“Thank you.”
He had just moved to stand by the grill to pick a barbecued bell pepper when the back door opened. Gawain recognized the man right away. Bors’s partner, Branyan. He looked at Bors. His brother nodded before he stood up. It must have been Branyan who had called earlier.
“Expecting him, bro?”
“Yup.”
“Man, that smell reached the hollow part of my stomach. Save me some of them hotdogs, Doc.”
“We have plenty, Agent. We’ll have steaks and corn on a cob.”
“Jeysus. I wonder how you guys could maintain your weight. You eat like warriors.” Branyan waved at the women. “What’s going on here? Miss Universe contestants on a break?”
“Aww. That’s why I love you, Branyan.” Taylor blew him a kiss. “How’s Lucy?”
“Busy chasing little Jake around. And how’s little Pen?”
“An angel. Like her daddy.”
“He is. Just don’t tell that to his face,” Branyan whispered but loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Angel, my ass. Bran, meet Alex.” Bors said, “Alex, I want you to meet my partner, Agent Branyan.”
Alex removed the beach towel that she wrapped around herself, stood up and then offered her hand. “How do you do, Agent Branyan.”
Branyan’s jaw went slack, his eyes blinking fast while looking at Alex from head to toe. “This…this is…wow.”
Gawain wanted to kick his ass. “Uhm, Branyan. You’re supposed to shake Alex’s hand.”
Coming out of his shock, Branyan blinked. “Sorry. I’m just surprised.”
“Why?”
“I had this image of you in my head as a little girl with twiggy arms and legs. Not—”
“Twiggy?”
“Never mind I said that. You look shockingly beautiful.” To Gawain, he said, “It’s okay to say that, right?”
Gawain raised a brow, but said nothing. Branyan was so startled by Alex’s beauty, he couldn’t even think right. Gawain had never seen the man so off like this.
Branyan took Alex’s hand and shook it fast. “Glad to meet you, Alex.”
“Same here.”
Gawain noticed everyone was trying to hide their smiles. He couldn’t blame Branyan for losing his tongue. He wasn’t the only one to look dumbstruck after seeing Alex. She’d get that reaction wherever she went. Her eyes alone would make you forget everything.
Branyan cleared his throat. “So, how’s the water? Damn, I would go for a dip if I’m wasn’t on duty.”
“Next time, partner. The water is really refreshing.” Bors looked at Gawain. He tipped his head toward the dock. It was brief and he would have missed it if he weren’t watching.
One by one, his brothers left their spots to follow Bors and Branyan. Something was up. Gawain walked toward Alex, leaned down, then kissed her. “Be right back.”
Alex’s face turned the same color as the towel she wrapped on her shoulder—deep red.
To Edmund, he said, “Hey, stinky feet. Keep watch. And don’t let the dogs burn, or I’ll fry your balls instead.”
Edmund’s reply was a big grin.
* * * *
“Good Lord. Look at those asses.” Taylor giggled. “Imagine how many women would pay big bucks just to be around the Knight men.”
“I’ll never get tired looking at my husband. Sometimes, I watch him sleep. He’s just perfect.” Julie sighed.
“Don’t know how many times Percival caught me staring at his butt. I just couldn’t stop.” Addie laughed.
“What’s up with that? Why do you women stare at men’s butts?” Edmund shook his head.
“Why do you men stare at women’s breasts?” Kirsten asked while lacing and unlacing her fingers with Edmund.
“I don’t stare, love,” Edmund defended.
“Liar!”
“Yeah, right.”
“He’s blushing.” The sisters-at-heart all said at the same time.
Edmund covered his mouth with the back of Kirsten’s hand as he laughed.
Alex was enjoying listening to everyone talking when she noticed thick smoke coming out of the barbecue grill. “Uhm, Edmund. I think the hotdogs are burning.”
“Shit!” Edmund stood up fast and went to check the grill. As soon as he opened the lid, smoke enveloped him.
“You’re doomed!” Taylor said. “Gawain will grill your you-know-what.”
Everyone laughed.
Alex glanced at Gawain. He was deep in conversation with his brothers and Branyan. Like the rest of the Knight women, she, too, couldn’t stop staring at Gawain. He was a bundle of seductiveness. His voice, smile, his eyes. Oh, God, those eyes were so mesmerizing. Not to mention his body was to die for. Just one look at him and her imagination would run wild. Like lick him from head to toe or mark him everywhere.
She thought about what Gawain had made her do in the boat shed. Not in her wild imagination had she straddled a man’s head naked while he licked…
Alex’s body became warm. And it wasn’t because of the sunshine. She shifted from her seat, suddenly feeling uncomfortable and excited at the same time.
Sweet pea, can’t believe I’m thinking about making love with Gawain while in the middle of conversation with his family.
Gawain must have felt her stare. He looked in her direction. Even from the distance, Alex could see him winking at her. Such a simple action, but enough to make her sigh like a woman in love.
In love.
Yes, she was in love with him. Had been forever. And she told him so while wrapped in intense passion. Alex shook her head as reality hit her.
“What was that sigh about, Alex?” Kirsten asked.
