Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(34)

“On my way.”

It took me ten minutes flat to get to the bakery and make my way in the door.

“Tansy!”

“I’m here.” I looked to my left. She was sitting across from Justice at a steel table covered in flour and fifteen different varieties of cakes and cookies. They were both covered in sugar and frosting.

“Come here.”

“I’m a mess.”

“I don’t give a shit, female. I need to know you are all right and that’s gonna take being over here.” My gator needed some skin-to-skin contact. To smell her. To know that she was fine.

Then he was set on making sure Bruno knew not to mess with his female.

She came across the room and practically crashed into my chest. My fingers roamed over the skin that was not covered—her arms, her neck. She was fine. She was warm. She was...tired.

“I’m so fucking sorry I couldn’t be here. I was stuck in the damned swamp with Mrs. Brasseaux.”

“Shit. What did she see this time?” Justice looked more amused than concerned.

“Nutra rats. Eating her swamp. I’m gonna get Callum to go over there and scare the shit out of them.”

“Her husband was a shifter. Wolf. Came from Colorado or something.”

“That makes sense. Tansy, let me get you home.” And by home I meant my house.

She pushed against my pecs. “Not yet. Justice still has to frost his cookies, and we have to clean up. You can help.” A blush rushed to her face.

“I kind of like it when you’re bossy.”

With a wink from my mate, we went to work. Tansy went into the freezer, and Justice took the opportunity to give me the heads-up on my boss. “Bruno is acting weird. He was trying to get close to Tansy, even with me in the room. I kept myself between him and her, but something is off with him. I think we all need to take shifts watching Tansy.”

Justice surprised me, not only because he was being serious for a minute, but because he was sincere in his concern. I smelled the worry poured all over him.

Justice was my brother.

And my brothers would protect my mate, just like one day I would protect theirs.





Tansy

Justice hadn’t questioned my ghost comment once since he arrived. He played it cool, acting as if I’d been waiting for him to come and help bake all along. I knew he and Etienne were close, but I hadn’t fully grasped how close until that moment, the one where he slapped on an apron and played along with my hint that he was there to help.

I pulled out the unadorned cookies I baked the morning before and set him to frosting, since the no-bakes were pretty much done, spoiling my excuse.

I still didn’t know why Bruno had been there; he hadn’t even bothered to make a real excuse.

The posturing between he and Justice had been fascinating, if not terrifying. Justice stayed between us, although that was never spoken. I wanted to ask Meemaw what she thought, but the first word I spoke to her had her vanishing in thin air. Weird.

“Take shifts watching Tansy,” Justice finished as I walked back in the room. Umm no, that was not a thing that was going to happen, but as Etienne nodded, I made the split-second decision to zip my mouth. Things could be worked out later. No sense jumping into a confrontation.

“Ready to go?” Etienne’s eyes snapped to meet mine.

“Look around.” I tried not to roll my eyes, really I did.

I had been so terrified as the ghost warned me away, and my heart was still pounding a mile a minute as Justice and I attempted baking and Bruno left, but all of that was gone. It dissipated immediately when Etienne’s arms came around me, and I just felt safe and oddly not perturbed by the mess.

“I call the work tables and floors.” Justice pushed away from the table he’d been leaning on, the seriousness on his face gone, save for in his eyes. “These hands are too pretty to do dishes.”

“Then put on gloves, asshat.” The teasing was nonexistent in Etienne’s tone, but we all played along at the joke. There was much to discuss, but not here.

“I have pretty flowered ones for your dainty hands.” I threw him a pair of yellow work gloves, the only kind we had in the bakery. Didn’t make my joke less funny, given the way Etienne was holding his side.

“My hands are far from dainty. You’ve seen my dick, woman. You know this.” He slid the gloves on, starting the water as a growling sound filled the air. “Pipe down, Eti. She’s gonna see all our dicks. It’s not like yours is that much smaller than mine.”

“I call bologna.” I snagged the broom, going to town as Eti wiped the tables clean. “Etienne’s is bigger.” My blush burned red.

“Lie. You haven’t seen it. Eti is too freaking gentleman to have done ya drunk.” He rinsed off my big mixing bowl before giving me the what-now look, at which I pointed to the sanitizer sink.

“That may be so, but it was pressed against me all night, and it was fecking huge.” Who was I? I didn’t speak like this, yet here I was spouting penis comments. And I didn’t die of humiliation.

“Damn. I was sure mine was bigger,” Justice grumbled as he went back to the few remaining issues.

“Longer doesn’t mean shit up against girth, brother.” Etienne slapped him on his back as he passed behind him.