by Tia Siren
“Who the fuck is it?” she asked.
“It’s us.”
I recognized those voices. It was the Oakley brothers. I jumped up from the couch, spilling my coffee everywhere. I yelped at how hot the coffee was, feeling the hot liquid drip down my bare legs.
“Shit, Lexi. You all right?” Courtney asked.
“Everything okay?” Cole asked.
“Courtney, back up. We’re coming in,” Cameron said.
“Wait, what? They’re gonna do what?” I asked.
Before I could cover up the mess I’d made, Courtney jumped back and the door swung open. Not only did Cole and Cameron come barging in like they would have on their respective athletic fields, but Kyle and Kevin were right behind them. The four of them stepped into the room and locked eyes with me before Kevin rushed to the sink and began running a washcloth under some water.
“Are you all right, Lexi?” Kyle asked.
“Cole, check her bedroom. I’ll check Courtney’s” Cameron said.
“Hold it the fuck up. No one’s going into my room,” Courtney said.
“Lexi, hold still. You’ve burned yourself,” Kevin said as he dipped the cool washcloth down onto my leg. It pulled me from my daze as I looked at all the twins in the room. They were all clad in black suits with earpieces in their ears, and I slowly put together what was happening.
“What the fuck are you guys doing here?” I asked.
Kevin looked up at me after he was done cleaning my leg. He slowly rose to his feet and stood, towering over me as his glasses fell down the bridge of his nose. I looked over at the door and saw the two regular security guards stick their heads in. Then I saw them emerge, the rippling Castle brothers with their ruggedly good looks and their skin tainted with smoke.
“You’re all here?” I asked. “But why? How? What the fuck’s going on!?”
“Tony and Terry contacted us,” Cameron said.
“They told us what happened to you yesterday, with the security guards and Jeremy being in the bushes,” Kyle said.
“Tony wanted a way for someone to always have an eye on you without taxing the security detail he’d already hired,” Kevin said.
“So, he hired all of us,” Cole said.
“So the six of you are just hanging out and guarding one fucking room?” I asked.
“Yes,” they all said together.
“How the hell can you even swing that?” I asked.
“You sound upset,” Logan said.
“I’m not upset, but I don’t think… I’m just surprised; that’s all. Taken aback. I’ve had enough drama to last me a while,” I said.
“Well, Logan and I just talked to our fire chief. Our vacation time is unpaid, but the Wolf brothers are making up for that,” Liam said.
“And our staff is working out coverage for our schedules,” Kyle said.
“There’s a network of doctors in the area who help out with other private practices when doctors take vacation or have other gaps in coverage,” Kevin said. “We’re simply tapping into the resources we have.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “And what about you guys? What do your coaches think of this arrangement?” I asked.
“Not gonna lie, it took some convincing,” Cole said.
“It requires us being benched for the next couple of games,” Cameron said.
“But it’s worth it. We’ve been worried about you, especially with you constantly refusing our help,” Cole said.
“And our invitations to come stay,” Kevin said.
“And our invitations to do practically anything to help you,” Liam said.
“So the Wolf brothers just hired you all to watch over me,” I said. “So you guys could help.”
“That about covers it, yep,” Logan said.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was absolutely stunned. I was looking at six men I’d slept with in the past two weeks, and each had willingly taken blocks of time away from their lives and careers to help protect me. I looked at the Castle brothers and their rippling muscles. I took in the Jameson brothers and their glasses. I soaked up the Oakley brothers with their green eyes and bright smiles.
They were all here for me.
To make sure I was all right.
“Lexi, are you okay?” Logan asked.
Tears were trickling down my face, and I quickly brought my hand up to wipe them away. I started darting my head around, looking for my phone. When I didn’t see it, I dashed into my room. I heard all of them stampede after me, wondering what in the world was going on. I must’ve looked like a tornado had hit the side of my face. As I reached for my phone, it lit up with a familiar name.
Tony was calling.
I picked it up and put it on speakerphone as the six men stopped in my doorway. I drew in a shaking breath as Kyle stepped forward, his hand descending on my back to rub it. The sunlight trickling in through the bedroom window shimmered on my dress in the corner, and just as Tony’s voice filled the room, my chest hiccupped with a sob.
“Good morning, darling. Did you enjoy breakfast?” Tony asked.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“Lexi, are you all right? What’s going on?” Tony asked.
“Thank you for—absolutely e-every—thing.”
“Lexi, take some deep breaths,” Tony said.
“She’s all right,” Kyle said. “I think she’s just a bit overwhelmed.”
“You’re all there?” Tony asked.
“Yes,” they all said in unison.
“Good. Take care of her. She’s had enough excitement in her life to last her the rest of it,” Tony said.
“Thank you so, so much,” I said.
“Darling, you never have to thank me for making sure you’re safe. I couldn’t think of any better men to hire to make sure you are protected wherever you go. Remember, this is only until they catch that son of a bitch. Then you can have your life back,” Tony said.
