“Hey,” Becca said, bending down to pet the monster-sized puppy. “You guys are just in time. We’re getting ready to eat. Wanna join?”
Jeremy ran his inked hand over his short dark-brown hair, which was still growing out following brain surgery just over a month ago. None of them had emerged unscathed from the investigation into the corruption that had killed her father and blackened his team’s reputations. Charlie had been abducted and maimed, two of his fingers cut off to try to make him talk. And Jeremy had been pistol-whipped by a fleeing bad guy who’d attacked them at a funeral. But both of them were doing so much better now. “We already had some,” Jeremy said with a grin. “You know I wouldn’t miss Nick’s Sloppy Joes.”
“Pretty much everyone else ate already,” Nick said, pressing a kiss against Becca’s hair. “Everyone” meaning the other four members of Nick’s team and their respective girlfriends, all of whom were crashing in temporary digs here until a huge-scale rebuilding and renovation project was done, which would create six loft-style apartments in the other half of the L-shaped Hard Ink building.
Peering out from between long strands of blond hair, Charlie nodded. “We’re gonna catch a movie.”
After weeks of being on lockdown here, the idea of just going out to do something as casual and normal as seeing a movie still felt strange to Becca. “Oh, well, that sounds like fun.”
“How was work today?” Charlie asked in that quiet way he had.
She came around the counter to him. Sometimes she was completely overwhelmed by her relief that they’d managed to rescue him from the Church Gang. And by her love for him, her only remaining family member. “It was good. Business as usual.” Playfully, she pushed his hair back off his face. “I like it long, you know.”
“Yeah?” he asked, his gaze a little shy. Even around her. “Me too.”
“Me too,” Jeremy said in a loaded tone, waggling his eyebrows as he planted a kiss on Charlie’s cheek.
Becca laughed and held up her hands as Charlie’s cheeks pinked, which was when she noticed the guys’ T-shirts. Jeremy’s was white with a headless stick figure. It read, I need head. Charlie’s was blue and read, I’m Getting Real Tired of Wearing Pants and Having Responsibilities. Jeremy’s innuendo-filled T-shirt collection was legendary around here, and Charlie had been borrowing Jer’s clothes ever since he’d been rescued, although he usually picked the least dirty shirts Jeremy had. It was just another thing Becca loved about Jeremy, and about the way he loved and took care of her brother.
“Speaking of responsibilities, how did things go with the construction today?” she asked as Nick passed her two plates. She placed them on the breakfast bar, then grabbed some silverware and napkins.
Jeremy flicked his tongue against the piercing on his bottom lip and braced his hands on the counter. “Inspectors were out this morning and signed off on everything that’s been done so far. Contractor’s hoping to have the exterior shell totally done before winter. Fingers crossed.”
“Considering a few weeks ago there was just a big hole out there, that sounds pretty good,” Becca said.
“Yeah,” Jeremy said, something dark momentarily passing through his gaze. And Becca didn’t have to guess at what it was. There’d been a big hole because the arm of the building that had previously stood in that spot had been destroyed by a military-grade explosive device launched at the building in a predawn attack by the enemies of Nick’s team. An attack that had resulted in the deaths of two of Jeremy’s friends, members of the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club, which had been helping protect them. On some level, Becca knew Jeremy blamed himself for that. “Well, we better go.”
Charlie nodded and made for the door, where he paused for a moment. “Hey, Becca?”
“Yeah?”
For a moment it seemed like he struggled for words. “Have a good night,” he finally said, and then he ducked out, Jeremy right behind him.
“Thanks,” she said, then turned to Nick. “Was that weird, or is it just me?”
Nick shrugged as he pulled buns out of a bag. “I think he was worried about you being at work today.”
“Oh.” The thought made her heart squeeze.
Soon, she and Nick were seated at the bar together with overflowing Sloppy Joe sandwiches, some of the pasta salad she’d made over the weekend, and chips. Eileen curled up on the floor next to Becca’s tall chair.
“This is the best dinner ever,” she said.
“That’s because you’re easy to please,” he said with a smile that brought his dimple out to play. A man with so many rough edges . . . and a dimple. It slayed her every time.
“So how was your day?” she asked.
“Uh, good. Made a lot of progress on the new office,” he said. They were turning the previously empty first-floor spot next to their tattoo shop into a high-tech suite of offices for the new security consulting company Nick and his team were opening. “Kinda funny that Jeremy bought this old warehouse because it was cheap, and now it’s turned out to be the perfect space for all of us.”
Becca smiled. “Yeah. I’m glad everyone is still going to be around here when all the work is done.” It had seemed so empty around the building when, earlier in the summer, most of the team had cleared out to return to their homes and pack up their lives to relocate here permanently.
“Me too, Sunshine. This all feels right.” Nick wiped up some sauce from his plate with the edge of his bun.
“Where is everyone anyway?” Becca asked. “It’s so quiet.” With six couples living out of two loft apartments, only one of which had a finished kitchen, it often felt a little like a college dorm around there.
“Shane, Sara, Easy, and Jenna went out to dinner earlier. And I think Beckett, Kat, Marz, and Emilie decided to finish up some painting downstairs.”
Becca leaned in for a kiss. “It’s weird to be alone.”
Nick laughed. “Roger that.”
“We could have sex on the counter,” Becca said, giving him a seductive look.
He froze with a potato chip halfway to his mouth. “Is this something you’ve been thinking about?”
“Pretty much if it involves you and sex, you can bet I’ve thought about it,” Becca said, grinning at the expression on his face, part dumbfounded, part aroused. “What can I say? You’re very inspiring.”
He wiped his mouth and slipped off his stool, then he spun her around to face him, his big body surrounding hers. He tilted up her chin. “Right back atcha, Becca. But nothing is sidetracking me from getting my ink on you tonight. You hear me?”
She rested her hands against his chest. “No sidetracking intended.”