have found his nirvana, and the dude behind the bar was a baby criminal with the patch to prove it.
Not his problem.
Nell, on the other hand, was. He took her hand and started to lead her out.
“Henry, what are you doing?” Nell asked, her cruelty-free shoes scooting across the floor.
Bishop kept walking. “Getting you out of here. They don’t want to join in a sharing circle, Nell. You’re going to get hurt.”
“My friends are already getting hurt.” She tried to pull away from him. “What’s wrong with you? We can’t leave them.”
He heard a crash and someone screaming. He totally could leave them. He was going to get a headache. “They’ll be fine.”
She pulled at his arm, finally dropping to the floor, her dead weight causing him to turn. He was surprised to see tears streaming down her face. He was amazed at how much the sight kicked him firmly in the gut. “You go on. I have to go help my friends.”
She weighed maybe a hundred and fifteen pounds. She’d almost surely never been in a fight in her life. She claimed she abhorred violence, and he believed her.
“They’re fighting, Nell. What are you going to do?” Bishop asked.
“I don’t know, but I can’t leave them.” She got to her feet.
“You’re going to get hurt.”
“Then I get hurt. I’ll hurt worse if I know I didn’t try. Let me go.” She would do it, he suddenly understood. She would walk into that chaos and try to talk reason to people who would just as likely kill her. She was stupid, and Bishop sort of admired her. He finally got what Sawyer had been trying to explain. Nell believed, but even more than that, Nell was willing to put herself on the line for her beliefs. They weren’t empty words to her. They were who she was.
He pulled her back. “I will take care of it on one condition.”
“Take care of it?” She was shouting over the chaos. “How?”
He wasn’t about to tell her the how of it. “I’ll take care of it but you have to go out with me tonight and you can’t blame me for what I’m about to do.”
She nodded. “Don’t kill anyone, Henry. That kind of karma is hard to shake.”
He had so much of that karma he was up to his ears in it, but he just gave her a nod. “And, Nell, don’t watch. Just trust me. Can you trust me?”
She put a hand on his chest and closed her eyes. “Don’t get hurt, Henry.”
It was five against one, like that could hurt him. The main problem he had was saving the civilians, though Max Harper was doing a fine job on his own. He was gleefully taking apart his guy and Sawyer had another in a headlock. Asshole Number One was trying to pull both Holly and Laura around the bar, likely to get them to the parking lot. Assholes Three and Five were dealing with the kids. Three had Seth Stark’s lanky body dangling from his hand, the kid’s sneakers kicking for the second time that day. Logan was faring better surprisingly. He was taking a chair to his asshole’s back.
Bishop started with the girls. He walked straight up to Asshole One, no hesitation.
“Get back or I’ll have to kill…” Asshole One started in a gruff voice, but Bishop was already close enough. He let his booted foot come back and kicked the fucker’s balls so hard he was pretty sure they now resided somewhere next to his large intestine.
The big guy dropped his hold on the women and went down with a low groan. This was the moment when he would normally give his opponent a nice adjustment to vertebrae C1 and C2 and then no one ever had to worry about him again, but he’d made a promise so he merely picked up the nearest bottle. Vodka. No great loss. One little tap and the glass was broken and the asshole was out for a while.
“Thanks.” The blonde, Laura, put a hand on her lower abdomen. She’d gone pale, the blood draining from her face. “I think I might have popped a few stitches.”
“Go sit with Nell and we’ll make sure you get to a hospital.” Bishop turned and assessed his next victim. Though he really thought the Stark kid was obnoxious, he was also turning a nice shade of blue. If Bishop had his way, he’d get this guy with one punch to the solar plexus. He would break the man’s xiphoid process, neatly shoving it into his diaphragm and causing an almost instant death. Instead, he took the boring route and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, cutting off the blood flow to his brain and causing a very quick trip to nighty-nightville.
Seth Stark hit the ground, his chest heaving. “Thanks.”
“Go protect the girls.” He didn’t really intend for Seth to protect anyone, but he needed to give the kid something to do.
“Logan,” he started, looking back to his best friend.
“Is doing just fine.” Logan was a mean shit in a fight. His form sucked ass, but he made up for it with pure bile and rage. It was a beautiful thing. And he had to stop it because Nell would be upset by the blood.
He decided to take this shithead out long range. He grabbed Max Harper’s empty beer bottle and aimed for the dude’s meaty head. One nice thunk and Logan was left with a completely defeated opponent.
Logan looked down at the man, scratching his head. “Did I do that?”
“Sawyer, Max, finish them off or I’ll do it for you.” Those two were perfectly capable of handling it.
Max punched out one last time, blood coming off his fist as he broke his opponent’s nose. He got to his feet with a frown on his face. “Spoilsport. I was having fun.”
