“He did. I just didn’t believe him. I mean, come on. I’d do your wife in a heartbeat—Hernandez or not.”
Tiernan’s humor disappears at his brother’s lewd remark right at the same time I slap Shay across the head. It’s better that I put my cousin in his place before his brother decides to.
“Fucker! What did I do now?” Shay asks, aggravated, rubbing the back of his head while simultaneously staring daggers at me over his shoulder.
“It’s not what you did but what you said,” Tiernan intervenes on my behalf. “My wife isn’t like the women you take to your bed. You can’t say whatever pops into that head of yours whenever you feel like it.”
“Hello?! It’s just us here. No one is around. I know how to behave in mixed company.”
“Since when?” I add with a scoff.
“Fuck you, Col. I can behave. I just choose not to,” Shay sulks, crossing his arms over his chest in his tantrum.
“Hmph,” I mumble, unconvinced.
“So, if you haven’t been banging your wife twenty-four-seven like a normal red-blooded man would on his honeymoon, just exactly what have you been up to this past week?”
“What do you think? I’ve been working.” Tiernan points to his computer screen to drive the point home.
“Sometimes I wonder if Máthair didn’t drop you on your head when you were a baby,” Shay reprimands, shaking his head in disappointment.
“Funny. I sometimes wonder the same thing about you.” Tiernan grins.
“Hardy har har.” Shay rolls his eyes, gaining a low chuckle from his older brother. “So where is your Spanish flower anyway? Since she’s not sore in bed, sleeping off the good fuck you were too much of a pussy to give her, what has your new wife been up to?”
“Why do you care?” Tiernan asks indifferently as he examines whatever spreadsheet is in front of him. “What Rosa does or doesn’t do with her time shouldn’t be any concern of yours.”
I know from experience that when my cousin uses that dry apathetic tone of his, he’s anything but.
And so does Shay.
“Do I hear a smidge of defensiveness in your tone, dheartháir?” Shay counters, not hiding his teasing grin from Tiernan.
Tiernan redirects his cold gaze from his laptop towards his brother.
“I suggest you see a specialist since you’re obviously hearing things. If you must know, I left Rosa back at the hotel. Does that satisfy your curiosity, dheartháir?” he adds the last part mockingly.
“Why is she still at the hotel? I would have thought you’d have moved her into your apartment at The Avalon by now,” Shay retorts in confusion. “Did you leave her there to pack or something? I don’t remember her bringing a lot of shit with her when we picked her up at the airport.”
“Why would she be packing?” Tiernan asks, muting out most of his brother’s ramblings.
“Huh, I don’t know, asshole. Maybe because she knows she can’t stay at the hotel forever. It has been a week, after all. I would have understood you keeping her there if you were having hot dirty hotel sex, but since it’s obvious you’ve become a fucking eunuch all of a sudden, I don’t see the point of keeping Rosa locked away in a hotel room.”
Tiernan doesn’t so much as flinch at his brother’s provocation. Not that it’s the first time Tiernan hasn’t reacted when his brother provoked him. Shay is the only man breathing that can talk trash to the boss like that. If anyone else dared to do so, Tiernan would have cut out their tongue before they even uttered a word.
“The Liberty Hotel has all the amenities a woman like Rosa needs. She’s fine exactly where she is.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You cannot leave her caged in that hotel forever, Tiernan. Sooner or later, you’ll have to take your wife home.”
“Then I choose later. Now… is there any more sound advice you wish to give me, brother, or can I get back to work?”
The heavy stilted silence between them as they stare each other down is so thick, you’d need a chainsaw to cut through it.
“It wasn’t her fault, Tiernan. You have got to get over it. You can’t punish her for something that wasn’t in her control. She had nothing to do with Patrick—”
“Enough!” Tiernan shouts, slamming his fist on the desk, silencing his brother once and for all. “I’ve got shit to do, Shay. Actual fucking work that needs my full attention. My wife does not. Since I’m sure you have more pressing things to do than waste your time trying to piss me off, I suggest you get right to it and do them before I lose my patience.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Shay replies sarcastically as he gets up from his seat. “I have to go to the harbor to check on the shipment that arrived last night and do inventory anyway. When you’re in a better mood, give me a fucking call. If I’m up to it, who knows? I might even answer it.”
When Shay starts to retreat from the office, I’m right at his heel.
“Not you, Colin. My brother can take care of the shipment himself. Alone.”
“Fucker,” Shay mumbles under his breath, since taking inventory of a gun shipment that size is usually a two-man job.
I half expect him to give Tiernan more shit, but Shay surprises me when he doesn’t object and leaves the office without saying another word. I close the door behind him and stand in the center of the room, waiting for Tiernan to give me my orders.
“Have a seat, Col.”
I do as I’m told and take the seat in front of his desk that Shay just vacated.
“I have a job for you,” Tiernan says, not beating around the bush.
“What is it, boss?”
He clasps his hands under his chin and stares at me.
“What I have in mind might not be to your liking. You can refuse to do it if you so wish. I don’t want you to feel obligated to say yes just because I asked.”
“What do you need, boss?” I repeat, unfazed.
“It’s about Rosa.”
His somber tone, more than his wife’s name, takes me a bit off guard.
“I need someone that can watch over her. Just until I can find someone else to do the job. Someone I can trust.”
“You want me to babysit your wife?”