Free All of the Lights by K. Ryan

raises his eyes up from his glass. "Hmmpf."
    Alright. That answers that.
    "Nice talkin' to yah, Cal. You're a real charmer as usual."
    "Hmmpf."
    I slap a bar towel over my shoulder and cock a grin his way. He may be an ornery old shit, but he's still good shit all the same. Just as I lean in with both hands splayed out on the bar top, the door opens and hell might as well have broken loose. Because as much as I've tried to push Friday night down to the deepest, darkest recesses of my memory where I'll never have to worry about it again, it's back with a vengeance.
    Or, rather, she's back with a fiery vengeance if her hair is any indication.
    Her green eyes sweep around the bar and, considering there's just two other people in it, those eyes find what they're looking for quickly. There's a determination in them that scares me a little more than it should—I should be the one breathing fire, not her. She's the one treading on my space and yet, I'm the one ready to run and hide.
    And then my memory clears. She played me Friday night, good and hard. Had me right where she wanted me, eating out of the palm of her damn hand, practically begging her to throw me a bone, to give me her number, and all for...what? So she could turn around and brag to all her friends that she conned Jack Flynn on Callahan turf?
    It was probably all bullshit anyway. She probably went home to her boyfriend in Back Bay and laughed about me in bed all night long.
    Now I react accordingly. Heat rises up from my feet and shoots right up to my chest. I want her the hell out of my bar. I want her the hell out of my sight.
    Still, my body is frozen right where I stand as she crosses the short distance between us and tentatively rests her palms against the bar. My lips press into a firm, grim line and animosity pours off me in waves, filling the few feet between us. There's no good reason for her to be here right now, or ever , and before she finds her way out the door, we need to clear something up first.
    "Can we talk?" Rae asks, her voice shaking a little.
    Good. She should be scared. She should turn her ass around and never come back.
    "No," I snap. My eyes slice into her and I hope she can feel every inch.
    She swallows hard and her gaze shifts anxiously to Cal, who lifts an eyebrow and takes another swig of his beer nonchalantly as if the daughter of our community's number one enemy didn't just walk through the door.
    Her chest rises and falls one more time and her hands clench around the edge of the bar top so tightly her knuckles turn pale.
    "Please," she tries again, but I'm already shaking my head. "I just need to—"
    "You don't need to do anything except leave," I cut in briskly and slam the towel down on the bar. "You know, you must really be stupid...showing up here again like this. Do you have a death wish or something?"
    "You're not going to hurt me," she shoots back in defiance.
    No, I'm not.
    "Try me," I growl instead and her eyebrows just lift, unimpressed and unconvinced.
    And for a moment, I almost admire the kind of backbone it must've taken her to actually get in her car, drive down here, and walk inside our bar. She's not weak—I could see it Friday night and I see it now, but being strong isn't going to do her any favors. Not here. Not like this.
    I'd never lay hands on a woman, but given everything this particular woman has done to my family, to my brother , the way she just keeps showing up like a cockroach...the temptation itches at me.
    She's lucky I can control myself outside the ring.
    Rae leans forward, her pretty face contorted a little too much for my liking and I know where this is going. I've seen this look before. Not from her, but other women at other times when they want something. This is exactly why the only woman I've ever been able to put up with in long doses is my mom because every other woman is a complicated mess I don't have the time or the energy to spend untangling.
    I might have fallen for her act Friday night,