“I had planned on introducing you the night of the fire,” Michael said, his face twisted in a smile I hadn’t seen in years.
“Yeah, nice of him to choose you to visit first. Now I know where I rank on his list.”
“Well, your house wasn’t on fire.”
“Oh, so now I have to get myself into trouble in order to rank anywhere special on this imaginary list of yours?”
“Jesus, you two bicker like old ladies. It’s no wonder Michael stayed away.” The woman walked over to the side of my bed and smiled down at me. “I’m Blake. I met him while I was investigating a case and…well, I threw him out a window.”
Slowly, I tugged down the mask again. “You threw him out a window,” I repeated.
“He deserved it. He was trying to kill me.”
“Not kill you,” Michael corrected. “I just wanted your information.”
“And he tried to kill me,” Blake grinned. “So, I?—”
“Threw him out a window,” I concluded. “And did he get your information?”
“Sort of, but not because I handed it over to him. Long story short, I had to get the big baby help because he had glass sticking out of his stomach, and that led me to the men he was working for. From there, we went on to save the world after both of us were tortured by evil men in the government.”
With that, she plopped down on Michael’s lap and grinned.
My eyes flicked to Jeff’s just to see if he was having the same reaction as me. Yep, he was eyeing her suspiciously, but also a little in awe of the woman who handed my brother his ass.
“Well…I guess I should thank you for getting him help after you tried to kill him,” I said slowly.
“Oh, he got his revenge. He shot me.”
I thought about it a moment, but what was there to say? “You know, I don’t know where to go with this. Welcome to the family?”
“Thanks,” she beamed. “I hope I can help you someday.”
“Where were you when I had a psychopath trying to kill me?”
“Hey, I arrived in time to pull your ass out of the fire,” Michael snarled.
“Again,” Jeff remarked, “because you chose to visit him before me.”
“Andthankfully, dragged his ass out of a burning building,” Michael stressed.
“I’m just saying, you wouldn’t have had all that drama if you had seen me first.”
“Yes, and your brother would be dead,” Blake said matter-of-factly.
“But you would have seen the more charming brother first. All this one knows how to do is fuck everything up. Take Bailey, for instance?—”
“Yeah, the girl you’ve loved since the first grade.”
“Third,” I sighed, wishing someone would get it right.
“Why isn’t she here now?”
“Because this dumb shit slept with another woman.”
Michael’s eyes darkened as he stared at me. “You did what?”
“Can we talk about this later? I’m supposed to be resting.”