Sawyer finally seemed to find the right angle to cut off his guy’s circulation. His opponent went limp, and he slid to the floor.
“That took you long enough. You need to practice more,” Bishop said. It had been a sloppy takedown.
“Who the hell are you? Where did you learn that shit?” Sawyer asked, new respect in his eyes.
He learned that shit in Delta Force and later refined it in the CIA. Yeah, he wasn’t telling anyone that. “Krav Maga classes.” He stretched his hands out, popping every knuckle, and gave them his best professorial smile. “I take it with the other history professors at my college. You have to keep the body limber, too, you know.”
“Henry, can I open my eyes now?” Nell’s voice carried across the room.
“Yes, sweetheart. It’s over and everyone is alive.” He hoped. The beer bottle to the head had been a little stronger than he would have liked. Nope. He was still breathing. Excellent. The asshole would only be brain damaged, but he hadn’t seemed that smart before.
“Idiot youngsters, come on. The first and only beer is on me. Y
ou did good, boys.” Sawyer popped the tops on two cold ones.
Nell flew across the room. One minute Bishop was standing alone and the next his arms were full of Nell.
He wrapped her up and hugged her close. Something settled inside him when she was in his arms. He didn’t even try to pretend like he wasn’t smelling her hair.
“You did it. Thank you, Henry. Thank you.” Nell squeezed him tight.
“Guys, can y’all take it from here?” Holly asked. “I’m going to take Laura into Del Norte and get her looked at. She had surgery a week ago. I’m really sorry. I’m just going to stop doing this. It just gets me in trouble. If my luck holds, my soul mate is in Russia or Africa or someplace. Just not here.”
“I’ll drive you,” Max said. “Rye would have my head if I didn’t.”
Sawyer looked up from the bar. “How about you, professor? Want a drink? It’s on the house.”
“No,” he said, unable to stop staring at Nell, who was looking at him like he was a goddamn hero. “I can’t. I have a date.”
Chapter Four
Nell walked out of her room and wondered if she was just doomed to be “friends” with people. Was she one of those women who just fell firmly into that class for all men? Two hours after Henry had dropped her off at her room at Mountain and Valley, she suspected just that. He’d been so passionate in her cabin. He’d held her and she’d felt the hard ridge of his erection nudging her and she’d thought, “Finally.”
And then nothing.
They’d sat in a booth at Stella’s for three hours and not once had he touched her. He’d been a perfectly pleasant companion. He’d let her do most of the talking, urging her to give him her thoughts on topics that ranged from politics to TV shows, but he hadn’t reached out and brushed his hand along hers or let his knees rest against hers.
She breathed in the chill of the night air. She had to face a few very logical facts. She wasn’t a great beauty. Sure, she wasn’t an ogre or anything, but she didn’t have Holly Lang’s figure-eight body or the model good looks of the blonde they had rescued at the bar. Even Callie had a nice set of breasts and sweet good looks. Nell wasn’t going to lie to herself. She was sort of plain and earthy and, beyond that, she could be very obnoxious when it came to her beliefs. Not an appealing combination for many men. Lots of times men walked away the minute she opened her mouth.
Nell buttoned up her coat and pushed out into the courtyard. He hadn’t even kissed her good-night. He’d made a big deal about asking her out, and then he’d just dropped her off at her doorstep and walked away. It didn’t take an idiot to know he’d changed his mind about wanting her. Maybe because he’d gotten a look at Holly and realized there were much better prospects in Bliss.
Nell growled a little. She wasn’t going to think that way. She liked Holly. Holly had been through a lot, and just because Nell wanted a man who likely thought Holly was more attractive didn’t mean that she would be unkind to Holly. Holly couldn’t help the fact that she had great boobs and Nell didn’t. Women should stick together, not allow a man to come between them. Holly was her friend, and if she started dating Henry, then Nell would just stand by her and support her.
Perhaps she was just meant to be alone like her mother had been for her whole life.
Snow covered the courtyard, the whole world blanketed in white. She walked across, leaving small imprints where her feet touched the earth. This was what she needed. If she stayed in her borrowed room, she would end up crying and feeling sorry for herself. She’d wanted to go back to the cabin, but apparently Henry had called Rye and he was going to close the place up for the night, so now she was here. And she wasn’t going to let one man who didn’t want her wreck her night. It was beautiful in a way only Bliss was. The air was fine, and the stars made a map of the heavens.
Nell turned her face up. A billion stars shone down on her, every single one a miracle. This was what she needed. She needed to be alone and to find her peace. She would sit out here just for a few minutes and soak in the beauty of this particular night. There would never be another one like this one. It was like a snowflake—perfectly unique.
“What do you see?”
