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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ATLAS

Several patrons were scattered around One Night Stan’s when I strode inside later that week.

The custom refrigerator I’d ordered had been delivered earlier, and I wanted to make sure everything was good.

Lincoln stood behind the bar, filling a mug from the tap, and lifted his chin in greeting.

“Was wondering how long you could stay away.”

I grunted in response and walked around the bar, checking out the appliance that had cost a small fortune.

“Fridge working okay?”

He slid the mug of beer down to a patron before facing me.

“Well, it hasn’t pissed all over the floor like the last one, so I’d say that’s a win.”

“Good. And it doesn’t look like there’s any damage to the floors from that mess. Next time things go tits up in here, I don’t want to find out the next day.”

“Yes, sir,” Lincoln said, saluting like a jackass.

“I’ll call you right away, boss.”

“Don’t be a dick.”

He just raised his brows at me, silently asking, you think I’m the one being a dick?

“You’ve been more of an asshole lately than usual. What’s up?”

I pressed my lips in a thin line, refusing to give him even an inch, because the little shit would take that and run for miles.

But it turned out I didn’t have to say a goddamn word.

He studied me for a minute before his brows flew up, and pure fucking glee swept across his features.

“Oh, I don’t believe this. It’s the hot girl from the other night, isn’t it? Sutton . She got under your skin.”

“She’s not the ‘hot girl from the other night,’” I said through clenched teeth.

“She’s my tenant.”

“Oh shit, she lives with you?”

“She doesn’t live with me .” I crossed my arms and glared at him.

I didn’t need the fucking thought of her in my bed permeating my brain during waking hours.

Because god knew it was there enough while I slept.

“She’s renting the guest cottage.”

“Still, she’s on your property, which means you can’t escape her. Goddamn, I fucking love this. Wait till Dec hears about it.”

“Wait till Dec hears about what?” our brother asked, setting his motorcycle helmet on the bar top before settling on a stool.

Of course. The fucker was never around when we needed him, but the second I didn’t want him to show, there he was.

The smile on Lincoln’s face was evil.

“Atlas has himself a little complication in the form of his hot new tenant.”

Declan turned to me, his brow furrowed.

“Since when do you have a hot tenant? How the hell did you get talked into that?”

“Mabel,” was all I said.

All I needed to say.

Declan hummed, tapping his fingers on the bar top.

“So, you’ve got a hot tenant living in your backyard?”

“Stop calling her hot,” I snapped, unable to keep the growl from my voice.

“And it’s not just her. She has a daughter too.”

“Shit, you’ve got a little kid staying with you?”

“For the last fucking time, they’re not staying with me. They’re renting the guest cottage. Secondly, her daughter’s not little. She’s—I don’t know—maybe sixteen.”

Lincoln’s brows flew up.

“No shit? Damn. Sutton doesn’t look old enough to have a teenager. How old is she?”

I threw up my hands.

“I don’t fucking know. I don’t know anything about her.”

Except all the things that had been thrust upon me without my permission since she’d upended my life.

Like how she had a dance party with her daughter every night when she got home, which I only knew because she blasted the music loud enough to rattle my windows.

Or how she apparently treated the kids at school like adults rather than children, which I was made aware of because my players couldn’t stop going on and fucking on about how great she was.

Or how she’d taken it upon herself to be my kitten’s guardian angel, which became apparent when I’d tripped over yet another package for the furball this morning.

I shouldn’t know anything at all about her.

But I couldn’t avoid it.

“Enough bullshit. Let’s get back to the promise that you two shitheads are going to fill me in if things go sideways in here.”

“Don’t drag me into that,” Declan said.

“I wasn’t even around when the fridge shit the bed.”

“I did fill you in.” Lincoln crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow.

“If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have anything to bitch about right now.”

Declan leaned one elbow on the bar and glanced at me.

“He’s got you there.”

I scrubbed a hand down my face, exhausted to my fucking core, thanks to trying to hold everything together.

My family, this bar…

Myself. “What the fuck are you even doing here, Dec?”

“Came to tell you I can’t work next week, so you’ll have to take my shifts.”

“I can’t take your shifts because I have other shit to do,” I said.

“Like lead my team toward the playoffs.”

“Well, someone other than me needs to work them,” Lincoln said.

“I already basically live here. I’m not going to work seven, twelve-hour shifts in a week just so Dec can go off and do whatever the fuck.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Declan shrugged.

“I’ve got somewhere else to be, so work it out.”

“Right, yeah. I’ll work it out.” Lincoln tossed a rag under the counter, the force knocking over a mug.

“Can’t count on you for shit anyway. I don’t know why I thought next week would be any different.”

“Don’t get pissed at me,” Declan shot back.

“I’m not the one who saddled us with this place. Dad is. You want someone to be pissed at, direct it at him.”

“A little hard to do when?—”

“All right, assholes, keep it down.” I glanced around the bar, noticing a few curious heads turned in our direction.

We hadn’t kept our family’s shit locked up tight for years just for these two to ruin it.

“I’ll get next week handled. But Dec, you know goddamn well this was a shitty move. Even for you.”

That last bit wasn’t necessary, but it also wasn’t wrong.

And from the way Declan’s jaw clenched as he stared at me, he knew it.

Which was why he didn’t argue or snap back.

He just pushed off from the bar top, grabbed his helmet, and strode straight out the front door without a backward glance.

Not caring what kind of a mess he left in his wake.

Lincoln braced his hands on the bar top and blew out a heavy breath.

“We can’t keep doing this, Atlas. I’m busting my ass here, but you can’t always pick up the slack. And fuck knows Dec isn’t going to. Maybe it’s time for Xander to come home.”

“You know it’s not that easy.”

“Well, make it that fucking easy. I’m drowning over here, man. And you’re the only one of our brothers who even bothers to toss me a lifeline.”

The problem was, I knew what Xander would say if I called him.

The same thing Declan did at least once a week.

That we should just sell the bar.

Split the proceeds and move on.

Stop allowing a man who’d been gone for years to dictate our lives.

But one brother had already fled this town without looking back.

If we didn’t have this bar anchoring us here, I was certain Lincoln and Declan would both follow suit.

And I hadn’t worked this hard for this long to keep my family together, only for it all to go to hell in the end.