Page 12 of Brother's Keeper

Ripley snuffled a breath. “If Grimm knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay out of your way. ‘Twas a bloody clear warning shot you fired.”

“You, too,” I replied. “Avery’s still out sick.”

His thin lips pursed in a smile. “Nasty bug, is it? Pity.”

I turned toward home, pulling Maggie along in the crook of my elbow and motioning for Ripley to follow. We walked ahead, three across with the sun staining the waves orange and pink. This was my favorite time of day to be by the water. Cool air swept in, and the gulls quieted enough that I could hear water lapping against the boat hulls.

“How’d you find me, by the way?” I asked Ripley.

He bounced his bony shoulders and gave his gum another pop. “I enjoy a fine drink, and Nicholas takes every opportunity to talk about you. I think he may be smitten, though I can’t imagine why.”

I fought a grin. “Hey, I’m a catch.”

“Youcatcha lot of trouble,” he quipped. “And it’s rubbing off.”

“On Nash?”

“On his business. And on me.” He glanced over, his solid white eye unnerving as ever. “I welcomed it,” he continued. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re contagious, Farrow.”

We arrived at the houseboat, still sporting its oldname in script along the side. Maybe I could hire the guy down the dock to change it for us or buy a can of spray paint and do it myself. Tasteful graffiti seemed like a surefire way to piss off our new neighbors.

Donovan must have given up sunbathing because I saw no sign of him.

I leaned to whisper in Maggie’s ear, “You can go in if you want. That’s where I live now. Make yourself at home.”

Maggie looked at me with wide, red eyes, then broke away, up the steps where she admitted herself into the cabin of the houseboat. Donovan’s startled cry from inside made me laugh. I could only hope she hadn’t caught him with a porn magazine and his dick out.

Ripley moved to the railing on the edge of the dock, and I joined him. Digging into my pocket, I pulled out my cigarettes and lighter and offered him one.

He shook his head. “I’ve got enough poison in me without piling on.”

I nodded and lit one for myself, taking a long drag as Ripley spoke.

“Since you’ve stayed in Grimm’s circle, you may have already heard about the changes in the gang.”

Grimm didn’t tell me shit. Definitely not about the gang. In that area, the silence was so loud I was beginning to wonder if I was truly a member anymore. I’d always thought my exit from the Bloody Hex would be my death or a grand, gruesome battle. I never considered it could be a quiet dismissal, being edged out slowly and, somehow, more painfully.

“What changes?” I asked.

“Leadership,” he replied. “They put someone new in charge. Your mate from Thorngate. Jaxon Rhodes.” His expression was stony as he stared across the water.

I sucked a breath so abrupt it made me choke on a mouthful of smoke. “Since when is that jackoff in the gang?”

“You remember him?”

Ripley said it casually, but my relationship with the stinky, shapeshifting witch was anything but. He’d made a play for my Hex mark in prison and threw out some shitty comments, to boot. Criticizing my entry into the gang and questioning whether I deserved my place in it. Also…

“He tried to kill me in the shower, and I melon-balled his eye out with a spork,” I said. “Yeah, I remember him.”

“I knew there was bad blood between you two and figured you should know.”

I shook my head. “He’s not dumb enough to fuck with me out here. If he does, I’ll put him down like the dog he is.”

“Panther,” Ripley corrected.

“Sure.”

Since I’d shamed him publicly at the Bitters’ End, I assumed Jax took his groupies and gave up plans of joining the Bloody Hex. But, two months later, he reappeared and apparently convinced someone to let him captain the sinking ship that was our gang.

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