But that was the problem. As I raised my dripping face to look at the men whose eyes were all connected with mine, I realized that I didn’t want my life back.
I wanted my life back with them, and hell be damned of the consequences.
“Well, I guess there’s only one thing to ask after something like this,” Courtney said as the guys parted to let her in.
“And what’s that?” Tony asked.
“Everyone getting along all right?”
Chapter 26
“I’m sorry to bother you again, Lexi, but we need you at work today,” my boss said. “We’ve got four people waiting here to discuss parties, and all but one of the event planners called in sick. Could you come help?”
“Of course. I’ll be right in.”
I rolled out of bed and quickly threw on clothes. Courtney was putzing around in the kitchen, and she sighed when she saw me in my work clothes.
“Seriously? They’re not letting you have vacation time at all, are they?” she asked.
“I mean, it’s a bad thing and a good thing. I can use this overtime to save up money, and doing this work helps me position myself for Jeremy’s former job. That comes with a salary instead of working hourly like I am now, which means I can negotiate health benefits and things like that,” I said.
“I mean, I guess that’s fine. I was just hoping to spend some time with you today.”
“Everything all right?” I asked.
“Just wanna talk to you about something, but it can wait.”
“Courtney, are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. We’ll talk later, I promise.”
“What’s it about?” I asked.
“Just what we’re gonna do after this is all said and done.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lexi, go to work.”
“No. You opened this can of worms and now I’m worried about you. What’s on your mind?”
This was the first time I’d ever seen Courtney unwilling to talk about something. Her eyes weren’t meeting min
e and her hands were playing with the edge of her mug. For a split second, I thought something had happened to her, that Jeremy might’ve frightened her or something like that. I wanted to make sure everything was okay with her before I left for work.
“Knock, knock.”
The door to our hotel suite opened and the Castle brothers stepped in. Their tan skin and rugged jawlines caught my stare for just a second, and I heard Courtney sigh. I ripped my attention from their deep, dark eyes and poured it back onto my best friend, but I could tell something had bothered her about the interaction.
“Talk to me, Court,” I said.
“Everything okay in here?” Logan asked.
“Lexi’ll need a ride to work today,” Court said.
“Not until we talk for a second. Could you guys give us some space?” I asked.
“Sure. Liam and I can go downstairs and pull one of the cars around,” Logan said.
“Thanks.”
I turned my attention back to Courtney, who sipped her coffee. I walked over to the coffee pot and made myself a travel mug, but my patience was wearing thin. I was on edge, constantly looking over my shoulder, and the last thing I needed was to be pulling shit from my best friend.
“Court, just spit it out,” I said.
“I, uh—look, Lexi, I don’t wanna be roommates after all of this is over.”
I looked at her and could see her face was wracked with guilt. My best friend no longer wanted to room with me. I brought my coffee to my lips as I leaned back against the kitchen counter, but all she did was continue to stare into her black cup of coffee.
“I can’t say I blame you,” I said, “but I’m gonna ask anyway. Why?”
“I just need a place of my own,” she said. “The renter’s insurance is going to reimburse me for all the things in the apartment of mine that were destroyed, including the money that was stolen. I was thinking about what to do with the check they cut me, and I figured it was time for me to get a place of my own.”
“That’s great, Court. I’m really happy for you.”
“I just didn’t want you to think that it was because of all this Jeremy bullshit. This decision isn’t because of any of that. It’s because I just—”
“Need a place of your own. I get it,” I said.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been roommates for the past three years, but we have separate lives, separate ways of dating and living. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since all this shit blew up in our faces, and I can’t honestly say that living in my own place wouldn’t be nice.”
“You’ve been saving up for it,” she said.
“And having something I could call my own would be a step in the right direction.”
“And considering the fact that most of our shit was destroyed by your twat-head ex, a fresh start for both of us might be good for the soul,” she said.
I looked at her as a smile broke out on my face. She buried a smirk as a giggle burst from my lips, and before I knew it the two of us were laughing our asses off. Tears lined my eyes as she doubled over at the waist, and for a moment it was only the two of us.
Just like it was before Jeremy happened.
“What was that you just called him? A ‘twat-head’ was it?” I asked, chuckling.
“It was the only thing I could think of,” she said, laughing.
“It was so perfect! They should put that shit on his mugshot,” I said, giggling.
A knock came at the door again before the Castle brothers opened it and entered. I wiped the tears from my eyes and grabbed my coffee before hugging Courtney’s neck and kissing her on the cheek. I was happy for her. I really was. Courtney had always been the kind of person to branch out and do her own thing, but she’d never had the money to do it.
Maybe this mess I’d gotten myself into would help her out after all.
“I’m working tonight, so I probably won’t be here when you get off work,” she said.
“Then I’ll see you whenever I get in from my date tonight.”
“Oh, shit. The Wolf brothers. That’s right. Well, maybe we could sit down and look at places together on our phones while you give me the dirty details of the evening,” she said.
