Chapter 16

Rory finished off his second pork ball and realized that Maura had just finished eating one.

The sweet, savory taste lingered in his mouth as he tried to figure out just what went into the delicacy. When he had left Ireland, he had discovered an entire world of different tasting food. Granted, he did have a soft place in his heart for bangers and mash, but a lot of their food was really bland. Thanks to the job, he and Zee had travelled the world over. They'd eaten in dives starving dogs would avoid and five star restaurants that had served presidents and kings. He was always intrigued in the way to cook things up, how they were made up. It was one of the reasons he had been good at making bombs once upon a time. It was all about what went into it and the execution…just different ingredients.

When he licked his last finger, he nodded. "You're right. Those are heaven. I need to figure out how to make them."

Zee looked at them from across the table as he ate his salad. "You two are disgusting."

"You're just jealous, Zee," Rory said, but his mind went back to the treat they had just eaten. "I'll have to play with it a little, but I think I can figure it out."

Maura smiled. "Then, I will do anything for you if you can. I love those things but I have yet to find a place in Miami that makes them this way."

"Hmm," he said. "Just what would I get in return for making you these?"

She frowned and then again, he was reminded how literally she took everything. "I could clean your house."

"No." Zeke said. "You are not cleaning our house. You don't know how to clean."

She glanced at him and was going to open her mouth but something caught her eye. Rory followed her line of vision and saw a tall man striding down the row toward them. Waist length hair and strong Native American features of his face made him look fierce. Maura squealed and jumped up and ran toward him. He opened his arms and caught her in a big hug.

Rory couldn't hear the man's voice but he caught the smile and was on his feet before he knew what he was doing.

Zee caught him, wrapping his fingers around his forearm to stop him. "Slow down, love. It's just the owner of Rough ‘n Ready."

He glanced at Zee.

"Who?" he asked looking back at the man holding his woman.

His woman? Shit. That was not smart to be thinking. He looked at Zee again and noticed the way he was studying him. "What?"

Zee shrugged. "I don't know if I ever saw you freak out over a woman before."

Rory knew what he was talking about, but he ignored it. If he argued with Zee it would make him more suspicious. It was bad enough it took every ounce of his control.

"So, he owns the club. Does he have to paw all over her?"

Zee's face went blank, then he laughed. "Oh, my, God. You're jealous."

"I'm not jealous." He knew he sounded desperate as he counted backwards from ten. The man was still touching her and Rory's fingers curled into the palms of his hands. Zee was still chuckling and with more than a little desperation, he said, "Conner wouldn't be happy if we didn't protect her."

"Sure, love, you keep telling yourself that. Some day you might just believe it."

Rory tossed Zee a furious glanced and headed off to Maura. He tried not to look so intent on reaching her, but something pushed him forward. He watched as Maura took a seat next to a rather largely pregnant woman. Zee caught up to him.

"That's Micah's wife, Dee. He is very happily married, so you don't have to worry about them."

"He wasn't one of the Dom's she was involved with?"

Why did that matter? It had never bothered him before but for some reason he couldn't get the idea out of his head that this man had touched her. From the look he was giving Rory, he knew that he was being sized up.

"No. We met him when we had to came over on one of Conner's old cases."

He nodded as they finally caught up to the trio. "Micah, how's everything?" Zee asked.

The man was tall—taller than either Zee or him and that was saying a lot. He continued to stand behind his wife's chair. He didn't appear to be doing anything but Rory sensed that the man continued to scan the area looking for threats. No matter.

"Everything's going well, except that someone had a need to come get some frozen yogurt."

The diminutive brunette smiled up at them then glanced at her husband.

"Stop looming like the Grim Reaper, Micah, and sit."

His lips twitched before doing what his wife ordered.

She turned her attention back to them. "I think I met you at the wedding."

Then he did remember meeting them. She hadn't been as pregnant then.

"Yes. We did. I'm Rory McAlister and this is Zeke O'Brian."

"Oh, I know Zeke well since he turned me into the feds."

