Page 105 of Blood and Fire
Zia snorted. “Girls these days! What are you gonna make babies out of if you don’t eat? What are they s’posed to be built out of, air?”
Lily choked on her coffee.
“Zia, you start in on her, and I’m wrapping duct tape around your head,” he warned her, but the damage was done.
“You shut up, boy. I wasn’t talkin’ to you.” Zia barreled back to the stove to dish up for Lily, a woman on a mission.
“Sorry about that,” he muttered. “Should have warned you. She’s got this thing about grandkids. Huge pain in the ass.”
Lily started to reply, but Zia Rosa came marching back, bearing a platter of food that made their eyes widen in awe. A huge omelet was splayed over the plate, stuffed with cheese, vegetables and sliced ham. A mountainous heap of fried potatoes teetered over it. Three pieces of toast. She laid it down, crossed her arms over her bosom, dark eyes narrowed. Daring them to defy her. “Mangia,” she said, her voice steely.
Lily looked intimidated. “You’ll help, right?” she asked him.
“Sure.” Looking at her at that close, intimate range, smelling her shampoo, it made his body stir. Gave a man an appetite.
There was a commotion outside the kitchen, and voices outside, one of which made his heart jump.Kev.Bruno’s chair shot back. He leaped up as his adopted brother strode into the room.
Kev’s dull green canvas raincoat billowed around his knees. His dirt blond hair had grown out past his shoulders, loose and tousled. He looked grim, and as tired as a guy ought to look after flying from New Zealand, but even so, he looked better than Bruno had ever seen him.
Months of traveling the world with Edie, his bride-to-be, had agreed with him. He’d filled out, had color. He looked a lot more like Sean, now, his biological identical twin, than he ever had before. Except for the scars that seamed half of his face, from cheekbone to jaw.
Edie was making the rounds of hugs, but Kev cut through the crowd. He made his way to Bruno, grabbed the front of his sweatshirt, and jerked Bruno up until their faces were inches apart. “What the fuck is going on?” His voice suddenly silenced all other conversation.
“Uh…long story,” Bruno said.
Thud.Kev shoved him against the wall, which made the various bruises on Bruno’s ribs hurt like hell. “I hear you met some femme fatale and started slaughtering people for her? Dead bodies on the streets? Posses of commandos coming to blow your ass up? Over some chick you just met?” The words hissed out like water from a fire hose.
Bruno was taken aback. “Ah…ah, not exactly.”
“Let go of him!” Lily chapped at his adopted brother’s huge, unyielding fist, which pressed painfully against Bruno’s Adam’s apple.
Kev’s fierce stare swung to Lily, taking in her furious face and fiery eyes. “This is the femme fatale?”
“Femme fatale, my ass!” she snapped. “Put him down, you jerk!”
Kev let go. Bruno ducked out of arm’s reach, rubbing his larynx.
But Kev didn’t attack again. “And then you don’t call,” he said, more quietly. “What in the fuck is that about? Why didn’t you call?”
Bruno glanced around. Everyone listening for his excuse.
“Uh. Didn’t want to worry you,” he mumbled.
A harsh sound came out of Kev. “And when you got my text? Did you figure I’d just let it go, stop being worried? Aw, shucks, he didn’t answer me, so I guess everything must be fine. Let’s just go back to the beach. Is that what you thought?”
Bruno swallowed. “I wasn’t really thinking,” he admitted, shamefaced. “I was, ah…I was—”
“Too busy getting jerked around by your dick?” Kev suggested.
Lily shot up few inches taller. “You asshole!” she snarled.
“Kev!” A shocked female voice from behind made Kev jerk, and glance over his shoulder. His lady, Edie, was staring at him, appalled.
Kev looked sheepish. Edie, a willowy brunette with shadowy gray eyes and long dark hair, gaped at Kev as if she didn’t recognize him. Everyone in the room stared. As if Kev had sprouted an extra head.
Kev flung his hands out, and glared back. “What? Can’t I get upset? Everybody else around here freaks out. Why not me?”
Bruno rubbed his aching neck. “He’s not usually like this,” he explained to Lily, under his breath. “He’s usually, you know, Mr. Zen. Super calm. I’m the hyper one.”