Melancholy

“He’s just broody,” Maddox grates. “He’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” I say, still not convinced. “So why are you all here?”

Maddox runs his fingers up my bare thigh and I shiver. “You’ve been busting for company, and I’ve got business to take care of. You get the girls, and, lucky for you, Mack . . . and Krypt, Tyke and I are gonna go do what we gotta do.”

“You could have just taken me to the clubhouse . . .” I point out.

“Yeah.” Ash grins. “But there we can’t paint our nails, do our hair, talk about girly things and eat chocolate while drinking wine.”

I grin. “Girls’ night?”

Petra grins. She’s a really pretty girl in her late twenties. She’s got short, pixie-cut black hair and green eyes. She’s a busty girl, but it somehow suits her personality, which is big and bubbly. “Girls’ night!”

I turn to Maddox, grinning up at him. “You’re giving me a girls’ day?”

He leans down, brushing his lips across my ear. “Mmmm.”

“And I have to baby-fuckin’-sit,” Mack grunts.

“Sendin’ somethin’ your way later, bro.” Maddox laughs. “Don’t worry.”

“It better have tits, an ass, and a fine pussy.”

“Aw Chief,” I tease. “We could do your hair, if you like?”

“Ohhh,” Indi finally pipes up. “He does have nice hair.”

I laugh and high-five her. Indi is close to my age, which is nice. She’s only been an old lady for about six months, but she’s good value. She has to be, to put up with Zaid. He’s a grumpy fool, but he loves the little blond bombshell. And that’s exactly what Indi is. Blond, blue eyed, big breasted and super fine.

“I’ll fucking drop you, Santana,” Mack growls. “You fuckin’ brat.”

I laugh. “You love me, Chief. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure your hair looks a million bucks.”

Maddox pinches my thigh and I squeal. “Hey!”

“Don’t tease the man.”

“You offering to take his place, handsome?”

He snorts. “No fucker is touchin’ my hair.”

“Aw, precious.”

He slaps my thigh now, and Ash laughs hard. “Come on, Maddox. It’ll be fun.”

He grunts and stands, putting me down. “I’m gettin’ a coffee, then gettin’ the fuck outta here.”

We all laugh as the guys stand, Krypt taking Tyke’s chair and wheeling him out. I rush over to him before he reaches the door. “Hey, Krypt.”

He turns, staring at me, but not before I see his eyes flicker to Maddox. I put my hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”

He nods. “Fine.”

“Krypt . . .”

He stares at me. “I’m fine, Tana. Just . . . be careful, okay?”

Careful? With what?

“I’m safe here . . .”

“Not with that.” He stares up at Maddox. “With him.”

Then he pushes Tyke out the door. Ash comes over and we both watch him go to load Tyke on the bike.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him . . .” she says. “He’s been off for days.”

“Yeah,” I say, watching him. “I hope he’s okay.”

“He’ll be fine,” she takes my hand. “Come on, we’ve got the best day planned.”

I smile. “I can’t wait.”

~*~*~*~

The guys leave a few minutes later, and we’re left alone with Mack. He doesn’t give us the chance to taunt him, he just disappears down into Maddox’s basement, no doubt to punch the shit out of the punching bag to save his sanity. Poor Mack, he gets left with the girls more often than not.

“So,” Ash says, laying out bags of food on the counter. “Where do we start?”

I stare at all the food, hair and make-up products, and movies she’s got laid out.

“Jesus . . . you thought this through.”

“Of course we did,” Indi says, pulling out the wine. “You’ve been prisoner for a while now. We wanted to make being imprisoned fun.”

“Besides,” Petra adds, “We want gossip on you and Prez.”

I snort. “There’s no gossip.”

They all stop and raise their brows.

I laugh. “Fine, there’s a little.”

Giggles break out between them, and we begin preparing food to nibble on.

“You finally took the next step, then?” Ash asks, emptying a packet of crackers onto a plate.

I flush. “Ah, yeah.”

“Well!” Indi encourages. “Come on!”

I shake my head with a laugh. “I need liquid courage before I tell that story.”

“It’s too early in the morning for wine,” Ash pouts. “We have to wait until at least lunch time for that. You can’t leave us hanging.”

I snort, crossing my arms. “Fine, but it’s graphic . . .”

They all laugh and we take the plate of food and beauty products to the lounge, where we all throw ourselves down. I get the beauty treatment first, with Petra doing my nails, Ash doing my toenails, and Indi doing my make-up.

“Come on, you’re killing us . . .” Petra says, filing my thumbnail.

“Okay,” I sigh. “It was amazing.”

“More,” Indi encourages. “Where did you do it?”