leg.
Rage like I never felt before gurgled in my gut. If Toby were standing here now, I’d fuck him up something fierce, concussion or not. His mother wouldn’t recognize him when I was finished.
“I appreciate you offering to be my hero, but assholes like that don’t deserve the time of day.” Quentin laughed. “You might want to consider not thinking at all until you’re feeling better. Not everyone is going to be as generous with your internal thoughts as I am.”
And just like that, we were back at square one, with me trying to figure how to make peace with Dallas. “You said I wouldn’t find a more loyal friend than Dallas. What about you?” I was curious to see what the youngest McCoy thought of me.
“Hell, I knew we were destined to be friends the second I heard you telling my brother to go hug a landmine.” Quentin’s eyes danced with glee.
“Not one of my proudest moments.” I shook my head, sending pain slashing through me. My eyes slid shut. If I wasn’t careful, the omelet was going to make a return voyage.
“Come on, back to bed with you.” Quentin was around the counter and taking my elbow. “I’ll smooth things over with Ozzy and Dallas the best I can, but it’s up to you to go from there and prove that rumor is the shit we both know it is. Got it?”
“Got it.” I understood what Quentin was saying. This one was on the house, but what came next was up to me.
7
Dallas
“Fucking sleeping, Quentin? Are you kidding me? He’s here to work, not lay around like some diva. Would he like some ice cream and a foot massage too?” It had been nice of my brother to come over and babysit the rookie, but Christ, treating him with kid gloves wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
“Jesus, Dallas, you were the one who told him he couldn’t go on the last call with you. What the hell did you expect him to do on his second day here, run the fucking place?” Quentin looked as if he were about to go nuclear on my ass.
“Calm down, I’m not mad at you.” Out of all of us, Quentin had always been the sensitive one.
“I wouldn’t give a fuck if you were.” Quentin stood taller, looking down at me as if he were going to squish me like a bug. “It’s not my job to tell you how to do yours, but I will anyway. Give this kid a break. You and Oz were dicks to him yesterday and how did he respond?” He tapped his fingers against his hips.
All I could do was stare at my little brother. The man standing in front of me wasn’t the kind, sweet man Quentin had been before he’d left to find himself in Colorado.
“He nearly got killed saving a woman and your raggedy ass, remember? If he hadn’t thrown himself down on top of you, it could have been you with the concussion, or worse.”
Quentin had a good point. Several of them in fact. “There’s just something about this guy that rubs me the wrong way.”
“Don’t be such an asshole. We both know what’s rubbing you wrong.” A devilish smile curved his lips.
“Yeah, and what is that, oh great one?”
“You’re wondering if Toby Whitmer rubbed him the right way.” Quentin’s gaze held my own. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
“I don’t give a fuck if Toby touched this jerk at all.” It was a lie, and I knew it. “Saxon said he didn’t, but…”
“But Toby led you to believe otherwise.” Quentin shook his head. “We both know what kind of man Toby is. He’s got no heart. No soul. He’s in this life to get whatever he can for himself, while we’re here—”
“To give everything we have to others,” I finished with my brother. I sat down hard at the dining table, my back to the bunkhouse. “I’ll never forget the first time Dad said those words to me. I thought he was full of shit. I remember thinking no one had ever given me anything in my life. Why the hell should I give anything of mine away?”
“I think all of us felt like that in the beginning, until we realized what David and Mandy were giving us.”
“Everything,” we said in tandem.
“Saxon might not have been raised a McCoy, but that same creed pumps through his veins, same as it does with us. I know how hard it was to lose Hal.