Chapter 7
Bruise my esophagus.
— Things you love hearing from your girlfriend
AUDEN
I’d , of course, clocked her the moment we’d come in.
I’d also clocked the douchebag and his asshole sidekick, Sheldon .
When I’d ordered, it’d been my every intention to walk right over there and invite the two women to my table.
Only , just before I’d taken a step in their direction, my eyes had caught on my brother, Gable .
He was looking like he’d seen a ghost.
I’d taken the seat next to him, my brows furrowed, and said, “ What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “ Nothing I’m really willing to talk about right now.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as my other brothers finished their orders at the counter, leaving us in relative peace for now.
“ Gable ,” I said. “ I will literally force it out of you.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it, eyes sad. “ I have to go back under cover.”
I leaned back in my chair, my hand wrapped around my coffee cup, and said, “ You don’t have to do anything.”
He snorted. “ I do this time.”
“ Why are you saying that?” I pushed.
He opened his mouth and closed it with a click.
He looked torn, like he wanted to talk about it, but didn’t know where to start.
“ Let’s just say,” he watched as the rest of our brothers headed our way. “ This one time, I really don’t have a choice.”
My fingers clenched onto the coffee cup.
For him to say he had to, it meant that whatever was going on was internal.
“ Is it someone we know?” I asked. “ You’re going to go under cover for something at the department, aren’t you?”
He nodded once.
“ What are y’all over here looking so serious about?” Garrett asked, his K -9 officer, Boss , at his side.
Garrett took a seat, then reached into his pocket and produced a bone, which he promptly handed to Boss .
“ Where’d that come from?” Quincy asked as he took a seat.
“ The chick at the counter,” he answered. “ She thought Boss was cute.”
“ Or she thought you were cute,” Quaid said as he took his seat beside Garrett . “ Nance doesn’t ever have treats for the dogs. Isn’t that the girl who asked about Boss last time?”
Garrett’s eyes went to the woman behind the counter.
Mine went there, too.
The barista’s name was something that started with a B , but I couldn’t quite remember off the top of my head what it was.
“ I remember she laughed at Trance when he asked about something for his K -9 officer.” Quincy chuckled.
I remembered that.
Trance , the man we got our trained K -9 from, had asked if Nance did pup cups like Starbucks did, and Nance had laughed in his face and said, “ If you want Starbucks , go to fucking Starbucks .”
“ Maybe she does like me.” Garrett batted his eyes.
“ Or she wants you to fix a speeding ticket for her,” the man at the table next to us said.
I looked over to see a state trooper sitting there.
“ What ?” Garrett asked.
“ That woman is a menace to society,” the state trooper said. “ Bindi . Swear to Christ , I think she gets pulled over every other day. She got me to fix a speeding ticket for her a couple of months ago, and like a dumbass I did. I thought it would at least get me her number. But when I came in and told her I took care of it, she laughed in my face and said she’d never date a cop.”
“ Well , then she won’t get what she wants.” Quaid chuckled. “ Mr . By the Book doesn’t fix anything for anyone.”
Garrett snorted.
I was about to reply to their banter, but a loud slam caught my attention.
Scott and Sheldon stood up and made their way over to the table that Maven , and who had to be Athena , were sitting at.
I stood up when I’d had enough of their looming. “ Fuckin ’ douche.”
I could feel my brothers’ gazes on my back as I made my way to their table.
In fact, I was very much aware of their full attention on the entire encounter.
The arguing started up so loud that I didn’t doubt the entire coffee shop could hear every word that was being said.
A book fell from Maven’s lap, and Scott bent down to retrieve it, giving Maven’s legs a lingering look as he did.
My stomach clenched at the sight.
Did Scott have the hots for his stepsister?
He held out his hand that was holding the book and wiggled it at her.
She reached for it, and he pulled on it when she caught hold, refusing to give it up.
I narrowed my eyes and stepped up just as Maven let go of the book, causing Scott to drop the hardback.
