Aspen Falls

BRB -- December 27th

      "Dude.  Stop eye fucking her please.  She's my little sister."  Hunter whined.

      "For somebody that gave me his blessing two days ago...you're sure bitching a lot.  You can't bitch at me.  You're the asshole that fell for a girl that in every way beside DNA could be you sister's twin.  And...I happen to know you're already got your rocks off with her."  I hit his beer bottle with mine and he just smirked.  "I'm not eye fucking Aspen, just trying to calm her nerves.  There's some fucker downstairs that had his hands on her."  Maybe I was staring at her to calm my nerves.  My blood started boiling again talking about whoever it was that touched her.

      I could see Hunter's grip on his bottle tightening.  "What happened downstairs?"  His voice was strained.

      I put my bottle down and rubbed my hands on my shorts.  "It really freaked her out.  I guess there was some fuck down there at the bar while she was getting this round that grabbed her.  Did Bristol mention anything to you about some shit that was watching them at The Jump the other night?"

     "What?"  Hunter's voice changed.  It went into what Aspen and Bristol would call his 'growly alpha' voice.

     "I'll take that as a no.  Hey Day."  I caught Jolene's attention and nodded for her to come join us.  "Come here."

      "What are you two so seriously talking about?"  She plopped down in the middle of us.  "Have anything to do with why you were so intense with Aspen?"

      "Kinda."  Not really.  Aspen and I were usually 'intense' any time we were together.  "You were setting with Bristol the other night watching the prick watch Aspen.  What'd you notice about him?"

     Jolene looked between me and Hunter, suspicious.  "Why?  What's up?"

      "Not sure.  Some guy downstairs had his hands on her and while she slammed his head into the bar, she thinks it was the same guy.  It's got her really creeped."  I wasn't even sure how I said that without throwing my bottle across the room.

      Jolene just stood up and headed toward the stairs.  "Come on.  That means Chad took his picture."  Hunter and I both stared at her in confusion.   "We've been coming to this place long before we were 21...Eli has a system in place when it comes to us.  If there was an issue or something that made us feel creeped...Chad would get a picture of whichever guy at the bar and then he'd send it to Troy at the door.  Troy will send it out to the rest of the bouncers.  So if Aspen slammed his head onto the bar...I can guarantee his face is on Chad's phone an the rest the bouncers already have it."

      Hunter and I were on her heels.  "Just how long have y'all been coming here?  Do I even want to know?"  Hunter couldn't picture his perfect little sister doing anything against rules.

      "Casey is Eli's nephew...Eli owns the place.  Did you not know?"  She looked over her shoulder at both of us.  We just shook our heads.  Casey was never the one to bring up his family after high school.  We were his family, us and Lauren.  "Casey would bring us in the back when he was home and you guys were gone."

      "Course he fucking would."  Hunter mumbled.

      "Turns out Troy is Wyatt's cousin.  That's how we met him...and then Wyatt brought along Tate."  She was talking a mile a minute filling us in on how the gang got to be the gang.  I vaguely remembered the three original girls bringing in all the younger guys.  "Chad!!"  She just hopped over the bar and went right on to where Harrison was headed for clean glasses.  "Hey!  Question."

      "JD how many damn times have I told you, you can't come behind this bar unless you work here?"  Chad was pushing her back toward me and Hunter, not at all as mad as he wanted her to think he was.

      She waved him off.  "I'll talk to Eli about it later.  See who can pull higher tips...me or you?  Anywho.  Let me see the guys you've pictured tonight."

      "This bout the one who had Aspen ready to break his face?"  He raised an eyebrow in question to me.

      "Yeah."   I had my hands on the bar top now and was sure if I gripped it hard enough I could shatter it.

      "Brighton, calm down.  She had it handled.  I would have broke his face otherwise."  I knew he meant it.  "Between you, her brothers and the rest of her Unblood guys...Aspen and the rest of the girls can definitely fight off unwanted attention.  Here.  Let me know if I need to tell Eli to ban him."  Chad tossed his phone at Jolene who kissed him on the cheek.

      "Thank you bunches."

      "Yeah yeah...now get out from behind my bar Dayton."  He swatted her with his towel.

      "Okay.  Let me see. He keeps em...here!  Found them!  It shouldn't be hard...the dude gave off some serious creep vibes."  She was swiping thru too fast for me to actually put anything together.  "Bleh.   Bleh.  Oh!  He's cute.  Bleh..."  I was slowly losing my cool.  "Here!  This dude.  That's definitely the guy that was at The Jump.  That's creeeppyyy....  CHAD!!"  She hollered and stepped foot around the bar again.

      He huffed in annoyance by her ignoring his warning and stepping foot over his line.  "JD..."  He pointed down at her foot that she didn't bother moving.  Jolene was having too much fun getting under this guy's skin.  She held up the phone.  "Oh.  This guy?  Yeah.  He was giving off major vibes.  Him and his buddy went off to dance out there somewhere."  He nodded toward the overly crowded floor.

      "Is he the one that my sister shoved into the counter?"  Hunter ground out.

      "Yeah.  Come to think of it...the only girl he seemed to pay any mind to was and has been Aspen.  Dallas has his picture and knows to toss him if he gets too close going upstairs.  Want me to get Eli?  He's in his office."

      "No.  Just send it to me please.  I'll see what ACE wants to do."

      "Bright..."  Hunter was ready to call the shots and go in guns blazing.  Right now.

      "H.  You know if we do something behind her back she'll be pissed ten ways to Sunday."  I did not need that this close to proposing.  "Just send it to me Harrison and if Aspen wants to get Eli I'm sure she knows where his office is."  He nodded and I felt my pocket buzz a minute later.  "Thanks man."  Hunter and I headed back toward the VIP room

      Jolene just motioned for us to go ahead.  "I have to talk to Eli bout becoming a bartender so this one stops busting my lady balls for coming behind his counter."  She nodded over to Chad.  There was more going on there than she was letting on but I had other issues to deal with first.

      We'd got halfway up the stairs back to our girls when Hunter stopped me.  He pulled out his phone and put it up to his ear.  "Hey Chris, I'm gonna have Beau send you a picture."  He motioned for me to get my phone and do exactly that.  I glared at him.  This was not how we were supposed to be handling this guy.  "Did you get it?  Yeah.  Ok.  We need everything you or West can pull up on him and we need it like last week."  I couldn't hear Chris's side of the conversation, but I could only assume he was asking Hunter was the fuck was happening.  "He's been following Aspen."  We both knew any of the guys would drop their entire lives at the mention of Aspen...no questions asked.  "Thanks Bub."

      "Hunt..."  I was still glaring at him but he cut me off.

      "She's my baby sister Brighton."  The emotion that laced thru his voice got me.  This man was just as highly skilled and highly ranked as I was with the US Navy, but when it came to his sister?  He was worried...scared.

      "She's the love of my life H.  I get it, but you know...."  Aspen would be more pissed if she thought we excluded her from something.

      "I'll tell her.  I'm not going to keep it from her but Chris can give us a head start so there's more info to tell her."  What he was silently trying to tell me was with whatever Reagan was going to get us, it would let us, Trenton and Jason know just what level we needed to be at.  If we needed to knock him around a little or beat his face in beyond recognition.

      Hunter was pulling rank and I was just following his lead.