Page 56 of A Brother's Secret

“Nice to meet you,” the diminutive woman said, reaching out to me. I didn’t know what else to do so I bent to her level and she kissed me on each cheek, which was weird, but okay. I could deal with weird.

“Nice to meet you,” Isaid.

It was a lot to take in. I guess after the no-nonsense way the boys handled things at the building Kyle had dubbed Point Nowhere, I hadn’t expected them to be so boisterous in their… I didn’t even know what to call it. Offtime?

It wasn’t long before the women were dragging me over to a table, chatting and exclaiming over my tattoos. I looked back over my shoulder to find Kyle at the bar looking my way smiling, talking to the person behind it, the tall, skinny brother covered in ink from neck to fingertips… Dizzy, I think his namewas.

A platinum blonde woman sitting at the table I’d been brought to asked, “What’ll you have?” I eyed the offerings of booze behind the bar and sighed, it was a good question. They had a lot of variety.

“Jameson, neat.”

“A girl after me own heart,” I turned to the woman with the thick Irish brogue and raised an eyebrow. She raised her whiskey glass in salute and sipped.

“You must be Everett,” I said and stuck out myhand.

“Aye, excuse the accent, comes on when I’ve been drinking.”

“We’ve all got our quirks,” I said with a shrug and the platinum blonde rocking the adorable pixie cut yelled my drink order at the bar across the room. She dropped into her seat and grinned atme.

“So glad I finally get to join the fun now that we’ve quit with the fuckin’ baby-makin’ for half a damn minute.” She grinned, her blue eyes sparkling and it hit me. I sat up a bit straighter, suddenly thrust into that zone of awkward when you feel like ‘oh, shit’ because you’ve just met your current’sex.

“What’re you lookin’ at me that way for?” she demanded and I shook myhead.

“Nothing, it’s nothing… you, uh, you must be Shelly… right?”

“Oh, goddammit, Reaver!” she yelled and he looked over from where he was playing pool, frowned and demanded, “Whhhhhaat?”

“You, not keepin’ your fuckin’ mouth shut, that’swhat!”

I laughed as he shooed her away like a fly and went back to talking with whoever he was talking with. Shelly scowled, steamed a little, and muttered, “Asshole…”

“It’s honestly, nothin’,” I said, “We all have our pasts.”

“Aye, but it’s still different when that past be starin’ ye right in th’ eye.” Everett sipped her whiskey and a glass appeared over my shoulder.

I looked up into Kyle’s guarded expression and took the glass. “Everything all right?” he asked.

“Just peachy,” I told him and tried to give him a reassuring smile.

“Need to check on a few things in the fishbowl.”

“Cool,” I said, tight-lipped. I had no fucking idea what the fishbowl was and didn’t want to look stupid for asking.

“Okay,” he leaned down and kissed me and I kissed him back, drawing it out a little longer than necessary, you know, marking my territory in case any bitches around here wanted to get any ideas. Truthfully, though, I got why he picked Shelly. She maybe didn’t look a fucking thing like me, but she was hot and she kind of reminded me of me, personality-wise.

I let my gaze linger on his back as he marched over to a glass room in the corner with curtains on the inside. He went in and swept them open, revealing a massive setup of computers, monitors, and even a rack of servers. I felt my eyebrows go up in surprise, but I really shouldn’t have been. I mean, it was Kyle, and I knew he came by his road name honestly. Data… I would probably never call him that. It felt… weird.

“This moment of awkward brought to you by the letter ‘R’…” Shelly muttered, glaring daggers at her cousin.

“Want me to kick his ass, later?” I asked. “I mean, if it will make you feel better.”

That got a laugh from around the table which dwindled and a short woman with shoulder length dark hair cocked her head to the side, studying me with jade green eyes. Her vest read ‘Doll’ on the front and the nickname tickled the back of my brain. I raised an eyebrow and sipped my whiskey as she took a breath to say something, frowned, and then frowned harder.

Whatever she was going to say disappeared and was replaced with, “You’re serious aren’t you? You’d scrap withhim.”

“Have before, didn’t come out any worse for wear. Not gonna lose again, though.”

Nervous glances were exchanged around the table and Ashton laughed with the emotion painted all over her face like a Rembrandt, “That’s, um, inadvisable…” she said and I shrugged.

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