Page 72 of Bonded

“You hyenas, you’re all the fuckin’ same. Nosy! You should mind your own damn business. But for what it’s worth, she’s well out of your league. Hey, you want more cawfee Tilly?”

“No, she ain’t got time for that…” he sniffs, “Tilly, get your ass in gear, you got a client. There’s a car waitin’ outside.”

The woman two seats in front gets up and shrugs. “I guess, I’ll see you tomorrow Marco?”

“Take care, Tilly, and be safe out there. It’s getting worse, you need to be careful.”

The girl in red high heels turns and smiles, “I will. Marco, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

Chapter 21

It’s late as they return to the house. Kat gasps, taken aback to see all the guys sprawled around the living room. They look up and stare at her and Darius; Digby, his arms folded across his chest, pacing back and forward.

“Where the hell have you been?” he scowls.

“Hey to you too.” Kat frowns. “You know where we’ve been. At the hospital and then we went—”

“We went to get some food. Kat was hungry.” Darius interrupts. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“A problem? Yeah, you could say there’s a problem I’ve been tryin’ to reach you and either of ya was pickin’ up.”

“Must’ve switched my phone off at the hospital. Forgot to turn it back on.” Darius sniffs, showing little interest in Digby’s obvious concern.

“That’s bullshit you never switch your phone off. Anyway, where’s yours?” He turns to stare at Kat, “I kept calling and left you a tonne of messages.”

“Well, I don’t have it. It must still be in the truck. I think it got left on the seat in the rush to the hospital. I mean, I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly when we arrived.”

“Oh, yeah…” Digby sighs, “Shit! Sorry. Yeah, I remember seein’ it there now.”

Kat looks at Darius with deep concern and then back at Digby. “No, I’m sorry, we should’ve called, I knew that you’d worry. Darius took me to get some—”

“—food. Kat was hungry, so I took her to get food. Why, what’s the problem?” Darius furrows his brow and folds his arms questioning.

“The problem is—”

“Ah… God, I can’t believe how much I needed to take a piss.”

Darius looks at Kat and the pair stare open-mouthed as Rhys steps from the hallway in front of them. “What?” he frowns, looking at them, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Oh, did he not tell you I was here?”

“No, I guess he didn’t yet. So, you care to explain what the hell’s going on? And, what the fuck he’s doing here?” Darius scowls at Digby.

“Yeah, I was about to… before we were interrupted.”

Rhys goes to the fridge and opens the door. Searching inside, he eyes up the contents and settles on helping himself to a bottle of beer. “Anyone want one of these?”

The team all look at each other—all tempted to say yes, but then seeing the glare filling Digby’s face, they shake their heads in refusal.

“No!”

“Oh n-no, n-not me.”

“No, uh, I’m good.”

“Okay… so just me then.” Rhys smiles and closes the door.

“Ryan, what’s going on? Why’s your brother here?” Kat questions somewhat confused and slightly concerned by Rhys’s presence.

Digby steps in front of her and smiles. His eyes can’t help but stare at the wound on her neck, as he leans forward and gently kisses her. “You okay?”

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