“My duty to protect her will never wane,” he assures me, his eyes pinning me in place. “But the plan has changed. I want us packed up within the hour. We’re headed up north.”
I lift a brow at him. “What’s up north?”
“Indoor plumbing. Electricity. My bed.”
“Your place?” I ask, shock lacing my tone. “I didn’t even know you still owned that house. You’re never there.”
Guilt flashes in his eyes. “I still own it.”
“Out with it, Seb.”
He scrubs at his face. “Rachel lives there.”
Rachel lives there.
Rachel, his ex-fiancée, who cheated on him while he was away just before we took the Sterling detail?
He sighs, placing his hands on his hips. “I should have told you,” he admits in defeat.
“It’s been six fucking years, Seb,” I snarl. “Why the fuck is she still there?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Going to need more than that.”
Scratching the back of his head, he scrunches up his features. “I was thinking about retiring.”
“Retiring?” I scoff. “You’re what? Forty?”
“Thirty-six,” he grumbles, giving me the middle finger. He knows I know how old he is. We’ve been friends for over a decade. He’s the only reason I came into this job after a tour overseas. He pulled me off a ledge when my death count began to haunt me in my sleep and the only way to shut the ghosts out was with a bottle of Jack and a fistful of sleeping pills. Seb taught me to put my skill set to use. Help people who needed protecting.
“Awfully young to throw in the towel and what? You’re going to go back to Rachel? She fucking cheated on your ass.” I sound pissed because I am.
“Fuck no. Rachel has nothing to do with it. I let her stay at my place because she was knocked up.”
His words nearly knock the breath from my lungs.
“Yours?” I wheeze.
He shakes his head. “No.”
Fuck.
“Mine?” I ask, terrified of the answer. My head swims with the memories of all the times we shared her in the bedroom. I always used a condom. Didn’t I?
“No, asshole,” he grumbles. “You think I’d keep that shit from you?”
No. But it would appear he does keep fucking secrets.
“The prick she…” He trails off and his jaw clenches. “The prick she fucked while I was working.” The blacks of his pupils swallow the color, making him appear beastly.
“You soft cunt,” I bark out, my tone mocking. “You let her live in your place with the kid of some town rat she was banging. Does he live there too?”
Folding my arms over my chest, I glare at him. Rachel was a bitch who did a number on him. She was insatiable and that’s when he brought me into their bedroom, but it didn’t matter how much he fucked her or how many men he brought into their bed, she was always going to cheat. She was a manipulative bitch who couldn’t get over her ex, Joey. She was using Seb at first, to make her then ex Joey jealous, but Seb had blinders on when it came to her. He couldn’t see that she was using him. Took him finding Clove to finally forget Rachel existed. Clove was like a breath of fresh air, an angel sent to us to heal our broken fucking souls, shattered black hearts.
“Casey Roberts.” Seb smirks.
“What?”
“Rachel’s ex and baby fucking daddy. He ran off with Casey Roberts.”
No way.
“Fat Casey?” I scoff. She wasn’t just fat, she had a bug eye and put her ass all over town to whoever would ride it.
Seb is chuckling now, holding his gut from the effort. It’s a sight rarely seen on him and causes a contagious reaction in me. Tears stream from my eyes and our laughter echoes in the open space.
When I get myself under control, the atmosphere thickens as we both grow serious again. “So why retirement?”
Furling his brows, he looks at the ground, kicking at the dirt. “I just…Clo was going to marry that fucker one day and I didn’t want to stick around for it. I couldn’t stand to see her married to a jumped-up prick. Could you? Being around her knowing she would never be ours?” He looks toward the cabin.
“She will always be ours, brother,” I tell him, because it’s true.
“And Jack…” he trails off. “I was just tired of wanting, watching, waiting. One day I’d like to settle the fuck down. Get married maybe. Have a kid. Enjoy my life rather than protecting someone else’s. I have land, property, money. This was never supposed to be permanent for me. I would promote your ass and sit mine on a couch.”
My eyes widen at his candid words. “When were you going to tell me?”
He flashes me an apologetic look. “It wasn’t decided yet, Leo. Get your panties out of a wad and let the others know we’re going to roll out.” Subject officially closed according to Seb.