Page 45 of Talon
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MadisonwatchedTalonwithnarrowed eyes.He’d come up behind her and given her a hug and kissed her neck when he’d come in, much like he’d done that morning, but something was off.She wasn’t sure what, but his grip seemed off.It sounded stupid, even to her, but she watched as he went to the table and sat.She didn’t miss the wince that he tried to hide.
What happened in the last hour?It couldn’t have been Billy.Everyone else was too calm for that.She wanted to know what was going on but from everyone’s lack of concern, she knew it wasn’t urgent so turned back to what she was doing.She’d get it out of him before they went to bed.
She carried one of two large bowls of mashed potatoes to the table, Colt setting the other on the other end, then glanced around, making sure they’d gotten everything before she moved to Talon’s side and took her seat.
It didn’t take long for the conversation and laughter to fill the room, though it seemed like most of the guys were asking either Talon or Malice to pass them something far more often than would be normal.No one said anything and the guys just passed whatever was requested.She couldn’t help but notice the tension in Malice’s expression as he twisted to pass the butter.It wasn’t until the second time Talon flinched while moving that she gave in to her need to know what was up.
“All right.What’s the joke I’m not in on?”She looked around the table, waiting for someone, anyone to tell her.
Several of the men looked away, Bonnie’s face turned pink.
“They’re doing everything they can to make them twist and move,” Heather said from across the table.She met Madison’s gaze and rolled her eyes as if she thought the whole thing was stupid.
“I caught on to that much.As well as the movement is painful, or at least uncomfortable.But why?”
“Because testosterone is often stronger than good sense,” Heather said it as if it were a known fact.
Madison frowned, only more confused than she’d started.
“Because they’re assholes who think they’re funny,” Malice all but growled as he shot a couple of the other men dirty looks.
Madison forced herself to take a deep breath, in slowly then out slowly.These answers without answering here was testing her patience but she was determined to keep her temper and find out what they were hiding from her.
“It’s nothing, Mads.”Talon leaned over and bumped her shoulder with his.“I needed to work off some frustration with the lack of progress.”
“Okay?”She drew out the last syllable of the word, making it clear she still didn’t understand.
“We were sparing.Malice has a bit of a reputation of being impossible to beat at hand to hand.Someone thought they were setting me up as they sent me to find him.But they’d never seen me fight either.”He shot a glance toward the far end of the table, but she wasn’t sure who he was looking at or who had thought getting the shit beat out of him was funny.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, needing to know but not wanting to ask.
“How badly hurt are you, really?”She had to know, so she had an idea of how long she needed to wait to kick his ass herself.
“I’m not.I’ve got some bruises and sore muscles, but I’m fine.”He shrugged and glanced across the table at Malice.“Are you hurt more than I am?”
“No,” Malice said with a shake of his head.“You’re not too bad.You got more blows in than most do, and you did a good job of blocking.We’ll have to do that more often.”He rolled his shoulders, then reached halfway across the table and stabbed a pork chop then set it on his plate, as if fighting with each other and talking of how hurt they were was an every day occurrence.
Maybe it was for them.
“So you fought, but neither of you is hurt, at least not badly, and there’s no hard feelings?”
Talon stared at her with wide eyes, as if it had never occurred to him to be angry or upset about the fighting.It probably hadn’t.
She’d heard men were very much slug it out and move on creatures, but she’d never seen it so blatantly exampled.Shaking her head, she went back to eating, making a mental note to question Talon more about this later.
“Why would we be angry?We weren’t mad when we started, why would we be now?”
“If you weren’t mad about something, then why were you fighting?”
“Why do you cry?”He blinked, seemed to realize that that didn’t come out the way he intended.“I mean why do women in general cry, not you specifically.”
She tilted her head as she watched him, not entirely sure where he was headed with this.She was sure he had something in mind, but nothing came to her at the moment.She almost never cried, so she wasn’t the best person to answer that question.
“To vent emotions,” Kerry said from her seat beside Lurch.“Did you know this was happening?”She waved her hand between Talon and Malice.
“Not before it started, but I stood and watched for a while.It was a good match.”
