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His eyes started to bug out, and he dropped to a knee.
Had he inhaled a fly? Was he choking? What was happening?
“Get out of here, Tyler.” Nick’s voice was quiet, low and full of intensity. “No deal, nothing to stop me. Understand?”
Quinn had no idea what that meant, but Tyler was on his knees, suffocating on nothing. Nick’s hands were gripping her arms so tightly she could feel faint tremors, belying the strength in his voice.
Was Nick afraid of this guy?
She kicked Tyler. “Yeah, ass**le. Get out of here.”
He nodded hard, his hand pulling at his throat now.
And then he was gasping, coughing, his hands on the pavement.
“Come on,” said Nick, letting her go but taking her hand to drag her with him. Probably making sure she didn’t lay into Tyler again.
“Don’t be stupid,” Tyler choked from behind them. “I only came here to talk.”
“Sure you did.” Nick dragged her up the steps to the front door, then jammed his key in the lock.
“What really happened at the carnival last week?” Tyler yelled. “I heard the news about pentagrams. Another Guide came here, didn’t he?”
Nick ignored him and hauled her through the door, then slammed it, throwing the deadbolt for good measure.
Then he put his head against the door and unclenched his fists.
He was. Nick looked at the rock in his hands, then shoved it into line with the others.
“It’s not going to go away, Nick!” cried Quinn. “If you don’t want to pretend with me, that’s fine. But it’s not fair to pretend with anyone else, either.”
She was right. It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair.
“What are you thinking?” said Quinn. “That you’ll break up with me and find some new skank who’ll keep your cover more effectively?”
“Stop it.”
“Fine. Go ahead. I’ll go find my own ride.” She stood and stormed toward the road.
Nick caught her before she could get too far. Quinn had a history of making poor decisions. Ending up unconscious on the beach with a few drunken bikers was only the most recent. She was lucky he’d found her before anything else could happen.
“Stop,” he said. “Stop.”
He expected to find her expression distraught, but instead she looked challenging. “Why are you stopping me?”
“Because you’re my friend.”
“You’re mine, too.” She reached up to give the brim of his hat a yank. “Have you ever thought about just . . . telling your brothers?”
He sighed and looked away. He thought about it all the time.
Then he’d remember the thousand-and-one locker room g*y jokes he’d heard from his twin. He’d remember Gabriel’s swift and brutal judgment of anything new. Gabriel knew how to cut right to the quick, and this felt so fragile and untested that Nick was afraid to bare skin in the face of that blade.
Then there was Michael, overworked and overwrought, who’d said last week that he couldn’t handle one more complication in their lives. Nick did the bookkeeping for their landscaping business—they could practically reach out and touch their bottom line.
That left Chris, brooding and distant, who might be okay with it—or he might not.
They couldn’t afford discord right now.
