Page 114 of Beat of Love
“My Jeep is not ugly!” he replied, fake indignant.
She chuckled. “Whatever. So, what about Shrek?”
*
Trent grinned. “Sarge?”
Rafferty gave a light laugh. “It was way better than Toad Mobile. Although Rebel Rouser had a nice ring to it.”
Trent sat back and gave him that inscrutable look. “Do you consider yourself a rebel, Raff?”
“A rebel?” he repeated. “No. Yes. Maybe?” A huff. “More a trickster.”
“Ah. Your childhood nickname.”
“Trick and Treat. I ruffled the feathers, and Sully smoothed things out,” Rafferty said, tongue in cheek.
“And how did that make you feel?”
A short laugh burst from him, sharp and disbelieving. He gave Trent a look. “I’ve waited months to hear you say that shrink line.”
“Names are important, Rafferty. What else were you called?”
He exhaled, rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s run the gamut, Doc. ‘Oh, Raff’s the rascally one and Sully’s the serious one.’ That was Ma’s favorite line when people asked about us. Ranch hands called us ‘the wrecker and the fixer.’ Teachers liked ‘the instigator and the soother.’” He gave a tight, humorless laugh. “Even the damn media joined in with the fucking exposé last year. ‘The devil and the angel.’”
His knee bounced. The air felt too thin. And he realized … “It stuck. All of it.”
“Hmm. Bad versus good,” Trent murmured.
The words landed like a blow. Rafferty flinched. “You think I don’t know that?”
“All because you were born first.”
“By twelve minutes.”
“Twelve minutes that set the trajectory of your life.”
Rafferty frowned. “What do you mean?”
“If Sullivan had been born first, he would have been called Trick. Not you.”
Silence stretched between them.
“You’ve had other names too. A call name.”
A long pause. Rafferty’s hand drifted to his head, thumb brushing over his inked skin. “En Scairp.”
“Why scorpion?”
He swallowed. “It suited me. I could disappear. Lie in wait. Sting when needed.”
“Did you choose it?”
“Yeah.”
“And the tattoo?”
He shrugged, but the tension in his shoulders betrayed him. “Mark of the job. A warning. A promise.”
