“Hold up,” he ordered.
Mack turned, holding on to his patience by a thread. “What now?”
“Cass, would you mind giving me a minute with my brother?”
She shot him a narrow-eyed look but nodded and went to the car. She started it, warming it up, and waited.
“What do you want?” Mack asked, grumpy and tired of reliving the same visit over and over. It was all about being a police officer. About serving in the Army. About being one ofthem.
“You need to back off,” Xavier said in a low voice and glanced at the car. “She’s a great cop. Don’t fuck her over.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Did Xavier know something about Cass Mack didn’t?
“She’s not one of your casual girlfriends. Cass is solid.”
“I’m sorry. How is this your business? And what’s wrong with my old girlfriends?”
“Look, your love life is your own. I’m just saying she’s a good cop. You fuck her around and it’ll hurt her, and that’ll reflect on the job.”
“In the department, you mean.” Mack nodded, thoroughly annoyed and doing his best to ignore the way his brother always got under his skin. “You know what?”
“What?”
“You’re right.”
Xavier smiled. “Good.”
“It’s none of your fucking business. She’s a good friend of mine.”I think I love her.“If you were a good brother, you’d be worried she might end up hurting me. But no, you don’t care. Because I’m not one of you assholes.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Exactly. Thanks for nothing.” Mack turned and left before he actually did punch his brother in the throat.
He got into the car, careful not to slam the door, and buckled in.
“What was that about?” Cass asked, the low hum of music filling the car.
“Nothing. Just my brother being an asshole as usual.”
She didn’t say anything. He felt her gaze on him on the ride back to her place but didn’t speak, not sure he could tell her what bothered him without blaming her for part of it too.
She could have told everyone to stop talking about the job. Could have included him on bits of it, but like the others, she’d bonded and smiled and laughed while he, once again, had been scuttled to the side.
He didn’t think his family even realized they did it anymore. It was so natural to be that big band of brothers…minus the youngest. The spouses and significant others simply ignored what they didn’t understand and seemed to have no problem amusing themselves. But Mack thought they shouldn’t have to accept being shut out.Hesure as hell shouldn’t, especially not from his own family.
They parked and entered her house, and he sought out the kittens, not in the mood to talk. “I might just go home. I’m tired.” He stroked Impala, warmed when the little guy rubbed his cheeks on Mack’s face.
“Okay, what’s going on? Why are you so quiet? I thought tonight went okay until Xavier annoyed you.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He kept playing with the kittens, trying not to care, to not feel the hurt she wouldn’t understand.
“I do want to talk about it,” she said. “I’m not into passive-aggressive bullshit. If you have a problem with me, say it. I thought we had honesty between us.”
He stood, slowly, keeping a lid on his temper. Mack rarely got mad. But when he did, he had a tendency to rage. Hard. “You really want to know?”
“I asked, didn’t I?” She planted her hands on her hips.
“I’m sick and tired of constantly being shuffled to the side in any and all conversations with my family. We get like two seconds to talk about anything besides cop drama, and then it’s all about James’s last murder case or Alec’s standoff with an armed suspect. No one gives a shit about what I do at all, and it bothers me. There. I’m a petty bastard who would just once like his family to notice that what he does is important too. Happy now?”
