mostly in shadows, but I caught a glimpse of the hard face of Blake, Dylan’s business partner and part of the family that kind of adopted Dylan after he got out of jail. Which made Blake Dylan’s brother in a way. A relationship I was really grateful for and at the same time resented the hell out of.
“Hey man!” he said with a wide smile, because the guy had no such resentment for me. Or if he did, he didn’t show it. Come to think of it, the guy didn’t show much of anything. He was slick like that. Hard to get a hold of. You didn’t know anything about him unless he wanted you to.
I knew he was rich as fuck. And protective of Dylan and his mom, Margaret, who kind of kept things running smooth up here on the mountaintop. And he was the kind of handsome women fell to their knees in front of.
But there was something under the surface of his millionaire suits I recognized. The animal in me scented an animal in him.
Sometimes I got the impression he was just barely holding on to the leash of that animal.
And that made me real fucking nervous.
“Hey, Blake,” I said, shaking hands with him. “I’m looking for Annie, we got a situation—”
He glanced over my shoulder and saw Olivia and Tiffany.
“What the fuck?” Blake said like he was breathing fire, and stepped past me. He grabbed Tiffany’s arm. “What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Blake!” Olivia got herself between them, because she did not tolerate men manhandling women. Which meant I was getting in the mix, because no one was touching my girl. “Back off.”
But Olivia and I didn’t need to worry, because Tiffany hauled that thin arm back and then let fly, clocking Blake across the face hard enough to snap his head back.
“Don’t touch me, asshole!” she hissed.
Blake had fire in his eyes and a visible red handprint on his face because of the light falling into the foyer from the kitchen.
“I didn’t know there was a party. I’m just…” Tiffany swallowed. “I’m just looking for Annie. She said I could come here if I needed help.”
“You need help?” Blake asked.
“Not from you,” she sneered.
“You should come in,” Olivia said, putting her arm around Tiffany, but she only shrugged away.
“I’m fine,” she said, in what was a painfully obvious lie. So much so, it made my gut clench. “I shouldn’t have come.”
Tiffany shrugged off Olivia’s hands and headed out the second door into the dark night. Blake started after her, but both Olivia and I got in his way.
“That’s probably not a good idea, you going after her,” Olivia said.
“It’s not really your business, is it?”
Oh man, I did not want to go toe to toe with a guy at my brother’s Christmas party, but he could not talk to Olivia that way. “I think we’re making it our business.”
“For fuck’s sake, Max. Can we tone down the junkyard dog routine? Tiffany is getting in her car. She’s upset and she’s going to drive away. I’m not going to hurt her. I’m going to stop her from getting hurt.”
Olivia and I glanced back and saw her getting in her car, the POS Ford in the shadows.
“I’ll get Annie,” Olivia said. “But you hurt her and I’ll sick my junkyard dog on you.”
I grinned at Blake with all my teeth. But Olivia went in and I let Blake go. I kept an eye on him, but he was only doing what he said he would do, stopping her from driving away.
Annie came out, blew a kiss at my cheek and ran into the fray, shutting the door to the outside behind her, leaving me and Olivia in the shadows, the party at our back.
“Junkyard dog,” she said. “I should punch his lights out for calling you that.”
“I’m your junkyard dog,” I said, pulling her into my arms. “I don’t mind that. You know that woman?”
“Yeah, she lived at the trailer park with all of us. She has three kids and an asshole husband. Shitty sense of self-preservation.”
“Taking on Blake isn’t smart. You think she’s okay?”
“Annie asked me to stay out of it. Said she had it handled.”
That seemed to cement it, but she still didn’t move. “I think maybe you’re the junkyard dog,” I whispered into her ear.
That made her laugh. “But I’m your junkyard dog, right?”
“That’s right. Let’s go in.”
Arm and arm, we left the shadows of the foyer and stepped into the bright lights and