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“Who the fuck is Jerry?” He wraps his body over mine, his chest hugging my back, and his teeth latching onto the side of my neck. “I was talking about you and me, Mayet. If there’s someone else, guess who’s gonna die a painful death?”
I cackle and simply allow him to drape his body over mine. It’s a hug, but it’s so much more, and it’s fun… which is exactly what I need after a day like today.
“I was kidding,” I tell him on a laugh. “You’re the only guy I’ve ever been dumb around.”
“Gonna stay that way, too.” He nips my earlobe and draws a hiss to my lips that somehow sends a wash of pleasure to my core. “You and me, Mayet. Just the two of us, forever.”
“And your slutty cat,” I roll my eyes. “Your numerous and annoying brothers. Especially Cato,” I mutter, as the crowd parts and I find the eighteen-year-old sitting at the bar like he’s a regular here.
“That had better be Coke in his glass,” I growl, “and not liquor.”
“Mm? Whatever it is, it’s none of our business.”
“Archer—”
“If he’s here, that means the apartment’s empty. Wanna go home and bang?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Tim drags my attention away from Archer’s smooth offering, as he comes to a stop in front of Cato, glowering and furious. I can’t make his question and his target make sense, but then I remember the GQ model of a lab tech that Aubree brought along tonight.
Tim is the oldest Malone. Tall, broad, sexy. Andwildlypossessive of the woman he loves so much, hewon’tsleep with her.
He sets a beer on the bar with a loudclang, so liquid sloshes over the side and even Cato jumps. Then he pins Campbell with a glare while raising his other hand to point back in our direction—to the exit. “Get the fuck out of my bar.”
“Tim!” Aubree steps past Xavier and meets the mafioso’s glare. Unafraid, when most others would have more sense. “Stop it!”
“I won’t repeat myself.” Tim snatches up a cloth and tucks it in his back pocket, purely out of deeply ingrained habit, then places his hands on the countertop and hoists himself up until he’s on his feet and towering over us all.
Tim’s Bar is where all the first responders on this side of the city go once they’re off-shift. Which means a hundred cops turn from their conversations and watch him make a scene.
Cato bounds off his stool, since the alternative is to risk getting stomped on. Then wide-eyed and not-at-all-secretly thrilled, he watches his big brother go all caveman on a woman he’snotdating.
“This is gonna be interesting,” Archer’s deep, delicious voice rumbles in my ear, before he unravels his body from mine and loops my bag over my arm to free up his hands.
Just in case,I suppose.
Tim jumps down from the bar and lands in the main area with athud, looking like a lumberjack in his black jeans and plaid shirt. He wears a neatly trimmed beard, different from his smooth-faced brothers, and hair just long enough to stand on end if he were to run his fingers through it.
Or, well, if a woman were so inclined to run her fingers through it.
He straightens his back and firms his lips so evenmystomach dips with nerves at his anger. Then he comes to stop in front of Aubree and meets her challenging stare with one of his own. “Say goodbye to your little friend, Emeri. He’s leaving now.”
“I don’t…” Finally grasping the seriousness of this situation, Xavier turns to me. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“She’s taken, and he’s mad.” I pass my bag back to Archer and stride forward, since Xavier is my employee and has no friggin’ clue what he’s stumbled upon here.
“Timothy Malone.” I nudge Xavier back and come to a stop beside my best friend and the man she silently duels. “You’re looking a little unhinged tonight. You okay?”
“Doing just fine,” he grits out without breaking eye contact with Aubree. “Just taking care of a little unfinished business. Go upstairs.”
Confused, I point my thumb back at myself.
But Tim shakes his head. “Aubree. Get upstairs, now.”
“Oh please.” She actually laughs in his face.She laughs in a killer’s face!“You’re insane. Go back to work,” she counters. “Folks are thirsty, and waiting for your attention.”
“Go upstairs,” he repeats, dangerously low. “Then I’ll get back to work.”
“So you want me to go up alone?” she snaps. “Sit in your apartment and twiddle my thumbs like an idiot, while you’re down here living your life? Maybe I’ll do your dishes, too. Would that make you happy?”
