“You’re an asshole, Harvey.”

Nathan Danvers.

Shit.

Gage finished spritzing the leather chair with an antibacterial mist, swiped a white towel over the seat so it’d be ready for the next client, and then glanced up.

Only to meet the beady black eyes of Rocky, Danvers’ K-9 partner.

The dog’s bottom lip quivered, revealing white teeth that may or may not have made Gage’s balls disappear into his body. Once, when he’d done some surveillance work, the old K-9 officer had mistaken Gage for a criminal and had sent his Malinois over for a little “meet and greet.”

In other words, the dog’s teeth had both met and greeted Gage’s right forearm.

He didn’t fear dogs explicitly, but he’d be damned if he ended up with anymore stitches.

Tucking the spray bottle behind his back, so that the dog didn’t think he was about to get spritzed in the face, Gage glanced up at Lizzie’s brother. “Really? You had to bring the dog?”

“Seemed like a good idea for intimidation purposes.”

Yeah, because Nathan Danvers didn’t do a solid job of it on his own. The man was taller than even Gage, and at six-two, it wasn’t often he had to crane his head up to look someone in the eye.

“I could cite tattoo parlor policies.”

Danvers gave a short whistle, and the dog jumped off the tattoo table and retreated back to his owner’s side. “You could,” he drawled smugly, “but your brother was the one to let us in.”

How wonderful.

“Owen likes to pull pranks,” Gage said.

“No, I just like to see you happy.”

His eyes snapped to the right, where his twin emerged from the back room. He ambled toward them, expression somber, eyes rimmed with tired shadows.

Jesus. “What, is this a circle jerk or something? If so, thanks but no thanks.” Gage didn’t miss the way his brother rolled his eyes, nor the little head dip he gave Danvers. “In all seriousness, an intervention isn’t necessary. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got shit to take care of before the next—”

“Sit,” Danvers snapped, followed by a very close-up, very loud, ruff! from Rocky.

Gage’s ass hit the chair he’d just cleaned down.

“I feel like this might be a little dramatic? We could do this without the intimidation tactics.”

“Nope, Rocky likes taking part in the festivities. Don’t you, boy?”

Ruff! Ruff!

There was a good chance Gage would be leaving today without an appendage—if he was lucky, it’d be his left arm since he was a righty. If he continued to be plagued with all the bad luck in the world, it’d be his genie lamp.

Did you really just think that? Say it with me now like a man . . . C-O-C-K.

Not for the first time in the last two weeks, he thought of Lizzie. He’d hated seeing her tears. Despised the way that, just before she’d slammed the door in his face, her beautiful blue eyes had glittered with disappointment.

In him.

He could handle the anger—hell, he’d pushed her to that, purposely acting like as ass with the hope that she’d walk out without a hint of regret. Better that she leave furious now, he’d decided, than for him to take everything she offered and later leave her with nothing.

One day she’d thank him.

A breath shuddered across his lips, and Gage steeled himself against the pain and the doubt.

The pain of not having her beside him.

The pain of not hearing her voice.

The creeping doubt that he’d damned himself to a life of misery.

In a hollow voice he hardly recognized, he said, “Are we going to get this over with?”

Ruff!

Gage’s dick twitched in apprehension.

“Harvey, I’m going to do you a huge favor here.” Danvers issued a quiet command and Rocky dropped to his haunches. He undid the dog’s collar, and the Malinois shook himself free.

Aimed for Gage.

Pounced.

And licked the hell out of his face.

Gage came up for air with handfuls of fur. “Danvers, seriously, you’re fucking insane. You don’t just—”

The rest of his sentence was swallowed up by dog tongue, and Gage’s stomach twisted in disgust.

“He’s off duty now,” Danvers said, swatting the leather leash and collar combo against his leg. “Collar on, and my boy is as vicious as they come. He did his job by making you piss yourself in fear.”

“I didn’t piss my—”

More tongue. Doggy breath.

It would probably be the most action Gage ever saw again because the thought of being with any woman but Lizzie left him feeling nauseous and uneasy.

“Just so you’re aware, the only reason I’m not fucking you up right now is because I’ve been in your position.”

“You’ve made out with a dog?” Owen said dryly, posted up against the wall with his arms crossed over his plaid shirt. “Shit gets weirder and weirder in the NOPD every year.”

“Nah, I reserve kissing for my wife.” Danvers dropped his bulk onto the tattoo table, snapped his fingers, and relieved Gage from suffocation by K-9. “I meant that I’ve been where you are, Harvey. Shoving away the woman I love because I’ve got all these ideas in my head that it won’t last, that I’m not good enough. We’ve all been there.”

Owen raised a hand. “I haven’t been there.”

