Rattle Some Cages (Battle Crows MC 3)

It almost made me want to move over to her deck.

Instead, I stayed where I was as she said, “I haven’t had coffee. It’s hot in the house now because the power is still off, and I’m contemplating going into town just so I can find something to eat.”

Fuckin’ same.

“Same.” It nearly mirrored my thoughts. “I would’ve driven already, but I’m blocked in thanks to my sister’s mammoth truck.”

I looked back out to the water.

“I noticed the tightness of all the cars yesterday,” she murmured, noticing her eyes going to me when I lifted my cigarette to my mouth and inhaled out of the corner of my eye.

“You smoke?”

I looked up from my contemplation of the waves, and what I thought might be a dolphin, to the porch next door.

Bringing the cigarette to my lips, I shrugged. “When I want to.”

Which, lately, was a lot.

“Why?”

I thought about her question for a second, then shrugged a shoulder before saying, “Because I want to.”

She sighed. “Don’t you know that causes cancer?”

I looked her up and down and said, “Everyone dies of something, sweetheart. Cancer. Heart disease. Obesity. Car crash. Fuckin’ everybody. Death doesn’t discriminate.”

She looked down at her hands and said, almost too quietly to hear, “My friend died of cancer. Lung cancer. Didn’t smoke a day in her life.”

I scrunched up my nose, not liking that I was reminding her of Faye.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, putting my cigarette out on the ashtray despite wanting to finish it.

We were quiet for a long time before she interrupted the silence with a random fact.

“According to the flag on the beach when I walked by it this morning, there’s a possibility for a strong rip current today,” Sabrina uttered quietly.

I looked over to find her staring at the waves, just like me.

“What’s a rip current look like?” I asked curiously.

She bit her lip, then shrugged both shoulders. “I have no freakin’ idea.”

I pulled out my phone and Googled it.

“Apparently,” I said as I read the first page. “It’s where there are waves coming in, and there’s a certain area that has no waves. Kind of like…” I looked up and pointed directly in front of us. “That.”

“Oh, great.” She groaned. “That’s exactly what we need. One right in front of our houses.” She hesitated. “I also learned that there have been eight drownings this month. A little kid that was boogie boarding got sucked out and then drowned. Another little boy, who was told to get out and allowed to go back in, drowned. A sheriff’s deputy tried to save him and drowned, too.”

That fuckin’ sucked.

“That’s no good,” I admitted. “I didn’t realize that people drowned all that often here.”

“There’re also a couple of young kids that took a dingy out when it was double red flags. They capsized and their bodies haven’t been recovered yet.” She hesitated. “Did you know there’s supposed to be an air show this weekend? Apparently, we have a perfect view of this supposed air show.”

Her topic changes gave me whiplash.

“I know,” I said. “I actually planned on going to it until I realized we had a front-row seat right from our balcony.”

“Do you know when it is?” she wondered.

My fingers itched to pick up my discarded cigarette.

Instead, I left it where it was and reached for my lighter, flicking the Zippo open and closed with the distinct click-clack that only those certain lighters could make.

She stood up and leaned against the railing, resting her elbows along the top railing before looking over at me and waiting for me to reply.

“Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” I answered. “Don’t know when, though.”

She hummed beneath her breath.

There was a loud commotion from inside my house that had us both turning in time to see my nieces press their faces to the glass.

“Looks like you’re wanted,” she mused.

I turned back around, ignoring them.

“They’re annoying,” I admitted. “Good kids, but annoying. Loud. My head fuckin’ hurts. Which was why I was out here smoking, because it’s either come out here and chill out, or hear the screeching.”

“Little girls screech,” Sabrina said. “God, you should’ve seen Faye and me together. My dad used to purposefully work on the days that we had sleepovers at my house.”

I snorted. “Honestly don’t blame him.”

“They can’t be that bad,” she teased.

Just as she said that, there was a solid crack, and I whipped around to see the glass wall behind me sporting a pretty large crack through the middle of it.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered.

“We’ll have to blame that on the hurricane,” Cannel whispered fiercely as she all but rushed out the door. “You didn’t see that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “Yeah, right. Good luck.”

Cannel grimaced and then waved at our neighbor. “How’s it going?”

Sabrina waved back quickly before turning back to the ocean, effectively dismissing her.