“What the fuck are you grinning at?”
“I like her,” Joe said. “She’s quirky and cute as hell.”
“Yeah, it’s about time you started dating someone with a personality,” Will said. “Maybe we should clue her in on the kind of floozies you usually date.”
“The Sugar Twins,” Andrew said, pointing to me.
“Annabelle what’s her face,” Joe said.
“Three tits Tina,” Will joined in.
“Saucy Sandy,” Eric said dreamily.
“Alright, that’s enough. You guys can stop all that shit. You’re not saying anything to her about anyone I dated. Or anything I did as a kid. Or any stories that make me look like a dick.”
“So, basically you want us to sit there and stare at the wall,” Will grinned.
“Fuck off,” I said, walking into the house, sure that when I got in there, Claire would already be hearing some terrible story about me.
✯✯✯✯✯
We all sat around the living room in an uncomfortable silence. Every time one of my brothers started to speak, I glared at them, letting them know that if they said anything negative about me, I’d fucking kill them. Claire was fidgeting next to me and was obviously uncomfortable.
“So, I’d love to hear some stories about you guys growing up together.”
Andrew went to open his mouth, but snapped it shut when he looked at me.
“He was a good kid,” Eric said, coming to the rescue. “He was very level headed and the day he joined the military, we were all so fucking proud of him.”
Claire laughed a little and looked around the room. “Oh, come on. That can’t be all you have to say. There has to be something better than that.”
Will cleared his throat and crossed his ankle across his other knee. “You know how it is in a small town. Not a lot of trouble to get into. It was always pretty…”
“You know how it is with siblings,” Andrew said. “You get into some crap, but it always turned out okay.”
“I know that’s not true. He already told me that you guys got into a lot of trouble.” Claire looked around the room, daring them to tell her it wasn’t true.
“Well, there was this one time we were over at the neighbor’s house-”
“Keep your fucking mouth shut,” I snapped at Joe.
“And Derek got the bright idea that we should take turns driving the tractor, insisting that our neighbor wouldn’t mind if we plowed his field.”
“Hey, what the fuck did I just say?”
“Shush,” Claire waved a hand at me. “I’m trying to hear the story,” she said excitedly. I grumbled and sat back in my seat, annoyed that the tractor story was being brought up. Joe leaned forward with a big grin on his face and continued.
“So, we all sat on the tractor wherever we could and Eric got the plow all hooked up. We took the tractor out to the field and were taking turns plowing the field up when the old man came running out yelling at us. Derek was the one driving, but the rest of us jumped off the tractor and took off back to our house. Derek tried to outrun the old man and just kept driving through the field, but the old man had called the cops as soon as he saw us out there. They came flying down the road, sirens blaring and ran out to the field. Derek was zigzagging through the field to try and get away from them. We all watched from the tree line as he continued to plow the field, trying to get away from the cops.”
“What happened?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Eventually, he stopped the tractor and got down. He tried explaining to the old man that he just wanted to help out and plow the field.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Claire said sadly.
“Yeah, and it would have been if the farmer hadn’t just planted the field,” Joe laughed.
“Oh my God! You destroyed his crop?”
“Not really. It just didn’t come up in straight lines that year,” I grumbled.
She threw her head back in laughter and bounced on the couch with glee. “Tell me more. There has to be more!”
“There’s the story of the Sugar Twins,” Will grinned.
“No!” I barked at him.
“He was dating Melanie Cartwright and she had an identical twin, Melissa. Derek took Melanie’s virginity in the back seat of his car when he was sixteen. Melissa was jealous because apparently, she had a thing for Derek also. She made sure to dress like Melanie and showed up for their date, telling Melanie that Derek had called and cancelled. After their date, Derek brought her back to the house and went to the pond behind the house. Derek liked to take Melanie back there to fuck her,” he grinned.
I hid my face in my hands. This made me look so bad, but when I looked at Claire, she was laughing and covering her mouth with her hand.
“Anyway, Melanie came to the house looking for an explanation as to why Derek cancelled their date. We were all fucking confused because she asked where he was and we had just seen her go to the pond with Derek. She stomped back there and caught him fucking Melissa. We all followed, of course, when we realized what was going on. We didn’t want to miss the show. Derek’s standing with his pants around his ankles and his dick hanging out, insisting that he had no clue that she wasn’t Melanie. Melissa was all sprawled out on the ground with an evil look on her face. Let’s just say that relationship didn’t last.”
Claire turned to me with tears of laughter running down her face. “How did you not know?”
“They were fucking identical twins!”
“Still. There had to be something that was different about them. I can’t believe you did that!” She was practically rolling around on the ground in hysterics and my brothers were laughing along with her. Sighing, I got up to grab beer for everyone. When I got back, I wished that I had stayed gone. Eric was knee deep in the condom story.
“So, there he is, little shithead of twelve, wanting to know how a condom works. Of course, he hadn’t gone through puberty yet, so he didn’t know you had to have an erection to get a condom on. He pulled it up over his soft dick and then wrapped a rubber band around it to hold it in place. He was worried it would slide off, so he wrapped it extra tight. When his penis started turning blue, he flipped out and called me in to help him out. I couldn’t stop laughing and there was no way I was touching his dick. I ran and got my dad to help him. My dad sighed and then proceeded to help him get the rubber band off.”
