Page 50 of Hell In A Handbasket
“And when you break me again?”Thump. “When you destroy what I’ve worked so hard to rebuild?”
“Hey, Casanova?”
Stunned, I wrench my head up and stop on Spencer just five feet away, his hand raised to shield his eyes from my crotch. “Hang up and cool down. I had to leave my wife back home, which means I havezeropatience for the pheromones you’re putting in the air.”
“Hey!” Troy snarls angrily. “Don’t talk about my sister!”
“Oh my gosh,” Sera cries. “You have an audience?”
“Just this one motherfucker.” I sit up and drag my feet closer, bending my knees to cover my hard cock. “We’ll continue this another time.”
“No, I don’t think we will.”Thump. “I think your visitor just saved me from a conversation I don’t want to have. Platonic, Detective Fletcher. It’s the right choice.”
“Says you.”
“I’m getting up and going out to Mia now.” She grunts, pushing up to stand and painting an all-new picture in my mind. “We’re done.”
“We might get home tonight,” I add quickly. “Maybe. Maybe not. But if not, I’ll call you. Late.”
“I’ll be listening,” Spence teases. “I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m lonely.”
“There’s something wrong with that man,” Sera grumbles. “He’s weird.”
“Keep your phone on. Be safe at the markets. Once I figure out what the hell Soph has planned for us, I’ll let you know.”
“Goodbye, Charlie.” She opens my bedroom door and steps into the hall. Fuck, I don’t even have to be there to know what she’s doing. “I’ll text you later with updates. Completely G-rated, friendly, child-focused updates.”
“Mmhm.” I wait and listen while she walks. As the sound of Bluey grows a little louder. And then nothing, because she kills the call and locks me out once more. Finally, I lower my phone and meet Spencer’s dark eyes. “You’re a dick.”
“And yours is no longer hard.” Amused, he turns away. “But you’ve inspired me to call my wife. I miss her.”
“Don’t you dare!” Corey tosses Jen aside and glowers. “You call my sister and talk sex, I’m gonna cut your fucking tongue out while you sleep.”
“Historically speaking,” Spence meanders back onto the dock, his hands on his hips and a massive gym-bro muscular back flexing with every step, “marriage is a transfer of ownership. She’s not yours anymore, Rosa. She’s mine. Suck my cock and stop crying about what you lost.” He jumps and hugs his legs, bombing the brothers without remorse, and when he surfaces again, he predicts their attack and slams his palm to Corey’s face and dunks him under. “Drown, bitch!”
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“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” Minka snaps impatiently. “Stop being a baby.”
“It hurts!” Jen wrinkles her face and scowls, kind of exactly how Mayor Lawrence looks every time hetriesto parent Minka, but she doesn’t allow it. “You’re not even being careful.”
“Be careful!” Corey growls.
Unfazed, Minka slides a needle through Jen’s skin and tugs a suture through to the other side.
“I’m not saying I’m gonna kill you, Doctor Mayet. But I’m saying I might have a case for temporary insanity. You keep hurting her like that, and I may not be able to control myself.”
“Ouch!” Jen slapsmyarm, digging her nails into my biceps as stinging pain reverberates up through the limb and into my shoulder.
And all the while, Kane hovers.
“You found an old rope tied to an even older tree,” Minka rumbles, “and instead of assessing the situation, you grabbed on and decided to see how things turned out.” She pinches the gash in Jen’s leg together and pokes another suture through. “You’re lucky I’m a medical examiner working on a live body, and not a dead one.”
“It looked safe!” She grits her teeth and digs those fucking claws tighter into my arm. “And how was I supposed to know there would be a broken beer bottle exactly where I landed? That’s unforeseen circumstances.”
“Mmhm. And you had the option to go to the hospital and have the wound treated there. You chose me.”
