Page 16 of The Bad Brother

H ER NAME IS SLOANE MERRICK.

She’s a surgeon at Barrett County. She broke up with her boyfriend after she found out he was sleeping with her best friend.

He in turn kicked her out of their place and moved the best friend in—after he drained their joint bank account.

It was sheer luck that she had just enough cash to pay for three months’ rent in advance.

Even better luck that she happened to meet River in the first place.

More than luck.

It was divine intervention.

And the platinum and diamond bracelet—it was a med school graduation gift from her mother.

It was a gift.

That’s the only thing River reported back to me that I believe.

Not that she went to med school or that the bracelet was a gift from her mother.

Beautiful, expensive women like Sloane Merrick don’t buy themselves jewelry and they don’t buy it for each other either.

Not when there are wealthy men in the world, more than willing to do it for them.

Wealthy men like my brother.

“So, let me see if I’m following here,” Cade says while he walks around the pool table, scouting his next shot.

He doesn’t have much and he knows it. I’ve strategically placed all my balls in front of his, effectively blocking almost every pocket.

He’ll either scratch or miss whichever shot he takes and I’ll clean up the table while he bitches at me for being a cheat.

“You think the cute stray River brought home is some sort of mercenary spy, sent here by your brother to destroy you? Three ball, corner pocket.” Leaning down, he taps the tip of his cue against the assigned pocket before lining up his shot. “That doesn’t sound paranoid to you?”

It does.

It sounds more than paranoid. Hearing Cade say it out loud, it sounds bugshit crazy. But being crazy doesn’t make it any less true.

Not wanting to be accused of distracting him, I wait to answer him until after he misses his shot.

“She told Riv that she’s a surgeon,” I remind him on a scoff.

“Not just a doctor—a goddamned surgeon .” Leaning down, I jerk my chin at the pocket Cade just missed.

“She look like any kind of surgeon you’ve ever met? ”

When I sink shot number two, Cade barks out a curse. “Since there’s not a whole lot of surgeons in prison, I don’t think I’m the right guy to ask. ”

“I haven’t met many either,” I tell him on a scoff. “But I can promise you, none of the ones I have met look like that.”

Like what exactly? Like your own personal sex fantasy? Long dark hair. Wide, dark eyes. Flawless skin. Full mouth. Generous breasts. A tight, round ass that was practically made to sit on your face so you can ? —

Shit.

Not going there.

“That woman is not a surgeon and her imaginary boyfriend didn’t cheat on her.

She just made up some bullshit sob story to weasel her way in here and now that she has, I can’t do anything about it without hanging River out to dry.

” Pulling back my cue, I crack the tip of it into the white ball and sink a bank shot. “She’s a soft touch. Always has been.”

“River?” Cade looks at me like I just said the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “ River’s a soft touch? Says the guy who’s turned his bar into the Island of Misfit Toys.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I know what he means, I just don’t like the sound of it.

“It means you’re King Stray Collector of Barrett County.

” Rather than wait for me to miss, Cade puts his cue back in the rack attached to the wall and sits on a nearby barstool to watch me clean up the table.

“Me. Sera. River. Austin—you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself without something to rescue. ”

Insulted for some reason, I glare at him from across the table. “Is that right?”

“It is,” Cade tells me with a chuckle. “You might have most of this town fooled, but you don’t fool me. Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you, but you’re a good guy.”

“The fuck I am,” I growl at him. Hearing him say it makes me angrier than it should. Maybe because I could’ve been. Might’ve had the chance to be a good man, once upon a time but not anymore.

“The fuck you aren’t ,” Cade shoots back, still laughing. “Hell, you can’t even find enough inner asshole to kick a bunch of church ladies out of your bar.”

“You’re not a stray,” I gripe at him while I take my next shot, ignoring his point about my church lady problem. It’s been two weeks since the bus accident and they’re still here, waiting to be let in with their goddamned mops and buckets when I wake up in the morning. “None of you are.”

“Riv’s a recovering addict you caught trying to rob this place, when she was barely eighteen.” Like I forgot, Cade holds up his index finger. Flicking out finger number two, he shakes his head. “Sera is the Hester Pryne of Barrett County.”

Bent over the pool table, I look up at him on a laugh while taking my next shot. “The fuck you know who Hester Pryne is?”

“I can read, motherfucker,” Cade says, with a good-natured grin while flipping up finger number three. “Austin is a pick pocket from Dallas and I’m an ex-con on parole who lives with his mother.”

“You’re a good dad and probably the closest thing I have to a best friend,” I remind him, my tone hardening slightly because I don’t like it when he talks shit about himself.

“I scrub toilets and mop floors at the grade school and when I’m not doing that, I’m here, either slinging beer or letting people try to cave my skull in for money.

” When I don’t answer him, Cade drops his hand and sighs.

“Look—all I’m saying is maybe this chick just needs a soft place to land, like the rest of us. ”

“You see that bracelet on her arm?” Table cleared, I toss my stick on top of it. “I promise you—she’s got plenty of soft places to land. If shit is as bad as she’s claiming, why didn’t she just go back to wherever she came from instead of slumming it on the wrong side of the river.”

“Maybe wherever she comes from doesn’t want her back,” Cade says quietly, a not-so-gentle reminder that I’m not just King Stray Collector—I’m the most fucked up toy on the island.

When Tank brought me home, I’d just been released from the Texas State juvenile detention center after serving eighteen months for wrongful death with malicious intent.

After I was sentenced, my father looked me in the eye and said, you’re no longer our son. When you’re released, don’t come home.

That was the last time he ever spoke to me.

“Yeah.” I give him a bitter laugh that twists my guts before it goes sour in my mouth. “Well, I don’t want her here either.”

“That’s too bad because I don’t think she’s going anywhere, anytime soon.

” Because if history has told him anything, it’s that arguing with me about it isn’t going to change my mind, Cade offers me a shrug.

“Like you said, heartbroken surgeon or not, she’s got you over a barrel.

There’s no way you can get rid of her without risking River. ”

“Just because I can’t evict her, doesn’t mean I can’t get her to leave,” I tell him with a smile.

“I don’t know, man,” Cade says with a skeptical smile of his own. “Maybe we didn’t meet the same chick but she seemed pretty determined. I don’t think you’re gonna get rid of her as easily as you think.”

Still grinning, I pick up my cue and walk it to the rack.

“Watch me.”