Knowing that her level of hatred for him had probably been elevated to a blind murderous rage, he chuckled as he tucked her in. “Goodnight, Tinkerbelle,” he said, gently running his knuckles along her chin as he stood up.

“Rot in hell, you rotten bastard,” she mumbled around a loud yawn as she turned over and curled up on her side.

He couldn’t help but chuckle as he said, “I already am, Tink.”

*-*-*-*

5:55 AM

“How are you feeling?” came the abrupt demand a split second after she managed to open her eyes.

“Um, fine?” she answered, frowning in confusion as she looked around the dimly lit apartment that definitely wasn’t hers.

“Good,” Danny said, scooping her up in his arms and heading for the door before she could sputter an ounce of outrage at being manhandled by the jerk.

By the time she managed to open her mouth to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, he had her apartment door open. He stalked inside and dumped her ass on the couch before he turned around and stormed right back out. He slammed the door behind him, leaving her sitting on her couch, shaking her head and muttering, “Someone’s not a morning person.”

Chapter 7

“Fuck it,” he said, dropping his bag on the floor and pulling his cellphone out of his back pocket. For another minute he stood there, debating making the call that had the power to make his life a living hell.

In the end, exhaustion and the stabbing pain shooting through his shoulder and his hand, the part of his hand that he could still feel anyway, made the decision for him. Hoping that his uncle was too distracted by the coffee truck to answer his phone, he called his Uncle Jared and waited, praying that voicemail picked up.

Much like last night when he prayed that Tink would stop wiggling enticingly beneath him and put him out of his misery by falling asleep, his prayers went unanswered.

“Are you stopping to get donuts?” his Uncle demanded after the third ring, sounding hopeful.

“No, I-”

“Why not, you cheap bastard?” Uncle Jared demanded, cutting him off and making him shake his head in disgust.

“Because I’m not coming in today,” he snapped before his uncle could break out into a thirty-minute rant about how all his nephews were nothing more than insensitive cheap bastards.

There was a heavy pause before his uncle asked, “Are you sick?”

“No,” he said, biting back a curse as he closed his useless hand in a fist, determined to get through this phone conversation without losing his temper.

Another pause.

“If you’re not sick then why aren’t you coming into work?” his Uncle demanded, clearly suspicious and most likely pulling out his personal cell phone at that very moment to send a group text to everyone in the family, putting them on alert.

“Because I spent the night with a woman and I’m exhausted,” Danny said, playing with the truth in order to save himself from an army of Bradfords descending on him to make sure that he wasn’t at death’s door.

There was another heavy pause before his uncle cleared his throat, clearly surprised. “You spent the night with a woman?” he asked, trying to hide his relief, but he did a piss poor job that had Danny feeling guilty about lying to his uncle.

“Yeah,” he said, dropping his head back and sighing, wishing that he didn’t have to resort to doing this, but he was exhausted and needed some sleep and he wouldn’t get that if his uncle thought even for a second that he was sick or hurt.

“Oh, well, ummmm, alright then. Just, umm, don’t make a habit out of this,” his uncle said, stumbling over his words and sounding relieved instead of pissed, which only confirmed his suspicion that his family was still terrified that something bad was going to happen to him.

“I won’t,” he promised, because if there was one thing that he knew for certain, it was that he would never have the chance to hold a woman like Tinkerbelle in his arms again.

*-*-*-*

“This is not fucking happening,” Danny said, grabbing the pillow off his head and throwing it against the wall as the pounding on his apartment door continued. He looked at his alarm clock and muttered a dark curse.

Only an hour had passed since he’d called his uncle. He’d thought he’d have more time before he was forced to deal with one of his well-meaning relatives. Apparently he’d underestimated their level of concern as well as his ability to bullshit his uncle. That belief was confirmed less than thirty seconds later when the pounding suddenly stopped. He didn’t bother rolling out of bed. There was no point.

“You lying bastard,” Uncle Jared muttered, sighing heavily as he stepped in the room and leaned back against the wall, his worried gaze moving over him, pausing on his shoulder and hand before his uncle shot him a questioning look.

Danny returned his sigh as he threw his arm across his eyes. “What gave me away?”

“The fact that you’re a recluse,” the annoyingly familiar voice announced, forcing Danny to move his arm and open his eyes in time to see his brother walk into the room.

His gaze shifted from Aidan’s face, noting the poorly concealed concern to the black backpack thrown over his shoulder and muttered a curse. “I don’t need your help, Aidan,” he snapped, wishing that he’d just sucked it up like all those other times and went to work to avoid bullshit like this.

“You want to tell me what happened to that shoulder and your hand?” Aidan said, sitting on the bed next to him as he placed his bag carefully on the floor by his feet.