Priceless (Forbidden Men 8)

After they begged a couple bottles of Angry Orchard from me, they drifted away into the crowd, heading toward the stage.

Business grew busy for a couple minutes, until I turned to the next customer, only to see my boss Pick waiting for my attention.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked, blinking in surprise. “Thought you were on paternity leave with the new baby.”

“I am,” he answered, gazing around the nightclub to peruse his kingdom. “Just popping in a few minutes to check on things.”

I shook my head. He never could stay away for long, the damn workaholic. I knew his family came first to him, but he treated Forbidden like his second family.

“How’s Eva?” I asked.

He finally focused on me. “Wondering why you haven’t come to see her new baby yet, ya slacker.”

“I will!” I argued. “It’s been a crazy, busy week with finals approaching. But I’m sure Sarah and I can stop by tomorrow afternoon and see the kid.”

With a knowing grin, he nodded. “Yeah, I heard about that, too. About time you two finally gave in to it.”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I just shrugged. He laughed at my sudden bashfulness and pointed at me before pushing away from the bar and heading in the direction of his office.

“We’re running low on tequila,” Knox said, bumping my arm to get my attention. “I swear, everyone and their dog are ordering margaritas tonight.”

“Yep.” I’d noticed that too. “I’m on it.” I was about to turn away and make my way to the storage room for more Jose Cuervo when a face through the crowd caught my attention.

“What the hell?” I squinted and waited impatiently until I could see the guy again.

“What?” Knox asked, turning to look in the direction of my stare. But I’d already forgotten about him.

Recognizing Sarah’s date, Seth, I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, this is too good to be true.” Setting a hand on the bar top, I jumped over it, clearing the counter easily.

I’d been looking for this douche for weeks. It was like providence that he showed up on my turf.

“Yo! Gamble!” Knox called after me. “What the hell are you doing?”

I waved at him over my shoulder. “Be right back.” But I didn’t plan on returning anytime soon. I had some ass to kick.

Seth was turned away from me by the time I reached him. He looked to be hanging out with about three other guys as they tried to hit on these two chicks who looked beyond wasted.

“Hey!” I yelled from about ten feet away. “Seth! Remember me?”

Seth and his friends looked over. When his gaze collided with mine, his eyes widened, and I saw his mouth form the words, “Oh, shit.”

Oh, yeah. That’s right, asshole. Piss those panties you were quivering in, cause your grim reaper was here to take you home to Satan.

Immediately lifting his hands as he backed away from me, he cried, “Look, man. I didn’t do anything to her, I swear.”

“Oh, so you didn’t make a bet with your pals here to get two hundred bucks for nailing the cripple?” I asked, advancing on him anyway. “My mistake.”

This time, he—plus a couple of his friends—whimpered, “Oh, shit.”

I swung, and swung hard, putting everything I had into it.

It dropped him flat, a complete knockout the first punch, which pissed me off because I’d wanted to hit him a hell of a lot more than once.

Rounding on Seth’s wide-eyed friends, I demanded, “Which one of you fuckers is Sandman?” He’d been the most persistent douche in the texts Sarah had shown me, pushing Seth into banging her.

When the tallest of the remaining three visibly gasped, I flattened him next. But he didn’t go down, thank goodness. I got in a couple more punches before two of his buddies tried to pull me off.

“Wait your turn,” I snarled at them, shrugging them away like the pesky pecker gnats they were. “I’ll get to you next.”