"No. Just mean for no good reason." I hold up a finger to her. "Ramsey!"
He comes in and Berke starts his rant.
"You're supposed to protect me. How did you let them do this?"
"You are alive and well. I did my job." Ramsey volleys as he removes the handcuffs.
"You're fired."
Ramsey chuckles and shakes his head. "I work for the Hale family, not just you."
"Berke." I point at Sienna. "You can't fire her either FYI."
He sits up as much as the medical devices allow. "Who is she?"
"Your new counselor."
He frowns at me, somehow still attractive with bruises and his hair as a wild black halo.
"As in legal?"
"Nope. Mental."
"I don't need a fucking shrink."
"Maybe not, but your bi-weekly meetings are one of the conditions to getting your money back."
"Conditions?"
"Yes. This is a learning experience. I'm not out to leave you broke and dependent on Wyn for life. Consider this a Hale family reentry program."
"You can't."
"She can," Oran says from the door with one of the doctors in tow. "We're going to get you checked out then back to the Hale mansion you go." He pauses, slides his hands in his pockets and flashes Berke a wicked smile. "Welcome home, cousin."
Chapter Fourteen
Caerwyn
I’m getting married tomorrow and I’m so fucking anxious. Not in a bad way, the way Imala handled my brother by dragging his ass here and putting him in the Hale family rotation has proven she’d be a great partner and it’s arousing as fuck. He’s not easy to deal with by any stretch of the imagination. I didn't doubt her before, but this bolder side made me want to drag her to the courthouse to marry her sooner. I need her. I crave her like it’s an addiction I don’t want to quit.
I slip on my jeans while trying to ignore my intense desire to touch, taste, and feel her. We haven’t slept in the same bed since I left her house and I miss it. I’m having sex dreams about my own fiancée.
“You really care about the she-demon, don’t you?”
Berke is leaning against the door jamb. His frustration with everything has made him scarce over the past couple of weeks. This is the first thing he’s said to me since he’s been home. There’s no bite behind his words because he seems calmer now.
“Yeah, I really do.” I shrug on my shirt and start buttoning it. In dark jeans, a black shirt, a black belt, and dress shoes, Berke looks ready to go. “Are you going to the bachelor party?”
Berke rubs the beard that’s been growing since he’s been on the island, his tattoos on his forearm flex over his skin with the movement, the light picks up the glint of his rings.
“Yes, if you still want me there.”
I slip on my shoes and sit in my chair to tie them. “Yes,” I say when I’m done then look him in his eyes. “But do you really want to be there?”
He bites his lip and crosses his arms. “If by that you mean am I capable of going out with you, Jagger, and our cousins without making a spectacle of myself, then yes I’ll behave and will not embarrass you.”
Standing, I turn to face him head on, giving him my full attention. “I was never concerned about you being an embarrassment. I’ve only wanted you to act like my damn brother from time to time and not some rival in an unknown contest. Why do you hate me?”