Gunner sized him up, wrongly, finishing it stating, “Bring it on, douchebag.”

“How did you find out he was here?” Rebel cut in their exchange to ask her mother.

“As humiliating as it was, in order to find a time to see my own son, I had to ask a friend to call Molly and pretend she was an old acquaintance in town and wanted to have lunch. We were going to Phoenix, but Molly shared Diesel was visiting his sister. So we came here,” Verna answered.

“Is Dad here?” Rebel asked.

The woman lifted her chin. “Your father is done with your brother. Completely. We’re here to try to salvage the situation.”

“Well that works, since D’s done with him too,” Rebel retorted. “And just to say, there’s no situation to salvage. You’re you. He’s him. You’re fucked up. He’s happy. The end.”

Well . . .

Shit.

He was falling in love with her.

Yeah.

He already knew he was doing that.

But he was doing it hard.

“Right, we got that hashed out,” Rush said as her mother stared at Rebel like she had no idea who she was. “Now you both are gone.”

“I need to speak with my daughter,” Verna spat.

He looked to Rebel.

She took a step back, shaking her head.

He looked back to her mother. “She’s not feelin’ that. That means time to go.”

“Fuck you, assho—” Gunner started.

He didn’t finish that.

Rush had him by the collar of his tee. He jerked him, snapping his head back, then whirled him around and took a grip on the back of his shirt, another on the waistband of his jeans, and he frog marched him out of the room.

“Oh my God! What’s happening?” Verna shouted.

Gunner tried unsuccessfully to twist out of his grip. “Get your hands off me, motherfucker.”

Speck raced by them so he could open the door.

Which was good. Once Rush got him there, he tossed him right out.

He then barred the door, hands on his hips, legs planted wide, Speck at his back, as the man stumbled, righted himself and shot forward, bumping chests with Rush.

When Gunner got in position, he didn’t step back.

“We on, asshole?” he asked in Rush’s face on another bump.

Rush felt cold sting the back of his neck.

Another chest bump.

This was Rebel’s brother. He was a piece of shit. He still was her brother.

So with some effort, Rush held his shit.

“We on? You got somethin’ for me, fuckwad?” Gunner asked.

“Go,” Rush rumbled.

“Mom, go. Just take Gunner and go,” Rebel encouraged urgently from behind him.

Another bump and taunt. “You got nothin’ for me. All talk. You take cock too, dipshit?”

“Get out of the way,” Speck growled. “I want this asshole.”

“No! No fighting!” Rebel’s mother yelled.

“Peace, love and all things rainbow, but I’d like to see a fight,” he heard Essence call.

Gunner got tight in his face, brushing his nose.

“You and that guy there, yeah? Boyfriends?” Gunner asked, a snide smile in his eyes. “That patch you wear, is that a homo MC? You suck his cock, or he suck yours?”

“Rush, get out of my fuckin’ way,” Speck warned.

“Take . . . your . . . mother,” Rush said low and slow, “and go.”

“Faggot,” Gunner bit, stepped back, wound up to swing, and took his shot.

Rush ducked, the punch whiffed over him, and he came up with a blow to the ribs that sent Gunner back half a foot.

Rush followed.

His next was an overhead roundhouse to the cheekbone that sent Gunner staggering down to a hand.

Rush caught his face with his boot and that had Gunner flying to his back.

Verna screamed, “No!”

Rush moved to stand over him.

“You gonna go?” he asked.

“Stop fighting!” Verna screeched.

Gunner rolled to his side, spat at Rush’s boots and answered, “Fuck you, motherfucker.”

Rush glanced to the street, then bent to Gunner, jerked him up by his tee, landed another to his cheekbone. One more.

Then he dragged him to his feet, his head rolling, and half marched, half towed him down Essence’s steps to the rental at the curb.

He slammed him over the hood, making the man’s forehead ricochet off the metal. He reached into his front pocket, yanked the key fob, beeped the lock, then hauled him off the hood, opened the door and shoved him head first into the car.

He tossed the key on his back.

Gunner rolled to get his ass in the seat, the foot of one leg still out the door.

Rush slammed it and Gunner howled.

He yanked open the door and bent in.

“You gonna go?” he asked.

“Blow me,” Gunner groaned.

Rush landed a punch right to the nose, feeling the cartilage break. Gunner grunted. Blood streamed. Rebel’s mother again screamed.

“You gonna go?” he asked.

Gunner was blinking.

“Are you gonna go?” he pushed.

“Yeah. Fuck you. Yeah. Get out of my face, asshole,” Gunner slurred.

Rush stepped back and turned to see Speck close, Rebel in Essence’s arms on the sidewalk, her mother racing around the hood.

“You’re an animal!” Verna yelled at Rush.

“Do not come back,” he advised.

She stopped at the driver’s side door and threatened, “We’ll come back with the police!”

“Try that. See how it works for you,” he invited.

“You do that, Mom, I swear to God.”

Rebel was now at his side.

He shifted her behind him.

“You swear to God what?” her mother taunted.

“Nothing. Not a thing. You’re already dead to me,” Rebel replied.

Shock registered on the woman’s face, and Rush couldn’t believe that emotion from that stupid bitch considering the recent insanity, before her expression turned nasty.

“You and that son I refuse to claim deserve each other,” she spat.

“Yeah,” Rebel agreed. “We do.”

“Now we’re all done. Hear this, Rebel. Done,” her mom declared.

“Sayonara, Mom. Thanks for the memories.”

She gave her daughter a glare, opened the door, got in the car, scrambled to grab the key fob from the floor while Gunner slammed his door holding his face with his other hand.

Five seconds later they peeled away.

Rush took huge air through his nose.

He let it out, turning to Rebel to see her staring down the street.

“Baby—”

Her gaze sliced to his.

“You are oh so totally getting a blowjob that’s gonna scramble your brain.”

“Sweet,” Speck muttered.

“Anyone want iced tea?” Essence called.

Rebel stared up into Rush’s eyes.

Rush pulled her into his arms, felt hers close around him, looked at Essence and said, “That’d be great.”

Essence beamed at Rush.

And she wasn’t beaming about iced tea.

Guess flower children were down with using force on bigots.

Good to know.

She then turned and practically skipped up the walk.

“You good?” Speck asked.

“Yeah, brother,” Rush murmured.

Speck nodded and followed Essence.

Rush held on to Rebel.

Rebel held him back.

This lasted long beats before she mumbled into his chest, “He can’t know.”

Rush tightened his hold on her.

“They can’t know,” she amended. “They can’t know, Rush. They can never know.”

His Rebel girl, protecting the ones she loved.

He dropped his lips to her hair.

“They’ll never know, sweetheart.”

She pressed harder into him.

He breathed in her hair.

They stood like that for a while.

He ended the moment, saying, “We need to have a chat about the proper procedure for exiting a vehicle.”

He heard her giggle.

And that was when he knew it was good.

She tipped her head back and totally ignored his words.