Page 25 of A Raging Merry Christmas

I shook my head. Their kids were not fuckin’ cute. The entire lot of them were home-grown terrorists. They all needed locking away in a detention centre and waterboarding. That or the government should hire them to deal with terrorist threats. The Hellions would enjoy that, I’m sure.

“Shit got crazy. Calamity, Klutz, and Gauntlet were out there till gone two in the morning fixing everything the Hellions did,” Ezra snickered.

“I don’t see how that’s cute,” I interjected, and my four brothers stared at me.

“Wait until you have kids. Then you’ll think shit’s funny,” Lowrider explained.

I doubted very much that would happen.

“Back to the prospects. Do you think they’ve got something lined up for the inside of the Hall?” I asked.

“Yup. And they’re collecting markers. I’ll call them,” Fish stated.

Twenty minutes later, Harley appeared in the entrance hall.

“Wow, you lot caved quick,” he said as he leaned against the stairs nonchalantly.

“How much?” I demanded.

Harley smirked.

“Well, we got a full day’s fun out of everyone before having to help. You guys are cheating us out of that,” Harley replied.

“Don’t push it, prospect,” Ezra warned.

Harley shrugged. “Dude, I win either way. I’m the one who knows who and where the decorators are, and Mom wants the Hall decorating in the next two days. You can give me all the scut you want, but remember, it will bite you in the ass.”

The smug little fucker.

“Wanna bet,” I growled out.

Harley grinned widely. “Yeah. Because if you give us scut, we won’t help anyone else out. We’ll all zip our lips and let you ruin Christmas, which is what you bunch of cavemen are going to do. And then when the others find out we helped some but nobody after you fucked with us, what do you think they’ll do?”

“You are way too much like your father,” Fish snapped, looking put out.

“That’s a compliment. And we’ll take three markers each from each of you.”

“Two,” Mac wrangled.

“Two and a bottle of that expensive shit we all drink. A bottle each, mind you,” Harley countered.

“Done!” Lowrider agreed before anyone could upset the cocky prospect.

My eyes narrowed on Harley. Payback was a bitch.

“I’ll phone the decorators to come in today,” Harley said and strode away.

“We just got played,” I complained.

“Yeah, but the kid was right. The others would make our lives a fuckin’ misery. And this gives me, Ezra, and Fish a chance to get the food ordered,” Lowrider drawled, looking relaxed.

“And I’ll call the tree guy to get him to deliver the smaller trees today. Mac and I will drag them about, and the prospects can damn well help,” I decided with a grin.

“Has anyone asked why the prospects are collecting markers?” Ezra suddenly questioned.

We all swapped worried glances.

“Shit!” I hissed as a sinking sensation hit my stomach. Whatever the prospects were up to, there was no doubt we were going to pay.