Olivia’s eyes come to me; icy cold and mean. “I heard you’re heading back to town soon. I know your sister has missed you.”
Ben sits forward a little until his shoulder rests against his sister’s. “William.”
I chuckle at the warning he need not even mutter. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him… or me. “Conner. You ready for this year’s tournament?”
“Always. You?”
“You know, I could probably step up. I haven’t been training, but I think I’d do alright.”
“You’ve been working out?” he asks without the biting rage he tends to save for me. “You look a little bigger.”
“I’m getting my workouts in each day, but mostly cardio and weights. If I step up, I could probably run around the octagon and wear my opponent out. Not sure I could take a smack to the chin, though.”
“Yeah? Well I’ll be around if you wanna spar,” he promises. Warns. Pisses. “I’ll take a swing, ya know, to see if you’re in fighting shape.”
“Are you done?” Olivia turns and lifts a brow. “Can anyone else smell urine, or is it just me?”
“I smell it.” Evie Kincaid pushes up from the couch on Ben’s other side and smiles for me as she passes. “Good to see you, Will. You look strong.”
“And you too, Miss Kincaid. You fighting this year, or hanging with the baby?”
“I’m resting this year,” she calls out from whichever room she walked into. “Wes and I will cheer the sasquatch on. I mean, it’s only fair I give the other girls a chance to win, right? But next year, I’ll be back, and hitting twice as hard.”
“I don’t doubt you.” My eyes inevitably stray back to Olivia. So fucking beautiful, so addicting, she makes it hard for me to breathe. “And you, Miss Conner? Do they have a yoga convention for you to bend in yet?”
“You think everyone must fight to be strong?” She arches a dangerous brow and looks straight into my fucking soul. “Strength doesn’t count unless I can lift a car or tear a phonebook in half?”
“I mean…” I grin. “I have a phonebook right in front of me, so if you think you can do it…”
“A useless show of masculinity.” She looks up when a pair of legs enter my view. She accepts a glass of wine, then looks back to me. “How very manly of you, William. So very…” She fake shivers. “Masculine.”
She speaks, she even smiles, but my eyes are stuck on the guy who sits down in my seat. He’s taller than her, broader, smilier. He looks over the top of the phone for a moment, to Quinn, I guess, then to me. “Uh… hello.”
Ben’s mean scowl turns pleasant in a heartbeat. Like a wolf in Grandma’s pyjamas, he sits back and grins. “William Quinn, I’m not sure you’ve met Livi’s boyfriend yet. Brenten Pierce is the local DA.”
“Uh, actually,” the guy cuts in. “Prosecutor.”
Ben waves him off. “Lawyer type. He drives a Benz, has a money clip in his pocket, and consistently asks my sister to go to dinner in the fucking city. Brandon, William Quinn is a criminal, a fighter, a thief, and he likes to smile at my sister sometimes.” He flicks his wrist between us. “And go.”
Ben wants us to kill each other. Let the trash take itself out, so to speak.
“Brandon?” I drop my feet from the table in front of me and sit taller to study the guy who wears a sport coat while everyone around him wears something much more casual. His hair is gelled, his chin too pointed, his money clip can go fuck itself. “Lawyer?”
He clears his throat. “Brenten, actually. And yeah, top prosecutor in my office. And you?”
“The most prosecuted in my building. I’m certain I’ve met a million of you in my life.”
He smiles, toothy and arrogant. “I was just thinking the same thing. You and Liv…” He glances back to her for a beat. “You—”
She sits forward and wraps her arms around his. “No. Ben was teasing. William and I have met a handful of times,” her icy eyes come to me, “but we’re nothing more.”
“Oh.” Set at ease, Brenten sits back and rests his hand high on Liv’s thigh, and my eyes zoom to the movement in the same moment Ben’s do. “Are you away, William? I hear traffic.”
“Away for work,” I grit out when his hand squeezes. I have no claim on the beautiful woman. Not really, but that doesn’t mean my hands don’t itch to tear his arm from his body. To eject him from that fucking house and boot him into a filthy river. “I’ll be home soon. Maybe we could meet up sometime, have a beer…” Introduce your brain to a brick wall.
“I’m certain we’ll meet each other,” he replies with an arrogant sneer. “I am the best prosecutor in town, after all.”
Olivia’s eyes widen. He doesn’t see, but I sure as fuck do.
She grits her teeth and loosens her hold on Brenten’s arm. I could go out on a limb and claim it’s because she feels bad for me, or because she’d be on my side should he and I ever meet. But in reality, I suspect my sister is doing something rage-y with her face where I can’t see it. I raised her, I nurtured her, I taught her how to be a savage. If that motherfucker wants to start throwing his dick around, then I won’t need to step up. I won’t have time, because my sister will tear his throat out long before I even get a chance to stand.
“Yeah, that’s enough of that.” Olivia looks over the top of the phone and confirms my thoughts. “I think that might conclude this evening. William.” She looks into my eyes. “It’s good to see you’re safe and well. It’s always a relief to see you when you call; I mean, it’s the only communication we get with you, right?”
I tip my chin and study her slender neck. “And you, Olivia. I’ll see you next week.”
“Next week?” Brenten’s eyes dart between the phone and his girlfriend. “You’ll be in town next week?”
“No, he’ll call again next week.” Evie passes back through my view and grins as she goes. “It’s game night, and we like to include her brother.”
“Your brother?” His eyes go over the phone again. “He’s your brother?”
“He sure is.” I hear the smile in her voice, then I get to see it when she flicks the camera back and gifts me with her grin. “Come home soon.”
“Take me off speaker for a sec?”
“Sure. Say goodbye to everyone.”
“Yeah. Bye, everyone.” I kill the video portion of my call, and instead bring the phone to my ear. “Who is that motherfucker?”
“None of your business,” she murmurs. “Leave it alone.”
“He’s grabbing her in front of Ben! Not even I did that.”
“You didn’t do anything,” she exclaims. “Because… you know!” She grunts out her frustration at having to speak in vague terms. Of course everyone knows who she’s talking about, but that doesn’t mean we make it too easy on them. “Leave it alone, Will.”
“Bubbles…”
“Or come home and do something about it,” she teases. “That option would also work for me.”