Chapter 11

“ I ’ll get it.” Kierce, who had tucked himself in a corner when the fight broke out, as he was still not a fan of pillows, volunteered to answer the door. Probably to show off the results of his recent lessons in how to human . First things first, he called out, “Who is it?”

“Carter.”

He glanced back to check with me, and I nodded encouragement. He progressed to the next step, which required him to peek out the hole in the door to verify the person’s identity. He lingered there then gave me another quick look before twisting the lock and opening the door.

“Well, that took thirty years.” She crossed the threshold then froze. “Another day, another pillow fight.”

With a sigh, she marched to the counter and executed a precise chop to the bend of Josie’s legs with the side of her hand. Josie’s knees buckled, and Carter caught her mid-fall, swinging her up into her arms. An impressive feat when Josie was a good foot taller than Carter.

Meanwhile, I used the distraction to replace the knife and pretend I hadn’t been arming myself.

“My hero,” Josie cooed at her, kicking her feet and linking her arms behind Carter’s neck.

“Not hardly.” She opened her arms and let Josie tumble onto the floor. “Quit being a brat and stay off the counter.”

Both the tone and the warning rolled off her tongue with such ease, I could tell this wasn’t Josie’s first offense. I wished I could pretend I had no clue how or why that might be, but I had witnessed Josie dancing on one too many bar tops while shaking her booty at hot guys, and girls, for that to be true.

She also had a particular dance for Matty and me that was part Macarena and part please God make it stop she pulled out for special occasions. Had Carter not arrived when she did, I had a sneaking suspicion Josie had been about to launch into her routine.

“I ordered steaks and potatoes from your buddy’s restaurant down the street,” Carter told me, ignoring Josie’s grunts of pain. “We need to talk, and you need to eat.”

The mention of food was enough to perk up my stomach and produce a growl worthy of a rabid dog when I realized she meant Bash was doing the cooking.

“Food sounds amazing.” I went to help Josie to her feet. “Can you rustle up salads for us too?”

Grumbling her answer, she started to leave but stopped with a hand on the doorknob. “I forgot.” Her fingers went limp, and a surprised kind of laugh parted her lips. “I don’t live here anymore.”

Her quiet words grabbed my heart in both hands and squeezed like it was a stress toy.

“This is still your home.” Matty jogged over, slinging his arm around her neck and dragging her into a headlock. “Come on.” He hauled her onto the landing. “Let’s go pick some fresh veggies. Kierce hasn’t touched any of your things. You’ve got dressings and vinaigrettes for days in your fridge.”

With Josie snarling promises of revenge, Matty led her off tucked under his arm.

“How do you do it?” Carter asked as she shut the door. “Josie is like a kid on a permanent sugar high.”

Some of that might be my fault for spoiling her as best I could when we were young. “Love.”

Carter snorted and invited herself to flop onto the couch. “How was your nap?”

“Inconvenient.” I rubbed my face with my palms. “I lost a whole day.”

A whole work day.

No, no, no.

Meaning the shop had been closed too.

Meaning we had to reschedule customers again .

Meaning we might not have customers in the near future if I didn’t figure this out fast.

Now more than ever we couldn’t afford to lose both sides of the family business.

“I took the liberty of escorting Pedro to and from work today.” Kierce rested his hands on my shoulders. “I hope that’s all right with you. Matty consented, and so did he.”

A weight slid off my shoulders, and I don’t just mean his hands when I pivoted in his embrace and locked my arms around his waist. I mashed my face into his shirt and held on while the initial shock moved through him. Soon enough, he melted around me, his heart pounding in my ear. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad to have finally been of some use.”

“That won’t go over well,” Carter warned him, hunching lower on the couch.

“Finally?” Pinching his hip like I would Matty, I growled up at him. “How can you say that?”

Hand pressing against his side like he was staunching a lethal wound, he widened his eyes. “I?—”

“You don’t have to do things for me to earn your place here. You don’t have to earn your place period. It doesn’t work like that. You don’t have to perform favors or chores or—” I snapped my mouth closed the second his expression warned he was ready to dig in and fight back. “We haven’t known one another for long, but in that time, you’ve given me a reason to smile, to be happy . You helped me accept myself long before this demigoddess crap and gave me peace on a sore point that’s plagued me my whole life. I?—”

“Demi…goddess.”

Fingers bunching the fabric of Kierce’s shirt, I muttered a curse under my breath. I had gotten so worked up over Kierce devaluing himself, I had forgotten Carter was there. On the heels of that thought trotted another one. I wouldn’t have spoken freely if I didn’t trust her.

Had she not been twitching with facial spasms, I might have basked in the warm glow of that realization.

“Um, yes, well.” I cleared my throat. “You remember the train shed incident?”

From there, I fed her the highlights of what really happened and where I stood now.

“The chief can’t learn about this” was her immediate response. “He’s already hot to recruit you.”

“I don’t plan on telling anyone about this.” I lifted a shoulder. “Except for family.”

The inclusion in the Talbot family unit forced Carter to look away, but Kierce rewarded me with a radiant smile that lit up his face until it hurt to see how much it meant to him to belong. Yet another reason why it pained me he felt he had to trade favors for status.

A pang struck me, a reminder of our last case and how things might have gone differently for so many kids if their protectors didn’t charge so much for safety that those under their care—and I use that word loosely—were too insecure in their place to form true friendships or put down roots.

Kierce wasn’t a lost child on the streets of Savannah, but he was under the thumb of someone far worse. He had no sense of home, no sense of worth, no sense of self . And I wanted him to understand that even if we couldn’t make a relationship work, friendship was on the table.

