Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

“Jealous?”

“Hell yes! You promised me your virgin ass,” Snow snapped back. The doc was still quick even if he was running on zero sleep.

“Fuck, you’ve got all the ass you can handle right now.”

Snow made a low noise, almost like he was purring, and Rowe rolled his eyes as he turned at the light and into the main flow of traffic. If there was ever a man he thought would be a permanent bachelor, it was Dr. Ashton Frost, but Jude had proved that to be so damn wrong. Rowe had never seen the doc so happy.

“That’s true,” Snow conceded. “Seriously, Ward. Are you good? Having a stranger answer your phone after the fire? You can understand why Lucas would be worried, right?”

“I’m good. An old Army friend stopped in town for a visit. It was just a joke.”

“Fine, then grow a set and call Lucas so he’ll stop waking me up!”

“Yeah, yeah. You working tonight? Thought I might bring him around. Get this shit out of the way.”

There was a long pause and Rowe actually looked down at the phone to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped.

“Are you fucking him?” Snow asked softly, sounding far too serious for Rowe’s comfort.

“No! He’s going to be in town for a while. He’s bound to meet you assholes eventually.”

“Whatever. I’m off. Too many long nights recently.”

“Cool. Catch you later.”

“Rowe.”

“Yeah?”

“Fucking call Lucas.”

Rowe sighed. “I will.”

“Your ass is still mine,” Snow muttered right before hanging up.

Rowe glanced over at Noah, who was just staring at the phone with a strange, unreadable expression. Snow was something of an acquired taste. He’d mellowed a bit since finding Jude but few people would have noticed. The doc didn’t pull punches and he certainly didn’t censor what he was thinking for anyone. That was never going to change.

Pulling into the restaurant parking, Rowe threw the truck into park and turned off the engine. “Go inside and get a table. I’ve got to call Lucas and tell him it was a fucking joke. It’ll just be a minute.”

“You think you can untwist his panties in only a minute?” Noah said with a smirk.

“No, that’s Andrei’s job. I’m just keeping him from sending out the search teams.”

Noah opened his door with a nod. “Good luck with that.”Chapter 5Noah sat in the booth and immediately ordered a pot of coffee while waiting for Rowe to join him. He needed the caffeine because his brain was struggling to process the information that he’d been given on the drive to the restaurant. Dropping his head into his hands while resting his elbows on the table, Noah swallowed back a groan.

When he’d come up with the brilliant idea to go see his best and only friend in the world, to check on him after the death of his wife, he’d conveniently forgotten that Rowe had this whole other group of incredibly close friends who were essentially a family to him. Rowe had told him about Lucas and the others on some of their calls, but Noah had been so excited by the prospect of seeing Rowe again that he’d overlooked these men. What the fuck was he doing? Rowe definitely didn’t need him hanging around, complicating his life.

Not to mention that Rowe obviously had something else going on, something bad, if he was worried about protection in his own home. If Rowe and his friends had everything in hand, maybe his best option was to grab his bag after breakfast and head out…somewhere.

The thought of wandering aimlessly like he’d been doing for months filled his heart with lead. He just…couldn’t.

Noah’s head jerked up at the sound of Rowe loudly dropping into the booth opposite him. The server followed right behind him, pouring a cup of coffee for each and then leaving behind a fresh pot along with a bowl of little servings of creamer. The scents of frying bacon and hot syrup made his stomach growl. The place had only half a dozen diners spread around the restaurant, mostly of the blue-haired variety sipping their coffee and flipping through the paper. Noah had taken the seat with his back to the door, leaving him with little to look at besides a framed picture of a rooster…and Rowe.

His friend looked up from the menu in his hands and smiled. “Relax. Lucas is over his shit fit. Apparently Andrei needed some stitches last night when his latest job got rough. He’s still pissed over that.”

“They been together long?”

Shrugging, Rowe looked down at the laminated menu filled with pictures of pancakes, waffles, omelets, and breakfast meats. “More than a year. We have a pool going on when he’ll finally propose.”

Rowe’s mouth split into that insanely gorgeous grin and it was like getting punched in the gut. It was that same smile that had broken Noah so many years ago. Maybe it was worse now after the passage of so much time.