“What?” Marco asked.
“I’m putting pieces together here. Give me a second.” Dom pointed at me. “Tall. Blonde. Foreign accent. Intense stare. Shows up out of nowhere a couple weeks ago.”
“Okay...”
“Sloane mentioned him, after that book club thing. Said some huge blonde Australian guy crashed the meeting, remember?” Dom’s eyes widened. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
I said nothing, my jaw was clenched too tight for words.
“Holy shit,” Vinnie said, sitting up straighter. “You’re the Australian?”
“The one who allegedly growled at some guy for talking to her?” Marco added.
Still nothing.
“The one who showed up with an annotated copy of her book?” Vinnie was grinning now. “With color-coded sticky notes?”
“And now you’re here,” Dom said, voice flat, “getting her name tattooed on your thigh. Our Riley. The one who lives directly above us.” He gestured at the ceiling. “ThatRiley.”
The silence stretched.
“Is it that obvious?” I finally asked.
All three of them burst out laughing.
“Brother,” Marco wheezed, “you walked into her building, asked for a tattoo of a woman’s name, and didn’t think we’d figure it out?”
“I was hoping for discretion.”
“You’re getting RILEY tattooed on your thigh. In the building where RILEY lives. From RILEY’s friends.” Dom was grinning now. “Discretion was never on the table.”
“In your defense,” Vinnie said, still chuckling, “you probably didn’t know we knew her when you walked in.”
“I knew.” I admitted.
They all stared at me.
“You knew we know her,” Marco said slowly, “and you still came here to get her name on your body. Forever.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you protect her.” The words came out before I could stop them. “You watch out for her.” I met Dom’s eyes. “I wanted to meet the men who do that. I wanted to know if they were trustworthy.”
Another silence, this one different.
“You were testing us,” Dom said. “Even thoughweshould be the ones testingyou.”
Marco leaned back in his chair. “So what’s the verdict? We pass your evaluation?”
“Yes.”
“And if we hadn’t?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. Whatever showed in my expression was enough, because all three men went very still.
“Right,” Vinnie said quietly. “Good thing we passed, then. You pass our vibe check as well. If you do anything to her, we now know your face. Wewillkick the shit out of you, dude.”
