Page 81 of Heathen

"Is this about your wife?"

I narrow my eyes in his direction, my sleep-deprived brain trying to determine if he's mentioning Kaylee to get a rise out of me.

"I'm just drinking coffee, man," I mutter and drop my eyes back down to the cup, much in the same way as that man in the bar did all those years ago.

What if they didn't reconcile? What if the next day he stepped in front of a bus? What if he lived a lonely miserable life after that night?

God, I don't want to be a miserable fucker who's pining after a woman I've only known for a fucking week.

I just met her. How in the world has she become so damn important to me so quickly? It doesn't make sense.

"You're bent out of shape because the woman you didn't think you'd fall for has you all tangled up in knots," he says as he pours a cup of coffee. "I don't know much about relationships because I'm just not the type of guy that lets people in, butif you're as upset as you appear to be, maybe you should do something about it."

"What does he need to do?"

I groan with irritation as Bandera comes into the kitchen, also arrowing straight for the coffee pot.

"We’re discussing Heathen's plan on getting his woman back," Rooster answers, making me snarl in his direction.

His smile is wide as he lifts his coffee cup to his lips, and I swear I see a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"Do you find joy in my pain?" I ask, wanting it to sound more like a joke, but it comes out so sullen and ridiculously sad that his smile quickly fades away.

"Shit, man," he mutters.

"What I'm hearing is that Kaylee is single," Bandera says.

"Kaylee is single?"

"I swear to fuck," I growl at Twisted as he enters the room, immediately joining the conversation like we're all fucking best friends.

"How in the world did you mess things up with her?" Twisted asks, pulling a coffee cup out of the cabinet. "She was head over heels for you."

"She wasn't," I argue.

They all give me their full attention, a line of assholes staring at me like I've somehow ruined their lives.

"Seriously?" Bandera asks, his eyes darting between the other two men. "How could he not see it?"

"Mommy issues," Rooster mutters, giving me a sad look. "Sorry."

"Just how fucking deep did you dig into my life?" I snap at the man, feeling like my privacy has been invaded.

Rooster pulls in a deep breath, holding his coffee cup against his chest with two hands before he speaks.

"You know all those physical tests we had to do?" he asks.

"Yeah."

"And the ones where you had to go through the dossier of several cases to find the link to the sex trafficking ring?"

"Yeah."

"I had a lot of tests as well and had to prove that I could use my resources to get every ounce of information that was expected of me."

"That doesn't answer my question," I snap.

"Yes, it does."

---