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“Now, Cash, honey, don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“Stay here,” I tell Ganny.
“It takes me five minutes to get out of this chair,” she says, lifting her the piece she’s crocheting into her lap. “You really think I was gonna jump up and follow you?”
“I’m getting you a caregiver,” I say.
“I’ve got—”
“Ganny, you don’t have my father. He doesn’t even have himself.” I’m not having this argument with her again. The caregiver is happening.
I go out onto the porch.
“Dad,” I say, I vaulting over the picket gate. “Dad, what were you thinking?”
For once, my father doesn’t smell of alcohol, and he considers me with a sharp-eyed gaze. “Cash, what in the hell are you doing here? And what do you think you’re doing, talking to me like that? Boy, I ought to tan your hide.”
“Tan my hide? You haven’t been in your own fucking hide for the past month.”
Another car door opens, and Seth Deveraux emerges. He’s dressed in a suit in this summer heat, wearing tattoos across the backs of his knuckles, and a grin I want to wipe off his blocky head.
“What have you done?” I ask my father. “What are you doing?”
“Your father sold me the bar,” Seth says, before my dad can respond.
“Now, Cash, calm your—”
I circle around to Seth’s side of the car. “You fuck,” I say. “I told you to back the fuck up.” I point a finger in his face.
“Your father wanted to sell his business,” Seth says, “I gave him a good price for it. Not my fault you didn’t get the memo, buddy.”
“Buddy?”
I’m on him in a second, fisting the front of his fancy suit and pulling him close. Adrenaline pulses through me and my vision tunnels. “Who’s your fucking buddy? I’ll break you like a twig.”
Seth laughs. “Do it then, tough guy.”
“Cash!”
Seth grips the front of my shirt, and I press my forehead against his, butting him backward. I’m going to teach this interfering piece of shit a lesson.
“Cash.” A hand grasps me and tugs me to one side. “Let it go, man. Let it go.” My brother’s face appears, but I look past him toward Seth.
Seth’s laughing. “You’re gonna let your brother stop you?”
“I’ll kill you,” I say, trying to leap past Jesse, but my brother holds me back.
“It’s not worth it,” Jesse says. “It is not worth it. Calm down.”
“He bought the bar, Jesse.” My mouth is dry, and I’m barely managing to keep myself under control.
“I know, but it’s not worth it—”
“Guess you won’t need that nanny for the rest of the summer, huh?” Seth calls, his eyes flashing. “Maybe I’ll hire her. Always wanted a personal assistant.”
I roar and push past Jesse, charging toward Deveraux like a raging bull.
Forty-One
