She yanked out of his grip. “He’s had five fu… udgin’ years. And he has no idea what that poor little boy has been through. Or Mac.”
“Aderyn,” Jaeg growled.
“Really. It’s fine, Addie,” I said. “I’m sure there are lots of places to rent.”
Addie shoved thick red curls behind her ear. “You guys can stay with me and Hettie. She loves you and Jacks.”
“No one is going anywhere,” Jaeg said, then looked at his sister. “He needs a few days to cool off, and then I’ll talk to him again.” His eyes narrowed. “You tell Hettie Vic was back?”
“Yep,” she replied.
Jaeg muttered something beneath his breath while shaking his head and pushing off the railing. “Who is the shit disturber now?”
She shrugged. “She’d have found out soon enough, and I don’t want to be picking apples with you for punishment because I didn’t tell her.”
“You’ll be picking up body parts when he finds out you told her,” Jaeg said, stepping off the porch and striding over to his bike. He threw his leg over and kick-started the engine. “Don’t be late, Ads. Mr. Grimsby is dropping off his truck at nine, and you know how he is.”
Addie groaned. Jaeg smirked before taking off down the driveway.
“Why would Vic care if Hettie knows he’s back?” I asked.
“He owes Hettie a favor, and she’ll be calling it in.”
“What’s the favor?”
Addie grinned. “She wants Vic to come for dinner.”
“Dinner? That’s it?” That didn’t seem like much of a favor to Hettie. More of a favor to Vic.
“Well, sort of. She wants a Sunday night dinner with Jaeg, Saint, Vic, Callum, and your brother. The others agreed to it already. Well, Callum hasn’t, exactly, but he won’t say no if Vic’s going.”
Callum James owned Zero Crow, but I hadn’t met him yet. Brin, the bartender, said he lived in Toronto and rarely came here.
What I didn’t like was the idea of Ethan coming here. But I knew one day I’d have to tell him. I just wasn’t ready yet.
“Why? Are Callum and Vic good friends?”
“Not exactly. Vic tried to kill him.”
Vic
She was one huge fuckin’ question mark, and I didn’t like question marks.
I stayed clear of question marks, and that was why I liked the military. One plan goes to shit, you have another. That one blows up, you have another. Every single possible outcome was dissected and resected.
And yeah, there were times we had to fly by the seat of our pants, but there were never any questions. We knew our mission. Our target. And we executed it. Period.
But there were no periods here. No semicolons.
It was a massacre of ellipsis, dashes, and question marks.
I didn’t need her and her kid living at my back door at any time, let alone when I had demons prancing across my mind while wearing spiked shoes.
Worse was the fact that my cock got rock hard when she stood on the porch looking like she was ready to take me on. Most women floundered like a fish in a shallow puddle of water when I glared at them.
But as tough as she pretended to be, she was still a damsel in distress, and I didn’t do damsels in distress.
I did hardened, nameless women.