Chapter Five
Breeze and Ridge climbed into a large silver SUV with all five Jewel brothers. The vehicle was clean, fancy, and the leather seats were softer than a baby’s cheeks. She’d never been in such a pretty vehicle. She’d tried to climb in the very back, but Ridge and Caleb had beat her to it. Now she was sandwiched in the middle row between Seth and the tougher-looking brother. The two more polished-looking brothers rode up front.
She was uncomfortable and wished she dared ask where they were going. Seth had offered her last night to stay at his parents’ house. The idea of going there made her even more nervous than the fact that she was sitting in a vehicle with all these tough, handsome, accomplished men.
Seth shifted against her and gave her a smile. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? I’m awesome.” Minus the nervous jitters of being completely out of her element, but it was a thousand times better than being in that cabin with Flint and crew. “You just rescued us. Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you.” Her words seemed too loud and out of place in the quiet vehicle yet not nearly zealous enough for what Seth had done for them. She recognized that in this moment she’d dumped a lifetime of self-preserving pride, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care right now.
“No problem.” Seth grinned. “So, you know Caleb.” He gestured over his shoulder.
“Everybody knows and loves me,” Caleb said from the back.
Breeze smiled at him over her shoulder. He gave her a happy wave. She caught Ridge’s eye. He looked more out of place than she felt. Poor kid. Yet it was his fault they were in the mess with Flint in the first place, so maybe she should be whipping his butt, not feeling bad for him.
“On your right is Isaac. Air Force Special Ops, military hero, all that business. I wouldn’t recommend talking to him because if he slips and tells you too much, then he has to slit your throat.”
She flinched slightly, even though she knew he was joking. Her parents hadn’t been as abusive as some, but they would backhand her and Ridge or smack them with fly swatters or wooden spoons. She didn’t like violence.
Isaac rolled his eyes and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Breeze.” He then reached back and shook Ridge’s hand.
Ridge shook back, now looking awestruck. “Are all of you like superheroes?”
The brothers all laughed at that. “Pretty much,” Caleb said. “But mostly me.”
“Um, Isaac is a military hero who saves the world, and Seth is the best snocross and motocross rider in the world. He’s won the X-games! What doyoudo?” Ridge’s voice held reverence, as if he could hardly wait to hear how Caleb could top being a military hero or Ridge’s personal extreme sports hero.
Caleb looked slightly offended. He put a hand to his chest and said imperiously. “I am the best middie in the NLL.”
“NHL?” Ridge asked, his brow squiggled.
Caleb pushed out a breath as the other brothers laughed. “NLL.”
“NFL?” From the look on Ridge’s face, he could be listening to someone speaking a different language as he tried to compute what position a middie might be in football.
“C’mon,” said Caleb, rolling his eyes. “NLL. National Lacrosse League.”
Ridge still looked confused and Caleb still looked offended.
“Sorry,” Breeze broke in. “We don’t have lacrosse back home.”
Caleb’s mouth twisted. “That must be a miserable spot of earth.”
Breeze wanted to defend the hardworking people of her hometown, but a massive, gorgeous mansion had just come into view and her attention automatically refocused. Breeze’s stomach did a nervous flip. She didn’t know how to act around ultra-rich people. Heck, she didn’t know how to act around semi-rich people. She looked to her right, where Isaac sat, and wondered if she dared take a chance crawling over the special ops dude and running for the woods.
“Up front you have Joshua driving,” Seth continued his introductions as they drove along the short driveway. “He’s pretty much your billionaire genius.”
Joshua raised a hand, smiling. Billionaire … genius? Seth had said his brothers were billionaires, but holy cow, she couldn’t even get through college. She glanced at Seth. She owed him a lot of money, twenty grand was big bucks to her. A billionaire sitting right in front of her. She’d entered an alternate reality.
“And Luke,” Seth continued, “he’s kind of the same but more entrepreneur billionaire genius rather than corporate billionaire guru, if that makes any sense.”
It made no sense. Entrepreneur? She’d heard the term but an entrepreneur in her world meant the farmer actually owned the field instead of rented it.
Joshua stopped the car and the silence was unnerving. Luke undid his seatbelt and turned back, extending his hand over the console. “Nice to meet you, Breeze. We’ve all been praying for this day.”
She shook his hand and asked, “What day?”
Luke grinned at Joshua as if he knew exactly what his brother was intoning. “The day a woman would knock our spoiled baby brother Seth on his butt.”