“They are pirates.”
“Pirates?”
Connor nods and turns onto a one-way street toward the hospital, which is across the street from my hair salon.
“You’re going the wrong way,” I tell him.
“Oops.”
He knew. “Hope there’s no cops around.”
“I’m shaking in my boots.”
I clear my throat. “How was Donatella toward you and Declan?”
“Reserved.” He smiles. “She was kind to us, but reserved. She did her best to ensure that my brother and I were well educated. She taught us to fend for ourselves. We trained in the woods for days with nothing but a bottle of water.”
“Donatella sounds fierce.”
“She was. The way a queen should be.” He looks over at me.
I side-eye him. “What?”
“Nothing.” Before we emerge on the main street, Connor stops. He takes off his leather jacket and shrugs on a suit jacket, then fits a brown contact over his blue eye.
“Why do you pretend you’re Declan?” I ask.
He pulls out of the alley and back into the busy traffic of the main street. “Because Dec said Ivan put out a hit on him. I’d rather it be me.”
“That’s crazy. Does he know you’re doing this?”
“Not today. He wouldn’t want you involved in anything lethal.”
“We’re just going to the hair salon for five minutes.”
Connor slows down when he can’t find a parking space.
“If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll only be a few minutes.”
He shakes his head. “We don’t separate. Not even for a minute.”
“You won’t find a pa—” Connor stops for a pregnant woman in pink teddy bear scrubs who walks across the street. With a dazzling smile on her face, she points at a rental car parked a little way from the salon.
Connor smiles back at her. “Yes, Mama, yes.”
I roll my eyes. “Men.”
“Yeah, yeah, awful creatures.” He lifts his shades and looks at me with his brother’s eyes. “But you like the dick.”
Playfully, I punch him in the shoulder. “She’s pregnant.”
“My point exactly.”
“Don’t be nasty,” I tell him as the woman pulls out. Her car was small, leaving little space for our massive SUV.
Connor prepares to park anyway. “I don’t know how else to be but nasty.”
“It won’t fit,” I inform him.
