“Jesus, holy f**k,” Rivera murmured, coming to a quick halt and looking up at the tall, hulking, tattoo-sleeved Ryker. “Boy, what’d your Mama feed you growin’ up?” he asked.

“Newborn babies,” Ryker answered, scowling down at Rivera.

“I see this. Totally,” Rivera replied.

Ryker frowned.

Then he asked Mike while still frowning at Rivera, “Who’s the new guy?”

Mike stepped in and performed introductions not just to Ryker but all around.

Then he looked at Tanner and noted, “I wasn’t aware this was a party.”

“I made some calls,” Tanner pointed out the obvious.

“Seems the new guy brought party treats,” Ryker remarked, his eyes on Rivera’s white Mimi’s bag.

“Go for them, I’ll cut off your hand. These are for my woman and kids,” Rivera returned and Ryker’s eyes went from the bag to Rivera.

Then he smiled his scary Ryker smile.

“A throw down with me so you can give your woman and kids brownies. Don’t know if that’s stupid or crazy,” Ryker mused out loud.

“Don’t give much of a shit what you think it is,” Rivera shot back.

“Blood’s a pain in the ass to clean up and no one here has time to do it. Can you two stand down so we can have this powwow and get on with our days?” Merry cut in.

“Yeah, and suddenly I got a hankerin’ for Mimi’s,” Sully murmured then looked at Colt. “Why didn’t we stop by before we came in?”

“’Cause if we did, Ryker would have been up in our shit about it and if we do it after, he won’t be around so he won’t,” Colt replied.

“Right,” Sully said on a grin.

“Reminder,” Mike put in. “I got a situation I need to see to so maybe we can get this started.” His eyes went through Colt, Sully, Merry, Cal and Devin. “You wanna tell me what you all are doin’ here?”

“Well, I, for one, didn’t haul my ass up those steps to watch The Ryker and The New Guy Show,” Devin noted cantankerously.

“So why’d you haul your ass up the steps?” Mike asked and Devin’s sharp eyes came to him.

“Before I spill, I hear Ryker’s gettin’ cake. I want one too,” Devin demanded.

Jesus.

“Dusty’ll make you a cake,” Mike agreed. “Now talk.”

Devin opened his mouth to speak but Ryker got there before him.

“Mine’s twelve layers,” he declared and Mike looked at him.

“Pardon?”

“I been workin’ this a while. My cake is twelve layers. That ass**le just threw in. He don’t get one that’s twelve layers. At most, six.”

Devin’s eyes narrowed. “Half? Are you shittin’ me? I got more than you in a week ‘cause you’ve had your thumb up your ass.”

Ryker crossed his arms on his chest and stared down his nose at Devin as he contradicted, “I been nosin’ around.”

“Hardly,” Devin returned then looked at Mike. “I want a twelve layer one too.”

Mike had never done it but he wondered if counting to ten actually worked.

He didn’t get the chance to start.

“Fuck me, shut the f**k up,” Cal entered the conversation, glaring at both Ryker and Devin. “Cakes. Jesus. Seriously? Are we talkin’ about cakes?”

“Easy for you to say, you got a woman who makes ‘em,” Devin shot back.

“I heard that!” Vera shouted from the other room and Mike watched Tanner slowly close his eyes.

Tanner had allowed what all of them knew they never should allow – his partner to become romantically involved with a family member. Usually it was your sister you shielded from that shit. With Vera hooking up with Devin, it was Tanner’s mother.

“You did, then bake me a cake every once in a while,” Devin called through the door.

“Um…excuse me?” she asked with a snap.

“Right. Focus,” Mike clipped. “I got a boy who’s turned seventeen today and I’d like to celebrate that with him tonight. Not be in the tank for assault.”

“Jonas is seventeen?” Sully asked. “How’d I miss that? Tell him Uncle Sul says happy birthday and I’ll get Raine on sendin’ him a card with some green in it.”

Mike looked up at the ceiling but he still heard Rivera mutter, “Brownsburg. Every year. Spring break. I f**kin’ love this place.”

“How ‘bout I start?” Cal asked without even attempting to conceal his impatience and Mike stopped looking at the ceiling and looked to him. “Got a bud who’s got a bud who works for McGrath. This bud of his has been vocal about shit that goes down on McGrath’s sites. And by this I mean the fact that McGrath isn’t real concerned his building are up to code. Problem is, the guy’ll talk while he’s hammered but since McGrath signs his paycheck, he won’t do it official. So I found this shit out, I punted it to Colt.”

That was when Colt spoke. “Cal told me that, I started diggin’ and all his builds passed every inspection. So either this guy is the only male on the planet who lies when he’s shitfaced or McGrath has someone in his pocket. Didn’t have to look too far to find out that McGrath’s wife’s, second-cousin’s husband has got his signature on all the documents. First off, as a member of the family, no matter how loose, he’s got no business inspecting McGrath’s builds. But he’s a building inspector, his wife grooms poodles and they live in a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar house with an in ground pool all that sittin’ on five acres.”

“Payoffs,” Mike said.

“My guess, yes,” Colt replied. “No proof though.”

“Yet,” Sully added.

Mike looked at Ryker and stated, “That’s worth twelve layers. You got anything at all?”

Ryker opened his mouth but Devin spoke.

“What I got is they got a pre-nup,” he announced. “But I also got more. See, Mrs. McGrath’s father is a preacher and Mrs. McGrath lost her Momma when she was nine. Mrs. McGrath’s Momma was loaded and that’s with a capital ‘L’. All held in trust until she turned twenty-one. McGrath married her when she was twenty-one. I seen the woman. I know why. And it isn’t that she looks pretty in sundresses. She’s a Jesus Freak who could play defensive end for the Colts. It was her money that bankrolled the business. But she isn’t stupid. She mighta jumped at the chance at love seein’ as she wasn’t gonna get a lotta offers but that marriage goes sour, she walks away with seventy-five percent of everything.”