I clear my throat as I sit forward and pick up the mug of tea, bringing it to my lips to inhale the hot liquid and blow. Then I glance up at my big brother through my lashes and grimace.
“Well…”
“I’ve known you for just over a month and I can already tell when you’ve done something stupid. Not so great at the secret-keeping, are ya?” Sledge shakes his head and grins. “What did you do?”
“First, I love that you know me well enough to notice things. And second…” I pause and sip the far-too-hot tea, burning the tip of my tongue, but it’s so worth it every time. “I may have accidentally-on-purpose killed someone.” I flutter my lashes oh-so-sweetly and risk burning my tongue again.
“May have?” He’s giving me judgey eyes, but he’s also amused. Good…
I fucking wish we had grown up together in moments like this. Sharing my murder story and all that. I sigh.
“Definitely did.”
“Any evidence?” His amused grin is a little bigger and I’m totally here for it.
“Nope. But I did rope in one of your prospects. Kincaid. She helped with the clean up. So if she counts as evidence, then yes.” She caught me on the way out last night, and killer knows killer so she saw right through me and tagged along for the ride—in Spencer’s car.
“You gonna tell me who and why?” He’s shaking his head and resisting the urge to laugh, and it’s obvious he’s trying very hard to not roll his eyes.
“Some twatwaffle called Byron or Byson or Brian or something with a B.” I know his name, but he fucked with my dolphin so it’s not worth passing my lips. “He works—worked—at Spenny’s station and caught wind of the whole rig going missing thing. He approached Spenny at work last night, asked him about it, and was super fishy. So…” I shrug, like the outcome is obvious. “He had to die so Spenny or the club don’t get arrested.”
“Wouldn’t a threat have worked just as well?” Sledge is mimicking me with the tongue burning now, although at this point, the tea is cool enough to drink without the pain.
“Nope. If I threatened him, that would’ve confirmed any suspicions he had and then there’s this wild card out there that we can’t control with anything other than threats. Only solutionwas for him to die. His parents died years ago, no siblings, no significant other, barely any friends to speak of. Obsessed with work. Fucking easy target, if you ask me. So as far as anyone knows, he was offered some amazing work opportunity in Australia. Bing bang bosh. Sorted.” I do a faux-mic drop and an explosion sound before sipping more hot liquid gold.
Closing his eyes, Sledge’s grin doesn’t disappear, but he does sigh a little before pinning his gaze on me.
“When you get voted in as an official prospect, this going rogue shit has to stop.”
“I mean, I wasn’t technically rogue. Kincaid came with me for the jolly.” I place my now-empty mug on the table between us and feign innocence.
“And that, dear sister, is your only saving grace.” He pins me with that judgey stare again.
“Is it, though?” My grin widens because playing with fire is fun.
He responds with a muffled laugh and another shake of his head. It’ll fall off if he keeps doing that.
“You’re up early, brother.” Shade’s huge form appears behind Sledge and he pats his shoulder.
“Nah, more like haven’t gone to bed yet. That girl, Kristina, and her sister…what was her fuckin’ name…oh, I don’t care…other Kristina, kept me up all night.” Sledge falls back against the chair and rubs at his cock. “Six holes in one night.”
“I don’t wanna see you rubbing your cock. Ew.” I scrunch up my face and dramatically cover my eyes.
“If I have to watch you dry fuck Grinder while I’m trying to play pool, you can cope with a little cock rubbing.” Narrowing his eyes at me, Sledge all but pokes his tongue out. So I do it, instead.
“Have you finished talking about your dick in front of your little sister?” Shade raises a brow and looks down on Sledge.
“Fuck off, you’re making it sound gross.”
“It kinda is.” I muffle a laugh.
“Oh you can fuck off too. I’m going to the garage.” Standing up with all the attitude of a teenage boy, Sledge flips us both the bird and walks away.
Shade and I laugh, and he sits himself down in the chair Sledge just left empty.
“So, you wanna come into the shop today? I can show you around, get you started on some basics before we open up next month.” With the demise of some of the fucks that, well, fucked with him, Shade has been more talkative. I like that. He seems like a good dude.
“Definitely. I should probably officially quit the salon, though. I’ve had about a million missed calls that I’ve been avoiding, plus messages I haven’t listened to. If you gimme the address I’ll meet you there when I’m done?” I check the time on my phone—eight in the morning.