nd across his face. “They do this all the time. They just need to yell it out and all will be fine. I knew this was going to happen.”
Lena cringed when she heard a crashing noise and started for the bedroom door. It sounded like they were doing more than yelling.
“No, honey, get dressed. They will be fine. It’s how they have handled stuff since we first met in SEALs training,” Hal said, wincing himself as they heard another crash.
Lena got dressed and wondered how they were going to get out of the apartment without going through the living room.
Once she was totally dressed, Hal grabbed her hand and said, “Follow me.” He led her through the hall to his room and then through a door on the other side of the room. “This is the entrance to the stairs. We will walk one floor down and then catch the elevator to the third floor and the breakfast shop. It’s also the fire escape if we can’t get to the living room,” he said as he opened the door and pulled her behind. Just before the door closed they heard another crash.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t check on them?” Lena asked, biting her lip.
“Nope, come on, I’m hungry,” Hal answered, pulling her down the stairs.
Lena and Hal were sitting in a booth in the back of the restaurant drinking coffee and talking when Mel walked up to the table.
“Skooch over, Lena,” he said, sliding in the booth beside her.
Lena scooted over as close to the wall as she could get, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Hal reached across the table and took one of her hands from around the mug she was holding and threaded his fingers with hers. “It’s okay. He’s better now and he would never take anything out on you,” he said reassuringly.
Lena wasn’t so sure and kept her body tensed just in case, her mind searching for an escape plan. There weren’t many options crammed against the side of the booth as she was but she figured she could always go under the table if they started throwing punches again.
“Where’s R.J.? Do I need to call a cleaner and have the body disposed of?” Hal asked Mel, picking up his coffee to drink as if this was an everyday conversation.
“Bury a body? Wait, what, where’s R.J.?” Lena was starting to panic. What were they talking about? Could Mel really have hurt R.J. that bad? She started pushing at Mel. She needed to get up and find R.J.
“Lena, chill,” Hal said, seeing the panic on her face. “Mel, tell her.”
“Tell me what? What did you do to him?” Lena was starting to get slightly hysterical and pushing at Mel and hitting him with her fists.
“Our little kitten can turn into a hellcat, can’t she?” Mel said, grabbing both of her small fists in one of his massive hands and laughing.
Lena continued to struggle while Mel held both her hands in one of his. She tried to kick at him. “Where is he? What did you do with him? If you hurt him, I’ll…I’ll…” Lena couldn’t think of a threat bad enough to convey what she would do but she would find something. “Let me go. I need to go see to him. Is he hurt? Where did you leave him?”
People at the other tables were starting to look around and a few were standing at all the noise Lena was making.
Hal watch with amusement while Lena continued to fight Mel, quite ineffectively. It was all he could do to keep himself from chuckling.
He knew that R.J. was fine and had probably stopped to do something before joining them for breakfast. Mel didn’t look much the worse for wear and he was sure it had been one of their usual scuffles. The two men could and would fight about anything, something Lena would have to learn to deal with eventually.
“I can see why you needed to keep her mouth occupied. She has quite the vocabulary, doesn’t she? We will have to work on that in the playroom very soon. I can’t have her calling my mother those kinds of things when she comes to visit,” Mel said with amusement in his voice as Lena continued to fight and cuss at him.
The waitress came over with the coffeepot, shook her head, and walked away. She was used to the owner’s antics and knew when to mind her own business.
“Damn, I could have used a cup of coffee,” Mel said, shaking his head. “If I let you free, will you stop cussing and fighting me?”
When Lena didn’t slow down, he just shook his head and continued to hold her. “She has a lot of stamina, doesn’t she? That’s good. She’s going to need it to keep up with all of us,” Mel said to Hal, looking over Hal’s shoulder and smiling as he saw R.J. walking toward them.
“Lena, stop and look up,” he said, using his free hand to grab her head and turn it toward R.J., who slid into the booth beside Hal.
“I ran into Tucker. He told me that you two had a nice little handful back here. What set her off?” R.J. asked, motioning for the waitress.
“You’re okay!” Lena exclaimed, now struggling to get free.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, holding up four fingers when the waitress looked his way.
“Well, oh, shit, never mind. I’m just glad you two didn’t kill each other,” Lena said, sighing. Would she ever learn? She only had the one brother and he was several years younger so they had never fought growing up, but Trina had four brothers and they were always fighting about something.