Claire sat there shocked, mouth hanging open. When she turned to me, she shut her mouth and her chest heaved. Her cheeks puffed as she tried to hold back her laughter, but when her whole body started shaking, I just shook my head and handed out the beers.
“What happened to ‘I got your back, bro’?” I asked Eric.
“Sorry, I just really like that story,” he chuckled.
This was going to be a long fucking night.
✯✯✯✯✯
Claire asked Lucy to come over the next day so that she could meet my brothers. I knew it was a mistake the moment Lucy walked in the door. Her eyes immediately started checking out my brothers, sizing them up to see which one she wanted to sink her claws into. I didn’t really give a shit, except for the fact that Hunter was fucking crazy about her and I didn’t want one of my brothers to piss him off. Aside from warning my brothers off, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to stop it. If Lucy wanted to fuck someone, she would get it from someone else, if not one of my brothers. Still, I pulled Claire aside as soon as I saw her checking them out.
“You’ve got to tell your sister to stay away from my brothers.”
“Why? You know how Lucy is. Do you think your brothers are going to get hurt or something? Because they don’t really strike me as the type to care.”
“It’s not that. Hunter will go crazy and I don’t want him killing one of my brothers.”
“Derek, I know that Hunter is like a brother to you, but if Lucy doesn’t want to be with him like that, there’s nothing we can do to stop her. If she screws this up, it’s on her. I’ll talk to her, but
in the end, it’s up to her.”
“I know, I just…fuck, I never thought Hunter would want a woman the way he wants Lucy. He would never give another woman a shot if Lucy trampled all over him.”
She hugged me and rested her head against my chest. “I know. You can’t make a person change, though.”
I held her and thanked God that I had this woman in my life. She really was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I was just so thankful that my brothers were taking to her like their very own sister. I would sure hate to have to kill my brothers.
“So, Claire. Tell us how you met our dear brother,” William asked over a beer later that afternoon.
“Uh, we met in the grocery store.” Claire turned bright red and peeled at the label on her beer bottle.
“Yeah, so did he try to convince you that his cucumber was longer than the others in the store?” Andrew asked. Claire was taking a sip of beer and spit it out all over herself. I laughed so hard, because I remembered putting on a show for her specifically with a cucumber.
“I choked on a grape,” she mumbled. “I was trying to work up the courage to talk to him and I choked on a grape.”
“I knew she was watching me the whole time,” I grinned.
“What? You knew?”
“Why do you think I was taking my time walking through the produce section? No one takes that much time to pick out fruit.”
“But…” She stared with her mouth gaping open. “Did you see-”
“You staring at me with the two other women? Yeah. It was fucking adorable.” I turned to my brothers, a huge grin splitting my face. “She was eating blueberries and watching me. I knew right then that I had her.”
“You ass! I can’t believe you knew all that time.”
“I was just drawing you in, Claire bear.”
“Claire bear, that’s so fucking adorable,” Will snickered. I expected Joe to make some snarky remark also, but as I looked around the room, I realized that he was missing. So was Lucy. Fuck. I stood and walked around the house, ignoring my brothers’ strange looks. Claire got up and followed me with a quizzical look.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your sister and Joe aren’t here.”
Claire looked around and shook her head, a look of disappointment on her face. The doorbell rang and I went to answer, cursing under my breath when I saw Pappy at the door.
“Hey, man,” I said as I pulled it open.
“I brought beer. I heard your brothers were in town and I wanted to-”
He paused mid sentence as he looked over my shoulder. Claire and I turned around to see Lucy walking in the sliding door with Joe, holding hands and looking completely fucked. My eyes slid closed as I felt the anger burning through Pappy. I didn’t have to look at him to know that he was on the verge of killing my brother. Lucy and Joe still hadn’t seen Pappy and were headed for the front door.
“What the fuck are you doing, Lucy?”
Lucy gasped as she came to a stop by us. Joe looked between us in confusion. Obviously, Lucy hadn’t told Joe that she wasn’t exactly available. Lucy narrowed her eyes at Pappy and scowled.
“Don’t worry about it. We aren’t together and who I fuck is none of your business.”
I saw Claire flinch next to me and Joe took a step back. “Whoa, Lucy, I’m just looking for a good time. I’m not getting in the middle of whatever the fuck you two have going on.”
“We have nothing going on,” she insisted. “Now, let’s get out of here.”
Joe took another step back, eyes flashing to mine for a brief moment, full of regret. Smart man. “Sorry, I don’t poach what belongs to other men.”
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
“Does he know that?” Joe asked. He shook his head and walked back in the other room. Lucy turned a glare on Pappy and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I hope you’re happy.”
“Why the fuck would I be happy that you’re out screwing other guys?”
“Hunter, you need to get something through your head. We fuck occasionally. It’s never been more than that and you can’t just swoop in and change the rules when it’s convenient for you.”
“I flat out told you how it was going to be. I’m not fucking around on you and I expect the same courtesy.”
