“This is why I suggested installing a tracker on her car,” Lincoln noted, stepping outside onto the driveway. I noticed an odd look—guilt?—briefly cross Yates’s face at the concept, but before I could question it, he had sealed off his emotions again, looking pissed despite all of this being his fault.
“We can’t put a tracker on her, brother,” I mused. Honestly, I wasn’t positive if that was true or not. I mean, we literally could… but it felt wrong.
Although I did see its merit.
My gaze flashed up as I smiled. “It’s a full moon, she’s out by the river.”
“At night?!” Dermot asked, looking concerned. I almost smiled at that, because the guy was pretty awful at hiding how he felt about shit. Namely, his concern revolving around Dahlia, despite having just met her.
“This is your fault,” King growled at Yates as we walked towards his car. I would have preferred to take mine, but King was a bit of a control freak, so he liked to drive if we were going somewhere. His garage opened to reveal his BMW.It was his only car that fit more than two people, but it was actually my favorite of those that he owned. I had a bit of a thing for cars, but not for the reason you would think.
I liked the idea of designing cars, the artistic work involved in creating their streamlined shapes. I could easily see myself creating a car line. That shit would be fun as fuck.
“You guys sound bloody insane with this tracking bullshit, you know that, right?” Dermot asked my brother and I quietly. Yates and King were still arguing, so I left them to it.
Lincoln looked at him and then tilted his head thoughtfully. “I think that’s bullshit. I don’t think you think it’s insane at all, Dermot. You’re just surprised that we are verbally saying what we all would be thinking anyway.”
Kingston’s cousin shook his head. “I just don’t understand what this is. I mean, it’s clear that you are all in love with the same fucking woman. So how the fuck is that going to work?”
Was it that obvious? I smiled at that. Good.
“We are all going to be with her,” I concluded easily.
He stared at me for a few seconds before speaking. “You’re serious?”
“Deadly,” Lincoln clipped as we got into the back seat of King’s sedan.
Tapping my foot, I sat back, Dermot going silent and thoughtful about what we’d said, if I had to assume. I didn’t feel weird about how I felt about Dahlia or my acceptance of other men being in her life and loving her the way I did. Men that were essentially my brothers.
I meant that. Except for Lincoln and I, everyone else was an only child, so we’d grown up together as brothers in the same semi-isolated community. Without them, it would have been lonely, but as I got older, I knew I would have to do the same for our children. When you had money and power like we did, there wasn’t anyone that just wanted ‘friendship’ from you. So no, I didn’t feel bad in the least about the idea of sharing Dahlia, as long as she wanted us.
King blasted music as he drove out of the security gates, his driving faster and a bit more erratic than usual because of the panic he was no doubt feeling. His driving should have concerned me, but he’d never had an accident, and that was more than I could say for myself.
Only two minutes later, I rolled my eyes as police lights began to flash behind us. We were two blocks away from the turn off to the river bank. This was bullshit. Honestly, as Kingston pulled over, I considered getting out and walking over there but knew that this wouldn’t take more than a minute, if not less.
This wasn’t the first time we’d been pulled over.
Kingston rolled down the window and put his head back against the seat, his annoyance clear as Yates turned the music off. I could feel Dermot tense next to me, which made me smile a bit, and my brother actually laughed as the officer approached the car. We all saw his realization at who he was pulling over just a bit too late, fear crossing his expression as a sick sense of amusement ran over my skin.
“Kingston,” the police officer bit out, trying to be polite, but it didn’t fix the strained nature of his smile. “Sorry, son, I didn’t realize it was you.”
Kingston’s face was cold as he offered him a disinterested look. “First, I’m not your son. Second, come Monday morning, Yates is going to be sending you all of our license plate numbers, and you’re going to do your fucking job this time and put them in the system. I don’t have time to deal with this bullshit again.”
“Every time we do, the end of the year donation to the department just gets smaller and smaller,” my brother added, his eyes jumping with amusement. I wish I could share in his delight, but instead I found myself feeling anxious. The more time we were here, the more time Dahlia was out by herself.
I knew what happened at night in this fucking town, and it wasn’t anything good.
“Understood,” the officer confirmed. “You’re good to go. Sorry again.”
Kingston pulled away, to his credit at a slightly slower pace, something that was normally reserved for when Dahlia was in the car with him. I kept an eye out as we pulled in near the levee, the road along it empty except for a familiar car. King parked when Lincoln tapped his shoulder, clearly seeing the figure standing near the water.
“I’ll get her. Yates, maybe you should go hide in the trunk,” I mused, hopping out of the car. He didn’t seem to find that funny.
As I made my way down the levee, I paused for a second to really appreciate just how goddamn beautiful our girl was, even now as she kneeled on the ground, bent over her camera as she tried to take a photo of the full moon lit up on the river’s dark surface. It was an image she’d been trying to capture for months now, and while she had several stunning versions, all of them were not ‘good enough’ in her opinion. I thought they were beautiful, but this is why I painted.
Easy to capture what you created.
“Sugar,” I drew out the nickname as the camera shuttered several times before she slowly lowered it, offering me a small unsurprised smile. Dahlia never seemed to be surprised when we showed up out of nowhere, making me wonder just how much she knew about our little obsession with her.