Read Online For You (The 'Burg Series) by Kristen Ashley - Free Book Online Page A

–” I tried.
    Morrie tore his eyes from my arm and looked at his friend. “Colt –”
    “Shit, what?” Alec cut him off, totally ignoring me. “You do that to her?”
    Sully got close to him. “Colt.”
    “Please calm down, it was not a big deal,” I tried again.
    Alec ignored me again. “You put your hand on her?”
    “Let’s go to the back, talk,” Morrie suggested.
    “That why she moved in with Jessie and Jimbo?” Alec asked.
    Oh Lord.
    I’d never lived in a city. Even when I was travelling, trying to find a way to get back to myself, I picked small towns. I did this because you were never faceless, not for long. You were never a number. When something happened to folk in small towns, the entire town felt it. Even if you didn’t know someone, just knew of them, or a bit about them, you felt it when something happened. You sent a card. You gave them a smile when you saw them or someone who cared about them, a smile that said more than “hello”. People looked out for one another. You were friendly even to people you might not like just because it was the right thing to do and you’d likely see them again, maybe not the next day, but soon. And their kid would go to school with your kid. Or there would be a time when you knew you’d need their kindness or you’d give them yours.
    But sometimes living in a small town sucked.
    This was one of those times.
    “Really, guys, this isn’t the time –” Jessie entered the conversation and she was just as unsuccessful as Sully and I had been.
    “Your job was to keep her safe,” Alec told Morrie.
    “Colt, trust me, we don’t want to talk about this,” Morrie said back.
    “Jimbo can’t keep her safe. He wouldn’t have the first clue,” Alec said.
    “Excuse me,” Jessie put in.
    Alec’s eyes cut to me. “You stay with Morrie or you stay with me.”
    “Alec,” I said.
    “Colt, man, you know that can’t happen. You’re primary on the investigation,” Sully reminded him.
    Alec was single-minded, not moving his eyes from me, he’d made a decision. “Morrie fucked up, you stay with me.”
    “I’m not staying with you.”
    “You aren’t staying with Jimbo and,” his head dipped to my arm, “you aren’t staying with Morrie.”
    “She’s fine with us,” Jessie said.
    “She can’t stay with you, man, you’d be yanked off the case,” Sully told him.
    Alec bit his lip then looked at Morrie. “Explain why you marked her.”
    “Like I said,” Morrie was now getting pissed, “let’s go in the back.”
    “Explain why she’s standin’ there with your mark on her after what she went through yesterday,” Alec pushed, already pissed.
    “Dude, as I said –”
    “Explain why she lived through that asshole usin’ his fists on her only to have her fucking brother mark her.”
    The bar, already on silent alert, everyone listening in and not hiding it, went wired.
    Not me. I felt something else. Something far from pleasant. Something that made me feel sick.
      Morrie’s voice was vibrating when he warned, “Colt, don’t compare me to Pete.”
    “You aren’t explaining.”
    “What’s goin’ on here?” my Dad said as my cell phone at my ass rang.
    No one had noticed the door open. No one had noticed Mom and Dad walk in. No one.
    Dad was looking between Morrie and Alec, his expression the same as it always was when he had to wade into one of their arguments or one of my arguments with Morrie.
    Mom’s eyes were on me.
    I wasn’t thinking. I should have said something, defused the situation. At least greeted my Mom and Dad who I hadn’t seen since Christmas and it was now March. But instead I pulled the phone out of my back pocket, flipped it open and put it to my ear.
    “Hello?”
    I didn’t even hear the words, the screeching was so loud there were barely words to be heard.
    But even through the phone I could feel the fury, the anguish, the blame.
    “Slow down,” I said into the screeching, “what?”
    “ Hacked! ” a