But after that kiss…

I would rather spread him out on a table, honestly.

Thundering footsteps on the stairs announced my sibling or siblings’ return.

Matty let himself in carrying a large basket overflowing with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. I peeled myself off Kierce then sanitized the counter so he could set down his harvest. I dug out a mixing bowl, cutting board, and knife. I set them aside for Josie then removed a second cutting board and knife.

“Kierce.” I crooked my finger. “I bought some ahi tuna steaks, if you trust me to sear them.”

As nonexistent as my kitchen skills were, I figured even I couldn’t botch a quick toss in the pan.

“I trust you.” He pulled a stool up to the bar and sat. “Wait.” He angled his chin. “Badb wants to watch.”

Knife in hand, I scowled out the window, searching for her. “This isn’t a three-ring circus.”

“You could have fooled me,” Carter muttered from the relative safety of the couch.

“I was going to make a point about not selling tickets to the show, but it’s gone now.” I caved to the interested stares which were, quite frankly, insulting. “I bought a sauce from the store.”

Sliding off the stool, he came to stand next to me. “However you prepare it is fine.”

For a man used to eating whatever his crow delivered, I suspected that to be true. “Here goes then.”

While I heated a pan, he sliced vegetables for the salad he wouldn’t—or couldn’t—eat, and I couldn’t stop the bubble of warmth bursting in my chest. I bumped his elbow every now and then, just because. I fought a smile when he started bumping back. Had I not been afraid of burning his food, or him cutting off a finger, I might have escalated things, but I wanted to impress him. Well-done steak wouldn’t do it. I needed to get this right.

Matty, perhaps sensing my thoughts, joked to Kierce, “You realize Frankie isn’t a domestic goddess.”

Carter’s snort swung Matty’s head toward her, and he blanched to have teased me in front of her.

As tempted as I was to let him sweat, I showed him mercy. “She knows.”

That he had slipped up in front of her with such ease told me I wasn’t the only one who viewed Carter as part of the family. Though it shouldn’t have surprised me when he never would have agreed—as if Josie ever asked for permission—to let her room with Carter if he didn’t believe the redcap was trustworthy.

“She blabbed it after you left.” Carter had a cheddar puff in hand. “Now we all know her secret.”

“I would have told you.” A flush crept up my neck, but it wasn’t like I could deny it. “Eventually.”

Josie bopped through the door with an armload of dressings, vinaigrettes, and other salad fixings.

“The delivery guy is downstairs,” she announced, stalling out at the stove. “Mary, you cooked ?”

Under her bulging eyes, I sliced the tuna steak, pleased to find the middle nice and red. “Yep.”

“Wow.” Jars and bottles clanked as she placed them on the counter. “This must be love.”

A mule kicked me in the chest. No. Wait. That was just my heart. Good thing my rib cage contained it.

“I’ll grab the takeout.” Carter rose with a crinkle of her snack bag. “Save any big reveals until I get back.”

Josie’s fingers went to the hem of her shirt, but I clutched her wrist until the door shut on Carter. “No.”

“Oh, come on. It would have been funny.” She palmed her boobs and jiggled them. “Big reveals?”

“If I know you, and I do, you’ve already found a way to accidentally drop your towel in front of Carter.” It hit me after Carter mentioned them sharing a bathroom for absolutely no reason except Josie staking her claim on Carter by invading her territory. “Is there anything you haven’t revealed to her?”

A coy smile lit her face before she attempted to mask it with innocence. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I told you we should have tattooed a warning label on her forehead.” Matty walked up behind her and thumped her skull. “It’s the least we owe her future victims.”

“You wanted maneater ,” I reminded him, “but she’s a womaneater too.”

“Yeah.” He reflected on that conversation. “Shortening it to eater just didn’t have the same ring to it.”

“This is why I moved out.” Josie huffed, and we let her get away with the lie. “You’re both mean to me.”

From there, they devolved into bickering and pillows got involved way too close to the food for comfort.

“Come on.” I hooked Kierce’s arm and carried his plate to the table. “Give me your honest opinion.”

We sat across from one another, and I pretended not to notice carrots sailing through the air behind us.

Kierce lifted the plate to breathe in the scent, set it down, then speared the centermost piece.

Nails digging into my palms, I waited for the verdict, weirdly invested in pleasing him.

He popped the slice into his mouth and shut his eyes, savoring the flavors.

“Perfection.” His eyes opened on his plate, and he took another bite. “I prefer it this way.”

This way? Oh crap. As in without the sauce. The sauce I had been relying on for flavor. Which I had forgotten to add. There wasn’t a speck of seasoning on his meal.

“I give up.” I banged my forehead on the table. “I’ll have to live on Josie’s cooking until I die.”

“That’s what sisters are for.” She came to inspect my work. “The even sear on this is impressive.”

“If Josie hadn’t distracted you,” Matty added, leaning over Kierce’s shoulder, “this would have been a gold-star effort.”

“Me?” Josie laughed out loud. “ I distracted her?”

Ignoring them as they returned to their pillow fighting, I homed in on Kierce to gauge his sincerity.

“I ate a raw diet for centuries.” Kierce speared another slice. “This is a luxury.”

“Does that mean what I think it means? That you caught your own food and skinned it?”

“Wildlife is plentiful in Abaddon, and I had no reason to leave between tasks.”

“What happens to Badb when you go home?”

“As long as I’m able to protect her, I bring her with me. She enjoys the hunting.”

Curious if that was the reason why she spoiled him with purloined meals when they were here, I missed it when Carter returned loaded down with bags of food and sodas tucked under her arms. The smell hit me like a two-by-four to the gut, and I didn’t waste time stealing the top container and digging in.