Brennan stepped into the kitchen, and Connor followed him. “I’m guessing you and Liza were pretty busy since I didn’t hear from either of y’all after Friday.”
Removing his shades and slipping them into the inside pocket of his tailored, slate gray suit jacket, Brennan set the coffee on the counter and opened a cabinet to retrieve a large, black mug. “I haven’t seen Liza since Friday.” He removed the lid from the to-go coffee and poured the contents of the paper cup into the mug. “I can’t speak for her, but you didn’t hear frommebecause I’m pissed at you.”
“Oh.” Connor cocked his head at a dramatic angle, standing next to Brennan. “So, you weren’table to sweet talk her intomarrying youafter all.” He slapped Brennan’s back. “Tough break, Riley.”
Brennan stood up straight, directly facing Connor and holding the steaming mug of coffee at the level of his chest. “You’re very fortunate that the Corps turned me into a complete pacifist, because you honestly deserve for me to throw this coffee right in your fucking face.”
Connor gave a sardonic grin. Brennan wasa total pacifist, and he’d never do anything like that. Not to anybody, but especially not to Connor. “Nobody’s stopping you, bruh. Go ahead.”
Brennan narrowed his eyes to slits, lifting the mug to take a long sip without so much as flinching at the scalding coffee.
“So, how’d it go?” Connor went on. “What’d she say? Did she let you down gently? Did she quit? Was that before orafteryou took her home?”
“You live in an alternate plane of reality, Sarge.” Brennan stared him down for another second before pivoting and stepping out of the kitchen.
Connor offered a caustic laugh and followed him again. “Oh come on now, Riley. We gotta commiserate over this! Y’know, since for the first timeever,you and me have been with the same—”
“Listen to me, you piece of shit.” Brennan stopped in his tracks to turn around. “Ididtake her home. But that wasafterI took her to get something to eat, and you know what happened the whole time I was doingthat?”
Connor pointed at him with two finger guns and raised his brows sarcastically. “Y’all sucked face like a couple of teenagers.”
The muscle in Brennan’s jaw pulsed. “She cried the whole time. Over you. I talked her out of giving up on you just because you had a shitty moment.” He pivoted again and started back up the hall toward the front room as he continued. “AndthenI took her home and made her go to bed,because…” He stopped in front of Jimmy’s desk and gestured at him with the coffee mug. “Hey, Jim, why isn’t Liza here today?”
Jimmy was drumming his fingers on his desk in time to a record playing. “Oh, she called me yesterday ‘cuz she’s got a fever.” He continued to drum the desk and subtly bob his head with the beat. “She sounded pretty damn sick.”
Brennan turned over his free hand in a grand gesture at Liza’s empty desk and said nothing.
Connor squinted, flicking his gaze back and forth between the two of them. “Seriously?”
“Yep.” Jimmy bobbed his head with more gusto and switched to slapping the desk with his open palms. “Poor thing. One of us should go take her some chicken soup or something.”
Connor smirked. “You gonna go take her some chicken soup, Riley?”
Brennan slammed the coffee mug down on Jimmy’s desk and fisted Connor’s collar, shoving him to walk backward down the hall and back into the kitchen. “No, Sarge,you’regoing to take her some fucking chicken soup. You’re gonna take her some soup, and some OJ, and some fucking cough drops, andall that shit, because you need to grovel like a mother fucker right now.”
Connor lifted his brows high. “OhamI?”
Brennan lowered his voice to a growl. “I have hadeveryopportunity to go after her,includingon Friday night, but I haven’t, and Iwon’t. Do you know why?”
This kind of tone and expression from Brennan was rare, and Connor’s bitter snark over the whole thing faded. It was clear his friend was being honest, and Connor said nothing.
“Blood is what makes you related,” Brennan said, releasing Connor’s shirt and taking a step back, “but loyalty is what make you family.” He slipped his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “You’re my brother, Sarge. I’m not going to do that to you. No matter what. And you need to go over there right now prepared to wait on her hand and foot until she feels better, because she was ready to give up on all this shit. Mostly you.” He slipped his hand out of his pocket to point at Connor’s face. “You have a chance right now. So don’t fuck it up.”
Brennan started to walk away but paused at the last second and turned to him. “You know, you really are even more of a dick than I thought you were even capable of.”
He was right about that, and that’s exactly why Connor had to go.
15
Irish Channel, New Orleans
Liza’s house was pretty easy to find. There was only one elementary school on Constance Street, and there was only onecharming, butitty-bittyhouse across from it. It was sunny yellow, with white trim, had a bright red door, and was even smaller than the houses on the Point. Probably a more suitable alternative to an apartment for someone of Liza’s age and accomplishments in life, but equally low maintenance.
Connor made his way up the concrete path toward the house carrying a bag of sick-day supplies of all varieties in one hand and a take-out container of some scratch-made chicken soup from a café up the street in the other. As he approached the front door, he swallowed his pride and braced himself for her to slam the door in his face.
He shifted the soup into his opposite hand and then knocked. And then he waited.
Nothing.
