Ask Me If I Care (SWAT Generation 2.0 4)

My father’s arm caught me before I could so much as fall a foot, and the man behind me, who had enormous hands, helped steady me.

“T-thank you,” I stuttered, looking at the man.

His eyes weren’t on me, though. They were on Ryan.

And he was glaring.

“Ryan,” Hayes said darkly. “You’re in the way of the door.”

Ryan smiled his charming smile, the one that he only pulled out when he was annoyed and felt like smiling would get him somewhere.

“Sorry, I’m waiting for my date.” He grinned.

“Well, wait outside of the fucking doorway,” Hayes muttered. “We can’t get through.”

I would’ve laughed had I not sensed the tension that was boiling at the surface.

If I laughed, I wasn’t sure if it would bring Hayes’ irritation my way or not. And there was no way that I wanted that man’s irritation.

Now, his desire? Yeah, I’d take that.

But he looked downright scary when he glared at Ryan.

Ryan, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.

“Ryan,” Dad said. “Good to see you.”

My dad could lie with the best of them.

My dad wasn’t pleased to see Ryan.

And neither was I.

I wanted to ask him why he’d bothered calling to see if I was free tonight when he obviously had plans and a date.

But I chose to keep my mouth shut.

Honestly, that was the best way to keep my cool when it came to Ryan McMillan.

Ryan finally moved out of the doorway just as I heard a click-clack of heels, and I crossed through the door and looked over my shoulder to see Ryan’s date make her way up to him.

“You know him?”

The growled question was directed at me, and I shivered.

“Yes,” I paused. “Unfortunately.”

“Ryan and my girl used to date before Ryan decided to pursue his baseball career. He broke up with her the day that he got drafted,” Dad told him.

Hayes grunted. “Well, you dodged a bullet with that one. My stepbrother is a douche.”

My mouth fell open.

“You’re that Hayes?” I gasped, coming to a complete stop in the middle of the opulent foyer. “He said you were a POW.”

Prisoner of War. Missing and never to be found again.

Hayes’ face completely shut down.

There wasn’t an ounce of nice guy there. Only a blank mask belonging to a man who very clearly did not, under any terms, want to talk about anything that had to do with being a prisoner of war.

So noted.

“Annnnd, that’s my cue to take you and run,” Dad said. “Let’s go.”

I looked at Hayes once over my shoulder to see him staring at his feet, lost in thought, and knew that I’d put my foot in my mouth.

When we were in the banquet hall, Dad pulled me to the corner and looked at me as if I was nuts.

“You need to learn to use that thing between your brain and your mouth. It’s called a fucking filter,” he growled.

I threw my hands up in the air.

“I didn’t know it was something we didn’t discuss!” I argued. “How was I supposed to know that? Jesus Christ. I was just making sure it was the same guy. But hells bells, the way Ryan described it, he was gone for a long, long time. They assumed he was dead. They even had a funeral for him.”

My dad winced.

“Hayes has PTSD. He’s on the SWAT team. He functions… but I don’t think that he’s over what happened. He was a prisoner of war for a long time. Just… be gentle with him, Ares. He’s not like me or your brother,” he said.

I instantly felt bad.

My father was right.

He wasn’t like my dad or my brother. Two of the most outgoing and peoplely persons out there.

Me? I wasn’t a people person. I put on a good act, almost had to when I was at work seeing as I was the counselor, but the moment I got home I practically folded into myself.

In fact, right here and now, having to deal with all of these stuck-up people—and Ryan who was most definitely not the same Ryan when I had dated him—was making my head hurt.

I knew that I’d have a headache by the time we got our first course brought out.

“Sorry, sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t mean to offend him.”

My dad would’ve replied but just as he opened his mouth to do that, my brother came up and scared the absolute crap out of me.

I screeched in surprise, my entire body jolting, and barely managed to catch my dress before the whole damn thing slid right the fuck off.

“Jesus Christ, Lock.” I punched him. Hard. “You almost made me flash everyone in the whole fucking room!”

Lock laughed but held his arm where I punched him. “That hurt!”

I bared my teeth. “It was supposed to, fucker.”

“Let’s go find our seats,” Saylor ordered. “I hear they have chocolate at the table.”

I couldn’t argue with that.