Page 68 of The Moment They Can't Forget

JD had noticed not much scared Dukes, even bikers.

“I don’t want trouble here!” Hank, one of the Circle Left owners, called.

“Just passing through and thought we’d stop for a beer,” the big guy Sawyer had pointed to said. “And a chat with him.” He nodded to the eldest Duke. “Him and me, we have unfinished business.”

“Passing through to where?” Dan asked. He was the little Duke out of uniform. Funny, harmless, and good company. But when he was in cop mode, he was as mean as his uncle.

“Real glad Uncle Asher left with Mom and Ally,” Brody said.

“Amen,” Ryder agreed.

“This isn’t on the way to anywhere, Grill. So maybe you should head back to whatever hole you crawled out of,” Sawyer said.

“Don’t provoke him,” Zoe said from behind him.

“Get inside.” JD turned to glare at her, Birdie, Nina, and others. With them were the other men from inside. Zoe folded her arms and ignored him.

“Fuck off, Grill, and take your boys with you. We don’t want any of your shit,” Ryder said.

Nancy stomped by them in her lavender square dancing dress. “The people at my back are Lyntacks. They stay. You go, because you’re not welcome here.”

“Hiding behind a woman, Dukes,” Grill mocked. “How about if you don’t want this shithole messed up, we settle things between us?”

“Shithole!” Nancy screeched. Dan grabbed her before she could launch herself at Grill and pulled her to the side, handing her off to Hank.

“You broke my nose in that fight in the Dog,” Grill said to Sawyer. “I’ve been trying to return the favor, now sounds good.”

“You’re not touching my brother!” Zoe pushed through the line and took a step before JD grabbed her.

“No, he’s not!” Birdie screeched. Sawyer did the same with her.

“Stay,” JD hissed to Zoe as he wrestled with her, finally pushing her behind him as Sawyer put Birdie next to her. “What the hell is wrong with you? One of their fists could flatten you,” JD snapped.

“Birdie, I can’t worry about you if this goes down,” Sawyer said.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.” Zoe jabbed a finger into JD’s shoulder.

“Someone’s got to talk sense into your thick head. Now shut up and stay put,” JD snarled.

“Nothing is going down,” Dan said. “There are too many of us, Grill. So unless you want that nose to lean the other way, get back on your bikes and leave town.”

“What he said,” JD added.

“Who the fuck are you?” Grill asked, getting off his bike and moving closer but not close enough that he left the ranks of his buddies.

“Not sure what business that is of yours,” JD said.

“It’s my business because I asked.” The biker leaned in JD’s direction in what he guessed was supposed to be a threatening manner.

JD had been small until his late teens, so he’d learned fast how to look after himself when his parents had sent him away to a private boarding school.

“But did you say please?” JD asked.

The big biker’s eyes narrowed. The locals behind him all snickered.

“Come here and say that.”

“And that just took me back to school,” JD mocked.

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