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“Probably to kick her ass,” Kasi replied, as if Remi picking a fight was no big deal. “Destiny said if we wouldn’t listen to reason, maybe your ‘old biddy of a landlady’ would. Sounded like she was going to try to get Edith to evict you.”
Edith would be even less receptive to Destiny’s lies than the girls. But still…
Gretchen rushed for the exit with the other three women in tow. As soon as she reached the darkest end of parking lot, she spotted Destiny and Remi in an argument, Remi demanding the woman stay away from Edith and leave town immediately.
The bar only had a couple of streetlights in the parking lot, and both were closer to the entrance. The lot had been almost full when they’d arrived, so Destiny had claimed one of the last spots, farther away. She and Remi were cast in shadow and yelling at each other.
Charlie, the bouncer at Whiskey Abbey, quickly passed Gretchen, rushing over to the two arguing women. He took one look at Remi’s furious face, then shifted closer to Destiny, attempting to shoo her away.
Destiny was a mouthy redneck—Gretchen had seen her get into a screaming match with a woman in the bowling alley for mistakenly using her ball—and she wasn’t the type to back down from a fight, so she shrugged off Charlie’s grip and took a swing at Remi, whose back was to Gretchen.
Remi dodged the punch with ease, but before she could retaliate, another man rushed over from elsewhere in the parking lot, wrapping his arms around Remi from behind, as Charlie did the same to Destiny.
Both women continued to scream at each other, while Remi took exception to being restrained, fighting like a wildcat to shake off the stranger’s grip.
“Stand down, Hellraiser,” the man said firmly.
“Fuck that! This bitch messed with one of my friends!” Remi responded hotly.
“Your friend is a stupid fucking cunt!” Destiny spat. “And so are you!”
Both women struggled to get loose. Charlie almost lost his grip on Destiny, but Remi’s guy impressively held tight, considering Remi was putting up one hell of a fight.
“You need to get out of here or I’m calling the sheriff to arrest your ass,” Charlie shouted at Destiny, dragging her away from the fight and toward the cars. “And, Remi, you need to settle down, goddammit.”
Once Charlie managed to put at least twenty feet between them, he turned Destiny toward the cars. “Which one is yours?”
Destiny shook off Charlie’s hand and straightened her shirt as she pointed to her vehicle. Clearly the threat of Charlie bringing in the law was enough to get Destiny to back down. Probably because she was dating a cop, and it wouldn’t look good if she got arrested in a parking lot brawl.
“Get in it and leave,” Charlie barked. “Now. And don’t bother to come back. Consider yourself banned from Whiskey Abbey.”
“Like I’d come back to this fucking dive.” Then, never able to resist getting the final word, Destiny flipped them all the middle finger as she got into her car and spun tires out of the parking lot.
“Jesus,” Charlie muttered, running a hand over his bald head. “What the hell was that, Remi?”
Even though Remi had stopped fighting for freedom, the man was still holding on, as if he didn’t trust her not to chase down Destiny’s car.
“You can let go, Hotshot,” Remi grumbled, glancing over her shoulder.
The stranger hesitated for a second longer, then released her. Together, they turned toward the bar—and for the first time, Gretchen got a good look at the man’s face.
She froze when his gaze connected with hers.
“Sorry, Gretchen. I’m sure you don’t like violence after everything you’ve been through, but that bitch had it coming,” Remi seethed.
Gretchen’s throat constricted, making it impossible to reply. She couldn’t make herself look away from…him.
“Gretchen’s the friend you were defending?” the man asked Remi, who nodded…even as she frowned in confusion. “I should have let you kick the bitch’s ass, Hellraiser.”
“Shaw?” Gretchen whispered, her vision blurry with tears.
Shaw gave her a rueful grin. “Hey, sweet pea. Looks like I ruined the surprise.”
She sniffled, his tone and the playful nickname so much the same. Even the way he looked at her.
“You two know each other?” Remi asked.
Gretchen swallowed hard, then cleared her throat. “This is my brother. Shaw.”