Caged: Cellar Door Series (9 page)

I felt somebody shoulder bump me as I leaned back against the bar and looked to my right. Ronnie stood there in a slinky shiny top that left her tattooed shoulders and arms bare; in a pair of jeans and heels looking damn good.  While I could appreciate the view, I didn’t feel the least bit interested in her. Kylee being home had apparently put my penis on probation, something that had never been an issue in the past. Normally that fucker was ready to say hello to any chick I took an interest in. Now it only seemed to want to report to Kylee and in some ways I was thankful for once that Kylee wasn’t in my immediate vicinity so I didn’t have to mentally beat the fucker into submission.

I cocked a brow and swept an exaggerated glance over her from head to toe, my voice dropping low enough that only she could hear. “That is definitely not fight gear woman, though it could start a fight.” I smirked over at her and saluted her with my beer.

“Even us girl fighters like to dress up now and again mister. Keep your eyes in your head before I knock them back in.”  She leaned back away from me, raised her own beer with a grin and I noticed her eyes skipped past me to land on Matt, taking in a slow tour head to toe. Definitely an interest there.

“Matt?” I elbowed him earning a scowl that quickly disappeared when he noticed our companion. “You remember Ronnie Dalton right?”

Ronnie pressed against me as she reached around to shake Matt’s hands. Right then my eyes were drawn across the club and I found Kylee, her eyes narrowed on me before the look was replaced with a forced smile and a quick wave, her attention turning to someone else at her table. As soon as I recognized who it was I felt white hot anger surge through me, all joking banter dead stopping as I pushed off the bar.

“Oh hell to the fuck nah…” Matt quickly grabbed my elbow leaning into me so I could hear him over the music.

“Chill the fuck out JD. We don’t need any trouble.”  Kylee’s head tipped back, laughter obviously spilling from her as she smacked at the guy next to her. Javier Ramone, Ray Ramones younger brother, was standing next to her; was all up in her personal space and was flat pissing me the fuck off in general being that close to her as he peered down the front of her shirt, taking in a view that I knew was beyond nice. It was like his fucking eye balls had been half detached and no longer could look up, I was prepared to completely remove them for him.

Kylee probably had no idea who the fuck he was but I did. The pretty boy was new on the scene, ridding his brother’s name to try to claim some glory for himself on the fight circuit. He was quick to bandy about who his brother was and that by itself diminished him in my eyes. If someone was serious about fighting, you didn’t try to short cut the shit, you took every hit, every bruise and scrape, every step forward and back to earn your respect. This kid didn’t have it in him and the fact he was touching Kylee, all up on her, was going to seal a fate for him he wasn’t expecting.

“He fucking touches her once more I swear to fuck Matt I’ll beat him until he doesn’t know his own name, much less his brothers. Ray’s cool with me, I got respect for him but that little cock sucker isn’t shit to me.” My jaw was locked tight, each promise bit off between my teeth.  Ronnie glanced nervously at Matt and was picking up exactly what I was putting down. Matt grabbed hold of the back of my t-shirt, bunching it in his fist, trying to hold me in place. I was prepared to take my Diesel boots and shove one so far up Javier’s ass; he would be choking on the laces.

Ronnie’s hand landed on my arm. “Easy big boy. I don’t know the story but Matt’s right. You don’t need to get shit started, especially here.”

Kylee’s gaze drew mine again before flicking over to my arm, her eyes falling on Ronnie’s hand, the one laid over my inked forearm and if looks could kill, Ronnie would have turned to ash. Never mind that Ronnie was trained and could rip Kylee apart, none of that registered in Kylee’s glare.

“What the hell’s that girl’s problem?” Ronnie pointed her beer towards Kylee’s table and I groaned internally. Fucking great.

“Dude you need to fix that shit and quick.” Matt shook his head back and forth, leaning towards me so he could be heard over the music. “Kylee doesn’t want to start shit with Ronnie and you don’t need any beef with Ray.”

My anger coated the words I shoved through my clenched teeth. “You don’t fucking think I know that?” I could recall every reason I’d pushed Kylee away in that moment as I tried to pull in the rage pounding through me. I wasn’t good enough for her but didn’t mean I didn’t want her. I damn sure did and some douche getting too close to her was going to make me lose my shit.