“Sounds good to me. If I make it home that is.”
I gave Courtney a playful wink as she snickered and shook her head. I could see the confusion on Logan and Liam’s faces as I turned toward them, and I wondered how much of the conversation they had heard. I headed down to the car with them towering behind me, but once we pulled out of the hotel, I noticed the convoy of black cars behind us. Two more cars had pulled out and were following me to the hotel, and I realized that all the guys were coming to work with me.
I hit the ground running the moment I got into the Beacon-Ansley. People were placing calls and trying to make last-minute changes to their parties, while others were seeking original consultations and pricing. One was even trying to change their wine listings when the bottles had already been ordered and stocked. By the time lunch rolled around, I was ready to drop.
I flopped down onto a couch in the back break room and sighed, leaning my head back on the cushion. One by one, I heard the men silently file into the room and sit in the chairs beside me as I closed my eyes. My stomach rumbled with hunger, but food was the furthest thing from my mind.
All I wanted to do right now was sleep.
“You all right, Lexi?” Kevin asked.
“You don’t have to use your doctor voice with me, Kevin. I’m just fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Kyle said.
“That goes for you, too, Dr. Jameson,” I said.
“What were you and Courtney talking about this morning?” Liam asked.
“This isn’t a fire you can put out,” I said.
“Are you going to use our jobs as puns when addressing us all day today?” Logan asked.
“Depends. Does it stoke your fire?” I asked, grinning.
The six of them chuckled, and the sound relaxed my bones. I sank deeper into the couch as I felt someone sit down next to me, and before I knew it I was being scooped up into the very familiar arms of Cameron Oakley.
“Talk to us,” he said.
“What’s on your mind?” Cole asked.
“Courtney doesn’t want to room together after this is all said and done,” I said.
“Is it because of all the Jeremy shit?” Cole asked.
“She says it’s not, and I believe her. It just leaves me trying to figure out what to do, I guess.”
“Have you given much thought to what you might do?” Kyle asked as he adjusted his glasses.
“Not really. Right now I’m still jumping every time my phone rings. I keep hoping it’s the police saying they’ve got Jeremy, like that’ll somehow give me permission to let down my guard and continue with my life.”
“Are you concerned he’ll find you if just rent somewhere new?” Kevin asked.
“Petrified of it really,” I said.
“You know we’d protect you,” Liam said.
“Yeah. The fire chief would be willing to work with us,” Logan said.
“With the way we all seem to congregate around you, it’d made more sense if we just all lived together,” Cameron said, chuckling.
“No joke. That way we wouldn’t all have to compromise our careers just to see her,” Cole said.
“We could each have a bedroom and she could just sleep in a different bed every night,” Liam said, laughing.
“Poor Lexi would end up calling all of us by different names,” Logan said.
“My mom used to do that shit,” Kyle said. “She’d fucking call me by the dog’s name before she’d get mine right.”
“No shit! Your mom did that, too?” Cole asked.
“I think all moms do that. We had a pepper plant named Pico, and she’d fucking call me that before she called me by my real name,” Liam said.
“Shit, I’d forgotten about that,” Logan said, chuckl
ing. “Pico.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Liam threatened.
“I mean, it doesn’t sound that far-fetched, does it?”
My question stopped them in their tracks. I was taking slight offense to the way they were joking about it. Living with all of them sounded like a dream. And Courtney was right, we had to branch out and think about what we were going to do after this was all said and done. The idea of living with all of them and staggering their various schedules and caring for each of them in turn warmed my soul, but all they were doing was making fun of it.
It was like they were making fun of my happiness or something.
“What do you mean?” Cameron asked as I slid from his lap.
“I mean, why does that type of thing have to be a joke?” I asked. “Why couldn’t we all live together?”
“Well, we all have our settled lives, Lexi,” Kevin said, “our own spaces and houses.”
“Plus, it’s a bit odd, don’t you think?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t think so at all,” I said, shrugging. “I mean, I care about all of you.”
“But you’re gonna eventually pick, right?” Logan asked.
“Yeah. You can’t just keep bouncing around between us all the time,” Liam said.
“Why not?” I asked. “I enjoy you all and care for you all equally. Why is that such a bad thing?”
“So you’re not gonna pick?” Cole asked.
“I-I don’t know.”
I sighed as I watched their faces slowly fall. I guess I had been imagining a perfect world for me and being selfish. I figured with all of them around one another, they would take to each other’s company. Maybe I had this whole idea built up in my head that we could all live together as one massive, happy family.
Maybe that was just the childish whim of a scared little woman, but that didn’t mean I was going to choose. I couldn’t. And I wouldn’t give in to their pressure.
I walked toward the door, and a hand reached out and grabbed my arm. I looked down at Kyle, his innocent blue eyes shimmering behind his glasses. His hair shone in the lighting of the room, and I dipped down to press a kiss to his cheek before I wiggled away from his grasp.