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“Pearl.” I get straight to the point. I’ve got things to do.
The fleeting recoil I catch before Brad manages to get his facial expression in check worries me. “Who’s Pearl?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I toss my cup in the bin and go to the bike, standing in front, hand on the bars, eyes on Brad. “How long have I known you?”
“Too fucking long.”
“Agreed.” I watch his shoulder jolt as he pedals. “Engage your core,” I order. “And sit up straight.” He does both with a scowl. “She’s twenty-one,” I point out. “You’re thirty-four.”
“Is this going somewhere?”
“Have you fucked her?”
His mouth falls open and his pedaling slows. His reaction alone tells me no. “No, I’ve not fucking fucked her.”
“Do you want to?”
Brad’s face. Fuming is putting it lightly. Honestly, I’m not sure how to interpret it. “No. She’s twenty-one, for fuck’s sake, Danny. Practically a child. Whatever fantastical idea she has about this world, I’m not interested in feeding it.”
“So why are you mean to her?”
“What?” he snaps, impatient.
“You’re mean to her. Impatient. You give her filthy looks.” I raise my brows as Brad visibly scrambles for a reason. “I’m not the only one who’s noticed. It’s causing an atmosphere.”
“I’mcausing an atmosphere?”
“Yeah, by being grumpy. People aren’t used to it.”
“Then I’ll apologize.”
“Probably best you just stay out of her way. She thinks you’re a dick.”
He flinches. “Why?”
“Well, because you fuck hookers and own a strip club.”
“How does she know that?”
“Because I told her.” I’m certain I can hear his teeth grinding. “Rose thinks she finds you repulsive.”
“Is everyone talking about this?”
I shrug, amused, taking this light relief while I can get it.
“Good,” Brad snaps. “I’m glad she finds me repulsive.”
I nod, not convinced, “So why the fuck are you a miserable fuck lately?”
“Has everyone around here amid the drama their women are creating—which, I will add at this moment in the aftermath of your interrogation, is the very fucking reason I will never take myself a woman—missed the fact I’ve been fucking shot? And my fucking apartment was fucking blown the fuck up, Danny. I don’t have a home.” He starts pedaling again, his top half jerking all over the place.
“I think it’s you who’s missed the fact you’ve been fucking shot. Doc will string you up if he sees you on that thing.”
“I’m stressed.”
I laugh. “You’re a dick.” He totally wants to fuck Pearl. It’s a good job she hates him now because that would only end in tears. Hers. And Brad’s when Rose and Beau beat him black and blue. “I’m going to get a shower.”
“Hey, your cell,” Brad calls as it starts ringing from the mat in the corner where I was stretching. I wander over and crouch, swiping it up and turning it over. I look back at Brad. His pedaling slows. “Amber?”
