“I’ll see if she does,” Dane said running back up the stairs in search of her. Stopping when he heard on the phone, presumably with Kenny.
“No, no, I’m fine, Kenny. They’re great. I mean, they still intimidate the hell out of me, especially their size. Honestly, have you seen Dane like really up close?” she asked with a touch of awe in her voice. “He’s so large, everywhere. I always feel like I have to stand on a chair to talk to him.” Laughing at something Kenny must have said, she whispered out, “I think I might be falling in love with them both. But I need this to end first.”
Taken aback by her confession, he was humbled and terrified. Deciding now was a good time to make his presence known, he cleared his throat while knocking on the door. Smiling when she turned with a look of shock on her face. “I gotta go, Kenny,” she whispered like he wouldn’t hear her.
“Hi,” she said quietly with a slight blush staining her cheeks.
“I’m large, huh?”
“Oh, gawd.” She mumbled burying her face in her hands. “Please tell me this is a dream and you didn’t hear what I said?” she asked peeking up between her fingers.
Chuckling at her embarrassment and walking closer to her, he grabbed her hands away from her face and dipped down for a quick kiss before getting back to the reason he had sought her out. “I need your phone.”
Handing it to him, she questioned, “What for?”
“Linc asked for it. He’s boy wonder when it comes to technology,” he explained.
“Umm, can I come this time?” she asked hesitantly.
Looking down at her, he knew she needed to know what was going on no matter how much he wanted to shelter her from it all. “Yeah, babe, let’s go.”
Flashing him a stunning smile that lit up her entire face and made her green eyes even more striking, he was left breathless for a moment until she teased. “Dane? I need a chair.”
“Why you little shit…” He trailed off running after her when she left him in the dust.
Hitting the bottom of the stairs, he watched as she freely threw herself into Coop’s open arms and whispered in his ear, making him laugh out loud. To see her like that, so open and free with them, compared to when they first met her and she was a shell of herself made his heart crack open that little bit more for her. She was quickly becoming the single most important person in his life.
Growing up, he’d had a strict life. With his father being military, he had so many rules and regulations to abide by that he hadn’t really gotten the chance to find himself until he joined the Marines at eighteen and met Coop. They’d been attached ever since. Closer than most brothers, it wasn’t long before they realized their affinity for sharing women and how much closer it brought them.
It wasn’t until they met the Maxwell brothers that they knew they could have a permanent relationship with a woman like that. Watching their parents and how they were with each other and their children was something he and Coop longed for. The security of having the other one there in case something happened to one of them, knowing their children and the woman they loved wouldn’t be left alone and still be taken care of. It was a relief to know they would have each other’s backs in that way as well, and not just combat.
The one thing they had agreed upon was that they wouldn’t actively search out a woman until they felt they had helped as much as possible in the Marines. They wanted to take that one danger out of the equation; one less worry. That didn’t mean that they would rebuff a woman if they felt she was it for them. With Emily they knew almost immediately, she had a vulnerability about her that called to him, like a wave in the ocean, she crashed into him with a fierceness that nearly knocked him on his ass.
Hearing laughter echoed in the hallway, Coop looked up just in time to catch Emily flying into his lap so they both didn’t fall ass over tea kettle. The smile on her face and the mischievousness in her eyes told him she’d done something, but he was so enthralled with the look that he didn’t have time to ask before she whispered to him in a soft silky voice, “Dane’s coming for me, I need a chair to talk to that man on eye level.”
Tickling her side to hear more of her laughter, “You can climb me any day, baby,” he told her with a wink. Laughing at the shock written across her features.
Settling against him, he could still feel her shaking with laughter as Dane walked back in the room handing Linc her cell. “Woman.” He growled in passing, pinching her ass and making her yelp and swat at him as he walked by.
“What are you thinking?” Coop asked nodding to the phone in his hand that he was hooking up to the laptop.
“The texts that she keeps getting are coming from an unknown number right? Well, just because it’s unknown doesn’t mean I can’t find it. I might be able to triangulate to its nearest location.” He explained pressing a bunch of buttons.
“How do you do that?” Emily asked, making Linc smile before responding. “Honey, if I told you, I’d have to kill you.” The horror on her face would have been comical if he wasn’t kidding.
Leaning closer to him she mock whispered, “He’s not serious is he?” The look on his face had her saying “Oh” as realization dawned that he was.
Listening to Linc tap away at a keyboard and Creed and Dane discuss more possible connections to Emily’s stalker had him holding her just that much tighter on his lap. He didn’t want to let her go, let alone out of his sight. Watching the fear enter her eyes every time they brought her in on what they were doing was slowly starting to wear thin on his patience. He wanted to find the asshole tormenting her and rip him limb from limb, for her to be able to go outside and not have to look over her shoulder.
He watched his mom go through the same emotions so often when he was a child. His father was a drunk loser that thought it was ok to come back home whenever he ran out of money for booze. By the time he’d gotten violent with them, Coop was too big for him to push around, and he never dared to hit his mother in front of him because he knew that Coop would fight back and win.
Each time he saw his mom with a new bruise, it left him determined to make sure it never happened again. Then one day just before his seventeenth birthday, his mom had finally had enough and shot his father in his sleep. Police reports had been filed often enough that she got off with counselling and time served because what DA in their right mind would want to convict a battered woman? That had probably been her saving grace.
It was also her downfall. The guilt she suffered from taking his life turned her into an alcoholic. It got so bad that three years ago, just before he got out of the Marines with Dane, she’d drunk herself into an early grave. He knew it was happening, but with being overseas more often than not, he was helpless. All they had was each other, so there was no family to help her cope with her addiction while he was gone.
Dane was with him through it all. He watched how he had suffered from not being able to help his mom again. He helped him work through his own guilt, and ultimately, it was that pain that had helped lead them to decide that permanently sharing a woman wouldn’t be so bad instead of just for the thrill that it had originally been. It also helped them decide to wait to look for that special woman until they retired.
After meeting Emily, he knew they were both insanely happy they had waited on actively looking for a woman, or they might not have met her.