JARED (Lane Brothers Book 4) Read Online Free

Paulie while she’s in pain and recovering from surgery,” Ellie warns, taking a step closer as Tanya’s mouth flaps open.
    “Ellie, baby—”
    “Hush, Wyatt,” she says softly before turning her glare on the father and spitting crudely. “We all know exactly what sort of family you people are, and I’ll be Goddamned if I let our Paulie deal with you yahoos a moment longer. Now you’re either here to show concern or you aren’t. Your choice, but the end result will be the same. Paulie is coming home to us where she belongs, and there’s not a thing you can do about that.”
    God I love that woman. She’s fierce and perfectly crazy and I have no doubt in my mind that if Tanya so much as breathes on Cupcake right now, Ellie would rip her arm off and beat both parents to death with the thing.
    “Paulette.”
    This time the father opens his mouth, turning his hardened gaze on Paulie in a way that makes my skin crawl. Her reaction is so apparently fearful that I narrow my eyes and see Wyatt do the same when she tenses up and looks ready to bolt with a breath.
    “Father, I—”
    “You need to remember our talk, Paulette. We’ve been over this before and—”
    “I’ll thank you to stop intimidating my daughter and get your ass out of my hospital, Franklin Hayes.”
    That growl and the agitated screech that comes after it makes me smile and step back with a chuckle.
    The cavalry has arrived, and I know I won’t have to say a Goddamned thing now. Not with Ma and Pop here to go toe to toe with these animals.
    I’m still tripping off the look of fear in Cupcake’s eyes, so I abandon the melee and make my way to her, taking her trembling hand in mine as Ma advances on Tanya and stands frowning so hard, I see the bitch swallow nervously.
    Franklin Hayes just turns away and meets Pop’s gaze with more bravado than I thought the worm capable of. My pop may be heading towards sixty, but the man is as huge as his sons and fitter than a man his age has any right to be considering his heart condition and the doctors’ worries.
    Pop could probably take poor Frank with one hand tied behind his back, and I look forward to seeing that if the man should be foolish enough to argue.
    “Now see here, Lane—”
    “No, you see here,” Pop snarls, curling his fists with a growl.
    “That girl is my kid from here on out. You’ve done a piss-poor job of being parents to her and tried to marry her off to a man who’d rather beat her half to death than give her a kind word. You’re mixed up in this mess, I know you are, and I won’t allow her to suffer another day because of your greed. Now I told you to get the fuck out of here. You’re upsetting my kid and she needs peace and quiet to heal.”
    Wyatt starts chuckling under his breath and I have to resist the urge to laugh outright when old Frank draws himself up and takes a threatening step closer.
    “You have no idea who you’re messing with, Lane.”
    “Yes! No idea,” Tanya chirps, quieting down immediately when my perfectly coiffed mother takes a step closer, her fist curled and ready.
    “One more word and you’ll be drinking soup out of a straw, Tanya Hayes.”
    It’s a spectacle and I’m enjoying the heck out of it as Cupcake scoots closer and her trembling starts affecting her whole body. It’s the most natural thing in the world to pull her into me with an arm curved gently around her shoulder, and I almost pop a chubby when she snuggles in and sighs contentedly, accepting the comfort easily.
    “This is ridiculous! Paulette is engaged. She can’t just—”
    “Well she is. That farce of an engagement you set up with the Huleys doesn’t hold water and you know it. She’s ours now, so you may as well run back to that pack of wolves who almost killed her and tell them that if they so much as breathe the same air as my kid, I will make them regret ever looking at her.”
    “George. Please, you need to be reasonable. The Huleys are not a family to trifle