When Ghost found out what happened, because he found out about everything, there was some yelling. Some strong gesturing. Carter endured it with a bowed head, and plenty of nodding andyes, sirs. Boomer went red-faced, and shrank down in on himself, his big shoulders drooping low as he tried to wriggle back into the depths of his chair. Roman cuffed him upside the head, too. “What the hell’s wrong with you, idiot?”
“This isn’t gonna go on,” Ghost said, to wrap it all up, a look encompassing everyone present – including Chanel, cowering back against the kitchen doorframe with her arms banded tight across her middle. “We got enough people wanting to knock us down out in the world” – a hand flung toward the window behind the bar – “without us knocking each other down. If anyone’s messing with an old lady, you bring it to me. If someone’s too much of a chump to ask a girl to go out with him for real, you get the fuck over it.” A dark, hard glare swept across all of them. “Understood?”
He was met with a chorus ofyes, sir.
Tenny kicked Reese’s boot lightly with his own, his grin sharp and mean.
Ghost sent him a look. “Don’t push me, Prince Peckerhead.”
Tenny smoothed his face and held up both hands in surrender.
As the impromptu meeting broke up, Evan appeared in front of Carter, his face eager in a way that Carter instantly distrusted. “Dude. Did you really bang Chanel and that new chick, Stephanie?”
Carter stared at him. “Where’d you hear that?”
“I heard Stephanie telling Mary. Dude, did you?”
Carter was reminded, unpleasantly, of high school.Dude, did she really let you finger her? Holy shit, she sucked your dick? You dog!
He sighed. “It’s none of your business.”
“Aw, come on, man, I need details!”
“Leave me the hell alone.” Carter knocked their shoulders together as he walked past, harder than he should have, probably.
“Hey! Ow!”
He tried to keep his head down and lay low for a few days. Boomer didn’t make any more threatening gestures, and he didn’t speak, but Carter was aware of more than a few dark looks thrown his way. One evening, he heard him muttering over on a sofa with Deacon. Deacon said, “He’s not even that good looking, if you ask me.”
He wasn’t now, no, with his nose purple and blue, still swollen, the skin split across the bridge. But it wasn’t the first time that sentiment had been hissed behind his back, not quite out of earshot. The angry guys at school, less pretty, full of jealousy because the girls they liked had winked at him. He’d heard it on the field, too, when the backup quarterback thought he should be the starter.He’s not that good.
He thought about what Jazz had said, about not wanting him to get lost in his own head – to not get so far gone that the darkness closed over him. She hadn’t had a chance to repeat that, to pet and fuss over him, in a few days. He hadn’t been by to see her, and had responded to her texts in onlyyesandno. When he reflected back on their last time together, that night with the other girls, he couldn’t scrape up anything close to desire or fond remembrance.
It was evening, and he was headed across the parking lot for the clubhouse, on his way to church, when his gaze flitted over a figure sitting in the shadow of the pavilion, long legs draped casually on the bench of a picnic table, smoking. It was Tenny.
Carter looked away and started past him. He couldn’t think of anything in the way of polite chitchat to offer the guy, and knew it wasn’t wanted of him anyway.
But Tenny said, “You need to put him in his place.”
Carter froze, and turned to him. “Who?”
“That wanker who popped you.Boomer.” He made a face like the name tasted bad. “He’s still simmering, and you need to put him in his place before he breaks your nose again.”
Carter stared at him a moment, hating how casual and affected his posture was. He wondered, briefly, if the guy had been waiting here for him, to deliver his message, just because he hadn’t gotten to kill anyone lately and was bored. “Why do you care?”
He lifted a one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t. Only offering a suggestion.”
“Yeah, well, thanks but no thanks.” He started to walk off again.
“You won’t last like this.”
Again, he paused, against his better judgement. “What?”
Tenny took a long drag, his gaze hooded, unfathomable; he had the body of a strong twenty-something, but his eyes were hundreds of years old. “This club. As pathetic as it is, it’s going to chew you up and spit you out if you don’t get your head on straight.”
“Gee, thanks,prospect,” Carter bit out. “Glad you’re an expert.”
“I watched you the other day,” he pressed. “And youretreated.” Another sneer. “You’re the senior member here, and he has no claim on that woman, and you ran away and let him hit you.
