Putting the phone away, he looked at her and walked toward the door. “Sorry about that, I gotta get back to the mountain. Sabrina asked if you can make her a fun bag and Mama says she’ll call tomorrow. And just so you know, Stormy, when I have a feeling, people do well to pay attention.”
She didn’t respond. It wasn’t that she disregarded Lynx’s feelings, it was that her own took precedence. Right then, those feelings were warning her that Lucas, Lynx, their friends, could tear her life into pieces.
Chapter 4
Big Country stood on one side of Zeus, Cizan on the other.
The Brood mates looked down, faces emptied of emotion, arms crossed over their chests as they watched their young trainee glare at them from the laptop’s monitor. Her thin arms were crossed over her chest in imitation of their body language, save for the scowl of disgust curling her lips.
“Is this all you got?” Brianna challenged.
Zeus lowered his head like a wolf sizing up its pray.
The female bucked at them. “What?” she shouted, throwing up her hands.
Big Country reared back and made a show of holding his arms in surrender. “Damn girl, you just gave me chills.” He smiled, then stroked his jaw. “Okay, I’ll give ya ’bout a seven out of ten.”
Zeus and Cizan nodded in agreement.
“Why just seven? I didn’t back down!”
“You were the first to break silence, little one,” Cizan said, tone both gentle and severe. “Never be the first to break silence in a stare down.”
“He’s right, sweet pea,” Big Country added. “In a real battle of wills, posturing implies you got nothing but some last-ditch effort to goad your enemy into reacting. Any seasoned fighter will see it as weakness. Silence can be powerful,” Big Country said.
Cizan placed a finger over his lips. “Shhhhh.”
“Then boom!” Big Country struck out, pulling his fist back jackhammer fast. “You bring themotherfuckingthunder.”
Brianna laughed, jumping up and down. “Boom! I bring themotherfu–”
“Hey!”
Brianna’s hand flew to cover her mouth and Big Country flinched at the sound of Sabrina’s voice as if she’d physically knocked him upside the head.
Righting himself, he made a slashing motion across his neck and coughed, “Abort, abort.” Turning, he faced Sabrina who dominated the door that led down to the sublevel. Mama stepped from behind her and dread coalesced in his stomach. Cizan moved closer to the table and smoothly shut the laptop, hiding it inside the folds of his leather coat.
“So, here’s the thing, I…we…Zeus calledme—” he began, ignoring all his training in the name of self-preservation. Zeus’s mercurial eyes flicked toward him, silently condemning him as a rat-ass snitch and Big Country was totally okay with that. Matter of fact, he didn’t give a damn; Mama was mean when she was mad, and Sabrina was fast claiming a part of his heart that he didn’t want to see hurt with disappointment.
“If this is you-all’s idea of being responsible uncles, maybe I’ll take you over to my cousin Debra Ann’s to work with her bad assed kids. They would love your self-defense lessons.”
Zeus grunted.
Big Country nodded; he wasn’t going anywhere near those heathens.Andwhen they weren’t on assignment, these women weren’t the boss of them. Practicing what he preached, Big Country drew up to his full height, crossed his arms over his chest again and widened his stance. “Now look here, ladies—”
Sabrina cut him with a look so sharp he fought the impulse to touch his cheek to see if it was bleeding. Taking a step back, he nodded to Zeus. “This is all you, cousin.”
Sabrina, looking like an older version of Brianna, glared up at Zeus.
“Zeus.”
“Woman.”
Cizan eased toward the front door, away from the brewing conflict.
“Don’t even think about it,” Mama warned. Big Country grinned when the personification of death detoured and settled in the shadows against the wall, trying to hide from Mama’s gaze.
“We talked about the need to wait on teaching Brianna any more of your lessons.” Sabrina said.
