Page 85 of Road to Absolution

“We were about to send in the troops, convinced there were two bodies in there—” His shoulders seized. “I mean, warm bodies—Uh, not bodies that are dead—Shit, uh…” He threw his hands into the air. “But here you are! What timing.” He gestured to the tray in my hands. “Want me to show you where that goes?”

“No,” I pouted. “I have balls.”

Lifting a brow, he said, “Ooookaaaay. Good to know.”

We started walking.

Tuck, appearing nervous at my side, quietly said, “Hey, umm, been wanting to talk with ya. Umm, our brothers have told me bullets ‘whizzing’ past your head is some scary shit.”

I see he has joined the Let’s Get Mav To Talk team. “No biggie.”

“Right. I hear ya. But they also said that, uh, to stare down a barrel changes a man.”

I tried to ignore the shiver of angst that rippled through me. The tip of that powerful deadly weapon had been so close to my face, I could see tiny scuffs in the metal. I also tried to ignore the concern in Tuck’s voice, as if he was scared his bro may never come back to him.

“I’m good. Same ol’ Mav right here.”

I guess my body language contradicted my words.

Tuck asked sympathetically, “Hey, you wanna go back to Light?”

I stopped walking. My eyes locked with his, and I snarled. “I’ll try to be a big boy and be without her for a few minutes.”

His head jerked back. “What the fuck is that about, asshole?”

Sometimes the ones closest to us get the harshest bites. “Maybe you can get me a binky, or some sorta ‘comfort’ blankie with her picture on it. Make sure it matches my cut nicely, would ya?”

“Dude, I’m officially giving you a dick alert, because that’s what you’re being.”

Dick? A part of me understood Tuck wasn’t referring to one of Giver’s personalities, but seeing how that personality had raped my wife, my emotions and ego felt like a ping pong match between the demented and disturbed.

“Fuck.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Sorry. I’m…” Hostile when I shouldn’t be. Terrified when I don’t want to be. I’m-I’m… “tired.”

He laid a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, it’s all good, okay?”

Solemnly, I nodded, “Yeah. All good. Thanks, man.” And I wished to God it were true.

We started walking again as he teased, “All them hours in hiding with Light, and ya got no sleep?”

As a ping pong ball flew over the net, I gawked. “I wasn’t hiding, Little Man.”

He made his hand into a bullhorn and tilted it up to the ceiling. “Beep! Beep! Dick alert! We have a stage five dick alert.” As if I wasn’t acting borderline psychotic, Tuck walked us out of the hallway and into the big room. “Okay, so you’ve already seen the Cave.”

“Yes, for the most part.”

I gave a salute to the officers sitting at the bar, who were all making comments about me joining the living again and asking if I was done getting my dick sucked.

Tucker cringed. “Ew. Fuck. Light doesn’t—” He eyed my grin shrewdly. He pointed to me while glaring. “Officially at stage six dick alert.”

Everyone started laughing, including ten old guys sitting at the bar who looked to be every ‘shade of grey’.

Just then, a very young woman in clothing that left nothing to the imagination came up to me. “Hi, Maverick.” She ogled up and down, then took my tray. “I’ll take this to the kitchen for you.”

As she slipped through one of the two sets of swinging doors on the closest side of the bar, I pointed. “I take it that’s a Bunny.”

Scorch teased, “V has finally gone back to work, so they’ve come out of hiding.”

Knuckles, smiling, of course, said, “That bunny sure liked her some Prospect.”