Committed Passion by Bonnie Dee

and frowned as she watched him approach. “Oh no.”
    I leaned close and murmured, “You don’t have to talk to him. Not today. Let my brothers handle this. They’ll get him out of here without a scene.”
    I hoped. But given Micah’s sometimes short fuse, J.D.’s protective instinct, and Clay’s level of drunkenness, it was a fairly combustible mix with potential for explosion.  
    *
    J.D.
    “Gotta go, hon. There’s a situation.” I inhaled Leah’s perfume as I leaned to whisper in her ear. She smelled good. I hated leaving her standing by herself in the midst of the wedding guests.
    “Wait. What?” she asked.
    “Looks like some drunk guy is crashing the wedding.  Micah’s heading him off, but he may need my help. I’ll tell Gina to come over by you.”
    “That’s okay. Go do what you have to do. I’ll wait here.”
    I gave her a quick peck on the jaw before I hurried to join Micah. He’d almost reached the man who had a bottle in one hand and was yelling Rianna’s name.
    “Is this the ex Jonah told us about?” I asked. A little drunk and in a confiding mood at the bachelor party, Jonah had told us about the guy from Rianna’s past who’d reemerged to try to claim his kid. So much for AA. Clearly, Clay Peters had fallen off the wagon and was in angry-drunk mode.
    Micah nodded. “Let’s get him out of here before he draws attention.”
    We strode fast across the last few yards separating us from the increasingly noisy man. “I just want to see my kid, goddammit. I have rights!” he bellowed.
    We flanked him on either side, barring his way forward with our shoulders.
    “Now’s not the time,” I said calmly. “You can see Travis another day. You don’t want him to meet you like this, do you?”
    He squinted at me. “Who the fuck are you?”
    “Friends,” Micah said. “Nobody wants any trouble here. Let’s just walk over there a ways, and you can tell us all about it.” He pointed away from the park shelter that was set up for the reception, then he made the mistake of touching Peters’s arm to guide him away.
    Clay jerked away. “I got nothing to say to you. I don’t even know you. I’m here to find my kid.”
    I glanced back at the group outside the chapel. People were starting to glance over, and both Jonah and Rianna looked upset.
    “Okay. Time to go.” I didn’t wait for more belligerent arguing or the inevitable first punch. I moved in close to Peters and applied pressure to a stun point near the junction of his neck and shoulder. Immediately the man’s legs started to crumple. I slung his arm around my shoulders to prop him up and Micah did the same on the other side.
    “The Vulcan thing really works!” Micah said. “So that’s the kind of cool shit you learn in the army.”
    An army buddy had taught me the technique. It wasn’t part of our training, but I didn’t bother to explain. Together we dragged Peters around the back of the chapel, out of sight of the curious wedding guests.
    Peters wasn’t completely unconscious, only momentarily stunned, and he quickly recovered and started his rant again. “What the fuck? I got rights. I just wanna see my boy.” Angry drunk turned to slobbery as his eyes welled with tears. “My kid,” he mumbled.
    A kid he’d never supported financially or showed any interest in until now. I bit back my own feelings about deadbeat dads as I exchanged a look with Micah.
    “What are we gonna do with him?” I asked.
    “Throw him in the lake,” Micah suggested. “Cool him off and sober him up.”
    “Tempting.”
    Instead, we dragged Peters to a park bench far away from the pavilion where the reception was, though I could hear the DJ starting music. “Don’t you need to get back to be in the wedding photos?” I asked Micah. “You’re the best man.”
    He cocked his head and studied Clay Peters sitting on the bench, head lolling on his chest. “You got this guy under control?”
    “No problem. Go on.”
    Micah straightened his