It came skittering across the floor toward me, and I bent down and scooped it up just as it got close.
With barely a hitch in my stride, I cleared my throat, catching the attention of both douchebags at the same time.
Sheldon turned, giving me space, and I took it. Splitting the two, I went in for the kiss.
“ Why didn’t you sit with me, darlin’?” I teased as I bent down and kissed her directly on the mouth.
She gasped, giving me the opening I wanted, and I swept my tongue inside.
My dick lengthened, and I lifted my hand, cupping the side of her neck and sweeping my thumb up to brush lightly against the length of her jaw.
“ Hey ,” she whispered when I pulled away.
I swallowed hard before saying, “ Hey .”
Her eyes were warm, and I had to forcibly stop myself from going in for another kiss.
I placed her book back in her hand, then twisted so that I could see her brother, putting Sheldon at my back.
I fucking hated the both of them, but Sheldon was the much less dangerous of the two. Plus , I knew it’d piss him off more if I dismissed him as insignificant.
“ Scott ,” I drawled, sounding annoyed, even to my own ears. “ Can you give her some space?”
Scott’s brows went up, and I saw the hesitation in his eyes as he gave me the space I wanted. Scott immediately regretted backing down if the look on his face when he realized what he’d just done was anything to go by.
“ What the fuck is going on here?” Scott snarled.
“ What are you talking about?” I feigned ignorance.
“ You and my sister ?” he stiffened, the veins in his neck popping out with his anger.
“ She’s your sister?” I batted my eyes at him.
I knew they were technically related. Even if Maven hadn’t shared quite a bit about herself to me yesterday, I would’ve known. It wasn’t hard to figure out who was family in the precinct.
Plus , he’d brought it up last night, talking about what his stepfather had done to his sister’s business because of her refusal to ‘follow directions.’
Scott puffed up his chest, ready to fight now, but Sheldon finally appeared from behind my back and said, “ Who are you?”
“ I’m Maven’s man. Who are you?” I challenged.
“ I’m her ex-fiancé,” he said, trying to appear tough when he was anything but.
Maven rolled her eyes. “ There was never a fiancé title to be an ex.”
“ Amen ,” Athena said. “ Dodged that bullet.”
“ Why the fuck are you still here? Shouldn’t you be in your high school classes still?” Sheldon snarled at her.
Maven snorted.
“ How about you go back to your table with your friends, and leave us alone to finish our food?” Athena suggested. “ We only have twenty more minutes left before Maven has to go visit with her lawyer.”
Scott’s anger turned to Maven again, his eyes narrowing. “ What lawyer?”
“ Don’t act like you don’t know why I need a lawyer. It’s beneath you.” She stood up, her body brushing along my own as she did. “ You’re late.”
Unable to stop myself, I curled my hand furthest from Maven into a fist, then caught her hand with the other to keep myself from pushing Scott as he started to crowd in close again.
“ Come join us,” I suggested, my hand going to hers—which also happened to be the one holding her book.
She didn’t protest as I tugged her toward our table.
“ This is Maven , as you know,” I said to my brothers as I pulled a chair from the trooper’s table to squeeze between my own chair and Quaid’s . “ Athena is her best friend.”
“ Hi ,” Athena waved.
“ You’re Gavrel’s sister,” Gable said as he leaned back in the chair. “ How are you doing?”
I’d heard of Athena but hadn’t actually had the chance to meet her yet.
When her brother, Gavrel , had been killed in the line of duty, I’d seen both her and Maven at the funeral.
At the time, I’d thought Athena looked young.
But she’d definitely grown into herself in the time since I’d last seen her.
Athena’s shoulders drooped for a short second before shrugging. “ Making it.”
“ I was just encouraging her to work on an app to help find her sister who went missing when she was five,” Maven said, changing the subject.
That had my eyebrows raising in surprise.
“ Your sister went missing?” Garrett was the first to ask. “ What happened?”
