Chapter Ten
“Brother-husbands, huh?” Marisol confirmed; her voice barely audible over the background noise surrounding Elena.
“Yup,” she said, following it up with a big sigh. The question of are they or aren’t they had definitely been answered.
Elena pulled an apple from her paper lunch sack. The bench she’d sat at for her break was nice and shaded but not the quietest place to sit and have a conversation.
In fact, it was loud as fuck—even without the normal protesters walking up and down the sidewalk. She was grateful they’d moved on which kind of made her feel a little asshole-ish. She didn’t want them to be targeting another unsuspecting business, but her volume was maxed out and she was practically yelling at Marisol.
She had to have acquired a cursed object or broken a mirror because nothing was going as planned today. The original plan had been to have lunch in her car and that was obviously no longer an option. Finding a spot in the break room was a no-go as well. She’d considered it for a hot second when she’d popped in there to grab her lunch from the fridge but had changed her mind just as fast. The tiny room had been filled with an overwhelming array of attractive men, the massive amounts of testosterone in the air practically choking her.
“Then what happened?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Elena sighed, unable to keep the disappointment she felt about the whole thing inside. The scene with Tanner this morning was bugging her more than she’d expected, all things considered. She had no reason to be jealous. “I told him not to worry about the ride and got out of there like my ass was on fire.”
“Did he say anything?” Marisol asked after a moment.
“Nope,” she answered with a shake of her head even though her friend wasn’t there to see it. It was embarrassing how disappointed she’d been when that picture had come through. She felt foolish. Even if Tanner had tried to explain things, it wouldn’t have done much good. “He looked like he wanted to, but I didn’t give him a chance.”
“You know you’re not going to be able to avoid him forever, right?”
“I know,” she groaned dramatically, once again wishing she could scrub the entire thing from her memory and pretend it never happened. That’s all she wanted to do. She didn’t know how she was supposed to look Tanner in the eye again after seeing him balls deep in some blonde bitch. Just thinking about it made her feel icky. “I might try though.”
“What about Pax?” Marisol asked, reminding Elena again that she had more than one Iron Seed member to worry about. “Does he know what happened?”
“I have no idea,” she answered, cringing at the thought. She really hoped he didn’t, but with her luck, he totally did. Now she really felt sick. “Ughhhh.”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” her friend immediately reassured her. “Breathe in…breath out. Are you breathing?”
“Unfortunately,” she mumbled around the last of her stale Cheetos . She made a face as she swallowed the offensive curl. There was nothing more disappointing than stale puffs. “Is the universe punishing me? Do you remember me breaking a mirror?”
“What?” Marisol asked, obviously confused.
“Is this karma for not putting quarters into the jar for Jamal’s surgery?” Elena thought of all the suckers she’d stolen from the fundraising candy spinner at Medina’s. That would have brought some bad karma for sure. “I was going to pay for them…eventually.”
“Are you having a stroke or something?”
“I’m not having a stroke,” she promised with an eyeroll before taking a sip of water to clear out the disgustingly disappointing lunch she’d forced down. “This is a fucking mess.”
“It’s not that bad,” her bestie argued unsuccessfully.
“Don’t lie,” she groaned back. After everything that had happened so far, it was best to brace for the worst-case scenario. “What am I going to do?”
This morning’s snafu had opened her eyes in more ways than one. She had already assumed Pax was most likely into the whole sharing thing; it was pretty much a given. What she hadn’t expected was to see digital proof of him in flagrante with absolutely no warning.
It was a punch to the stomach.
“I think you should make the first move and talk to them about it. You know, just be cool.”
Elena pulled the phone away from her ear for a second and looked at the screen to verify it was actually her best friend on the phone.
“Are you fucking crazy?” she asked, unable to believe her ears. “That’s the worst idea ever!”
“You’re going to keep freaking out—”
“I saw them with their dicks in a hot blonde, ‘Sol,” she hissed, trying to ignore the image that popped into her head at the painful reminder. “I was literally mid-fucking-flirt when that text popped up. You’d freak out too.”
“You have a point,” Marisol agreed after a moment of silence. “I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid them though. Not forever.”
“I know.” Elena closed her eyes and leaned back against the bench. The headache she’d had early this morning was back and stronger than ever.
“I’ve gotta go, ‘Lena.” The familiar sound of hungry customers filtered over the phone. “Love ya.”
“Love ya more.”
