Page 79 of Imperfect Saint
“And what I was saying…” Isaac spoke over them, “Is that it’s the biggest wedding of the year and we got tasked to cover it. Vaughn told Tyler to cancel his plans, and of course Tyler got pissed. They fought. This all happened about…” Isaac looked at his watch and shrugged, “Seven hours ago.”
“Damn.” Hunter slid a hand through his hair, “I didn’t know.”
“How could you? I told you. It just happened.”
“If I’d known we were going to be short-handed I would have…”
“What? Moved the wedding? Put off your honeymoon?” Thad laughed, “No. You wouldn’t have. I think Mills might’ve had something to say about that too.”
“You couldn’t have known we’d be short handed. Two of the new hires quit last week, another failed his firearm safety class. With Kellen out on leave for his knee surgery and you on honeymoon, we need Ty. If we didn’t, Vaughn wouldn’t have asked him to change his plans.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t ask, did he?” Hunter groaned.
“Does he ever?” Isaac shrugged.
Hunter rubbed his face as another level of exhaustion hit him. No, Vaughn never asked. He told, he ordered, he directed. He didn’t know how to ask for help. It might have killed him if he’d tried. Instead he’d demanded Tyler cancel his plans, fought with him about it, and then probably told him that if he didn’t show to work the wedding that he’d fire him. That was standard Vaughn protocol when dealing with Tyler.
He had wedding stress, he had plans to make, he had work to sort out. And now he’d have to make time to smooth everything between his brothers over before he said I do and cut out of town, otherwise one of them might not be breathing when he got back.
He blew out a rough breath, “I’ll talk to them.”
“They’ll work it out. They always do.” Isaac shook his head, “Just don’t bail on Ty tonight. Not yet. I know this isn’t your scene, but he did put some thought into it to make it nice for you.”
“Yeah, okay.” He nodded his agreement and took another swig of his whiskey. “But where the hell did he disappear to?”
“I think I see him headed this way.” Isaac grinned.
Thad turned around and laughed, “Damn. That was a good job keeping him in his chair, Sac. Guilt trip him about his brothers. Good call.”
Hunter looked between them, “What?”
“Nothing.” Isaac smirked.
“You only said all that to make me stay?” Hunter gaped. “It’s not true?”
“Oh it’s true, but the only reason I told you about it now was to keep you from leaving.” Isaac gave a grin that was only half apologetic. “I promised your brother I wouldn’t let you run out while he was busy getting you your present.”
“Present?” Hunter raised his eyebrows at the same time Blake let out a wolf whistle.
“Told you it was going to get better.” Blake winked and lifted one finger from his beer bottle to point over Hunter’s shoulder. “Take a look, bud. A pretty present just waiting to be unwrapped just walked through the door.”
Hunter turned and lost the ability to breathe. His friends were a bunch of assholes. His brother was a lying little shit. But his fiancée, who was walking through the club with Tyler at her side and her friends trailing behind her, was an absolute fucking knockout.
How had he gotten so damn lucky?
Millie was wearing a short white dress that was the complete opposite of sweet. It was short and sexy and showed off way too much of her pretty pale skin. Plus, the color all but glowed under the neon lights of the nightclub, making her look like a beacon that no doubt every man in the place had noticed and was drooling over. Her dark hair was pinned up again, showing off her slim neck and angular features, and he wanted nothing more than to drag her out of this dark bar instantly so that he was the only man that got to see her looking like the sexiest smart girl in the world.
“Stop staring.” He barked at Blake when he turned back and when his friend didn’t immediately look away, he kicked him in the shin.
“Ow!” Blake cursed.
“I said, stop staring at my fiancée.”
“Who says I was staring at your fiancée?” Blake raised a daring eyebrow, “Maybe I was checking out the hot redhead trailing along behind her.”
Hunter growled, “That’s worse, Blake.”
“How is that worse?” Blake threw his hands up.
