“Sorry,” Declan grumbled. “I didn’t know we were still twelve.”
Nick looked over at him and grinned. “Well, I’mnot.” Declan scowled and Nick sighed. “Jesus. You’ve been so tense lately. What’s up?”
“I just want to get back to work,” Declan said, tucking his hands into his wool peacoat and looking out the window.
Nick held a hand to his ear. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I could have sworn you said you wanted to go back to work.”
“You’re such a dick sometimes,” Dec mumbled.
Nick didn’t know if it was true in all big families, but in the Murphy family, everyone had a role to play. Nora, their only sister now that Erin was gone, was the rebel. She’d left for California nearly ten years earlier to take a position with the FBI. Nick got some satisfaction out of knowing she’d left the Bureau and ended up with a guy who was an amalgam of her father and brothers — a former Fed like herself who’d left to work for a bohemian vigilante who spent as much time surfing and jumping out of planes as he did hunting down criminals — but she was hardly ever around.
Ronan was the stoic older brother, alternately tight and at odds with their father, a former BPD cop who lived nearby and had finally come around on MIS. Nick was the studious one. He kept his headdown, focused on the task at hand, got shit done without a lot of noise. Finn, their youngest brother, hadn’t been home in over five years. Last Nick heard he was backpacking through Southeast Asia. Nick had no idea what he was looking for or when he’d be home.
And Declan, well, Declan was the playboy, a rogue without a care in the world beyond his next conquest.
It wasn’t that they weren’t allowed to change. Nick never thought he’d see the day where Ronan tried to cook for a woman and got all goo-goo-eyed over a baby, but that day had officially arrived, and Nick had to admit it looked good on his older brother.
But changing in a family like theirs was like being in the path of a hurricane — you usually saw it coming but it was still a big deal when it hit.
Nick couldn’t for the life of him figure out why Declan, who’d made it into work maybe three days a week back when they’d been taking new cases, was suddenly hungry to be back on the job.
“I asked what was wrong!” Nick protested.
“Yeah, and then mocked me when I told you,” Declan said.
“I’m sorry,” Nick said. “You can’t blame me forbeing surprised. Work hasn’t always been a top priority for you.”
Declan folded his arms over his chest. “I’m just fucking bored.”
“Can’t you… I don’t know, find some new woman to hook up with or something?”
Declan looked over at him, annoyance written all over his face. His blue eyes flashed under the dark hair he always wore a little shaggy. “I’m not a kid who needs a lollipop. Sex doesn’t solve everything.”
Nick hid his surprise. Declan’s exploits were legendary in the Murphy house, although he’d stopped bringing women home when Julia reached her last trimester. Come to think of it, he hadn’t been out overnight much lately either.
Nick tried to remember the last time Declan had been in a relationship and couldn’t. Was it in college? The girl with the red hair?
“Maybe you should take a trip,” Nick suggested. “Meet up with Finn.”
“Maybe you should fuck off,” Declan said.
“Jesus fuck. Sorry.” Nick pulled next to the curb and turned off the car. “You didn’t have to come.”
Declan reached for the door. “Better than staying home.”
Nick felt a surge of sympathy. MIS had beeneffectively shut down while the AG’s office conducted their investigation. They’d always been careful to make sure their jobs appeared aboveboard — just your standard investigative agency — but it was too dangerous to take new clients with an active investigation in the works.
Nick was fairly sure they’d come out okay when it was all said and done. He’d been meticulous with their finances, matching every deposit to a client and always filing taxes on time. But in the meantime, the business was down. Ronan had Julia and the baby and Nick had been preoccupied with Alexa and Leland Walker, but Declan had been twiddling his thumbs.
No wonder he was going crazy.
“It’s a big deal that I got this guy to meet with us,” Nick cautioned as they started around the corner to Theo’s Diner. “Do me a favor and check the attitude.”
Theo’s Diner was housed in a tiny brick building on a residential street corner. If Nick had blinked, he might have missed it, and he wondered how someone from New York had discovered the hole-in-the-wall.
They stepped through the doors and Nick wasinstantly glad it was 10:30 a.m. on a Monday. The place was nearly empty, which was a good thing because it looked like it could hold about ten people, max.
He’d never met the man they were meeting for breakfast, but he spotted him right away, knew he wasn’t local not just from the tailored cut of his shirt under the leather jacket and the Cartier watch on his wrist but from the shrewd light in his dark eyes.