Unlike Viper the dog, who whined at Cat’s retreating back like a lost puppy until Nicky absentmindedly reached over to rub just behind her perked-up ears.
Boomer sat on Lucy’s desk. “So, how is it?”
Dropping into a seat, Nicky looked up with those deep purplish eyes. “Terrible. He's always on Cat's boobs when I wanna be on her boobs.”
Brodie coughed into his hand. “Uh. TMI, dude. That’s our sis you’re talkin’ about.”
Nicky carried on, unfazed. “I've never seen anything like his dirty diapers. And sleeping at night? Forget about that ever happening again.”
Brodie suddenly looked petrified.
I hid a smile behind the palm of my hand. Fucker was gullible.
Raising his eyes again, Nicky grinned so hard I thought his face would crack in half. “It’s fucking awesome. So amazing. I’ve never felt anything like this in my entire life.”
Brodie wilted in relief, his hand splayed on Nicky’s shoulder.
Then he peered at me from his mane of blond hair. “Think it’s time for a testosterone check after that shit. Ready to work out? Or you wanna hang around and change diapers or somethin’?”
“Man, you’re the one who’s been shedding tears and leaking estrogen.” I razzed him, earning his hand at the back of my head as we shoved out of the Chrome and Steele office.
“You try becoming an almost baby daddy.”
“Not in the cards for me, my friend.”
“Yeah.” He sprinted in front of me then turned around. “’S’what I used to think too.”
Out back of Retribution MC, the enclosed area resembled a jail yard—not that I’d know about that . . . much.
The pavement was packed with various forms of torture devices otherwise known as weight machines. The summer sun multiplied its heatwaves, and if Bo wasn’t busting my balls, Brodie had no problem taking point as drill sergeant.
I’d already packed on thirty pounds of sheer rock hard muscle, and topped Brodie on the scales. While he was lean and scrappy—dirty-mouthed and lippy—I was turning into a knock ’em out bruiser.
Tying back my hair, whipping off my shirt, I threw down at the bench press, Brodie goading me by setting an extra ten pounds on the bar to test my limits.
Or kill me dead.
I hadn’t decided yet.
Best buddy?
Maybe.
Evil shit.
Definitely.
He spotted me.
I pumped the iron.
Brodie killed time with his nonstop smack-talk. “Hey, Maxi Pad, now that your name’s not a secret anymore—”
I glared up at him with sweat dripping down the sides of my face.
He grinned. “Challenge you to a bench-press-off?”
“It’s Max, which you’ve known since I started working here, boss. I prefer Handsome.” Gritting my teeth, I lifted the deadly heavy bar above my head again. “Besides, I’m the only one doing any work out here. And if you wanna give me a nickname”—my biceps bulged, my chest strained—“how about To The Max?”
He choked on laughter, and I heaved the weight onto the stand with a last grunt. Stepping away from the bench press, I swabbed my discarded T-shirt across my pumping chest.
“I thought it was Good to the Last Drop just like Maxwell House.” His wicked smile grew. “That what happened with that Shiloh babe the other week?”
My eyebrow arched into the atmosphere. “Shy? Sucking my cock? I don’t think so.”
“She was into you, man.”
“Like a sister.”
“Ya know”—Brodie followed me when I hit the fucking sandbags—“I heard from Nick incest is making a comeback.”
It was my turn to choke.
“In the romance world anyway.” Standing next to me, loudmouth dug into the sandbags, hefting them two at a time at the same rate as me as we dodged across the wicked obstacle course devised by Bo. “Stepbrother books, all the rage,” he huffed out.
“You’re fuckin’ with me.” I slammed both sandbags from my burning shoulders to the ground and picked up two more to start back on the same zigzag pattern across eight yards of overturned tires, tricky crisscrossed wires meant to trip us up, and the final jump across a murky, dugout ravine.
“Nah. But I think that Shiloh of yours wants to be.” Brodie catapulted his sandbags across the lot until they hit the fence.
“Whatever with the books.” Shudder. “But it’s not like that with Shy and me. Known her since forever. She’s friends with my sister.”
My estranged sister.
“Shiloh’s fucking hot.” Coletrane came out to shred some weights, catching the tail end of our conversation.
“And that’s somethin’ I never wanna hear come out of your mouth again.” I turned my snarl on him.
“Riiiight.” Brodie chuckled, wiping a towel down his face. “All about the brotherly love, Handsome?”
“I’ve had enough of you jackasses.” I’d already spent way too much time since Shy stepped back into my life thinking about the consequences of all the shit I’d pulled in the past.
No matter what, I wasn’t about to let any blowback from those bad old days touch her. “I’m done here.”
“Why? ’Cause you’re already Maxed Out.”