Here Comes Trouble (Trouble, Tennessee 0.50)

dering how she was, where she might have been staying.

He’d tried to find her and had come up empty-handed. Apparently Denny’s circle of influence had enough pull to draw in a few favors.

“I can’t believe she’s here.”

“Yep. And Allister? As much as you’d probably like to tell her you told her so? Now probably isn’t the time to mention it. In fact, now is probably the perfect time to let bygones be bygones.”

“Let’s go,” Allister said, ignoring his brother’s warning. He knew how to handle Ellie and condemning her poor past choices was the furthest thing from his mind. He scooped up his phone from the dresser and quickly fired off a group text to Ellie’s other former lovers. “Wait on me.”

He expected a few “like hell” messages. None materialized.

Allister picked up his pace, taking the front steps down to the foyer two at a time. He and Harley walked out to the terrace and crossed the courtyard. They entered the narrow hall leading to the main processing center, which also served their legal team and city officials.

Before they exited the building and headed to the guard house, Bradley opened the door to the observation room. “She’s in here. Draegan convinced her to stay for a ‘trial’ period.”

“Trial hell,” Allister bit out, walking around Bradley. He didn’t bother greeting Ryan or Derek. They looked about as worn down as he felt. Allister blew out a hard breath and slowly lifted his watered-down gaze.

As soon as he saw her, his heart clenched and his next breath shattered. One look and that was all it took. He saw his future and he just knew.

It was all over for four of Trouble’s founding fathers.

Chapter Two

“Who’s on the other side of the glass?” Ellie pushed her head forward like a little duckling might. She then narrowed her eyes as if she thought squinting would help.

Ryan watched Allister in his periphery. He sat erect with his hands on his knees. He looked as if he were ready to crash through that glass at any given moment. Ryan nudged Derek and tilted his head at Allister. “He needs to stay on this side of the window until we hear and see what we need to.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Allister never looked their way. “If anyone can get the truth out of her, Draegan can. Until he does, the last thing we need to do is show our faces. She sees us and she’ll swear we did something to lure her here.”

“He’s right,” Derek grumbled, acting far too suspicious. He hadn’t seemed too surprised to see her and Ryan wondered why.

“When it comes to Ellie, I’m seldom wrong,” Allister said, his sorrowful expression never changing.

Ryan wouldn’t argue there. Allister and Ellie had always had this odd connection. Soon after Allister entered the observation room, she made the first inquiry. She wanted to know who was on the other side of the glass. It was as if the little darling had sensed Allister there, perhaps felt his presence in some way. If her question didn’t prove the fact, the way her body language changed certainly suggested she and Allister shared some kind of supernatural bond.

Even after a couple of years, the link between them still existed.

Allister stood up and placed his palms to the glass. He looked like one of those hardened Navy SEALs that had trained them. His biceps flexed and he turned his head to the side, watching them from the corner of his eye. “Did he do that to her?”

“Yeah,” Derek replied.

The swell of her cheek, the blood on her shirt, and her split lip had been Ryan’s undoing, too. “He’ll get his, Allister. When he least expects us, Denny will know what it means to be on the receiving end of a few thrown punches.”

Allister nodded slowly, clearly making arrangements in his mind, plotting and planning the kind of retribution an abuser deserved. Two years ago, they’d tried to tell her. They’d had one shot, one glorious weekend, with beauty’s best and what had they done?

They’d spent it fucking instead of spending their time more productively. Like young men often will, they screwed away their weekend, enjoying the woman who was theirs to have—if only for a little while—when they should’ve been marking down their intentions, listing them out one by one.

Allister had warned them. They could enjoy Ellie for a short time but unless they told her how they felt, they would lose her come Sunday.

And sure enough, Allister’s predictions had come true.

They’d all known Ellie was making a mistake when she left their beds and ran back to her high school sweetheart. They’d enjoyed a reckless weekend in the mountains, a good time rafting, camping, and seeing the sights in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. The weekend came and went and by Wednesday the following week, Denny had proposed to Ellie and the big news had funneled through the East Tennessee pipelines and landed at their feet without any explanation.

When Ryan had finally caught up to her, she’d confirmed three facts. Denny had proposed. She’d accepted. They were getting married.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Draegan asked, dragging Ryan from the past with the kind of question guaranteed to dig it all up again.

“There is no beginning. There’s just an always. Want me to start there?”