Page 81 of A Brother At My Back

“You can have mine,” Mali said. “My man’s back at the controls.” She jutted her chin past Nik and he and I both turned. The black curtains blocking the view inside the little glassed-in fishbowl had been whisked aside, revealing a wall of TV’s and monitors, computer towers and keyboards. A man stood inside talking on a cell phone and waved Mali towards him. She went and kissed him decadently, dropping into his lap after he sat in a rolling desk chair.

He kept an arm around her as he typed one-handed, like it was as natural as breathing. I couldn’t help but smile at the genuine love between them. They had a partnership and it was easy to see. As effortless as breathing.

“How are you holding up?” Nik asked. “And, sorry I got called away.”

“It’s fine, really, that’s all I meant by saying it the way that I did.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Silence lapsed between us and he studied my face finally saying, “You didn’t answer the question.”

“I’m doing as well as can be expected, I guess,” I said, swallowing hard.

He nodded and reached out, covering my hand with his. I gripped his fingers and drew breath to say something when a female voice from the kitchen shrieked at the top of her lungs, “Breakfast!”

Light chuckling swept through the men and women standing around talking in small knots and people just naturally fell into a single-file line to move along the bar buffet-style.

“Stay here,” Nik said, low and soft. “I’ll bring you something.”

“Thanks,” I murmured back and he winked at me.

Before he could get back to me, Trigger and another man I didn’t know pulled up a chair each.

“How are you doing?” Trigger asked. I bit my lips together and tried to decide how to answer and he grunted saying, “That good, huh?”

I let out an explosive breath and said, “Yeah, that good,” and it sounded miserable even to me.

“I’m Ghost,” the other man said, and I looked him over. Compact but well-proportioned, he held himself like a cop or a military guy and shoveled food in his face like a prisoner. If I had to guess, I’d say some flavor of former military and the eating habits could be from the same or because of some kind of ex-con status. Delia had waxed on about the club’s reputation in the criminal world so I was betting ex-con, but then again, a lot of these guys were seriously surprising my preconceived notions.

“Tiff,” I answered him, and he gave me a nod.

“You’re not harassing the woman are you?” The platinum blonde, Shelly, dropped into the chair Mali had vacated and suddenly the two-person table was seating five. Or would be as soon as Nik got back.

“No, wife of mine, I’m not. I just sat down and managed to introduce myself.”

“Oh, well, good,” she said and winked at me. I pulled the hair tie off the end of the braid Hayley had put in my hair and ran my fingers through it, shaking it out and combing it over the scarred half of my face.

“You got any plans today?” Trigger asked.

“No, not really,” I answered.

“Feel like trying some more shooting? We got a range out back. Might be a good distraction for you.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

“Oi!” Nik cried, “I go to get my lady something to eat and nek minute every one and their dam cuz moves in on her? What the shit is that?” His tone was light and joking, and Trigger and Ghost both laughed quietly and tried not to choke on their food.

“What?” Shelly asked. “She’s the new shiny object for this lot of ravens.” She winked at me and I smiled back a little nervously. While I was used to being the center of attention at work, I wasn’t really equipped to deal with it in my personal life. At work, I wore a persona, slipped on the personality of Francesca like a second skin. Out here I was just plain, old, boring, Tiffany and for the most part, I liked it like that. The extra attention was especially hard because of Delia… God, poor Delia.

I stared down at the plate that Nik put in front of me and took the fork he offered with a murmured, “Thanks.”

He squeezed my knee under the table and I forced a smile and looked over my plate with much trepidation. I wasn’t hungry at all. Whatever appetite I’d had had completely fled.

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