“You will,” Danvers vowed, “and when you do, you’re going to realize that you’re a dumbass for letting the woman of your dreams walk away. Or, if you’re like me and frequently say stupid shit, for pushing her away.”

Thinking that he wasn’t an idiot had never been Gage’s problem. That, he knew. But it still didn’t change one fact . . . “You know the world we live in, Danvers. You know it, you live it every day. Do you really want your sister with a guy like me? Someone who thrives off the rush of a drug bust? Someone who, if we’re honest here, has already been shot once? If I had a sister, I wouldn’t want her dating me. Hell, look at Owen.”

Gage’s twin straightened from the wall. “What do you mean, ‘look at Owen’? Don’t bring me into this.”

“Don’t bring you into this?” Gage’s hands moved to his knees to stand, but one sharp look from Rocky had him sitting back down again. “You don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve spent years trying to get me away from the NOPD? You don’t think I haven’t noticed the bonuses you give with each week’s check? You’re as subtle as a bull, Owen.”

Eyes as black as his own snapped with annoyance. “Am I not allowed to worry about you?” Owen demanded, stepping in close. “You’re the only family I have left. Sue me for wanting you out of a job that can land you in a goddamn casket just like our parents.”

Silence creaked in the parlor, the only sound Rocky’s happy panting.

And then, roughly, “Do you know that I pick up every number with a 504-area code? All times of the day and night, Gage. I never stop thinking it’s going to be you they’re calling to tell me about. Injured. Dead. Fuck.”

Owen twisted away, dragging his hands through his messy hair, and Gage . . .

Heart beating a mile a minute, Gage struggled to piece together his fractured thoughts. He’d always known that Owen worried about him, but he’d never quite realized quite how much.

Ignoring Rocky’s growl when he stood, Gage wrapped a hand around his brother’s neck, pulling him close so their foreheads touched—just like when they’d been kids believing that it had the ability to unleash their super awesome twin powers.

“I’m good, brother,” he said, staring into identical black-hued eyes, “I might be younger than you, but you don’t have to live terrified that I’m going to get hurt. We’re good, you hear me?”

“Then why is it different for my sister?”

Gage’s head jerked toward Danvers. “What?”

Dark brows lowered as the dude’s creepy gray eyes watched him. “I said, why is it different for Lizzie? Let’s be honest, Owen has to put up with your ass. Lizzie does not, which if we listen to reason—that’s me, by the way—then Lizzie doesn’t have to stick around. So, if we go with that, then that means she cares more about you than Owen does. He’s blood, she’s not.” He looked to Owen. “No offense, man.”

Owen held up his hands. “None taken.”

Gage’s head felt ready to burst. “That is straight up the most convoluted, shittiest reasoning I’ve ever heard.”

“This is coming to you free of charge, Harvey. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

The hand that fed him? “Do you hear yourself?”

Danvers folded his hands behind his head, clasping his neck. “My wife says that to me at least four times per week.”

Gage clenched his hands to keep from throwing them up in the air.

“You might not know this, Harvey, but my wife works for Crime Lab—or rather she did until a few weeks ago. We’re about to have a baby girl named Elizabeth, officially. Anyway, she worked Crime Lab and I worked in homicide. Her dad was the police chief of Miami until he retired last year.” As if sensing his owner needed him, Rocky dropped his chin to Danvers’ thigh. In a low voice, Lizzie’s brother said, “You don’t think my wife worried about me every day? You don’t think I didn’t freak out when I’d call and she wouldn’t pick up? Hell, she nearly died—” He broke off, eyes slamming shut. “I worry every goddamn day, and you know what? I wouldn’t trade my life with her for anything else. She’s my best friend, my lover, the mother of our future baby girl. I would lay down my life for that woman, even if I knew something might cut my life short. Because any years with her are better than none.”

It was suddenly hard to breathe. Gage opened his mouth, seeking air, life, and yet he could only hear Danvers’ words: any years with her are better than none.

“Do you feel that way about my sister?”

Yes.

The word reverberated in his chest, pounding at his ribs as though demanding freedom, demanding exit.

It wasn’t until he heard Danvers say, “damn right you do,” that Gage realized he’d spoken at all.

“I don’t want to let her down,” he rasped, “that’s my biggest fear. That I’ll drop the ball and she’ll wake up one day and realize that she’s lived a life she’s hated. That would . . . that would kill me.”

“Easy, then don’t let her down.”

Easy. I choose to be happy.

A rough laugh broke free from his chest. Maybe he needed to take his girl’s advice—finally.

“What do I do?”

“Well, you’re in luck, Harvey, because you just so happen to know a guy who’s pulled off some epic couple reunions in the last few years.”

Gage dropped his eyes to the dog. “You talkin’ about Rocky?”

Danvers rolled his eyes. “Me, asshole. You have me.”

God help them all.