“I never agreed to that and if you had it in your oversexed brain that we were going to have something different, that’s not my problem.”
Pappy turned to me, harnessing his anger so he didn’t kill her. I appreciated that. “I’ll meet your brothers some other time. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be around the man that Lucy just fucked right now.”
I nodded and watched him walk out the door, pissed that Lucy and Joe had ruined what could have been a great night.
“You need to go, too, Lucy.” Claire was angry, but she was doing a good job of hiding it.
“Why do I have to go? Joe and I both knew what we were doing. We’re not teenagers, Claire.”
“Then why are you acting like one? You can’t just go around playing with people’s feelings. It’s obvious that Hunter thought the two of you had more.”
“No, he told me what we were going to have. That’s not the same as us coming to the same conclusion.”
“I think you still need to go.”
I could tell it hurt Claire to say that and Lucy was equally upset, but luckily didn’t put up a fight. She walked out the door and didn’t look back. Just like that, the great time that we were having deflated like a lead balloon.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Claire
DEREK’S BROTHERS LEFT last night and now I was back at work at the library, trying to catch up on some work from the last few weeks. With everything that had happened, I had fallen behind on paperwork and making sure that the library was in proper order at all times. I was in the kids’ section on my hands and knees, sorting through books that had been shelved in the wrong spot, upside down, backwards, or lying on their covers. The whole section was in need of a good reorganization. I had my face plastered against the floor as I tried to reach a book that had been shoved under the bookcase when I felt like I was being watched. As gracefully as I could, I stood from my position and turned to see a man standing behind me. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him.
“Ms. Grant. I’m not sure if you remember me, but a few weeks back, you offered to look into a book for me.” I tilted my head, still trying to figure it out when he took a step closer. “It was a book about old locks and keys.”
“Oh,” I said, not able to come up with anything else to say in the moment. Now I remembered who the man was. He was the creepy one that kept looking at me like I was a hot dog on a summer day. Derek had told me not to help them. I was torn because I actually had heard back from one of my contacts that they may have a copy in their possession and to let them know if I wanted it. I hadn’t responded because it had been right around the time of the fire.
Derek’s voice was warring with my own need to find out what was going on, but in the end, I decided to listen to Derek. After all, I knew that was one of the most important things for him. Trust. If we didn’t have that, I knew we would never survive.
I smiled kindly at the man and brushed the dust bunnies off my clothes. “I’m so sorry, but I haven’t been able to reach anyone that had that book. They all promised to let me know as soon as they found something out. However, since it’s out of print and it wasn’t a bestselling book, I’m afraid the publishers didn’t print up that many. It may be awhile before we come across one.”
The man narrowed his eyes at me and took another step toward me. “It would be very bad if I didn’t get my hands on that book. People’s lives depend on it. Your life may depend on it,” he said cryptically. Was that supposed to mean that there was some disaster on the way and if he didn’t get his hands on the book, the world would cease to exist? Or was it a more generalized threat toward me? If I don’t get what he wants, I’ll end up dead? Both we
re situations I would like to avoid. I was in the middle of a good book and really wanted to get to the ending.
“Like I said, it may take a while to get it, but I have your number and as soon as I hear something, I’ll be sure to let you know.” I gave him my kindest smile that said I was being completely truthful with him, even though I had no plans to ever give this man what he wanted.
He nodded and took a few steps back before turning and walking out of the library. I finally let loose the breath I had been holding and leaned back against the bookcase I was standing by. I needed to call Derek and let him know that the man would be back for sure and he desperately wanted it. I made my way over to the office, abandoning the children’s books that were still spread out in chaos over the floor. I’d deal with that later.
I picked up my cell phone and tried to dial Derek, but the call wouldn’t go through. I didn’t always have very good reception in here and a lot depended on the weather. Right now, there were storm clouds rolling through, so that was what was probably causing the interference. I went over to the landline and dialed his number, but after the second ring, all the lights in the library went out.
“Crap. Why does this always have to happen to me?” Someone needed to fix this building. I was tired of the lights going out multiple times a week, especially when I was the only one working at night. It didn’t make me feel very safe, even though I was in a library and surrounded by books. Realistically what would happen? The books would decide to fight back? I shook the crazy thought from my head and went to my office to find the fuse box. When I pushed the crap stacked in front of the box to the side, I got a strange feeling that I had done this before. I shook my head and flipped open the fuse box. I really needed some additional light back here, like glow sticks or something.
I opened the box and noticed that all the switches seemed to be flipped exactly as they were supposed to be. I pursed my lips and went through each switch, flipping them off and then back on, just to be sure. When nothing happened, I felt a chill run up my spine. If that box was fine, what had made the lights go out? I ran through scenarios of scenes I had read in other books. A powerful storm knocked a tree down and now the power is out all around town? Very possible. Someone cut the power lines to sneak in and return their overdue books from the last ten years? Not likely. They’d probably just keep them. There was a man on the loose reenacting the Michael Meyer movies? It was Friday the 13th after all. I’m sure it’s just a kid pranking me. Killer in the library. Now that one sounded eerily familiar, like a dream I had and it was now becoming reality.
Irish: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 5) Page 20