Knox glared at her as he turned over a coffee cup. “Not a booty call—not that it’s any of your damn business if it were—but I had a family thing to deal with.”

Deacon said, “Everything all right?”

“Now it is. But I’m fucking tired and need a gallon of coffee to wake up.”

He started to pour a cup and Shiori said, “That’s not—”

“Jesus, She-Cat. Give me two goddamn minutes before you start in on me.”

Fine. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.

Knox took a drink from his cup. A grimace twisted his mouth, and he turned and spewed the liquid into the sink. “What the motherfuck is that shit?”

“Tea.”

“Why? That’s a coffeepot, not a teapot.” His eyes narrowed. “You did that on purpose.”

“I was the first one here, so I made tea. When you’re the first one here, you can make coffee.” She smiled and sipped her tea.

Knox looked at Deacon for support.

“Don’t you drag me into this either. She tried to tell you, but as usual, y’all prefer to snap and snarl at each other instead of listening.”

“Are you drinking tea?” Knox demanded.

Deacon grinned at Shiori. “It ain’t bad if you dump half a cup of sugar in it.”

Knox snagged a Coke out of the fridge. “For the record, I’m buying one of those one-cup coffeemakers so this never happens again.”

“Or you could be on time?” Shiori said sweetly.

*   *   *

“I didn’t have to sit through this many meetings in the army,” Knox complained the next afternoon when they were gathered in the conference room.

“Sorry to inconvenience you when you were so busy upstairs playing footsie with Katie, but I don’t have the backstory on this situation,” Shiori retorted.

“Jealous, She-Cat?” he purred. “’Cause I could talk Katie into letting you play footsie with us sometime.”

“Stop bein’ an ass, Knox, or she’ll put you in charge of answering Ronin’s e-mail,” Deacon warned.

Not so much with the “I got your back, bro” between these two today.

“This e-mail came in last night.” She picked up the printout and read, “‘Greetings, Sensei Black. I’ve recently had a philosophical difference with the leaders of the Cherry Creek Martial Arts Studio and have opted to stop training with them. This leaves me in a bind because the only other dojo I’d consider training in would be ABC, which is now part of Black Arts. I was part of the group of students who stormed into your dojo several years ago when Steve Atwood threw down the fight challenge.’” She glanced up. “What the hell is that about?”

“Steve Atwood is a cocky prick, and our students were beating his students in tournaments. So he showed up here one night with thirty of his highest-ranking students and challenged Ronin to a public fight.”

“Of course Ronin accepted,” Shiori said.

Knox nodded. “He might’ve beat him to death if I hadn’t stepped in. Anyway, Atwood lost some students”—he grinned—“to us when the parents realized what a fucking tool bag Atwood had become. But as far as I know, we haven’t taken on any new students from that martial-arts club since that time.”

“That incident is why we have hard-core security before anyone can even enter the dojo,” Deacon pointed out. “In hindsight that ended up being a good thing.”

“This guy is a third-degree black belt. And he doesn’t want to join our program but Blue’s.” Right after Shiori had come to the United States, Alvares “Blue” Curacao’s Brazilian jujitsu dojo, ABC, had become part of Black Arts. “So before we bring this up with Blue and ABC, Black Arts needs to have a united decision.”

“Tell him we aren’t interested in further discussion,” Knox stated.

“No. Set up a meeting. With me,” Deacon said. “That way he’ll see our updated security and that we don’t fuck around. I’m a good judge of sincerity.”

Knox snorted. “You? Come on, D. You hate fucking everybody. You are the only instructor who actively tries to get students to drop from your classes.”

“Better he sees that than the milk and fucking cookies you’ve been serving the students in your classes recently.”

Anger emanated from Knox, distorting the casual atmosphere like a poisonous cloud. He remained deadly still. Several long moments ticked by before he said, “Your opinion is noted, Yondan. You are excused from this discussion.”