“Yes.” Con is direct.
I consider my answer as the captain’s voice comes over the speaker and announces take off. In less than five minutes we taxi out to the runway and are climbing into the fading light. New Orleans fades into the darkness but the secrets it holds from us are anything but disappearing.
Something happened tonight and I want to know what. “We can’t help her until we know what happened. Let’s start there.”
Con scrubs his face and Bastian clanks that fucking ring of his against his glass. It’s like nails over a chalkboard. My knee bounces and I’m ready to bury knuckles into teeth.
Metal clanks against glass again and again until Con throws a hand out and knocks him on the shoulder.
“For fuck’s sake stop, asshole.”
I pull my hair back and pin it to the base of my skull out of the way in case this turns into a brawl at forty thousand feet. I pull the blade I keep tucked into the back of my belt and start flipping it between my fingers. Cool steel over flesh soothes me.
“I don’t know if I can do this again.”
I sip my drink and consider Bastian over the rim. “A little late after the fact, brother.”
“The two of you shut the fuck up. You heard her. She’s on the pill. But Bastian is right. We need to find somewhere for her where she will be safe. But not with us. I refuse to go through it again. I can’t.”
Determination etches deep into the creases of Con’s forehead. He’s wanted a family for so long. We all have. And once upon a time, we had it. Until a blade was driven into our backs.
“I just can’t.”
He sounds haunted, but I’ve long ago released the ghosts that still cling to my brother.
He’s speaking of Melody—the bitch who climbed into our bed, fucked us, stole from us, passed our secrets to the enemy, and then got knocked up with his baby. She actually tried to pass it off as ours. For a while, I felt sorry for us. But now I just feel sorry for the child in the middle of a mafia war he was born into.
The night we dropped Melody from our lives is the night we all agreed there would be no more women between us. Not until we could sacrifice the time and energy it will take to find someone we can all share.
“Melody was not pregnant with our child. We all know she cheated on us. But that doesn’t mean every woman is like her. Laila…seems different.” I pick my words carefully. “And I’m not talking about instant love with Laila. I’m talking about keeping her close, protecting her. The rest we can see about.”
Bastian and Con look torn. They like Laila, but Melody worked them over. They loved her. I mean actually fucking loved the woman so much they would have fallen on swords for her. I was neither here nor there for her. I went along with the plan because it made my brothers happy.
“Good sex is one thing,” Bastian counters with a straight face. “Stop thinking with your dick and face reality. We don’t know her. Yet.”
He’s doing a shitty job of hiding the need to go to her too. His knee is about to take off it is bouncing so damn hard.
“Who are you trying to convenience? It sure as shit isn’t me. By the way, how did my dick taste in your mouth?” We don’t look at pleasure as having lines. But that doesn’t mean I won’t fuck with him. I level a hard glare across the aisle. His fist knots up and I know we are about to test our fighting skills in tight quarters when we hear a door creak open.
“You two shelve your sour-ass attitudes for another time. We’re landing soon and she’s waking up”
Nine
Laila, three unbelievable months later
I’m falling in love and I don’t know how to leave the men who have protected me, made love to me, and nourished me these past three months as I heal from my mother’s death.
I’m sitting facing away from the men with my eyes closed.
“I’m growing tired of all the traveling. I’m tired of being away from Laila.”
I continue to pretend I am asleep as they speak in hushed tones.
“It won’t be long before we can just settle down.”
Dante is always the one to smooth Bastian’s frustrations.
“I’m not looking to settle down, brother. Kids and shit are not on my list. I’m just fucking jet lagged.”