Fatal Strike (McClouds & Friends #10)(79)

Tam’s car came around the bend and braked. The passenger side flew open, and Nina sprang out and sprinted toward Lara.

They came together in a tight, shaking hug.

Tam and Edie climbed out, stopping at a discreet distance. Miles waited, too. They were crying, for God’s sake. He’d wait until they’d slogged through it. At least this sob fest was one that he didn’t have to navigate. But they took their goddamned sweet time, babbling and weeping. He tried not to listen in with his souped-up hearing.

It was really hard not to listen when you could.

After an inappropriately long time, he started to fidget and twitch. Jesus, out in the open, exposed on all sides. Of course, they were backed up by several tough guys with guns who had all filed out to watch the floor show, but that meant nothing. There was no reason the cathartic, girly sob-fest could not take place indoors on a comfy couch.

“Uh, Lara? Nina?” he ventured. “Could we, like, take it inside?”

The women ignored him. “Thanks for looking for me,” Lara was whispering soggily. “Thanks for sending Miles.”

Nina lifted her eyes, fixed them on Miles. “I didn’t send him, honey. I would’ve, if I could, but I can’t take credit for that. He did that on his own. All of it. With no help from us.”

Miles clearly heard the acerbic tang of reproof in her voice.

“Ladies?” he said again, plaintively. “Can we take this inside? Please? I could use some cover. This is making me nervous.”

“I just bet it is.” Nina let go of Lara and strode toward him with purpose. “I have just two things to say to you, Miles Davenport.”

Miles took a wary step backward. “Uh, let’s hear them.”

“They’re both non-verbal.” She reached out, gave him a fierce, tight, shaking hug. Then just as abruptly, she stepped back, hauled off and whacked him hard in the face, smack. A bruising open-hand.

“Fuck!” He reeled back. “Jesus, Nina! What was that about?”

Lara ran toward them. “Nina? What the hell are you doing?”

“I am so pissed at him!” Nina’s voice vibrated with fury. “Well and good that he saved you, but he is an opportunistic son of a bitch for seducing you right after!” She turned on Miles, cherry red with anger. “You might have waited! Even a few days would have been less indecent, for God’s sake! But I imagine your dick wanted what it wanted, right? You thought you had the right? You saved her, so you get to f*ck her? Was that how it was? You dickhead! ”

Miles pressed his hand to his stinging cheek, and opened his mouth to say he knew absolutely not what, but Lara broke in, leaping in front of him. A human shield.

“Do not hit him!” she yelled. “Not ever, Nina! You hear me?”

Nina pressed her fist to her shaking mouth. Her eyes were wet. “He shouldn’t have done that! He shouldn’t even have looked at you!”

“It wasn’t up to him! I jumped on him with all four feet! He had no choice!”

Tam snorted, giving Miles a mocking once-over. “Awww, poor little Miles. Forced, were you? Did she have to tie you down?”

“Fuck off, Tam,” he growled, licking blood off his lip, which Nina’s lusty blow had smashed against his tooth.

“If I were wrecked and broken, you might have a point, but I’m not!” Lara raged on. “Do you get it? They did not wreck me!”

Nina cupped Lara’s face. “Okay,” she crooned. “Okay, okay, I believe you. Good for you, sweetheart.” And they melted into a sobbing embrace once again. Miles was blessedly forgotten. Thank God.

Not by Tam, though. She sauntered toward Miles, giving him one of her X-ray stares, the ones where she read every fear and doubt and fatal fault line. She then turned the same stare onto Lara, who met it squarely, over Nina’s shoulder. After a minute, Tam nodded, having come to one of her inscrutable conclusions.

“Leave them alone, Nina,” she said. “Look at her eyes, her color. She’s all right. He’s doing his duty.” Miles flinched as she smacked the same reddened cheek Nina had slapped. “It’s about time, big boy. Glad to see you finally misbehaving like a man.” She punctuated her statement by swatting his ass, very hard.

“Hey!” Miles backed away. “Public service announcement. Next person who slaps me, I slap back. Girl or no girl.” He glanced at Lara. “Except for you,” he amended. “You can slap me any time you want. Thanks for sticking up for me.”

Her eyes swept down as a subtle smile quivered on her lips. “Least I could do. You were such a good sport about being tied down.”

Miles gaped, and turned his gaze wildly upon the other women. “Uh, that was a joke,” he told them hastily. “You get that, right?”

That cracked them all up.

He suffered through the snickering and chortling as they walked back to the house, but his discomfort melted away like magic when Lara grabbed his hand, a defiant, possessive gesture. Her slender hand was cool, her narrow fingers closing around his, jealously tight.

Staking her claim. He liked it. Let them mock and scold and slap and kick him around like a f*cking soccer ball.

When she touched him like that, he could feel no pain.





19


Lara rocked in Nina’s tight embrace and groped in her pocket for a tissue. It did something strange to her, seeing Nina after all these years. She’d worshipped the older girl as a child. And though they weren’t blood relatives, Nina was the only person left with whom she shared actual memories of her mother. It made Mother feel closer, somehow. More real. It had been such a sad, remote feeling, being the last repository of memories for a person. Like being lost in space.