Lina, looking stone sober despite the fact that she was on her fourth scotch, knocked her knuckles on the table. “Hear, hear. What’s up with that?”
“She’s the good twin,” Sloane explained. “Her sister sucks and put the family through the wringer. So Naomi made it her life mission to be the good kid and not inconvenience anyone with things like her feelings or her wants and needs.”
“Hey! Mean!” I complained.
She squeezed my hand. “I speak the truth with love.”
“I’m new here,” Lina said, “but wouldn’t it be a good idea to show your niece what a strong, independent woman looks like when she lives her life?”
“Why does everyone keep saying that to me?” I groaned. “You know what I did for me? Just me?”
“What did you do?” Lucian asked kindly. I noticed that his chair was angled toward Sloane, crowding her almost protectively.
“Knox. I did Knox just for me. I wanted to feel good and forget about the hurricane of crap for just one night. And look what happened! He warned me. He told me not to get attached. That there was no chance at a future. And I still fell for him. What is wrong with me?”
“Care to chime in here, gentlemen,” Lina suggested.
The men exchanged another look full of manly meaning.
“I can hear them mentally going through the Man Code appendix,” I whispered.
Nash wearily scraped his hand through his hair. It was a gesture that reminded me of his brother. “Are you okay? Do you need to rest?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Naomi.”
“Nash got shot,” Sloane explained to Lina.
Her assessing gaze slid over him as if she could see through his clothing down to his skin. “That sucks,” she said, lifting her glass to take a sip.
“Not one of my favorite experiences,” he admitted. “Naomi, you’ve gotta stop wondering what’s wrong with you or what you did wrong and understand the problem is with Knox.”
“Agreed,” Lucian said.
“Look, we lost a lot when we were kids. That can fuck with some people’s heads,” Nash said.
Lina studied him with interest. “What did it do to yours?”
His grin was a flash of humor. “I’m a lot smarter than my brother.”
She looked at me. “See? No one wants to be real and put their baggage on the table.”
“When you trust someone to see you for who you really are, the betrayal is a thousand times worse than if you hadn’t handed them the weapons in the first place,” Lucian spoke quietly.
I heard Sloane’s sharp intake of breath.
Nash must have picked up on it too, because he changed the subject.
“So, Lina. What brings you to town?” he asked, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.
“What are you, a cop?” she joked.
I
found that very amusing. Sloane found me spraying a fine mist of water over the table just as amusing, and we both dissolved into giggles.
A ghost of a smile played on Lucian’s lips.
“Nash is a cop,” I told Lina. “He’s the cop. The big, important one.”