Page 6

“Thanks,” Tess says, shooting past me, heading for the back door that leads to the alley behind the garage. I can hear her army of strays caterwauling for her, waiting to be fed.
When he tries to follow her in, I block his way. “Well, don’t you look pretty?” I say, the corner of my mouth kicked up in something too nasty to be considered a smile. He’s got a black eye. His ear is bruised and swollen. It should pacify me, seeing him all banged up, but it doesn’t. I can feel my grip tighten around the shirt I’m still holding in my hand. The only thing keeping me from taking a swing at him is the fact that Tess hates it when we fight. Because nine times out of ten, it’s about her.
“Not half as pretty as you do, princess.” His gaze skates past me, lands on Tess. I can hear her behind me, shaking a container of dry food and talking to her minions. I hate the way his face softens when he looks at her. I hate that he thinks he has a right to look at her at all.
I shift into his line of vision, blocking him from seeing her. “What the hell are you doing here?” Two things Cap’n promised me when I said yes to servicing his work trucks. Enough money to fund my restoration habit and that my brother wouldn’t be involved in any way.
“It’s the first Monday in October.” He looks at me like I’m the asshole for asking, his gaze drawn to the ink on my neck. My chest. My arm. Not that he hasn’t seen them a thousand times, but my guess is seeing them is different now that Henley’s back. He knows what they are. Why I have them. That they’re hers.
“I know what day it is, dickbag.” I lift my shirt and pull it on, covering my tattoos because If I have to take one more second of him looking at me and feeling sorry for me, I’m going to jam my thumb in his goddamned eye. “I also know you’re not supposed to be here.”
“It’s my money paying you, same as it is Patrick’s.” He crosses his arms over his chest, swollen jaw ticking with tension.
“You can take his money and yours and shove it up your ass.”
Suddenly, his jaw goes slack, and he shakes his head. “He had something going on, so he asked me to take care of it.”
Well, that’s a fucking lie. Cap’n didn’t send him here. Dec most likely snagged the keys and hijacked the van before he could stop him. Why and why now is anyone’s guess but if I had to take one, it’d be a safe bet that his reason is currently feeding her army of strays behind me.
I open my mouth to call him on it but before I can, Tess steps between us.
“Can we not do this today, boys?” she says, her wide hazel gaze narrowed on my face. “Because I’ve got a long fucking day ahead of me and I’d rather not start it off by knocking your heads together like coconuts.”
“He started it.”
Tess whips around to glare at Declan. “Are you serious?” She plants her hands on her hips and glares at him. “Did you really just say that?”
Declan looks like someone just bitch-slapped him, eyes wide. Mouth slack. Nostrils flared. He always looks like that when Tess speaks to him directly. Like he’s rooted in one spot, and about to rabbit, all at the same time. Like he’s got a million things to say but doesn’t speak the language.
He opens his mouth to say something, or at least try to, but he’s cut off by the honk as one of his work truck pull up.
Tess turns her attention back to me. “Let’s just get on with it, okay?”
Because I know Declan’s watching and because I know he hates it, I give Tess a wink. “Did you just say you want to get it on with me?”
Like I knew she would, Tess makes gagging noises and plants her hand on my chest, pushing me out of the way so my brother’s employee can pull his truck into the open bay. “I’d rather get it on with Mrs. McGintey—and her dog.”
I grin at her, giving her the full-dimpled Gilroy while my brother looks like he’s about to blow a gasket. Since I really am an asshole and because Tess needs a laugh, I lift her hand off my chest and press my lips to the inside of her wrist. “I’d be sad if I really thought you meant that.”
Like I hoped, she laughs, curling her finger around my earlobe to give it a sharp tug. She knows what I’m doing—and why—and is telling me to cut it out. “You know what makes me sad?” She pulls her hand out of mine to snag my coveralls off the work bench. “Knowing that the shit coming out of your mouth actually works on the majority of the female species.” She tosses them at me, hitting me square in the chest.
“It’s not what’s coming out of my mouth that gets ‘em hot, Tessie.” Still grinning, I rip open the Velcro strip that holds my coveralls closed. “It’s my—”
“Can you guys shut up and get to work?” Declan says loudly, his words punctuated by the heavy slam of a truck door. Shooting a look over the top of her head, I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing when Tess turns on her boot heel and glares at him.
“Oh.” She cocks her head. “Did you finally say something?”
His eyebrows slam down over his hard, blue glare while his massive chest inflates before it slowly shrinks. Tess is the only one who can talk to him like that with repercussion. “I think you shou—”
“Nobody asked you to think, sweetheart.” She tips her head in the opposite direction, jerking her chin at toward my office window and the makeshift coffee station I have set up on an old microwave cart. “Now, why don’t you make yourself useful and go make me some coffee—I take it black in case you forgot.”