Free House Rules by Rebecca Brooke Page B

in?”
    I whirled around to face him head on. “I know exactly where I’m standing. But it’s my goddamn life and they need to stay the hell out of it.”
    He took a single menacing step forward. “You will not talk to your mother or Elena that way in my house.”
    I matched his step. “That’s funny. I tried to leave your house and you stopped me. You either want me here or you don’t. Make up your mind.”
    “What makes you think you can talk to me that way?”
    “Maybe because you let that bullshit go on when according to everyone in the room, I’m exactly like you. Which means you should fucking listen to what I’m saying. I don’t want a girl, I don’t want a wife, and I sure as fuck don’t want them to keep trying to set me up on dates. They only get upset when I don’t like the woman or outright refuse to go. The whole conversation was horse shit and you know it.”
    “She’s your mother and you will respect her, no matter how much her topic of conversation pisses you off.”
    I turned and slammed my fist into the wall. “What the fuck is with everyone today?”
    “You need to calm down, preferably before I knock your ass out and let your brother drag you home.”
    After the day I’d had nothing could stop the laughter as it pulled from my belly. “First that fucker at the bar and now you. Someone up there must really have it in for me today.” I leaned my head back against the wall, pushing my fingertips into the corners of my eyes. “Go ahead and get it all out, Dad, because as soon as I’m done here I’m off to get wasted. And I’m switching my phone off, too. I’m fucking done with today. D-O-N-E, done .”
    Typical dad, all about the business, he asked, “What happened at the bar?”
    Dad’s eyes flashed. He didn’t take kindly to people trying to weasel out of their debts. Ashton seemed to be the only one of us with the ability to deal with that shit calmly, and even he ran out of patience sometimes.
    I ground my teeth together and explained what happened.
    “Motherfucker.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You dealt with it, right?”
    “Of course. Moron knows that he’s not going to behave that way in my bar.”
    “Jesus Christ, Miller. This shit is exactly what almost got you caught last time. You’re lucky you had the favors to make it go away.”
    I stood straight and crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s bullshit and you know it. The only problems I had were before I opened the club. Since then I’ve kept every issue contained.”
    “Until now.” He slammed his hand down onto the table next to him. “I won’t have it ruining everything we’ve built.”
    “And how the hell would it do that? You’re yelling at me like I’m the only one to have people try and not pay. Ashton’s had his fair share.” I nodded toward the door. “Otherwise, Elena wouldn’t be sitting her pretty little ass at our table.”
    It was a step too far.
    In the blink of an eye he was across the room, grabbing handfuls of my shirt and slamming my back against the wall. “Your brother saved that woman. Back the fuck off and get your shit together. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with you lately but figure it out. And apologize to your mother and Elena.”
    He spun on his heel and stormed from the room, the door left wide open a clear sign that I had little more than a few minutes to “get my shit together” before joining them for dinner. There was no point in arguing, he was done with the conversation. Maybe I’d been an asshole, but I couldn’t deal with it anymore. Telling them I wasn’t interested hadn’t worked, standing the women up didn’t get the hint across. Hopefully now they’d back the fuck off.
    I grabbed the decanter off the side table and poured myself a shot of whiskey. It wasn’t my favorite, but it would have to do. The lovely chat with my father had done nothing to settle me, not that I’d expected it to. I threw the liquor back, the whiskey burning