Talon (Uncompromising #1)(54)

“I’m working on it.” André walked to one of the windows facing the street and peered out as he spoke into his phone. “Black pickup, sixty feet south.” He swore in Spanish. “Handle it.” He snapped the plantation shutters closed and shoved his phone in his pocket. “We need to come up with a plan tonight.”

A look I knew all too well passed between André, Neil and Blaze but I didn’t give a shit. I didn’t care about Stone or his fucking motorcycle gang or what was left of Maldonado’s headless organization. The only thing that kept replaying in my mind was the moment I’d first sunk into Siren’s heat. Then I was watching her blank eyes as she’d told me good-bye.

I picked up the tequila and went to the couch. I didn’t give two fucks about how pathetic I looked or that they were all staring at me. I was going to drink till I passed out.

A half hour later, Layna sat down on the couch next to me. “Tell me about her.”

I tried to focus on the bottle in my hand. It was a third gone. “Who?”

Her hand wrapped around my forearm. “Don’t do that. You don’t have to play games with me.”

I chuckled without any humor. “Lotsa things I’d like to play with you, Sugar, but games ain’t one of them.”

“You don’t get to flirt with me anymore. I’m a married woman.”

I leaned my head back and looked at her. Jesus. “You look like her.”

“I know.” A sympathetic smile touched her face.

“I miss her so fuckin’ bad,” I blurted, drunk as shit.

“She would have wanted you to be happy.”

I shook my head but it didn’t ease the confusion. How could she want me to be happy? “She doesn’t even know me.” But the crazy part? The short time I’d been around Siren, I was already more comfortable around her than I’d ever been with any other woman. I didn’t try to pretend to be something better than my dirt-poor upbringing around her. I didn’t have to flirt my way into her good graces. Shit, she was trying to protect me. Damn it, I wanted Siren back.

Layna’s forehead creased. “Leigh was your wife, Talon. She knew you.”

“I wasn’t… Oh, fuck.” I wasn’t thinking about Leigh. “Goddamn.” I rubbed a hand over my face.

“Wow,” Layna blew out a slow breath as she tried to cover a smile. “You were talking about Nicole.”

I couldn’t believe I wasn’t thinking about my dead wife. But I wasn’t. Two miserable years and I wasn’t breathing grief for her. I was drowning in another kind of anguish. “I fuckin’ slept with her once—one time.” Losing my shit, I held up one finger. “Motherfucker.” I shook my head and reached to put the tequila on the coffee table and almost missed. “Why the fuck am I’m tellin’ you this?”

Vision jacked from too much Patron, I could still make out the smile that spread across Layna’s face.

“I’m a better listener than the guys and besides, I’m a woman. I know how women think.”

This time my laugh was real. “Sugar, if I’m relyin’ on you for insight into women, I’m so fuckin’ fucked.”

She punched my arm. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t know jack shit about relationships.” Memories of her fumbling every step with Blaze sobered the smile on my face. “But I’m glad you got your man.”

“Yeah.” She glanced at Blaze as he sat at the kitchen table with André and her face lit up. “Me, too.” When she looked back at me, she studied me for a moment. “So you want a relationship with Nicole?”

I sighed, almost wanting to curse the time I’d had with Siren before everything fell to shit. “Want and get ain’t never been friends, Sugar.”

Her hand moved to mine but she didn’t speak for a full minute. “Why’d you do it?”

My muscles tensed and I shut my face down. Drunk as fuck, I still knew what she was asking. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ ’bout.”

“Why?” she asked gently but firmly.

Because she was the first person to make me laugh for real after my wife died? Because she was my best friend’s wife and she deserved to live? Because she’d lost everything and I knew what that felt like? There were too many reasons. But only one was important. I stared at her hand on mine. “I don’t have family. I have friends…” I looked up at her. “You’re my friend.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Thank you.”

I nodded and stood. “I’m goin’ to bed. Take care of Blaze.”