What the hell was she doing here? And how did she know where I lived?

The woman stood. “Hi, Talon.”

“Hi…”

“Julie,” she said.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen you in a while, and I was worried about you.”

Worried about me? She didn’t even know me. We’d had sex a couple times. In fact, the last time I had gone to see her, I hadn’t been able to perform, so I’d left. Kind of embarrassing.

“As you can see, I’m fine. So you can go now.”

“Talon,” Marj said.

Yeah, I was being rude. But I had no interest in this girl, and for her to come over here was pretty presumptuous. Marj’s clenched jawline indicated that she wasn’t thrilled Julie was here either.

“Can I talk to you alone for a minute, Talon?” Marj turned to Julie. “You don’t mind, do you? I need to talk to my brother about some…business.”

Julie smiled. “Of course not. I’ll just wait here for you.”

Before I could tell Julie not to bother to wait, Marjorie yanked me down the hallway nearly to my bedroom.

“What the hell is she doing here?”

“You think I know?”

“Well, she came here to see you, Talon.”

“Not at my invitation.”

“What do we do with her now?”

“We tell her to leave.”

“That would be rude.”

“You think I care?”

“She seems to be under the impression that you two are…more than friends.”

This was getting beyond irritating. “Her impression would be wrong.”

“Talon, who is she exactly?”

“She’s a waitress, Marjorie. I met her in Grand Junction a while ago. She and I had…a couple of…dates. And honestly, I’m not really comfortable talking to you about this.”

“Look, if you’re going to be cheating on my best friend—”

“Your best friend? You mean Jade? Jade and I don’t have anything between us.”

“Except sex?”

Jesus Christ. Did I really need to be talking to my baby sister about these things? “Look, I know you two are best friends and probably tell each other everything—”

“You got that right.”

“But whatever has gone on between Jade and me is none of your business.”

“You are my brother, and Jade is my best friend. That makes this every bit my business. Maybe not the relationship part, but the part that affects me. Now who the hell is this waitress chick, and why did she think she could show up at our home?”

I shook my head. “Beats the hell out of me. I didn’t even know she knew where to find me.”

“Well, I assume you gave her your name.”

“Of course.”

“The Steels are pretty damned easy to find,” Marj said. “I’m going to invite her to stay for dinner.”

I jerked my head forward. “What?”

“You heard me. I want to find out what’s going on between you two.”

“I just told you what’s going on between us. A whole lot of nothing. Now either you can get rid of her, or I will.”

“Nope. She’s staying for dinner.” Marj flounced off.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting at the kitchen table flanked by my sister and a woman I’d fucked a couple of times. Could this have been any more awkward? I stayed quiet while she and Marj chattered like a couple of prairie hens.

“So where do you work?”

“The Fox and the Hound Bar and Grill in Grand Junction.”

“And that’s where you met Talon?”

Julie nodded and swallowed a bite of tamale. “Yeah, couple months or so ago. Wow, this food is delicious.”

“Oh, yes, Felicia is a gem.” Marj smiled curtly. “Tell me a little more about yourself, Julie.”

I rolled my eyes. This dinner had gone on long enough. I listened with only one ear as Julie rattled on and on about how she wanted to start going to night school once she got her GED.

Blah, blah, blah. Sure, that would happen.

“If you’ll excuse me, you two, I need to make a quick phone call. I have to check on my cooking class schedule for next week.” Marj stood and walked from the room.

Shit. Now what?

“So, Talon, what’s going on with you?” Julie asked. “I thought we had something special between us.”

Chapter Ten

Jade

Haley had drawn up a beautiful image of the phoenix and had transferred the ink outline to my back, when my phone rang.

“You need to get that?” she asked.

“No. Let’s go ahead and get this done tonight. I’m really excited.”

“Awesome. Let me get the colors I need, and then I’ll start the outline. You’ve never had a tattoo before, right?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, it’s going to hurt, but it’s not quite as bad as most people think it is.”

“I’ve heard it feels like a bunch of pinpricks. I want to do it anyway. I feel really strongly about this image. It resonates with me right now.”

“Good enough.”

Then my phone started again.

I let out a huff. “Let me just get that and then turn the damned thing off.”

I grabbed my phone. Marj. “Hey, Marj, what you need?”

“Jade, you have to come out to the house.”

“I’m kind of in the middle of something right now.”

“Get out of it. This is an emergency.”

My pulse sped up. “An emergency? Are you okay? Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, but Talon’s got a girl here, and I need you here.”

“A girl?” Jealousy knifed through my body.

“He didn’t invite her here. She just showed up. Some cocktail waitress skank from the city. You need to get out here now before he falls in bed with her or something.”

“Why didn’t he just kick her out?”

“Well…I invited her to dinner.”

“You invited her to dinner? Why the hell would you do that?”

“Because I wanted to find out what was going on between her and Talon.”