Passing the Torch (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation 1)

“You think I could come in and not stand on your doorstep?”

I pushed open the door all of the way and motioned for him to come in. His demeanor had piqued my curiosity. “Come on in. I was just sitting down to dinner.”

He walked through the doorway and brushed against me. “Dinner sounds good.”

I hadn’t exactly offered him dinner, but I had made plenty. “Um, why don’t you sit at the counter and I’ll make you a plate.” I nodded to the kitchen, and he headed that way.

I ducked into the living room and grabbed my plate and muted the TV. I didn’t need a rerun of 90210 playing in the background while I tried to concentrate on what the hell had happened to Hero.

“Nice place, Sunshine.” Hero sat on one of the stools at the raised counter.

I walked to the other side into the kitchen and set my plate down. “Thanks. I'm pretty fond of it.” I moved to the fridge. “Did you want something to drink?” I didn’t know how Hero had come to be in my house and sitting in my kitchen, but I figured I should offer him a beverage.

“Beer?”

I nodded. “You are in luck. I happen to have your plain old beer and a couple of the girly ones.”

“Girly ones?” he laughed.

I opened the fridge and grabbed my rather large selection of beer. It was a lot for one person, but after all, I did live in the land of beer and cheese. “I think this one is appley, this one has a bit of a lemon flavor.” I held up one with a badger on it. “I picked up this one at the gas station the other day. You can’t go wrong with a grumpy looking badger, right?”

Hero chuckled, and it didn’t sound as flat or forced as it had before. “I’ll go for the grumpy badger.”

“Excellent choice, though I don’t know what it tastes like.” I set the beer in front of him and left one of the lemony ones out for me. Then I pushed the others back in the fridge and turned to the stove where I had left all the fixings for the tacos. “I hope tacos are okay.” I glanced over my shoulder at Hero and watched him take a long drink of his beer.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Tacos are always okay in my world, Sunshine.”

Well, I had to agree with him. “Well, good.” I would have found something else for him to eat if he had told me he hated tacos, but then I also would have contemplated kicking him out because only psychos didn’t like tacos in some way, shape, or form.

He quietly drank his beer while I made a plate and set it in front of him. He grabbed my plate and slid it in front of the empty stool next to him. “Sit with me, Sunshine.”

The man really needed to stop calling me that. Mostly because whenever he said it, I would do whatever he wanted me to. I grabbed my beer and sat down on the stool next to him. “Hi,” I mumbled.

He chuckled and leaned back. “Hi, Sunshine.” He took a pull from his beer and looked at the label. “Grumpy badger beer isn’t half bad.”

I grabbed a stray piece of shredded cheese and popped it in my mouth. “Good to know.”

“Sorry I didn’t drop back into the shop. Some stuff came up with the club, and then, I was busy the rest of the day.”

I shrugged as if I hadn’t minded that he didn’t come back over. “It’s okay. I was pretty busy today.” I had been. Sort of.

“You catch the news tonight?”

I tipped my head to the side. That was kind of an odd question. “Uh, no. I tend not to watch the news lately. Too much bad in the world.”

“That’s life,” Hero replied grimly.

“I suppose,” I agreed. “Though, I guess I don’t want to hear about it all of the time. I know what’s going on in the world but I try not to focus on the negative.”

Hero nodded and took another drink.

“What’s wrong, Hero?” I asked. “Did something happen today?” I didn’t know if he would actually tell me, but it seemed like he wanted to. I was done beating around the bush with small talk and odd questions.

He picked at the label on his beer and peeled off a section of it. “Got a call from one of the guys this morning. One of the girls who works at the club hadn’t been in for the past two days. Luna was worried about her and wanted to run out to her house and make sure she was okay.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” I had no idea who Luna was, but I would have wanted to do the same thing.

Hero nodded. “Yeah, it was. I headed out with two other guys from the club and Luna. We got to her t