Crash’s eyebrows shot up as if to say ‘seriously’.
Dog put his hands up. “Don’t ask me. Call him. Maybe he figures she’ll be safe at the Batcave,” he offered, grinning.
“The fuck of it is, the guy’s probably gonna pay up, and it’ll be a wasted trip as far as getting the satisfaction of beating his face in,” Crash speculated.
Dog grinned at him. “Chill out. You can always take your sexual frustration out on Gre
en on fight night.”
Crash turned to Green. “You fightin’ next week?”
“I threw my name in, yeah.”
Crash nodded.
Shannon walked up with the coffee. Wolf jumped to hold the door for her. “Ma’am.”
She smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
Of all his brothers, Wolf was the biggest flirt of all of them, which was partially how he got his name. The ladies stood about as much chance with him as Little Red Riding Hood had with the Big Bad Wolf. Crash suddenly felt like putting his fist through Wolf’s handsome face.
She walked forward with four mugs of coffee on a silver tray, like she was serving the queen afternoon tea. “Sorry this took so long, boys.”
“That’s all right, we still had forty-four bottles of beer on the wall,” Red Dog teased, flicking the ashes of his cigarette to the side.
“Which one’s got the rat poison in it?” Wolf asked her, with a wink, peering down at the tray she held out to him.
She smiled up at him. “All of them.”
He looked crushed. “Darlin’, I didn’t do anything.”
She winked at him. “Guilt by association, darlin’.”
He clutched at his chest. “Ahh, stabbed through the fuckin’ heart.”
She held the tray up to him and tilted her head to the side with a smile. He grinned and took one. She held the tray low, offering them each a mug. Dog, Green, and finally, she held the tray out with the last remaining mug to Crash. He frowned down at the tray in her hands. “Is that my pizza pan?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
Dog let out a snort. “Huh, ingenious little gal, ain’t she?” He took a sip of his coffee, grimaced, and then reached over and grabbed the mug out of Crash’s hands, switching with him. “Here, I think I got the one with the poison.”
Shannon glared at him.
“What? I’m kidding. It’s what we do,” he made a circle motion with his hand, including them all. “We make fun of ya, ‘till it gets old, and then we move on.”
Green looked at Shannon, who was holding the empty tray behind her back, and then he looked back down at his own mug. “Wait a minute, how come you’re not having any?”
She just gave him a sly grin, then turned and sashayed back inside.
The four of them looked at each other a moment, and then, simultaneously, all four brothers turned their mugs upside down, pouring the contents out on the roof.
A half hour later, the men trouped back in. Crash glanced over, finding Shannon in the bedroom unpacking her bag. He carried the four empty mugs to the kitchen and set them in the sink. Then he walked the guys to the elevator. “I’ll meet you at the club.”
Green grinned, glancing from Crash to the bedroom. “You ain’t got enough time to smooth those ruffled feathers, son.”
“Sure he does,” Wolf put in. “You just need to know how to handle women, which you don’t. But you can’t help it, can you, Green? It’s hard to control a woman that’s not inflatable.”
Green made a grab for Wolf’s throat, but Red Dog pushed him off. “Calm the fuck down, Green. Shit, can’t anybody tease you anymore?”