Zee shook his head. "I didn't turn you into the feds. Just into Conner."

She laughed then turned back to Maura. "So, I like the blonde hair."

And they had been dismissed. He had an idea that the woman was a sub with a husband who ran a BDSM club and the fact that he screamed Dom just by his actions. But she really did run things in her own way.

"Yeah, and yours is completely brunette now. I don't know why you would have changed it before."

She laughed and he watched as Micah turned his head slightly, his expression softening a bit.

"So, you boys here for a vacation?" she asked.

He would usually take offense at being called a boy, but he had a feeling Dee Ross didn't mean anything by it.

"Yeah."

Then, her and Maura started talking.

"Are you here because of Peterson?" Micah asked.

Zee nodded. "In a way. I don't think we have anything to worry about, really. We turned everything over to the FBI, they took it from there. We aren't even mentioned in any of the papers. They conducted their own investigation. Conner just thought it best if we were removed from the situation at least during the beginning of the trial. Plus, he was worried about other things," he said looking over at Maura.

Micah followed his line of vision and nodded in understanding. "What flavor did you say you wanted, babe?"

"Chocolate. But I can get it."

"No, you sit. You remember what the doc said about staying off your feet as much as possible. Maura?"

"Vanilla, waffle cone."

He signaled with his head and they followed him.

"She's not looking very good."

It wasn't an accusation, but it still felt that way. He bit back the retort, but apparently Ross picked up on his feelings.

"And don't be getting upset with me. It's just an observation. Since everything that went down with Conner, I know that she has been on edge. Dee said she sensed it in her voice when they would talk. She's been a little worried about Maura. Running the office by herself is hard."

"I'm there and I hate to have to keep pointing this out, but I'm partners with Conner," Zee said. Rory sensed he was mildly irritated.

Ross sighed as he stepped in line. "I get that, but you know that girl. She's so focused on not letting Conner down. The fact that she's changing hair color is a sure sign."

Rory frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"

Ross eyed him. "Dee has said in the past that Maura changes her hair color when she is upset."

Zee nodded. "I picked up on it, but at least she didn't go dark. When Conner and Jillian were in that mess, she died it black. That wasn't pretty."

He glanced back at the table and smiled when he watched her throw her head back and laugh.

"Does Conner know?" Ross asked.

He had to pull his attention away from Maura to concentrate on Ross. He found the Dom watching him without an expression on his face.

"What?"

"No, he doesn't know," Zee said. "And we would rather not have to deal with that."

Ross crossed his arms and stared them down. Rory had dealt with more bastards than he wanted to remember, but at the moment, most of them paled in comparison to Micah Ross.

"There is one thing I want both of you to understand. I love my wife."

"Nice to know," Rory said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"My wife has a soft spot in her heart for Maura. I do too."

"And, what does this mean to me?" Rory asked, not able to keep the sneer out of his voice.

"This means that if you hurt her in any way, Dee will give me permission to beat the shit out of you."

He glanced at the woman again. She was very petite and small boned. She had one of the sweetest faces. He turned back to face Ross.

"She's too sweet."

Micah snorted. "You got that off the what fifteen minutes total you've spent with her?" Rory opened his mouth but Micah stopped him. "Sweet Dee is the daughter of Tony Rizzoli. Yeah, that's right. And, she hid for years, all the while learning how to defend herself. The only thing she got from that bastard of a father was that you mess with one of her family—either one of your choosing or blood—she will happily order me to hurt them. Ask Zeke here."

He glanced at Zee and he nodded.

"Your problem is that you don't see women as a threat," Ross said. "You make too many misconceptions."

"And you figured that out after fifteen minutes in my presence?"

Instead of getting mad, Ross smiled. "Hey, just trying to help out. And I'm good at reading people. Part of my former life as a bounty hunter. Just remember that women aren't as helpless as you think."

Rory was irritated but he did his best to hide it. "Yeah, and how did you come to that observation?"

"Who's standing in line waiting to get yogurt and who's sitting at a table talking?"

Rory laughed. "You have a point there."