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She unzipped it and found clothes, towels, snacks, weapons, playing cards, everything they might need to fill the long night ahead. “Swallow and I are going across the street,” Brodie said. “After we’ve eaten.”
“Copy,” Tuck said, sucking down a noodle.
Leaving the bag, she retrieved her food and went over to flop down on the couch between the men. “If we go across the street, you’ll have to leave Maverick here with another man,” Zara said, peeking into Brodie’s food box in case there was something she wanted, but that left hers open and he snagged some chicken from her box with his chopsticks.
“He’s handled Maverick before,” Brodie said. “He knows what he’s doing. She’ll be in good hands.”
Except she wasn’t allowed to touch… she didn’t even begrudge that rule, the black metal monster daunted her. “I hope you don’t share all of your women with him,” she said.
Brodie didn’t give her a laugh, but he winked at her before he stood up and put his food on the desk. Pushing her head down onto the couch, he gave himself the space he needed to vault over the back of it to cross the room. The bathroom door closed, and she reached over to swap her food box with Brodie’s.
“Can I ask you a personal question, Swift?”
“I’ve never slept with any of his women,” he said, snagging her legs to pull them aside, so he could sit where Brodie had been. These men shifted her around like a ragdoll. It was warming that they were so comfortable with her and it suggested a closeness, but they’d all seen death together so that made sense. “Not since we hit our thirties anyway.”
That modifier drew a brief scowl from her, but he was too busy dipping into the food she’d left on the desk to notice. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” she said, pushing her skirt down as she moved to a perpendicular position with her legs crossed.
“Ok, shoot.”
Probably not the best thing to say while they had a rifle peeking through the curtains, and it was when she saw the slither between the two rectangles of fabric that she realized why they hadn’t turned the lights on: it would make their position obvious.
“Is sex different when you’re in love?” she asked.
Drawing his focus around, she wasn’t sure if he was surprised or affronted. Whichever it was, the food certainly wasn’t as enthralling for him as it had been a moment ago. “You were a virgin before you had sex with Raven? I never read that in your file.”
“No!” she said, pressing a hand to his shoulder. Every member of the Kindred had to know she’d slept with Brodie before she knew he was Brodie. All she knew was his alias. It would have been quite a leap for a virgin to take from pure to vixen in the space of one kiss. But if there was any man who could’ve done it for her, Brodie would’ve been it. “I mean is it different for a guy… like you.”
“For a guy like me? No.” He sniggered and scooped some more food into his mouth. “You mean for a guy like Raven.”
She’d just been making relevant conversation; she didn’t know he’d take her question so seriously. “Okay, yeah, so I mean a guy like Raven.”
Twisting toward her, he wasn’t buying it. “No, you want to know if he was with any other woman the way he is with you.”
She hadn’t thought to frame it that way, but yeah, she guessed that was what she meant. What had been a casual question was turning into something she didn’t like. “Forget it.”
“Why do you think I would know?”
“Because,” she said and dug into her food again. “You loved Kadie.”
He loosened and didn’t show surprise, but she could tell her words had caught him off guard from the way his face blanked. “Loved Kadie.” He turned his head toward the window but wasn’t anywhere near the sight. “Yeah. I loved her.”
Zara hadn’t meant to bring up a sensitive subject, she’d sort of avoided it, but she couldn’t ignore how forlorn he was now. She lowered her food carton. “You shouldn’t have broken up with her, you know. She’s stronger than you think.”
She and Kadie had never met, but he didn’t point that out. “Kade is as strong as women come,” he said, wearing a distant but proud smile.
“What’s she like?” Zara asked. “Does she have family?”
“Never knew her dad, her mom ran off when she was a kid, she has an older cousin who looks out for her. He’s everything a good guy should be.”
“What did he say about you dumping her?”
“Dempsey will be looking to tan my hide, no doubt about that,” Tuck said on a hissing inhale then glanced through the sight.
His return to form gave her a reprieve, except she hadn’t thought he was the type to cut and run like a coward. “So you didn’t see him after? You just broke her heart and split?”
“Listen!” His shout made her jump, he wasn’t as at peace with her presumption as she thought. “You don’t know squat about Kade or about our life, stay out of shit that’s nothing to do with you!”
She’d never heard Tuck shout or been the subject of his scrutiny like she was now. “Sorry,” she croaked, bending to put her food on the floor.
