"Get out of here, Pat, or I swear I'll feed your portion to the dogs."
"Fine, you cranky PMS avenger." He motioned to Fury and Vane. "Be wise and join me outside where it's safe."
Vane hesitated.
"Call me if you need me to rescue you from Patrick and my father," Bride said before she lifted herself up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
Vane caught an angry look from Deirdre before he followed Fury and Patrick out into the yard, where Bride's mother was wrestling the cats back toward the house. Vane handed his beer to Fury before he scooped the female cat up. She tensed for an instant, then relaxed. "You want her in the house?"
Joyce nodded gratefully as she cuddled the male.
Vane opened the door and set the cat back inside. "Don't do that again, Marianne," he said. She nuzzled his hand, then darted off.
"Thanks for the help," Joyce said as she walked past him.
Vane went back to rejoin Fury and Patrick.
"So, Vane, what do you do for a living?" Patrick asked.
Fury gave him an amused look as he passed his beer back to him.
"I live off the interest from my investments."
"Really?" Patrick asked. "Investments pay enough that you can afford a hundred-thousand-dollar Jag?"
Vane could smell the hostility from Patrick. "No," he said sarcastically, "my drug dealing does that. And I make a tidy profit from my pimps down on Bourbon Street."
The look on Bride's brother's face was priceless. "Look, I'm going to be honest with you. You mess with my"
"Patrick?"
Vane looked past Bride's brother to see a man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Fit and trim, he had neatly styled gray hair and a mustache.
"You're not giving Vane the 'Mess with my baby sister and I'll break your neck' speech, are you?"
"I was trying to."
The man laughed. "Don't mind him. I'm Dr. McTierney," he said, extending his hand to Vane. "You can call me Paul."
"Nice meeting you, Paul."
Paul turned to Fury. "You must be the brother."
"I hope so, I'm wearing his pants."
Paul laughed.
"So, you're the evil neuter king," Fury said. "I wondered what you looked like."
"Fury," Vane said in warning.
Again Paul laughed. "You know anything about dogs, Vane?"
"Yeah. A little."
"Good. I have one I want you to meet."
"Oh jeez, not Cujo, Dad. That's worse than my speech you interrupted."