Only Her

Tag took a step closer. “Are you accusing me of something Luka?”

Luka rubbed his hand over his whiskered jaw. “I’m not accusing,” he said. “I’m stating the facts.”

Tag’s face turned brilliant red. He shoved Luka. “I’m the mayor of Haley Cove. No one talks to me that way.”

“You do not want to do that again,” Luka told him.

“Do what?” Tag looked confused.

“Shove me.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you want to do that,” the girls’ coach agreed.

Tag glanced at him before glaring at Luka.

“I don’t give a shit if he’s some cage fighter,” Tag replied to Martin. “Or one of Jacob Shaw’s punks.”

“Oh boy,” Brett said from within the truck.

“Now Luka,” Skylar said. She could see his temper flaring in the hard set of his jaw. His eyes were burning with anger.

“Daddy,” the one voice of reason that kept him from completely losing it on Tag Richardson broke through his lust of anger. “Get in the truck so we can have our picnic. Please Daddy.”

Skylar glanced through the glass window and saw the concern on her daughter’s face. She put her hand on Luka’s arm. “Let’s go Luka.”

“Get in the truck Sky,” was all he said. She opened the door and asked her daughter to scoot over in case she had to intervene again.

Luka glanced back and shut the door when he saw Skylar was safely tucked into the back seat. He stepped over and blocked her door from view; effectively keeping her from opening it again too.

“Now, I’m telling you this once and once only. You fuck with my daughter or Skylar again and you won’t have to worry about being mayor of Haley Cove because you will be pissing out of catheter in your hospital bed. Got it?” His voice was low but Skylar could hear what Luka was saying. She glanced over at Ava, she didn’t seem to have heard him.

“He threatened me,” Tag said to Martin.

“I heard nothing,” the coach replied. He walked away; heading towards his car in the row behind theirs.

“That wasn’t a threat. That was a promise,” Luka replied. He stepped back and slid into the truck by Ramona. “Goodbye Tag.” He slammed the truck door shut.

The cab was quiet. No one was saying anything until Ramona put her two cents worth in. “Tag is a pansy ass. You could have taken him.”

Skylar watched Luka’s head turn towards her sister slowly. Brett was trying not to laugh.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence Ramona.” His tone was sarcastic.

“I’m just saying,” she replied.

He just shook his head at Ramona.

Chapter 8

Nobody said anything else while they drove to the park near Skylar’s ranch. When they were parked in the lot Sky could see Luna had enlisted the three remaining brothers to unload her car with a ton of food that was now laid out on the picnic table in the open surrounded by woods. It was a beautiful day for this.

“You didn’t bring any other shoes did you?” Skylar asked Ava as she was about to climb out of the truck.

“Nope,” her daughter replied then she hopped to the ground and was following her uncle and aunt to the table.

“She’s just like you. I seem to remember someone else who never had shoes on her feet.”

“She apparently has your penchant for fighting.”