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We walked down the corridors until we heard the hum of conversation, and clink of cutlery, bursts of laughter. Just as we passed through the entryway, Ethan grabbed my hand. It took me by surprise. Too late to pull away…so there I was, facing a room of open-mouthed, suddenly silent people…holding hands with him, for God’s sake.
Clatter.Someone dropped a knife.
I glanced in the direction of the sound, and saw a wide-eyed, dark-blonde girl of about eight or nine, goggling at me. Next to her was a gorgeous woman with a halo of dark blonde curls who looked just as fascinated. They wore jeans and sweatshirts, and had big, heaped breakfast plates. The little girl clutched a cinnamon roll. She had a smear of sugary pastry goo on her rosy cheek.
On the other side of the room were four big guys, as physically imposing as Ethan, and almost as good-looking, all in different ways. They looked like guys you wouldn’t want to cross, not surprisingly, being Unredeemables. I recognized them from the photo gallery. They’d been featured heavily in the pictures from Ethan’s Army Rangers days. One I recognized from the engagement and wedding photos. Jed Clearwater, Freya’s new husband. Hubba hubba. Extremely hot. Almost as hot as Ethan.
But the seconds were ticking by, and no one could choke out a goddamn word. They just gawked at me as if I had sprouted antlers.
I cleared my throat. “Uh…morning,” I croaked.
“Morning, Frey,” Ethan said. “This is Kat, everyone. Kat, this is my sister Freya, my niece Holly, my brother-in-law Jed, and these three behemoths are Amos, Remy, and Darius Drake.” He looked at his sister. “Frey. You know, it’s always great to see you, and you’re always welcome, but we had a hell of a day yesterday, and we could’ve used a few more hours of rest. Did you have to descend on us at the crack of dawn?”
“Holly was anxious,” Freya said crisply. “We had to make sure you were okay.”
Holly bounded over to her uncle, wrapped her arms around his waist, and squeezed. “They said you got in a fight with Nicole!”
“Well, yeah, I guess I did, but I’m okay.” He let go of my hand to hug the little girl, kissing the top of her head. “You don’t need to worry about me. Ever.”
She frowned up at him, smacking his chest. “Don’t say stuff like that,” she said sternly. “It’s not true, and it’s just dumb. I’m not a baby, and I can worry if I want to. I know bad things happen. Ever since they took Dad, I’ve known it.”
“I know, baby,” Ethan said. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to be careful. Always.”
Holly squeezed him again, and looked up at me with big, curious eyes. “So, you’re the lady who fights?”
“Yeah, sure,” I agreed. “I guess that’s a pretty good description of me.”
Holly examined the angry red bramble scratches on my face and hands. “Did you get the scratches from rescuing the cat?”
I was lost. “Excuse me? What cat are you talking about?”
“She was just referring to the story we heard about you rescuing your neighbor lady’s cat from her no-good ex,” Freya explained.
“Oh! Ah…whoa!” I gaped at her, at Holly, at Ethan. “How on earth did you guys know about that? I did not tell anybody about that!”
Freya and Jed exchanged rueful smiles. “Well, your friend Joanna told Shelby,” Freya said. “Then Shelby told Trey and Ryder, and then they told all of us. You really can’t blame them. It’s an awesome story. Made a big impression on Holly. Anytime you put a cat into the mix, she’s all over it.”
“Yeah, I love cats. I hate it when people are mean to cats,” Holly confided.
“We have that in common,” I said forcefully. “It’s the worst.”
“What did you do to the mean guy? Did you kick him in the balls? Uncle Ethan said I gotta learn to kick ’em in the balls.”
“Holly!” Freya scolded “It’s not your business who she kicked, or where she kicked him! Don’t stick your nose in.”
I shook my head with a smile. “Sorry if I disappoint you, but I actually didn’t have to hurt him,” I told her. “I just threatened to hurt him. I threatened really hard. And he was a big old whiny loser, so fortunately for me, that was enough. I do try to avoid ball-kicking, as a general rule. I only do it under the direst of circumstances.”
“You mean, if he hadn’t given you back the cat, you would have kicked him in the balls?” Holly demanded.
There was a fierce intensity in the little girl’s voice. She was hungering for the bad guys who had hurt her dad to get some righteous punishment, and oh God, could I absolutely relate to that. “Yep,” I said. “I sure would have. Hard as I could. Balls, boom, take that. Teeth, too. Ka-bam, pow. That’ll teach the butthead.”
The little girl air-punched with a big grin, one-two, and raised up her hand, to which I gave a resounding high-five. “Yeah!” she crowed. “Take that! Awesome!”
“I’m not sure if I should approve of this wanton celebration of bloodthirsty violence,” Ethan said, his tone ironic.
“We didn’t ask for your approval,” I shot back, just because of course, I had to, it was an automatic reflex. But I immediately regretted it, because for God’s sake, this was his niece.Ease off, Kat. Take a freaking breath.
I shot him a quick, apologetic look. “Sorry,” I said. “I was just shooting off my mouth. Of course, you get to sign off on everything involving her. We were just bonding over our anger issues. It’s a girl thing.”