I settled my beer on the bar and pulled away from both Ronnie and Matt, stalking towards Kylee’s table.

Some punk ass called me an asshole when I pushed him out of my way to get to where I was going and I simply nodded my head in agreement, no sense arguing the truth. Stopping behind Kylee, I drew the stares of her friends and they instinctively leaned away from me. They knew of me from high school but I hadn’t seen any of them for a few years. Apparently the look on my face was dangerous because each of them glanced away and busied themselves with their phones or drinks  not bothering with hi’s and hello’s.

Javier was smart enough to back the fuck up even though he didn’t leave the table, he did create space between him and Kylee. I bent my head, my mouth near her ear, my words breathing past the small shell. “What the hell are you playing at Kylee?”

She jerked in surprise at the sound of my voice and turned; her lips near mine as she hissed. “What are you talking about?”

“Really? You want to play that? Cause the way you were staring at Ronnie was like you wanted to cut her.” My voice dropped lower just loud enough for her to hear, the tone still reflecting my anger. “She’s a fighter Kylee, a damn good one. You don’t want to disrespect or challenge her.”

Kylee’s deep brown eyes darkened and when she breathed out I could smell the alcohol on her breath. She was toast. I hadn’t noticed it before but baby girl was deep.

“Disrespect her? Of course you would be worried about me disrespecting her! I’m not the one running their hands all over you like I own you. That’s just whorish and desperate looking. I don’t give a crap who she is. We both know she’s got an expiration date of one night. You should think better of yourself than to allow her to front like you’re hers. Hell she should think better of it.”  She tried to pull back from me but I wasn’t having it. Kylee was fucking livid for no reason.

I slipped my hand beneath her long hair to cup the back of her neck lightly holding her in place, the bite of my words causing her to tremble. “She’s a friend Kylee, not that it should mean shit to you but Ronnie’s decent fucking people. Don’t talk about her like that, it pisses me off.” She knew I hated people being judgmental, had fought against it too often myself. Kylee jerked her head aside; belted back a shot that landed on the table in front of her from one of her friends and snarled at me. “Yeah, friends huh? Well is that all I had to do to be friends with you? Act like I was a whore? Maybe then you wouldn’t have treated me like one of the girls you screw and then never talk to again.” She shook her head angrily and shrugged off my hold from her neck before she turned to glower at me. “You know what, your right it shouldn’t matter to me who your friends with. Do what you want James David….you always do anyway.” Drunk Kylee was mean as shit and worked up all over again about the way I’d treated her, fucking great.

I wanted to rip her off her chair, toss her over my shoulder and leave the damn club but I knew that wouldn’t fly so I took a deep breath noticing Javier had moved on to talking up one of her friends. Smart fucker right there. I mentally counted down my anger, holding myself tight to keep from losing it and doing something I’d regret for a long time.

Kylee was drunk and spouting shit that I know she wouldn’t have said sober, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hold on to my sanity and not lose my shit with her. It still didn’t fix the fact that her being rude about Ronnie pissed me the hell off.

“Thought we were past all that shit Kylee. Pretty damn sure we started over in the friendship department.”

The fingers of my hand gripped the top of the back of her chair as I loomed over her, my displeasure obvious, the other hand shoved into my jeans pocket to keep from pulling her up out of her chair, crushing her to me and showing her exactly what I thought of her

“Did we? You didn’t even try to come say hi. That’s real friendly.” Apparently I had fucked up by not coming over and saying hi? That had turned into she’s not my friend? Fucking Christ trying to figure her out was making my head bang.

“Look I didn’t even know you were here yet until just a few minutes ago. I don’t know what your deal is but lay the fuck off Ronnie. I don’t tell you who the hell to hang with because trust me; I would have advised against this one.” I hooked a thumb at Javier; cast him another threatening glare making sure he knew I wasn’t happy about him being so close to Kylee and forced myself to make my way back to the bar where Ronnie and Matt were in deep convo.

