Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Tired.
Gideon
Bullshit!
Cade
Agreed.
Nox
On the verge of tears? Kenny, what’s wrong?
Nothing. It was just my allergies.
Kenny shook her head. Why was she lying? Why did she always do this? Hide the truth? Hide her feelings?
Her brothers loved her.
I’m sorry. You’re right. I was upset at Christmas. Smith left me.
Gideon
He did what?!!! How the fuck dare he?
The chat call line buzzed. Cade wanted to conference. Gideon immediately joined. A second later, Nox did as well.
Kenny dropped her face into her palm and groaned before lifting the phone and answering. Her brothers all had varying degrees of fury and concern on their faces.
Nox was sporting a full beard and a dark tan and Kenny’s eyes widened for a second. It had been a while since she’d seen her middle brother in person. His black, bushy beard was even longer and more unkempt than the last time he’d bothered to show up to one of their gatherings.
Long gone was the impeccably groomed Nox with the perfectly styled hair who wore bespoke three-piece suits. This guy looked like an outdoorsman. And wholly unfamiliar.
“Christ, Nox, do you even possess a mirror?” Gideon asked, momentarily diverted, his voice shaking. “Are you living off the land somewhere? Hunting, fishing, chopping your own wood?”
“This isn’t about me, dickhead.”
God, Nox and Gideon were always so insufferable. They loved each other but they mixed about as well as oil and water. They could be so exhausting. And if Cade’s exasperated expression was anything to go by, he thought so too.
“Stop this shit,” Cade barked, immediately silencing their brothers, who blinked into their cameras in astonishment.
In the past, Cade would’ve attempted to redirect the conversation with some random unrelated comment. This was the first time in literal years that he’d actually raised his voice at them and directly commanded them to stop.
Kenny rolled her lips between her teeth to hide her grin as the other two hung their heads deferentially and muttered surly sorries.
“Kenny, what do you mean Smith left you?” Cade demanded to know.
Not so grand when that bossy voice was directed at her.
“I think the statement was pretty self-explanatory.”
“Where are you right now?” Nox asked, his voice only slightly less bossy than Cade’s.
“I’ll tell you only if you promise not to interfere.”
Three remarkably similar glowering faces stared back at her without comment.
Well, four could play that game. She plastered her own glower on her face and maintained a stubborn silence.
“Define interfere.” Unsurprising that Gideon, the most easygoing of the four of them, was the first to break the silence.
“You will not show up here unannounced. You will not threaten to kill or otherwise maim Smith, and you will absolutely not contact him in any way, shape, or form whatsoever,” she itemized, then sucked her bottom lip into her mouth as she considered her words. “And no badmouthing him to me either. I don’t need to hear your unsolicited opinions about my choice of husband.”
“That’s unreasonably restrictive,” Nox protested.
“You’ll respect my marriage, my husband, and me,” Kenny insisted.
“The fucker walked out on you, Kenny. He clearly doesn’t appreciate you or deserve you,” Nox said, his straight black brows beetling. “So why protect him from our—um—gentle reproaches?”
Cade facepalmed, while Gideon nodded in agreement to Nox’s preposterous question.
“He had his reasons for doing what he did.”
“Are you okay?” Cade asked, his voice grave.
Kenny gnawed at her upper lip before shaking her head.
“Not really.” Her voice was small and shaky, revealing a vulnerability that she would usually keep hidden even from her own brothers.
Gideon swore beneath his breath.
“You can come and stay with Beth and me for a while, okay? We can—”
“No, Gideon, that’s…that’s unbelievably generous, but you don’t have the space.”
“We have two houses,” he scoffed.
“One of which is your workplace.”
“It doesn’t…”
“She’ll stay with Fern and me,” Cade interrupted in a voice that brooked no argument. Once again stepping in with that bossy decisiveness which had been absent for so long.
Kenny laughed, even though her brother’s authoritative statement had warmed her heart.
“You and Fern are on your honeymoon, I wouldn’t dream of intruding.” Cade and Fern had decided just a couple of weeks before that they wanted to be together permanently. They even confessed their love to each other after a dramatic showdown with Fern’s awful stepfather, coming as shock to precisely no one.
“Where are you?” Nox asked, redirecting the conversation.
“Still awaiting that promise,” Kenny reminded him.
“Fine, f’fuck’s sake!” He rolled his eyes.
“Sure, no interfering,” Gideon said, the words emerging slowly. “But I reserve the right to kick his arse if he hurts you again.”
“Same,” Nox jumped in eagerly. “You’ve got to give us that at the very least, Kenny. It’s our sacred duty as your big brothers.”
His dramatic proclamation coaxed a laugh from her. Cade remained silent, face fierce and eyes intent. He was in super scary mode.
It did not escape Kenny’s notice that he hadn’t promised not to interfere. But she was confident that he was too preoccupied with his pregnant wife and work to get too wrapped up in Kenny’s business.