Feeling No Pain by West

Author:West [West]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Hollows Press, LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Holden pulled down the bag of frozen vegetables from his face and looked in the mirror again with a groan. The bruise where Hawke had slugged him stretched from his eyebrow to his cheekbone, and was several different shades of blue and purple. The improvised ice pack—a bag of frozen peas—had brought down the swelling, but had done nothing to prevent the discoloration. He wondered again what Sloane would think when he saw it, and then wondered why that had been his first consideration.

Hell, maybe Sloane was right and all he wanted to do was get hurt. Holden knew better than to taunt Hawke about his father. The first time they’d had that discussion was a year ago, and Hawke had defended him pretty strongly then. What had he expected Hawke to do?

The first time they’d had that argument, over two years ago, Hawke had come to rail at him about the underage drinking in town that he insisted was mostly Holden’s fault. Maybe it was at that. He’d trusted Travis, Spencer’s younger brother, when he’d told Holden that he and his friends were all twenty-one. He shouldn’t have taken his word for it and should have checked IDs, but honestly, it just wasn’t that important to him. His father had allowed him to start drinking by the age of seventeen, so long as it was just beer and he stayed off the roads. So he didn’t get all that upset about Travis and his friends.

Travis was a huge flirt and to tell the truth, he enjoyed the attentions of the gorgeous young man, who flirted with him outrageously. Holden always made him and his friends stay overnight in the lounge when they drank too much, except for a few times when they sneaked out on him. They only had a few miles to go home anyway.

That afternoon, Hawke had come into his bar while he was working on the books and sat down at the back where he had paperwork spread out on a table.

“We need to talk, Holden.”

Holden leaned back in his chair and looked Hawke over, a not-quite sneer on his face. “Yeah? About what?”

“About how if you keep serving beer to Travis and his buddies, I’m going to lock you up in my jail and throw away the damn key.”

“Travis and his friends are of legal age to drink.”

“The hell they are.”

“Travis said they were.”

“Well, he fucking lied, Holden. Did you check any ID?”

Holden shrugged. “I’m sure someone checked it. The bartender, I guess.”

“Someone, huh? The bartender, you guess. Guess again. Travis is not of age yet and neither are any of his buddies.”

Holden ran a hand through his hair, managing to look bored and exasperated at the same time. “Okay, okay. I’ll ban them from the place. Is that what you want me to say?”

Hawke stared at him and shook his head. “You have a crappy attitude, boy.”

“I’m not a boy. And my attitude isn’t usually great when I’m being yelled at. In my own bar.

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