Picking up the shot I’d left there before going to Kylee’s table, I drained it and finished off my beer as Matt and Ronnie glanced over to me warily, both easily sensing my mood was steadily deteriorating.

“She’s shit faced already and in a fucking mood.” I shoved a hand through my hair and let loose a deep breath of frustration. Kylee was getting to me; it was getting harder and harder to keep calm around her when she decided to press my buttons and damn it that woman knew every single one of mine.

Ronnie laughed, the light sound contrasting against her athletic build, inked skin and in general bad ass aura. “Let me guess. It’s your fault?”

I shook my head and gave her an amused smirk as Matt nodded in agreement with Ronnie’s question. “It’s always his fault Ronnie. Kylee and JD make complicated look simple.”

Ronnie tilted her head, her multicolor pony tail swaying with the movement. “Is she your girlfriend or something?”

“Hell nah..I don’t have a girlfriend. I can barely maintain a friendship with that woman.” I would have choked on a drink if I’d had one at Ronnie’s question but Sadie was still getting our refill. The joke really was on me because I was feeling like a protective boyfriend even if I wasn’t admitting it. Seeing Javier in Kylee’s space had kick started the short fuse on my temper in a hurry.

Matt laughed out loud, long and hard. “They have rivers named after you man.”

I could feel the scowl that crossed my face as I glared at Matt. “I don’t know what I did to everybody tonight to have you all up on my ass. I just came to have a drink. Fucking hell. She’s the one that’s all bent out of shape and you’re agreeing with her. When did I piss in your cornflakes?”

Matt scoffed at me. “Yeah, that’s all you did JD, just came here for a drink and that’s it. It’s your story, you tell it anyway you want bro but you and I both know what the deal is. You either don’t want to hear it or you don’t want to believe it. Doesn’t make it less true.”

Ronnie looked confused by the entire situation and Matt was hitting to close to home for my fucking comfort. She glanced back towards Kylee’s table and then back to me before looking to Matt. “Why is she so bent?”

Both sides of Matt’s mouth turned up in a big smile at Ronnie. “Because you touched JD.”

“Do what? What the hell are you talking about?” Ronnie looked genuinely upset like she’d caused the problem, even glanced at her hands to make sure they weren’t anywhere they shouldn’t be.

Matt chuckled; picked up the beer Sadie had finally gotten to us and drained a good portion of it. “JD doesn’t like to be touched, not unless he’s invited it. The fact you were close to him earlier was enough to make Kylee see red but box of rocks over here….” Matt pointed his beer bottle towards me. “….he prefers to keep his head in his ass instead of admitting that he and Kylee just need to accept they have something going on; even if they aren’t acting on it.”

I was ready to kick Matt’s ass, was beyond sick of hearing his opinion on the matter. I was well past my limit of shit I could take about Kylee and it was clear in the threatening tone of my voice. “Mind your own fucking business son.”

Matt grabbed Ronnie’s hand in his not giving two shits about my mood. “Lets dance pretty girl.”

They both hit the dance floor and I leaned against the bar trying not to stare across the club at Kylee’s table. Sometimes Matt knew too fucking much and he damn sure talked too much.

When Kylee landed on the dance floor with Javier I officially lost my shit. She could barely stand and his hands were all over her, touching places they had no fucking business being near. I saw past red to a color that didn’t even exist on any chart. Storming over to them I pulled Kylee into my chest, my arms wrapping protectively around her waist as I all but growled. “Fuck off Javier.”

He threw two hands up and backed off as Kylee wiggled against me still attempting to dance when she could hardly stay upright. If I hadn’t been so pissed there would have been a whole other problem to deal with, one that she constantly seemed to create for me,  but apparently one thing kept my libido in check, another dudes hands on Kylee Grace.

One problem solved but my body was vibrating with tension, my chest pounding with the blood pumping through my system. I felt on edge, the kind of edge that I fell over when I beat that competitor half to death four years ago and it was straight scaring the hell out of me. I couldn’t afford to lose it again like that. Kylee wiggled some more, speaking against my chest, oblivious to my reaction.  “I’m trying to dance JD…stooooop.”