I took her hand. “Now, come. If we don’t get back to the house today, Karina will march over here and shove her sharpest heel up my ass.” And I wasn’t kidding. She made me swear not to keep Doe for too long. I swore to God, it seemed like Karina had found the little sister she never had when it came to Doe.
On our way back to the main house, I wanted to turn around so many times, it wasn’t even funny. It felt good to have Doe to myself. To be with her twenty-four-seven without anyone else in the vicinity. Even though our mini escape from reality was for a reason, it did have its perks. But it was time. Not only had I been away from home, I was also away from the family business. It was going to take Lucio and Lorik a good few hours to get me up to speed on everything.
I switched off the engine of the quad, and Karina came rushing out. “About damn time.” She hugged Doe as if she hadn’t seen the woman in years.
“Geez, little sis. Were we gone that long?”
She scowled at me, clearly picking up on my sarcasm. “You left an asshole, and now you came back…still an asshole.”
I grabbed her and pulled her under my arm. “I missed you too.”
She feigned a smile, and then I noticed the slight tick she had in her jaw. I narrowed my eyes. “What is going on?”
“Nothing.”
She answered that one way too fucking quickly.
“What is going on, Karina?”
“I told you—”
“Hello, brother.”
I balked, recognizing the voice. When I turned to the front door, Dante stood there smiling at me. “Before you lose your shit, Layla and Rafe ain’t here.”
For a moment, I balled my fists, angry that I had been so disobeyed. My order was clear. Dante was to steer clear of Boston until this whole Vadik situation had been dealt with. And his place was with his family.
I walked up to him, never taking my disapproving glare off his face. How dared he? How dared any of them disobey me so blatantly? As I stepped up to him, his gaze never leaving my glare, there was only one thing I could say.
“I missed you, brother.”
He smiled. “I missed your stubborn ass too, big bro.”
We were never the hugging type, but the fact that I was really fucking happy to see my brother—even though he went against my direct order. So, I pulled him in for a bro-hug. Double-crossed arms and hand slapping. No funny chest against chest kinda hug. That would have been weird.
“Aah, would you look at that.” Lorik stood behind Dante. “It’s like a scene from a Hallmark movie.”
Dante turned to him. “I can’t explain it, but for some weird fuckin’ reason I actually missed your Albanian ass.”
“Of course, you did.” Lorik winked.
Dante just shook his head, then looked over my shoulder at Doe. “She looks good, brother.”
My chest swelled. “Yeah. She’s changed a lot since you left.”
“And you.”
“What about me?”
“It’s only been two minutes, and I can already see you’re different.”
I frowned. “Different? How?”
“I dunno. You seem…lighter.”
Lorik peeked over Dante’s shoulder. “He does have a sort of airiness to him, doesn’t he?”
“Lorik,” I scowled, “mind your own fucking business.”