“ You know what happened, dummy,” Gable interrupted. “ This was the little girl who was playing at a park with a friend, right across the street from the friend’s house. Nice neighborhood, even nicer park. Upper crust of Dallas elite. That was why Gavrel joined the DPD . To help other kids who went missing like his sister did.”
“ Oh , yeah.” Garrett winced. “ I’m sorry. I should’ve remembered that.”
Athena smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“ I’m trying to encourage her to make an app that’ll help her compare old missing persons photos. Ones that’ll transform the kids into what they’d look like today. Then create a database with all kinds of helpful stuff.”
“ It’s already been playing out in my head for the last ten minutes.” Athena looked far away. “ I have so many ideas.”
Maven grinned. “ Go , friend.”
Athena glanced at Maven . “ I was going to go to the lawyer with you.”
“ Yeah ,” she said. “ But I don’t need a ride anymore.”
“ You don’t?” she asked.
“ She doesn’t,” I replied succinctly, even if I did have something to do after this.
Just the thought of spending more time with Maven was way more appealing than meeting my mom at the Home Goods store to pick out fucking linens.
Personally , I was perfectly okay with my Amazon sheets, but my mom was appalled.
This sounded like the perfect excuse to get out of that…
“ Okay then.” Athena stood up. “ It was very nice to meet you all. Thank you for the save back there.”
She pointed at Scott and Sheldon who were now at their old table with their drinks, glaring at our group.
That made me angry all over again.
They really did know how to be assholes, didn’t they?
It also made me even angrier that last night I’d heard Scott bragging to another cop how Chief Austin had closed Maven’s bakery down because of a health violation.
Bogus or not, why would he fuckin’ be excited about that?
What kind of shitty, stereotypical villain boasted about something like that?
Conversation waned at the table after Athena left.
It was Gable who asked, “ How’s she really doing?”
Maven smiled sadly, and I couldn’t help but reach for her hand underneath the table.
The hand that was still clutching her hardback.
Taking it out of her hand, I sat it on the table between us and regathered her hand in mine.
Her eyes went to the book and froze.
“ Oh , that’s the book Hollis was reading the other day,” Quincy said as he absently took a drink of his coffee. “ Didn’t she get Mom to read that? I remember the fancy yellow cover.”
“ It’s an author based in Kilgore , Texas ,” Maven said softly. “ It’s fun to read a book set around your area. I love her references to tornados, heat, and the surrounding areas.”
My brothers looked at me, confusion marring their brows.
The mention of her reading had shut her down.
Why ?
“ I think that’s why Mamasauce —my mom—loves her, too,” Atlas admitted. “ Something about ‘not making Texans look stupid with fake, Southern accents.’”
That had Maven’s mouth tipping up into a small smile.
I leaned forward, ready to ask her another question, when phones started to go off everywhere.
I pulled mine out, right along with my brothers, as well as the state trooper next to our table.
“ Ruh -roh,” Maven said as she eyed the entire table. “ This isn’t lookin’ too good for y’all.”
Quaid stood up with a snarl. “ Gang war. Hostages . Goddammit .”
I stood up and shoved the phone into my pocket.
“ Shit , I have to go.” I looked at her. “ Can I get you a ride?”
She smiled softly at me before saying, “ It’s a three-block walk from here. Remember ?”
More like eight, but I couldn’t argue with her as nearly the entire café emptied.
“ I’m sorry for leaving you hanging,” I said as I bent over and placed a short kiss onto her lips. “ But let me know what the lawyer has to say.”
She raised a brow at me. “ How would I do that?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. “ Shit . I guess you’d need my number, wouldn’t you?”
“ We gotta go, dumbass!” my brothers called from the door.
Since I was the driver for three of them, it wasn’t like I had time to kill here.
“ Just come over tonight,” she suggested. “ If you have time.”
I winked, then took off at a jog.
If only I’d known that shit would hit the fan in more ways than one, I might’ve given her my number and said to hell with work.
But I didn’t and I would pay for it the hard way.