She gasped and turned. Henry was sitting on the tabletop of one of the picnic benches. So much for being alone and finding peace. “What?”
His face was so serious. Naturally he had to be here, sitting there with his graceful body and handsome face. “What do you see when you look up at the sky?”
She shook her head, trying to figure out why he was here. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who just looked up at the sky as his evening’s entertainment. “Why do you care?”
His head turned up, and she could see the way he squinted, his face bunching up as he looked at the sky. “Because I see a bunch of stars that died a long time ago, but I don’t think that’s what you see.”
“No,” she replied. She glanced up. The night sky was so beautiful. Velvet and diamonds. “That’s not what I see, but I’m not dumb. I took science classes. I know the light we see is old.”
His face turned back down, staring at her. “Light travels at a speed of one hundred and eighty-six thousand, two hundred and eighty-two miles a second. Given that speed and the relative vastness of the universe, it isn’t hard to deduce that some of those stars we look at every night are already gone, turned supernova and blasted from existence, but hey, it’s pretty, right?”
Maybe Henry was as cold as the snow under her feet. She was starting to shiver a little. She had on galoshes and they weren’t doing a lot to keep the chill off her feet. She should have put on a fourth pair of socks. “You want to bring science into something that should be emotional. Should we not find a flower in bloom lovely?”
“A flower in bloom is dying.” He pointed a finger at her like she’d just stepped into a trap he’d set.
Was she back in debate club? “Yeah, well, a baby just born is dying.”
“My point exactly.”
She felt her head shake. Why was he killing her perfectly pleasant alone time? She was supposed to be able to come out here and let him go, not listen to his nihilistic views of the universe. “If I listened to your argument and gave it an ounce of credence, I would just kill myself because nothing matters.”
He shrugged as though that was a foregone conclusion. “Hence my question. What do you see?”
She sighed. She should leave, but there was something deep inside her that just couldn’t shy away from a fight. “I see light and life. Yes, it might be from a long time ago, but I’m alive in this moment and that’s all that matters right now. I see a blanket of life. I see the cradle of creation.”
He snorted. “You’re going to tell me you believe in God?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You’re a crazy, bleeding-heart liberal.”
She took a long breath. All in one day she’d been called a lesbian and an atheist. Neither one was a bad thing to be, but getting labeled hurt. “You’re really more small-minded than I thought you would be. I believe that love exists at the heart of the universe. I don’t know how or really why we exist, but I know deep down that it’s to serve that love and to learn from it. It might not be God as you know it, but it’s real and valuable to me.”
“How do you know?” He whispered the question, but there was an odd desperation behind it.
“What do you mean?”
He jumped off the table, his feet hitting the snow. His face was a perfect, gorgeous blank. “How do you know there’s some pocket of love at the center of the universe? How do you know we’re not just fucking random and we live and we die and that’s the end and nothing matters? What’s your empirical evidence?”
Henry seemed to be a professor right down to his soul. She tried to find a way to explain it that he would understand. She went back to her college physics class. “All right, the first law of thermodynamics teaches us that nothing is lost.”
He shook his head and gave her a little grunt. “That desc
ribes energy in closed systems, Nell. Do better.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground. “No. You think bigger. Energy converts. It changes form. It isn’t lost. Why would our souls be lost?”
There was a brisk laugh that came out of his mouth. “You’re running on the very sketchy theory that we humans have souls in the first place.”
She sighed. He wasn’t the one for her if he didn’t even believe in souls. “I have a soul, Henry. You do, too. Nothing in the universe is wasted. Everything evolves for a reason. There’s no real reason for the ability to love, for the human need to sacrifice for others. Tout Darwinism all you like. I believe in the theory, too, but only to a point. It isn’t present when one human being sacrifices his life for another. It isn’t there when a man runs into a burning building on the off chance that he can save the people inside. It isn’t there when a thousand soldiers run onto a beach they know they will die on because they want their children to be free. Darwinism isn’t there when people risk their lives to stand up for what they believe in when they know they’re going to die for it.”
He was silent, just standing there, his big body stiff and unmoving. There was a flat line to his mouth that told her she hadn’t gotten through to him. He’d been perfectly polite during dinner, but at some point he’d changed his mind about her because he thought she was a flake.
The funny thing was she still would have gone to bed with him. All she’d required from him was that he be polite and somewhat kind. She was ready to understand sex. She felt something deep for him. It didn’t necessarily matter that he didn’t love her. She couldn’t control that, and he was only here for a little while, so she’d been okay with it. But he didn’t even like her. He was like a million other people. He thought she was a dumb flake. She couldn’t sleep with a man who didn’t even like her. She was too picky. She’d finally found a man who called to her and he was like so many. Closed-minded. Unwilling to listen or to think even for a moment that she had something important to say.