Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1)(101)

Chris was in the hallway wrestling with Joshua. He stood up with Joshua hanging over his bare shoulder and whirled around. Joshua laughed gleefully. “I’m getting dizzy!”

“Body slam!” Chris roared playfully.

Joshua yelped in alarm. “No!”

Chris pretended to break the giggling child over his leg. The boys noticed Ephraim’s presence and sobered immediately.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Chris placed Joshua gently on his feet. Joshua staggered drunkenly around until Chris placed a hand on his head and held him still. The little boy’s thin bare chest was heaving from exertion. The men of the house seemed to go around half na**d all the time now. He never could have pulled it off when Eleanor owned the house, but now that his name was on the deed she didn’t say a word. Soon Chris and Joshua joined him. The only time Eleanor put her foot down was at the table. The boys were expected to come to meals fully dressed.

“Nothing, do you feel like a work out?” He was full of rage and needed to work it out.

“Er, normally yes I would love to, but you look like you’re ready to tear something apart and no offense, Dad, but I don’t want to be the rag doll.”

Nothing was going his way today. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want a workout.”

“I’ll workout with you, Ephraim!” Joshua said cheerfully. They let him come down to the basement just to appease him now and then so he would feel like one of the guys, but he was not allowed down there during serious workouts.

“I don’t know, little man. You’re brutal. I’m afraid you’d hurt me.” Ephraim cowered back from the boy.

Joshua grinned hugely and charged at him. Ephraim caught him around the waist and hung him upside down. He swung him gently from side to side like a pendulum. “If I take most of it out on the weights and bag first will you come down for a workout?” he asked Chris.

Chris tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”

He was almost afraid to ask. “What?”

“If I had some tattoos I could go down there and not have to worry about any bruises showing from the ass whooping you’re bound to give me.”

“So, you’re willing to go one on one right now if I bring you to get a tattoo?” he asked, chuckling.

“It does seem fair.”

“You know what else sounds fair?”

“No, what?” Chris asked warily.

“That we stick to the original deal and I take you next November when you turn seventeen. I’ll even pay for the tats.”

Chris seemed to think it over. “Can I get two?”

“If you don’t cry like a girl after the first one you can have a second one. That will be your birthday gift.” Chris was turning seventeen and would need a car, especially for patrol. “Well, one of your gifts anyway.”

“Okay.” He nodded his agreement.

“Ephraim, can I get a tattoo, too?” Joshua asked between giggles.

“When you’re seventeen.”

“Oh man! That’s like seven years away!”

“If Chris doesn’t mind, you can come with us, but you can’t tell any of the women, okay?”

“I won’t tell, but you just did,” Chris said.

Madison’s scent drifted towards him. He turned around to see Madison watching them with an amused expression. “Why don’t you boys go downstairs and get a snack. I need to talk to Ephraim.”

“Come here, squirt.” Chris took Joshua by the ankles and carried him down the stairs that way. They could hear Joshua giggling and pleading with Chris to put him down all the way to the kitchen.

“Eph-“

He held up his hand, still listening. “It sounds like the boys have just found your stash of candy bars.”

She waved the comment off. “I don’t care about th- they’re touching my chocolate?” She was momentarily distracted. She’d been looking forward to her collection of Mounds bars and peanut butter cups.

He pointed to his ear indicating that she should listen. “You hear that?”

“Yes, those little punks. They should know better than to come between a woman and her chocolate.”

“I’ll buy you more.”

She stomped her foot. “I don’t care about the chocolate. I want to talk to you!”

He turned his back on her and headed down the stairs. “So you can tell me you hate me again? I can never get enough of that,” he said dryly.

“Would you please stop?”

“No, just say what you need to say and get it over with. I’m warning you I will snap if you tell me you hate me one more time.”

Madison slammed into his back when he stopped suddenly at the bottom of the stairs. He turned around to steady her. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t hear him. Her brows pulled together. “What is that sound?”

Chapter 27

“Crying and by the sound of it somebody’s doing a piss poor job of faking it.” He knew who it was of course. The scent of cheap perfume that tainted the air told him.

He beelined for the closed parlor doors and yanked them open. Eleanor sat on the love seat looking at a loss while she watched Candy sob theatrically into her hands.

“Mama, I need to come back just for a little while. I promise. Things just went a little badly.”