I didn’t have a single thing against anyone on the planet, but it was fun to piss Jury off, and I scrambled away as he chased me around the living room. It was great until I stubbed my toe on the couch and hopped around hissing while he pointed and laughed.
“Fucker!” I snarled, and he cackled so hard he wasn’t even making sounds anymore, just grasping his sides and shaking.
“Boys! If you wake your papa up, you’ll be in trouble,” Dad said as he walked past the living room doorway, probably on his way to the kitchen for a bottle of water. He didn’t stop or bother to so much as glance into the room.
Jury rolled his eyes, and as the pain receded, I laughed, and we went up the stairs to our rooms together.
I’d finished brushing my teeth and was getting ready to crawl into bed when my phone vibrated, and excitement zinged in my stomach as I picked it up.
Rookie:I hate to ask you this, but is there any way you could give me a ride home? My car won’t start, and Brandt and I have been drinking anyway. I didn’t plan to do this tonight.
The text went on in a longer ramble about how he was normally completely responsible and how he didn’t want me to think less of him, and as the texts kept rolling in, I started to laugh. He was seven messages deep when I texted back.
Judge:Where are you?
It took about four more texts for me to get an answer, during which time I’d been able to tug on socks and jeans and a T-shirt. I grabbed my wallet and stuffed it in my pocket along with my keys, put on my shoes, and I was almost to the top of the stairs when Jury’s bedroom door opened, and he frowned out into the hallway.
“Where are you going?”
“Shit, how did you know I was leaving?” I grabbed at my chest.
He snickered, giving me a shrug. Yeah, sometimes wejust knew.
“I gotta go pick up Flynn. He’s at a bar downtown somewhere. I’ve never been there. The Zin? Sounds like a place Papa would hang out.”
“Is it a wine bar? You need help?” He scrunched up his face, and even though he’d offered it was clear he wanted to go curl up in bed.
“Nah, I don’t share.” I winked at him.
“Ha ha.” He flipped me off and closed his door, and I chuckled on my way out to the car. It was late enough that traffic wasn’t a problem, but I had trouble finding the damned bar downtown. It took me driving by the place twice to pick it out in the cluster of old buildings. The Zin wasn’t on Bar Row, but was a block west of the main drag, and when I stopped in the street because there were no parking spots, it appeared to be a busy basement bar below a high-rise that hosted a doggy daycare on the top floors. It was a weird combination of businesses and I had to laugh.
Flynn and his sidekick from the night I’d met him at Black Out stood on the sidewalk, and they were having one of those conversations people only got into after they’d had a few too many. They were staring intensely and doing a lot of hand waving for emphasis. I lowered my window.
“Hey, do you two know where I can find someone who wants to go home with me? I give good head.”
Flynn startled and the breath was knocked out of me as he grinned and dragged his friend toward my Lexus. He always looked good in his suits, and with his muscles and handsome face, a couple of women on the sidewalk turned to stare appreciatively after him. The pride that he was mine made me feel like I was king of the world, and I loved that other people saw how flawless he looked.
“Hey! How did you get here so fast?” he asked as he opened the door and plopped into the passenger seat. His buddy climbed in back behind him and gave me a super-shitty scowl I snorted over.
“Okay, so your friend hates me,” I said and pulled forward when someone came to a stop behind me, flashing their lights. The doors had barely closed, but both of them buckled their seat belts.
“I’m Brandt,” the man in my back seat grumbled. “And I don’t hate you. You’re hot, how could I? It’s just clear you’re a rebound fuck, who will get Flynn into a ton of trouble. Break his heart. Ruin his life. Make him wish he was dead. You’re going to tear his heart out and eat it!”
“That was gruesome and to the point,” I said. My lips wanted to twitch into a smile, but I held out and nodded seriously.
Flynn turned as much as he could in his seat. “Brandt! Shut up.”
“No, I won’t shut up. If you hurt him, I’ll—”
“Brandt, was it?” I asked. “Where am I taking you?”
“Oh, we’re headed east,” Flynn said and gave me quick directions that weren’t too difficult to follow. I drove and tried to keep in mind they’d been drinking. Brandt sulked in my back seat and didn’t seem inclined to say anything else, while Flynn stared at his clasped hands, looking guilty and miserable.
“Brandt, right?” I tried again to be friendly.
In the rearview mirror I caught him nodding stiffly.
“I promise that I’m not messing around here. I like Flynn. I’m taking this seriously.”
