The Greatest Fight of All (The American Soldier Collection 5)

Then he heard his brother, Mad Dog’s voice. Mad Dog Murphy was the oldest Haas brother. Then there was Ricky, also known as Scar, and then their sisters Regan and Velma. Murphy was carrying on now. Something about Regan being seen at Hucker’s Dance Hall. He worried about their sister. Regan, Velma, Murphy, and Ricky meant everything to him and Brody.

Was that why the cottage out back was locked up? His key hadn’t worked, so he headed to the main house and took the guest bedroom. The cottage was his and his brother’s.

Standing up, he walked toward the bathroom to wash up. After pulling a pair of blue jeans on and tossing on a black T-shirt, he headed out to the kitchen.

“What the hell is all the ruckus about?” he asked.

“Sniper! Shit, did big mouth Mad Dog wake you up?” Ricky asked.

“What the hell do you think, Scar?” Sniper snapped at him as he made his way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee.

“Morning, Mamma,” he whispered to his mom who was standing by the stove cooking up loads of bacon and flapjacks.

“Morning, son. Oh darn, you’re a bit bruised up.” She reached for his face but Waylon turned away. He saw the instant sadness reach his mother’s eyes, but she should know by now that he hated affection and human contact. In the ring things were different. He could release all the anger inside of him and fight those memories of the past.

He glanced at the table. All of his brothers were there. All of them looked the same. Mean, intimidating, and cocked and ready for a fight.

“You win or you lose?” Brody, who was always cold as ice, asked without looking up from his plate of food.

“What do you think, Ice?” Sniper replied to him.

Ice responded with a grunt.

“Well you should win. You’ve got fists of steel.” Mad Dog Murphy added. He was a hard-ass through and through. He was thirty-six years old and involved in the ranch, real estate, and construction. He lived to work and Waylon knew for a fact that Murphy didn’t date either. None of the brothers did. They all fought too many emotions, too much fear of getting close then losing someone. Especially Waylon and Brody.

“So you heard about Regan?” Ricky “Scar” Haas asked as he leaned back and looked at Sniper.

“Is that what all the yelling was about?” Sniper asked as he sat down and his mom placed a plate of food down in front of him. He felt his stomach growl. He was starving.

“Leave it be, Murphy,” Elise stated firmly.

The phone rang and Elise walked over to answer it.

“They’re eating. Murphy and Ricky are almost finished. They’ll help you.” Sniper heard his mother say and he knew she was talking to the dads.

“We’re moving, Mom. We heard,” Ricky said as he cleared his plate then placed it in the sink. Mad Dog stood up and shook his head.

“We’ll talk about this later. I’m heading into town and going to have a talk with Regan. She can’t be flaunting herself all over men like Galen Thomas.”

“Galen Thomas?” Sniper asked, nearly spitting out his coffee. Galen was a troublemaker and then some. He was into things their sister shouldn’t be around.

“Exactly,” Mad Dog said then put on his Stetson and walked out of the house. Ricky followed him.

Sniper looked at Ice. “What’s this all about, Brody? Is Regan seeing Galen?”

“Don’t know.”

“Where is she today?”

“Helping Amelia get situated around town,” their mom stated.

“Amelia is here?” Sniper asked.

“She came in late last night, I think. She took a job with the hosp

ital as a program director. We haven’t seen her yet. She’s supposed to come out here this weekend for dinner. They have plans tonight.”

“Regan won’t have any plans once Murphy gets through with her. So when did this happen? Amelia coming out here for work?” He hadn’t met the girl, but heard a lot about her from his parents, Regan, and his little sister Velma. Well, Velma wasn’t so little anymore. She was turning twenty-one in a couple of weeks.