Sweet Southern Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page A

and caught Dolly’s eye and nodded when she made the signal for “I’ll bring your usual” before heading back into the kitchen. When he turned around he fell into the middle of an ongoing discussion among his friends.
    “You called Lucky on his honeymoon?” Jack asked.
    “He called me twice ,” Lucky grumbled as he buttered his toast and stopped to point his knife at Beck. “Asshole.”
    “I missed you.” Beck grinned over the rim of his coffee cup.
    “You’re lucky he didn’t kick your ass. He told us not to call him unless the town was fucking burning down and even then to think twice.” Teague smiled up at the waitress who delivered his breakfast. He nudged Lucky with his arm. “You couldn’t wait to get Taylor off to the islands for a couple of weeks. And frankly, as her brother, I was a little grossed out with watching you paw each other all the time so I was glad to see you go.”
    Jack reached out with his fork and snagged a piece of Teague’s cherry pie pancakes before he could stop him. He quickly pulled his hand back when Teague attempted to stab him with his own utensil. Teague would take a bullet for the guy, but the pancakes were off-limits.
    “Beck, a man’s honeymoon is sacred territory. It’s the one time you are expected to keep your woman naked and satisfied 24-7. That shit needs to be respected,” Lucky said as he chugged down some coffee. “Pull a stunt like that again and I’ll jack you up.”
    “Yeah, big talker. You told me if I did it again that ‘I’d be fucking ecstatic that I worked at a trauma center.’” Beck laughed, not even taking a threat of bodily harm seriously. Not for the last time did Teague wonder at the strange makeup of this man. He could be razor-sharp and focused when it came to his work and then acting like a kid the next minute. “I’m still here.”
    “I promised Taylor I wouldn’t do it.”
    “Saved by the blushing bride!” Beck crowed, raising his arms over his head in triumph and drawing the amused glances of several other patrons.
    “So, Teague, you’ll be leaving soon, right? Unless you’ve changed your mind and decided to stay,” Jack asked.
    “Taylor would love for you to stay, but she’d kill me if she knew I’d told you that,” Lucky murmured, avoiding eye contact. “So would your mom.”
    “I’m sorry, but there is no way in hell I’m staying here. I’m almost done cleaning up my father’s mess at the law firm. I’ll close it down and get back to my life.” Teague felt his anger rise when he thought about how his father—strict, rigid, and controlling William Elliott—dumped his wife and his entire life to run away to Costa Rica with his twenty-five-year-old paralegal. “My father might have been dumb enough to throw away a lifetime of hard work, but I’m not letting my life become a casualty of his insanity. I’ve got a plan and it’s executing. I need to be in DC to keep it going.”
    “I respect that, man, I do,” Jack said, his eyes somber. “But will I have to turn in my man card if I tell you it’s been great having the four of us here? Together.”
    “Yeah. What he said.” Beck nodded in agreement. “I get that you want to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue one day, but it would be cool if you could stay. This town could use a good attorney, and I’ll need to get a new MMA sparring partner when you leave.”
    “I’ll spar with you,” Jack said.
    “Buddy, you suck at it. Stick to guns.”
    “You’re just pissed because I pin you all the time.”
    “You’re fucking huge. You just sit on me and it’s over,” Beck argued. “That’s not sparring, that’s humiliating.”
    “I could let you win sometime.”
    “Fuck off.”
    Teague laughed as he sipped his coffee and watched the two idiots go at each other. Yes, he would miss this. These guys were his family. They had his back and he could trust them with his life and the lives of those he loved. Not something he would ever have in DC, and he