“There!” I yelled, pointing to our left, as I took off running with Cam hot on my heels. Beau had James pinned against a red brick wall in a corner with his forearm pressed against his throat. “Beau!”

“—and do you know how much money she has gotten from him? Not a fucking nickel. She has raised that precious child without him and hasn’t asked him for a goddamn thing,” Beau was growling.

“Shark, calm down, man,” Cam said, grabbing at my brother’s arm.

“Back the fuck off, Cam,” Beau barked, never taking his eyes off James. “I don’t see how a piece of shit like you even produced a man as good and decent as Axel. Since he found out about his daughter, he has stepped up like a real fucking man should.” My heart would have filled with pride at my brother’s words if, you know, he wasn’t about to commit homicide.

I put my hand gently on my brother’s back. “Beau, he’s turning purple. Calm down. What he says doesn’t matter to me.” And it was true. The things James said used to bother me, but I was a grown woman now, and I knew Axel was no longer influenced by the things his father said or thought.

Beau eased up a little, and James’s face started to return closer to a normal color, but he continued to hiss into the older man’s face. “And if I ever, ever hear of you speaking to my sister like that again, I will fucking end you. I will rip out your tongue and shove it up your ass. Do you understand me?”

Oh, holy shit, Beau!

“Y-yes,” James stammered.

“You don’t even deserve to know a child like Carrie. She is the sweetest, smartest, most wonderful little girl in the world, and you should be grateful to be her grandfather, not acting like a goddamn piss stain.”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, though I wasn’t sure if he was sorry about what he said or because he had pissed off my very scary brother and he didn’t want his tongue to end up shoved up his butthole.

Beau removed his forearm from James’s throat and took a step back. “I’m not the one you need to be apologizing to,” he said pointedly.

Keeping one wary eye on my brother, James took a step toward me, clearing away what was probably a gallon of saliva before speaking. “Blaire, I’m very sorry for what I said. Today and… back then. I was out of line, and… and I would very much like to get the chance to meet my granddaughter.”