“So you’re with my Nikky.”
Angie almost choked on her iced tea. “No. I’m staying with him temporarily.”
“In his bed?”
Angie put down her glass. “No.” She wasn’t lying. At least, at the moment, she wasn’t.
“But ya wanna be. In his bed.”
Angie simply didn’t have the patience of Sara when it came to old women. Her grandmother had been a saint. A lovely woman who raised Angie even during those really dark high school years when all that pent up rage toward her parents found an outlet in random acts of violence. To this day, it still cut Angie how much her violent years hurt her grandmother.
But other than that, she didn’t buy into the whole respecting one’s elders thing. Of course she blamed that on Sara’s grandmother. The whole town still talked about the time Angie decked Lynette Redwolf when she found the woman hitting Sara with a broom. If it hadn’t been for Miki and Sara holding her back, she probably would have killed the old bitch.
“Look, old woman, what I do or don’t do with your adult grandson is my own goddamn business.”
“You’re an ornery, big-boned gal, ain’t ya?”
“And you’re a cranky old bitch. So I guess that makes us like sisters.”
Chuckling, the old woman turned back to her chicken. “Well, my Nik’s in for a time with you.”
She moved the pieces of chicken around a bit, put the top on, and limped over to the table. She sat down heavily, a sigh easing from her thin lips.
“So what do you wanna know?”
Finally. “The war between the Magnus Pack and the Withell Pride. Know anything about that?”
“Sure.”
She said that awfully quick. “Maybe I should re-phrase. Do you know anything I’ll actually find interesting?”
The old woman leaned across the table toward Angie. It took all of Angie’s ice-like demeanor not to shy away from her. “Did ya know that those two bitches were friends?”
“What two bitches?”
“Annie Withell and Kylie Redwolf?”
No. She didn’t know that. And Sara definitely didn’t know that.
Grinning at her like she knew Angie would taste good with ketchup, Broyna took the bowl of beans and motioned to the section of the table where she’d already started the biscuits. “Go finish up them biscuits and I’ll tell ya some interesting things about them stuck-up lions and crotch-licking dogs.”
Angie rolled her eyes. Tricky goddamn cats.
Nik sat on his front porch, his feet up on the railing, a copy of The Portable Mark Twain on his lap. He watched his brothers drive up toward his house in Alek’s Chevy pickup. One of the few vehicles both men could comfortably fit in together. Behind the truck, his sister and cousin were in Reena’s Porsche.
They pulled to a stop in front of him. Ban stuck his head out the window.
“You better come on. We gotta rescue your girl.”
Nik swung his feet off the banister, a low growl emanating from his chest. “What the hell are you talking about?” Already his mind tore through all the different horrible scenarios.
“Momma left her alone—with One-Eyed Grandma.”
“Shi-it!” Nik jumped over the railing and dived into the cab of Alek’s truck.
It was worse than he thought.
Chapter Ten
“Put this outside.”
With an annoyed sniff, Angie snatched the jug of iced tea out of Broyna’s hands. “Any other orders, Mien Fuehrer?”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” she cackled.
Angie stomped outside, the jug between her hands. As she walked to the porch stairs, a honey Porsche and a sweet pickup truck drove up. As the vehicles came to a stop, Nik jumped out of the back of the truck.
As soon as he saw her, he stopped. And stared. His gaze flickering across her flesh as if she were naked. And her body immediately responded.
The jug slipped from her hands, and she immediately tightened her grip. That’s when she realized Kisa had taken it from her.
“Afternoon, Angie.” Kisa placed the jug on the long picnic table they’d set up outside before walking into her grandmother’s house. The rest of Nik’s kin moved past her, none of them bothering to hide their smirk. She wanted to be angry. Wanted to believe they were sitting around having a good laugh at her expense, so she could stop feeling this way about the man. Especially when she knew he could never return it. Not really. Yet she knew better. Nik hadn’t said anything to them. He didn’t have to. Their lust hung off them both in great slabs of heat.
Once all his siblings were inside, Nik motioned to her with a tilt of his head. “Come here.”
“Not on your life,” she whispered with a hard shake of her head. “I’ve had enough of your family finding me in difficult situations with you.”
His smile spread across her like a sunrise. “If I have to come get you, I’ll make sure they find you in a very difficult situation. Now, come here.” His growl slid down to her stomach and right between her legs.
She glanced over her shoulder at the front door. She could hear laughter and chatter from inside the house. She walked down to him, but stopped on the last step.
“I’m waitin’,” he sighed.
She folded her arms in front of her chest. “You come the rest of the way.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m worth every step you’ll take.”
Hot damn. He did love a woman who didn’t make it easy. He walked over to the steps and stared down at her. Such a sassy little thing.
“Now what?”
He leaned in, sniffed her neck. “I know, how about anything?”
“You had a shot at anything this morning, and from what I remember you blew it.”
A damn sassy little thing.
“Well, there’s anything, sugar,” he licked her neck and she gave that sexy little whimper. “And there’s anything.”
“My friend warned me about you cats.”
“The dog?”
“No. The genius.”
“Interesting friends.” He grazed his thumb across the pulse point on her neck. “Did ya miss me today?”
She slapped his hand off. “Yes. I pined all afternoon. Can’t you tell?”
“Hey, girl,” O-E-G yelled from the house and Angie’s eyes rolled back in her head with serious annoyance. “Get your butt back in here. We ain’t done.”
“I’m so close to killing her.”
“I’ll go hide the steak knives.”
Angie reached across the table to put down a bowl of green beans and both Nik’s brothers leaned over a bit to get a good look at the long legs stretching out from her shorts.
He slapped both of them in the back of the head. “Stop doing that. Now.”
“A man can appreciate a view,” Ban joked.
“A man can also lose both his eyes in a tragic tiger mauling.”
His brothers snickered and he felt his annoyance grow. Hard not to let it happen when he was as horny as a dog. Just watching her move had his mouth watering. Classy. Sweet. Funny. A real lady.
Angie evaluated the table, then stepped back. “Dinner!”
All three brothers jumped. A real lady who could out-scream a football stadium.
His parents showed up as the rest of them made their way to the table. His mother stormed out of Boris’s pickup truck, slamming the door behind her. She looked angry as hell, but she still had a hickey on her neck.
“Good,” Boris boomed. “I didn’t miss Momma’s fried chicken.” He smiled at Angie. “Best fried chicken in the entire South.”
Boris stood at one end of the table while Nik helped his grandmother into a chair on the opposite end. His father pulled out a chair for Angie and then another for Nik’s mother. Angie sat while Natalia slapped Boris’s hand away, re-adjusted the chair, and sat down. The fact his mother agreed to stay for dinner at his grandmother’s house was quite a feat for his father. No wonder the old man beamed like he bought another company.