The Mech Who Loved Me(63)

And... Xander McGraw.

His friend rested both elbows on the bar and watched him come. There was a twinkle in Xander's green eyes, but he also looked like he had a bone to pick.

"Back from the dead?" They clasped hands, and Kincaid thumped Xander on the back, squeezing his friend against his chest.

"Well, who'd have known otherwise?" the loud Scot demanded, shoving him in the chest. "Haven't seen your ugly face in months."

"Been busy." He slumped on the bar, raking a hand through his hair and looking around. He'd missed this life-these men. He was a different person here, sure of himself in ways he wasn't when he served the Company of Rogues.

"Too busy to come to my fucking wedding?" Xander asked, snagging a tankard of ale and glaring at him over the top of it. "Thought you were a friend, Kincaid."



       
         
       
        

Then Xander strolled away, leaving him standing there alone at the bar.

"Ignore him," said a cool, feminine voice. "He'll cool down."

"Wise words." Kincaid shot a smile toward the owner of the voice.

Maggie Doyle, the woman who'd helped him run the enclave with an iron fist, wiped down the bar, regarding him with a steady expression. She'd seen both the best and worst of him over the years, and there were few souls he could trust as much as her. "Long time, Kincaid."

"You look well. Marriage agrees with you."

Maggie found Xander in the crowd, and the faintest of smiles curved her lips. She'd softened since the revolution, he thought. She wouldn't have smiled before it. "Surprisingly, yes. Though I fought him to the bitter end."

Across the tavern Xander threw his head back and laughed.

The pair of them shared a smile. "He doesn't know what the word 'no' means," Kincaid said gruffly.

"He thinks it means 'try harder,'" she said, and poured Kincaid a shot of whiskey. "He wore me down with his courting. But he's angry you weren't at the wedding." Maggie lifted her snifter of whiskey. "Planned to have you stand up there with him."

Kincaid tapped his own whiskey against hers. "I was dodging vampires, if you'd believe. Heard it went well."

They both threw the whiskey back.

"Dodging vampires?" she asked, the second she got her breath back. "Real actual vampires?"

"Have I ever lied to you, Maggie Doyle?"

"Maggie McGraw," Xander corrected, slipping around the bar and slinging an arm over her shoulders. "And you won't like the answer to that, Kincaid."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Behave-the pair of you." Grabbing a tray, she set four tankards of ale on it, then made her way around the bar with one last incinerating look at the pair of them. "If you destroy my bar, I'll make both your lives hell."

Then she was gone.

"You keep your eyes off my wife," Xander said with a smile, but his eyes were cool.

"You've got nothing to worry about. Maggie always was too smart to fall for my charms," Kincaid replied, pouring a second shot of whiskey.

"Aye, well. Would have said the same, until recently."

They clinked glasses together. Xander owned the word "brash," but there was an undercurrent of doubt beneath his dazzling smile. Kincaid frowned. "She wouldn't have married you if she didn't love you. You know that, right?"

"Took an awful lot of convincing," Xander grumbled. "She always liked you."

"Maggie...." He almost said, was a sister when I needed one, but that only dredged up memories of Agatha, and he was already awash with guilt. "Maggie knew me too well." 

"So when you said vampires...."

"I meant vampires," he replied, and shuddered. "Sort of thing gives a man nightmares."

"But where have you been?" Xander demanded. "I asked Orla, but she's not been sayin', and there's word you were working a mechanical job over in Southwark, but by the look of that nose it's seen some recent action, and... vampires?"

"It's complicated," he replied quietly, "and I don't have leave to discuss it."

"I'm your best friend, K."

"With anyone," he said softly, and Xander's lips thinned.

"Aye, well fuck you too."

This was what he hated about this line of work. "I can't talk about it, but if I could, you'd be the first to know. I just wanted a night away from it to clear my head, a night spent in the cups with some old friends."

"What can you tell me then?" Xander challenged.

"There's a woman," he said bluntly, "and she's getting under my skin."