“That was about my sister. I needed to make it clear to Levon that I had my eye on him, that no one messes with Harmony.”

“From what I gathered, they were over and it was a clean break. No harm no foul, ya know?”

“Whatever. It pisses me off when men think they can fuck over a woman and there are no consequences.”

He had no idea what to make of this. “I think Harmony is fine about the breakup.”

Drake turned to him as the elevator doors opened. “He dumped her, man. What kind of asshole does that?”

Barrett resisted the urge to laugh, knowing the level of anger his best friend had. “Honestly? Lots of guys.”

They walked out to Drake’s car. “Well, that’s not cool. And now he knows to stay away from her.”

Barrett got the idea that Levon wouldn’t be going anywhere near Harmony ever again. Not that he ever planned to anyway.

He loved Drake like a brother, and had for a lot of years. But sometimes he didn’t understand his best friend. He was so overprotective of his sister. As far as he understood, Levon might be a jerk, but he hadn’t hurt Harmony physically.

He’d never go after some guy who had broken up with his sister, Mia. Not unless the guy got physical with her or hurt her in some way.

At least he didn’t think he would. Then again, Mia had never talked about anyone she dated.

Maybe this was why. He had no idea what kind of reaction he would have if he knew anything about his little sister’s dating life. But he didn’t believe he’d be over the top like Drake. Sometimes relationships broke up. That’s just the way it went. And you got over it.

Harmony seemed okay about it.

Drake’s phone rang and he picked it up on his car speaker.

“Yo.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Harmony’s voice. And she didn’t sound very happy with her brother.

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” Drake said.

“I just got a call from Levon, and he said you came to his office and threatened him.”

“Not true,” Drake said. “I had a chat with him.”

“Drake. Seriously. What the hell did you say to him?”

“Hey, I’m near your place. We’ll stop by.”

“Drake.”

He hung up on her, then turned to Barrett and grinned. “She loves me.”

“I don’t think she loves you very much right now, man.”

“She will when I explain it to her.”

Barrett understood siblings, since he had plenty of them.

This should be interesting.

Within ten minutes they rolled into Harmony’s town house complex. Drake parked and they got out and went to the door.

Harmony answered, still in her work clothes.

She looked good. He didn’t want to notice how sharp she looked in that dress that outlined her curves.

“You are insane. Hi, Barrett,” she said, as she held the door for them to come in.

“Hey, I was just protecting you.”

She shut the door behind her as they walked in.

“I do not need you to protect me. Not now, not when I was a teenager, not ever.”

Barrett followed the two of them past the living area and into her kitchen. He noticed she had paint supplies in her bathroom, and the white bathroom was now being painted a shade of green.

“Redecorating the bathroom, Harmony?” he asked.

“What? Oh, the paint. Yes. I’m changing the color.”

Drake’s lips lifted. “She paints or redecorates whenever she’s upset.”

“I do not. And don’t change the subject. What the hell were you thinking storming into Levon’s office like that?”

“I was thinking of punching him in his smug, asshole face. But I didn’t. I just told him to stay away from you.”

She let out a long sigh. “He has every intention of staying away from me, considering we just broke up, idiot. And you scared the shit out of him.”

“Did I? Good. Then he’ll leave you alone.”

“He threatened to call the police, Drake. I had to talk him out of that and I told him you would never come near him again.”

“He’s a pussy.”

She rolled her eyes. “You need to stay out of my life, out of my business, and most especially my love life. I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that I’m an adult now and I can take care of myself. Can I make that any clearer to you?”

“Okay, fine. You know if Levon had any balls, he’d have told me to go fuck myself and we’d have thrown a few punches and everything would have been okay.”

Barrett tried not to snort at Drake’s twisted sense of logic.

Harmony raised her hands in the air. “Really? Really, Drake? I don’t even know what to do with you. That’s the most uncivilized, barbaric, ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You have to stop interfering in my life.”

Harmony’s voice had gotten progressively louder.

“Okay, okay.” Drake went over and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

She stared at Drake. “I’d like to believe that, but I know it’s not true. Please call Levon and apologize.”

Drake laughed. “Not gonna happen. But I promise to not bother him again. Is that good enough?”

“I guess so.” She sighed. “I’ll call him again to reassure him. Which by the way, I do not want to do.”