Elena wished she could say that talking to her sister-from-another-mister had helped her figure out her next move, but it hadn’t. If anything, she was now even more anxious.
“Hey.”
The deep voice behind her was so unexpected, Elena screamed and threw her apple.
“Fuck!” The stranger sidestepped the edible missile and looked at her like she was crazy. “What the hell was that?”
“The rest of my lunch,” she snapped, angry that he’d made her waste the apple she’d been looking forward to eating. She’d really wanted something sweet after her crappy lunch. “Do you always sneak up on unsuspecting women or am I special?”
He grinned, revealing a dimple on his left cheek.
Elena glared back. The man was already too good looking for the mortal realm. That dimple was dangerous.
“You’re special alright,” he chuckled, eying her up and down. “And I wasn’t sneaking up on you.”
“Really?” She gave him a look. “What were you doing then?”
He cocked an eyebrow, annoying her with how hot he still was despite the smug look on his face. “I was politely waiting for you to finish your phone call.”
“My—” Her stomach dropped at the implication, taking the rest of what she was going to say with it. “Did you—”
“Hear what happened?” he asked, his expression softening.
From the guilty look on his face, she knew what the answer was before he told her.
“Yeah. I did.”
Elena closed her eyes and said a quick prayer. When she opened them, he was still standing there. She frowned.
“What was that?” he asked, his smile back again as he watched her.
“I was trying to wish you away,” she confessed with a sigh of resignation. She should have known it wouldn’t work considering her run of shit luck today. All it did was make her look like a wacko. “It didn’t work.”
“You’re funny,” he chuckled, shaking his head.
“That’s better than crazy,” she mumbled to herself as she gathered up her things.
Her lunch was almost over, and she refused to clock in late.
Again.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you to enjoy your break.”
“I thought maybe we could talk for a minute,” he said, the hopefulness on his face making her hesitate.
She shook her head, the word ‘no’ on the tip of her tongue.
“You can have my cupcake,” he offered before she could get it out.
Her mystery man opened his lunch box and flashed her the baked bribe. “It’s a lemon one from Symon Says Sweets over on Mass. The twins are always bringing them in; they’ve got a thing for the girl that works there.”
“The twins?” she repeated curiously.
“Boscoe and Roscoe, they’re the ones that usually drive the tow trucks.”
“Got it.” Elena couldn’t ignore the temptation he was waving in front of her. That cupcake looked a hell of a lot more appetizing than the apple she’d chucked at him earlier.
“Just sit with me for a few minutes.” He held the sugary treat out for her to take. “Please.”
“I can’t stay too long,” she told him, accepting the dessert. She glanced at her watch as she reclaimed her earlier spot. “My lunch ends in six minutes, and I don’t want to be late.”
“Six minutes,” he repeated with a nod as he sat down next to her. “Got it.”
“Thanks for the cupcake—” Elena’s brows furrowed when she realized he hadn’t introduced himself. “I don’t think you told me your name.”
“I’m Vinyl,” he said, holding out one big hand for her to shake. “And you’re Elena, right?”
“Right,” she confirmed with a nod. “I’m Taffy’s new assistant.”
“How’re you liking it so far?”
“I like it.” She smiled just thinking about her new boss. The woman was an whirlwind. “Taffy’s pretty awesome.”
“She is,” he agreed. “The Irons are good people.”
“I’m figuring that out.” Elena had fully expected to be in hot water after showing up late on her first day, but Taffy had been totally cool. Most bosses would have told her not to bother clocking in, so she’d been surprised when it wasn’t that big of a big deal. She was still a little shocked to be honest. The Irons had been more concerned about getting her car taken care of, including ordering two new tires just to be safe. She didn’t know what to make of it. It was as if she’d stumbled into the twilight zone. “Any other job would have let me go for being late the first day.”
“You couldn’t help it that your car wouldn’t start,” he told her with a shrug. He pushed his sleeves up, baring his heavily tattooed forearms. “The Irons won’t hold something like that against you.”
“How’d you know my car wouldn’t start?” she wondered aloud, her eyes focused on the black and grey ink he had gracing his skin from elbow to wrist. The tattoo was elaborate, making his arm look as if it were filled with gears instead of flesh and bone. It was an amazing piece of ink. One of her favorite customers had something similar painted on the prosthetic leg he wore, and she’d always loved the design.
That must be why it looked so familiar.