Page 7 of Cross To Bear

“No more than you, with those cock sucking lips.”

Crash tried to shove his thumb in Razor’s mouth, but the other man shoved him away.

“What the fuck does she see in him?”

There was something wistful in Hawk’s voice and that had all of us falling silent. She saw something and that was our cross to bear.

“That doesn’t matter,” I said. “We need to do what we can and make sure Maddie has everything she needs, no matter who she’s with.”

“Agreed.”

We all moved then, knowing exactly what to do. Crash saw her hovering on the outskirts of the celebration, never one to push herself forward, and he had a chair for her and another for himself, producing them with a flourish, much to her surprise. Hawk went for a plate of snacks we’d made sure would be present, noticing she liked sharp cheeses and crackers with a bit of a snap to them and salted macadamias. He loaded up a plastic plate, then made a beeline for her. And me? I knew she hated white wine and was only drinking it to make Mum happy. She did like gin and tonic though, so I went over to the esky I’d brought with me, grabbed a couple of premixed drink cans and ambled closer.

“Tell me what really happened.”

Maddie turned around in surprise, just in time to see Hawk arrive with the plate. I plucked the wine flute from her hand to the small sound of her protest, but it trailed away when I pressed the can into her hand. She smiled then, just a small thing, though I saw it clearly.

“Tell you what happened, Bjorn?”

I loved the sound of my name on her lips. I wanted to hear it over and over, as she panted beneath me. I wanted her to shriek it out as my baculum shot out and locked down inside her, and I wanted her to murmur it, soft and gentle like, as I held her through the aftershocks. But most of all I wanted it in a full sentence.

“I love you, Bjorn.”

Instead, I pursed my lips and then shot her a dark look.

“What did he actually do?”

I didn’t need to specify which he or which event, because as I saw the pink rise in her cheeks, we all knew.

“Did he burn something this time?” Razor asked. “My brother’s a chippy. He can repair any cabinets Sexy fucked up.”

That was Jesse’s nickname, shortened from Sexy Fingers, and I low key hated it.

“No permanent damage,” she said hurriedly. “At least I don’t think so. I’ll have a closer look when I’ve had a chance to clean up the mess.”

“When he cleans it up, you mean,” Hawk growled.

“If we wait for Jesse to get around to it, I’ll be evicted from my place.”

Every single one of us came to attention.

“What do you mean…?”

Hawk was not so quietly losing his shit, though he forced himself to quiet while the rest of the sleuth shot him a dark look. We became the perfect picture of nonchalance, creating space for Maddie to vent. She let out a sigh and then flopped back in her chair.

“You know what he’s like.” We did. We really did. “He’s all sweet and funny and has so much energy, but as soon as it comes to real world shit, it just seems to dry up. He’s on the balcony for the millionth smoke break, or he’s dragging his feet like a whipped dog. God, sometimes he just seems to deliberately mess things up, like using the toilet brush to clean the grout or whatever, just so I’ll take over.” She was frowning at the start of this, and her expression became more severe. “He’s like some golden retriever puppy: great for frolicking in sunlit meadows though not so good at actually doing what he’s supposed to.”

“Seems like you need to get yourself a new dog.” I shot Razor a dark look as he leaned forward, but they called him Razor for more than just his hair cut. The bloke was sharp as a knife, and you had to be careful you didn’t cut yourself on him. His grey-blue eyes stared into hers. “A Rottweiler maybe?” The muscles in his biceps flexed under his shirt. “Something big, powerful, fucking loyal and prepared to tear apart anything that gets in your way.”

Maddie stared back for several heartbeats, as if trying to decipher his words, but then she shook her head and said something we didn’t want to hear.

“That sounds kind of terrifying.” When my heart sank, I knew my sleuthmates felt the same. “Like I read about guys who’re all like ‘I’ll bring you the heads of your enemies’ in romance books. That’s all just made up. Guys aren’t really like that.”

Weren’t they?

Maybe the ones she knew weren’t, but as we all looked at each other over her head, we knew one day we’d show her that the men she fantasised about on the page were nothing compared to us.

Chapter 5

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