The Black Dagger Brotherhood (47 page)

“Christ. You can be a real pain in the ass, you know that? No impulse control but totally single-minded. Helluva combination.”

p. 74

“Okay, whadda we got here,” he said, opening his own. “Let's have the Chicken Alfredo. The NY strip, rare. And a cheeseburger, also rare. Double on the fries. And some nachos. Yeah, I want the nachos with everything on them. Double that, too, will you?”

Mary could only stare as he closed the menu and waited.

The waitress looked a little awkward. “Is all that for both you and your sister?”

As if family obligation was the only reason a man like him would be out with a woman like her.
Oh
, man . . .

“No, that's for me. And she's my date, not my sister. Mary?”

“I . . . ah, I'll just have a Caesar salad, whenever his”â
feeding trough?â
“dinner comes.
”

pp. 87-88

“You're getting into some kind of shape, cop.”

“Aw, come on, now.” Butch grinned. “Don't let that shower we took go to your head.”

Rhage fired a towel at the male. “Just pointing out your beer gut's gone.”

“It was a Scotch pot. And I don't miss it.
”

p. 117

“The female threw me out of her house early this morning after doing a job on my ego.
”

“What kind of hatchet did she use?”

“An unflattering comparison between me and a free-agent canine.”

“Ouch.” Butch twisted the shirt in the other direction. “So naturally, you're dying to see her again.”

“Pretty much. ”

“You're pathetic.”

“I know.”

“But I can almost beat that.” The cop shook his head. “Last night, I . . . ah . . . I drove out to Marissa's brother's house. I don't even know how the Escalade got there. I mean, the last thing I need is to run into her, you feel me?”

“Let me guess. You waited in hopes of catching aâ”

“In the bushes, Rhage. I sat in the bushes. Under her bedroom window.”

“Wow. That's . . .”

“Yeah. In my old life I could have arrested me for stalking. Look, maybe we should change the topic.”

p. 118

One look at the movie collection and he knew he was in trouble. There were a lot of foreign titles, some deeply sincere American ones. A couple of golden oldies like An
Affair to Remember.
Casa-fucking-
blanca
.

Absolutely nothing by Sam Raimi or Roger Corman. Hadn't she heard of the
Evil Dead
series?

pp. 150-151

“Shit, you've bonded with her.” Wrath put a hand through his long hair. “For God's sake . . . You just met her, my brother. ”

“And how long did it take you to mark Beth as your own? Twenty-four hours? Oh, right, you waited two days. Yeah, good thing you gave it some time.”

Wrath let out a short laugh. “You gotta keep bringing my
shellan
into it, don't you?”

p. 200

Oh, the humanity.

The
Austin Powers
boxed set
. Aliens
and
Alien. Jaws.
All the
Naked Guns. Godzilla. Godzilla. Godzilla . . .
wait, the rest of this whole shelf was
Godzilla.
She went one lower
. Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street.
Well, at least he hadn't bothered with the sequels to those
. Caddyshack.
The
Evil Dead
boxed set.

It was a wonder Rhage hadn't blinded himself with all that pop culture
.

p. 202

She smiled a little. “You are a manipulator.”

“I like to think of myself more as an outcome engineer.”

p. 246

Phury's laugh came out of the robe on the right
.
“Only you could try to turn this into a party.”

“Well, hell, you've all wanted to nail me a good one for some shit I've popped, right? This is your lucky day.” He clapped Phury on the thigh. “I mean, come on, my brother, I've ridden you for years about the no females. And Wrath, a couple of months ago I needled you until you stabbed a wall. V, just the other day you threatened to use that hand of yours on me. Remember? When I told you what I thought about that goatee monstrosity?”

V chuckled. “I had to do something to shut you up. Every damn time I've run into you since I grew it, you ask me if I've French-kissed a tailpipe.”

“And I'm still convinced you're doing my GTO, you bastard.”

p. 250