“Earth to Joe.” Bear tapped me in the head, annoying the shit out of me.
I swatted his hand, ready to tear his finger off and turned toward him. “You wanna lose that finger?” I smirked, moving into his personal space.
“Shut the f**k up and drink, shithead.” Bear pushed my chest, knocking me back a step.
Grabbing the drink off the bar, I slammed it back, enjoying the warmth. “Ahh, another,” I said as I put the glass down, turning to see everyone’s mouth agape. “What?”
“Jesus, you’re going to be shitfaced. Pace yourself, brother.” Michael threw back his drink, calling the bartender over.
We spent the next hour laughing and drinking. We talked about women. Michael and I spoke of our girls while Tank, Bear, and Anthony talked about their plethora of pu**y. The stark contrast of the caliber of pu**y the three of them enjoyed was astounding. I knew the club bitches Tank and Bear spent their nights with and I wasn’t too impressed. They could do better and hell, they deserved more. They may be rough around the edges, but they were good, honest men.
Anthony was just Anthony. He was a manwhore to the nth degree enjoying life a little too loosely. I couldn’t blame the guy, but at some point, you have to give up the chase and enter the adult world.
“Here,” Anthony said, nudging me. “You look a little lost in thought or you’re already shit faced.” He laughed, pushing the glass of amber liquid in front of me.
“I’m not even close to being shitfaced.”
“I want to do a special toast,” Michael said, holding up his glass, waiting for us to follow suit. As we raised our glasses, holding them together, he spoke. “To Thomas. He couldn’t be here again, but this one’s for him.” He frowned, his eyes glistening a little in the club light. “To the best God damn brother out there. May he stay safe and come back to us in one piece.” A weak smile formed on his face as he brought the glass to his lips.
My chest felt tight thinking about Thomas. I wanted him to be here to celebrate this weekend with us, but he had gone too far under at this point. We were on a no contact basis the last few months. We could check in with his superior, but beyond that, we hadn’t heard from him. “Way to bring a party down,” I said, shaking my head. “To Thomas.” I downed the tequila before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
I looked at Anthony and his eyes were the size of saucers. He wasn’t moving, the shot in front of his lips, frozen in place. “What the f**k man?” I asked, turning to see what caught his attention.
What the f**k? My heart started to hammer, my mind racing as I fisted my hands at my side. There’s no f**king way. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the image, hoping it was an optical illusion. Fuck, it wasn’t.
Across the pool danced my bride-to-be with some motherfucker doing the bump-n-grind. I moved forward, but a hand stopped me, clamping down on my arm.
“Don’t cause a scene, City,” Bear said, griping me tightly.
I looked down at his hand, a growl starting deep in my throat. “That’s my woman. No one, and I mean no one, puts their hands on her.” Pulling my arm from his grip, I stalked across the pool, cracking my neck and preparing for the shit storm that was about to happen.
Sophia stopped dancing, her mouth hanging open as she nudged Izzy, motioning to me with her head.
“Fuck.” Izzy mouthed, shaking her head, her eyes growing wide.
With Suzy’s back to me, I grabbed the ass**le groping Suzy’s collar, removing him from my fiancée. Suzy turned slowly, all the color draining from her face as her eyes found mine.
“Fuck off,” I growled, pushing him away as I tried to restrain myself.
“You f**k off, ass**le. I’m dancing with the beautiful blonde. She ain’t yours.” He moved forward, standing toe to toe with me.
I snarled, moving closer to his face. “She’s my motherfucking fiancée. You had your shitty ass hands all over her.”
“City,” Suzy said, grabbing my arm. “Baby.”
I pushed her away, not looking in her direction. “You need to back the f**k off and go find some other pu**y. This one is mine,” I roared, grabbing his shirt pulling him closer to my face.
“I didn’t hear her say no when I started dancing with her, motherfucker.” His words were slightly slurred as tiny droplets of his spit hit my face as he spoke. “Her ass felt so good in my hands.”
“City,” Bear said, touching my shoulder. “Not here, man.”
“What did you just say?” I asked, tightening my grip.
“Her ass…you can bounce a quarter off that shit.” His mouth slowly turned up into a cocky ass grin.
As I released him, I pushed him back and swung. I connected with his jaw, the bones crunching under my knuckles. His arms flailed as he fell to the ground and grasped his face.
“Keep your f**king hands to yourself, dickhead.” I spit on the ground next to him. “Worthless piece of shit.”
He dragged his hand across his lips, wiping the blood that had trickled out of his mouth. I fisted my hands at my side, waiting to see if he’d retaliate, but he stood slowly and walked away. Pussy.
Bear patted me on the back. “Can’t say the ass**le didn’t deserve it.”
“He deserved more. If we were at the Neon Cowboy I would have beat him unconscious, but here it’s like a damn show.”
I looked around the crowd that had gathered. People were smiling and laughing and looked impressed. Such is city life at a club. They just wanted to see someone get their ass kicked. I closed my eyes, trying to calm my breath before turning to see Suzy.