Page 3 of Pride
His scowl deepened.
“Parks and Recreation,” Sloan mocked. “You missed my wedding, bras. Not cool. Not cool at all.”
Damned stupid nicknames. “I gave you a gift.”
“Which was appreciated, but you still missed it. Look, I get it, you’re embarrassed to be seen in public, what with your missing arm and all that, but none of us care. The least you can do is let us in.”
“That’s why you think I’m in here?” His snarl was uncontainable. He should shut the door in their face for even thinking it. Parker Lazarus did not hide away. He was fucking busy trying to find their missing sister, and since he couldn’t trust anyone to do the job perfectly, he had to do it all.
Like fucking usual.
“Don’t make us break the door down,” Liza warned.
She’d do it, too, and the last thing he wanted was more contractors up here.
His gaze darted between their determined faces. At least their mother wasn’t with them. He didn’t think he could deal with three Lazarus women at once. Not tonight. He shut the door, but Liza’s boot jammed in the way.
A low rumble of warning rattled in his throat. The shrewd gazes of two super-powered women landed on his face through the gap. They didn’t miss a thing. His eyes would be luminescent, and that rumble, it had been different. A glimpse of The Beast. He weighed his options. If he let them in and showed them the new AIMI, then at least they’d stop pestering him until she was complete. They might even be distracted enough they’d forget the glimpse of his other self.
“Fine.” He unbolted and opened the door, then returned to the table and busied himself with sorting computer parts into groups.
“Jesus, Parker,” Liza swore. “I’m going to let the cleaner in tomorrow.”
He sat back and went to fold his arms, but remembered... so ground his teeth and watched Sloan pick her way around his spacious living room, moving around the white leather couches to the baby grand piano covered in boxes and wires. She paused.
His family had been asking him for years to play for them, but he only played for himself. He refused unless he’d perfected the piece. Somehow, he never had the time to practice enough for perfect. Now that he had one arm, suddenly all he wanted to do was play.
Sloan plucked some wires from a box on the piano. “I like what you’ve done with the place. What’s it called, robot chic?”
Once styled like something out of Vogue Living, his penthouse was now filled with mechanical parts and computer pieces. But he resented their comments. The place was clean, even if it was a little untidy.
Liza snorted. “See? You need a cleaner.”
“No, I do not.” He swallowed. “No one is coming in here. Not that I need to explain myself, but I have cleaned it myself.”
“With one arm?”
He shrugged. “Master Yoshi used to make us complete one-handed tasks for hours on end.”
“And they usually took twice as long,” she reminded him. “Your skills are better used for fixing AIMI so we can find Daisy. Stay and supervise the cleaner if you’re worried about a security leak. Or one of us can.” Liza dropped the metal arm onto the table, shuddering the parts and wires. “She’s been in the family employ for almost a decade. I think she’s pretty trustworthy.”
He gritted his teeth and met her hard stare. She didn’t back down.
“I don’t want anyone looking at the proprietary information here.”
“It’s in pieces. What are they going to see?”
It won’t be in pieces for long. “I said, I clean it myself.”
Liza showed her palms. “Fine. Just, don’t say I didn’t warn you when the next female you invite here runs away screaming.”
Silence stretched. They all knew there would be no women up here. Not for a long while. Maybe never. While his sisters had no idea he’d met his mate and triggered the mating bond, they had an inkling something was off. He could sense their questions, so spoke first.
“What is this?” He sneered at the metal arm. He didn’t need a handout and certainly didn’t need a two-bit piece of machinery probably made in the eighties.
He lifted it limply and dropped it in disgust. Gold plated.Gaudy.
“It’s been sitting in evidence since Wyatt sorted out Misha’s old mafia boss.”
