Page 20 of The Triple Threat

Hunter shook his head. “No and I doubt my Pop did either, not that he’d care overly much.”

“So why do you look so mad?” I asked and glanced back at Dominic and his woman.

Hunter looked down at me, his brown eyes dark and intense. “Because you’re Carter’s sister and I’ve known you since you were a baby,” he stabbed his finger in Dominic’s direction, “and he hurt you and you deserve better.”

Something pricked at my throat and I found it hard to swallow. I took a deep breath and then slowly let it out, my eyes on Hunter the whole time.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“I tell you something,” Carter said as he slapped a hand on Hunter’s back, startling him. “Miss Watkins ain’t improved much since she taught us in high school.”

We all turned back to Dominic and our ex-teacher. They kissed and giggled at the bar and we clinked our bottles together. “Here’s to being rid of douchebags,” I toasted.

“To being rid of douchebags.”

We laughed and everything seemed relaxed, so I could only be shocked when Dominic looked over and winked at me with his hand on Miss. Watkins ass, and Hunter slammed down his bottle, stormed across the bar and punched Dominic right on the nose.

“What the ever-loving fuck,” Carter exclaimed as he pulled me away from Dominic Taylor. “Hunter, calm down man.”

“You even look in her direction and I’ll punch you again.” My face was so close to his we were breathing the same air.

“You damn animal,” Dominic spat back. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You winked at her, you cocky bastard. While you had your hands all over the woman you cheated with.”

A small hand wrapped around my bicep and I looked over my shoulder to find Ellie’s big brown eyes begging me to pull away.

“Go on, Hunter, boy,” a voice I recognized as old man Simpson shouted. “Punch the little ball sack.”

“Mr. Simpson,” Ellie snapped as she let go of my arm and turned to the old man wearing sweatpants and a hoody. “Keep your nose out of it. You do not need to be getting your blood pressure up again.”

Mr. Simpson batted Ellie’s pointer finger away and made a punching motion. “Sock him right between his eyes, boy.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Ellie said and pulled me by my arm away from a cowering Dominic. “He,” she pointed down at Dominic and gave my arm another tug, “is not worth it.”

“She’s right,” Carter added as he placed a hand against my chest and pushed me.

“Don’t you listen to them,” Mr. Simpson growled as he did a little shadow boxing. “Knock his teeth out.”

“Stan, come on, don’t encourage them.” Mr. Parker patted Mr. Simpson’s back, but the old man wasn’t having any of it and shrugged him off.

He was evidently desperate to see a fight, despite the fact that no one else in the bar seemed to be. I had to be honest, I had no problem helping Mr. Simpson get his wish, but the way Ellie’s eyes burned with anger told me I should probably listen to her rather than the old man throwing pretend punches. I straightened up and took a step back from Dominic. Miss. Watkins had her cell in her hand about to tap out a number.

“Really, Miss. Watkins, you’re going to call the cops on me?”

Everyone swiveled to land their gaze on her, and she immediately dropped her hand to her side.

“You don’t want to do that,” Penny said, her tone hard as she stood with her hands firmly on her hips. “You know that’s not how we do things around here, Pamela.”

Miss. Watkins’ eyes shot to me and then back to Penny. “You are all just going to stand there and let him punch Dominic.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Simpson shouted. “He’s a fucking little dickwad.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. Ellie’s shoulders shook too.

“We all know what he did to our beautiful Ellie,” Mr. Simpson continued. “And you should know better, Pamela Watkins. You’re old enough to be his mother.”

I doubted that she was much past thirty-six as she’d been pretty young when she’d started to teach us at high school, but even so, he was right, she should have known better than to mess around with someone already in a relationship.