Page 6

They’d been fine with us passing through as long as we removed our colors, which we did out of respect. That, and the fact that TSA loves to assume the worst of us. It takes forever to get through all the checks—something we thankfully managed to avoid on the way back.

I look over at Lil’s sleeping form beside me. Part of me worries that every time I take my eyes off her, she’ll disappear again, even now when we’re in the air with nowhere for her to go. As a flight attendant walks closer, I signal for her to stop. She does so with a wink, leaning over Lil as if she isn’t there, her chest looking like it’s about to break free from her shirt as she gives me what I’m assuming is supposed to be a provocative smile. It does fuck-all for me. “Can I get a blanket for my girl?”

Her smile falters for a second before she turns it up. “Of course, sir. I’ll be right back.” She heads down the aisle.

Tink leans over her armrest across the aisle, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “Psst.”

“You don’t need to psst me. I’m looking right at you.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d noticed me over her giant bazookas.”

I snort at her vernacular, wondering—and not for the first time—where she comes up with this shit. Maybe she was dropped on her head as a baby. Havoc shakes his head, a grin on his face, his hand on Tink’s thigh just under her skirt.

“What do you need?”

“Huh? I don’t need anything. Well, maybe a Ferrari. That would be cool, right? Cruising around town in my whip with my ride or dies.”

I look at her blankly.

“I took it too far, huh?”

“Little bit.”

“I’m trying to be cooler. I have all these cool friends, and I’m…not as cool.”

I blink before I throw my head back and laugh. Havoc looks over in amusement.

“Is she serious?”

“What do you think?”

“Tink, you’re a world-famous author who could buy her own Ferrari, might I add, and you’re the queen of a motorcycle club. That’s pretty fucking cool.”

She beams a megawatt smile at me. “Well, when you put it like that, I guess I am pretty cool. Thanks, Powers.” She turns back to Havoc, but doesn’t bother lowering her voice. “Powers says I’m pretty freaking cool. So I need a cooler name than Tink. Something edgy like Rogue or Mistress of Mayhem.”

“First one makes you sound like one of the X-Men⁠—”

“Should that not be Person, or X-People, now? Though that makes it sound like they were formerly people and now they’re not. Then again, some could argue that a few are more animal than⁠—”

He covers her mouth with his hand and shakes his head. “And you can’t use the second one because there is an all-female MC called the Mistresses of Mayhem, not that far from Raven’s Fall.” He lets go of her mouth just as the flight attendant returns with the blanket.

“There’s an all-female MC?” Tink whisper-shouts in awe as the flight attendant makes a show of practically bending in half to tuck the blanket around a still sleeping Lil. “Quick, Havoc, hold on to me before I get sucked into the swirling vortex of her vagina.”

The woman bolts upright, straightening her uniform as her face flames red.

“Oh, thank you, sweet baby Jesus. I swear I just saw my life flash before my eyes. There was even something white at the end of the tunnel, though that might have just been last night’s swimmers looking for a little fertilization⁠—”

Havoc’s hand is over her mouth again, only this time he yanks her into his lap, mostly so he can hide his face in her hair while he laughs his ass off. The people around us don’t seem to care. They laugh loudly, enough to make Lil stir and the flight attendant walk off in an embarrassed huff.

Lil wipes her eyes and looks around sleepily. “What did I miss?” She slurs her words a little. The Ambien I slipped her is still in effect.

“Just Tink being Tink.”

“Okay,” she whispers, her head rolling before it stops on my shoulder.

I move the blanket up to cover her better and rest my jaw on the top of her head. The light relief Tink provides is always appreciated, but the closer we get to home, the heavier everything feels. Somehow, we have to find a way to tell her about Capone. She’ll blame herself. If I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure that there aren’t at least a few people—brothers—who might blame her a little too. I can’t control what people think, but if they treat her in any way that I don’t like, then brother or not, I will lay them out.

I breathe her in. Having her this close is all I’ve been dreaming about since she’s been gone. But now that she’s here, pressed up against me, I realize it’s still not enough. If I thought I could get away with it, I’d pull her onto my lap and impale her with my cock and not let her off until it was time to deplane.