Page 97 of Love at First Ride
‘What the fuck is goin’ on?’ Echo roars.
On my feet, I look down. There’s blood streaming from my nose and streaked on my chest, mixed with sweat. Chase is still fighting. ‘I didn’t do nothin’, Echo! He just came at me!’
I struggle, but with so many hands on me, they’re holding on tight and I can’t free myself.
‘Cool it, the pair of you!’ Echo hollers. ‘Calm the fuck down! Put AJ in my office. Nando, he’s gonna need an ice pack. Reyes! Take Brennan home. You boys been drinking?’
I hear Reyes from somewhere. ‘No, Echo, we ain’t, I swear it! We went to the river to cool off.’
‘Then why the fuck are these two knuckleheads tearing pieces off each other?’
‘Just some beef involving AJ’s girl.’
‘Who’s AJ’s girl?’
‘Hollie Palmer.’
A silence descends, only the music’s still blasting above our heads. Echo narrows his gaze, looming over me. He gives me a look likewe need to talk.
‘Get him outta my bar,’ Echo says to Reyes. ‘Get him cleaned up. Make sure he don’t come back here tonight.’
‘On it, Echo,’ Reyes says, and Chase is marched toward the main door, both arms pinned behind his back.
‘Hold still.’
I suck air through my teeth. I’m in Echo’s office with an ice pack pressed over the swollen knuckles of my right hand. There’s a cut over my right eye where Chase landed a slug. Echo’s ol’ lady, Katerina, sits in front of me and cleans up the blood, but the pressure hurts.
When the door opens, I look up, only one eye open. Echo enters and kicks the door closed behind him. With two hands on his hips, he eyeballs me again.
‘How’s our boy doin’?’ he asks.
Katerina attaches two Steri-Strips to my brow, then leans back to check her handiwork.
‘He will live,’ she says in her thick accent.
Echo steps forward. ‘Thanks, babe. You mind giving us a minute?’
She gathers up all the pieces of the first aid kit, drops the bloody cotton balls in the trash and gets to her feet. As she passes Echo on her way out, he slides one hand around to her ass. She’s wearing tight-fitting leather pants and a Van Halen tank. She tilts her head, and Echo presses his lips to hers.
I grunt in objection, because that’s not what I wanna see right now. That’s what I had today, ’til Chase opened his fucking piehole.
I think about Hollie. It stings that I know she’s hurting.
Katerina pulls back, then smooths down the edges of Echo’s mustache before she moves past him, out the door.
When we’re alone, Echo rubs his forehead and exhales. ‘You really know how to bust my balls, AJ, you know that?’
‘Sorry,’ I mutter, and glance down at my boots. There’s a speck of blood on the left toe cap.
He lowers himself into the vintage leather chair in the corner of the room, because I’m currently occupying the chair behind his desk.
‘So,’ he says. ‘You and Hollie Palmer.’
‘What about it?’
Echo throws his hands up into the air. ‘You say it like it’s nothing.’
‘Me and Hollie Palmer, so what? What’s the big deal?’