Alex sighed. “I just realized something.”
“Do tell,” Julie asked. “I need new materials for my next book.”
“Let me take a guess.” Addie tipped her face toward the sun. “Alex finally realized that she’s in love with Gawain.”
Kirsten clapped her hands. “Is that true, Alex?”
“I believe so.”
Everyone except for Edmund, who sat back down holding a silver tong, screamed. He winced, too.
“I knew it would happen,” Taylor said. “Saw how you two looked at each other. And Gawain seemed different.”
“Different how, Taylor?” Alex asked.
“As if he just found something he’d been looking for.”
Julie nodded. “Yeah, Taylor is right.”
The Knight women were bright-eyed and grinning.
“How did you know?” Alex had never had this kind of conversation with any women. She had friends on the island, but they never really shared thoughts like this as if they’d been friends for a long time.
“I think Gawain is in love. Seen the look before.”
“When, Julie?” Addie asked.
“When Tristan first kissed me.”
Alex remembered the first time Gawain kissed her—the same day she had arrived in Orcas. Not only that, she shared a bed with him in just a matter of days. Oh, God. She couldn’t imagine what these women were thinking about her. Yes, none of them showed indifference toward her, but that didn’t mean they weren’t talking negative behind her back.
“Now, what was up with the frown, darling?” Julie touched Alex’s knee.
“I’ve just been here a week and…well,” Alex’s words tripped all over. Her tongue seemed to stop working and her accent was so thick in her ears.
Kirsten moved from her spot beside Edmund to sit on the chair Gawain had occupied earlier. She wrapped an arm around Alex. “It’s all right, Alex. No need to feel nervous around us.”
Alex sighed. “Thank you.” She looked at Gawain and caught his gaze. He must have been staring at her.
“Smile, or my brother will come over here and he’ll ask you what’s going on. Knowing him, he won’t stop until he finds out what caused you to frown.”
Alex forced a smile. Gawain nodded, then turned his attention back to what Bors was saying.
> “Knight men are overprotective, Alex,” Addie said. “One of the many ways they show their love.”
“I attest to that,” Taylor piped in. “But, we’re going off the track here. Something is bothering you, Alex. What is it? Maybe we can help.”
Alex sighed. “I shouldn’t worry about what other people think of me, I know. It’s just sometimes, I can’t help it. Nanni, the woman who helped raise me took a duty of educating me. For years, she made me act proper at all times.”
“Why?” asked Edmund.
“To earn people’s respect, so I wouldn’t end up like my mother. She was a prostitute. Her words meant nothing to anyone. Not to the police, judge, anyone. It was the reason why we left. No one would believe her story that a man came in to our house and she defended herself against him. Except for my dad. Anyway, I made a promise to my mom and Nanni that I would never do anything that would make people think that I’m not a respectable woman.”
“Ah, that explains the reason why you were so proper when you and Edmund met at the airport.” Kirsten smiled. “He told me.”
“Yes. My being proper, I’m afraid, didn’t last. You see, it didn’t even take a day before I broke my promise. Because…because…”
“Because Gawain kissed you,” Julie finished.
Alex felt her cheeks grow warm. “Yes.”
“Percival threatened to kiss me during our first meeting. And he did. Even though I smelled like a pig,” Addie said dreamily. “I stayed in the convent for years, promising to become a nun, but as soon as I was out, Percival and I were humping like rabbits.”
Alex couldn’t help it, she laughed with the women.
“Bors carried me across the street the first day we met and then I shared food with him. That same night, I fell in love with him.”
“And you called him a troll, Taylor,” Julie said, laughing.
“I did.”
“Tristan touched my hand the first time I met him in the hospital. You know, in the eighteen nineties, that could mean marriage.”
Alex shook her head. Not only the Knight men could lift anyone’s spirits up, but the women.
“So you see, Alex. Kissing Gawain on your first day back in the US doesn’t mean you’re bad. There is nothing wrong with what you’ve done and are doing. And if anyone judges you based on your recent actions, I say fuck them.”
“Yeah!”
“Fuck them!”
“Screw the sons of bitches!” Julie, Taylor, and Addie said simultaneously.
“Whoohoo!” Kirsten clapped. “You all need your own curse jar.”
Just like that, she felt reborn. Nothing was wrong with sleeping with a man she’d been in love with for ages. Nothing was wrong in showing it through physical union.
Stories about each other’s first meetings were being shared when Edmund stood up. “I think someone rang the bell, Taylor. I’ll go check.”
It didn’t escape Alex’s notice when laughter left Edmund’s face and he reached under the towels to pull out a gun.
Tucking it behind his back, he said to them, “Stay put, ladies. Be right back.”
“Are we expecting trouble?” she asked no one in particular.
“Having a judge for a dad who created many enemies for being just, and an FBI Agent for a brother, we always expect trouble. That’s why we all learned how to shoot.”
“It seems I brought more trouble at your door, Kirsten.”
“Nonsense. Gawain stopped thinking about chicken rotisserie twenty-four seven and he hasn’t talked about his plane since you got here. What you brought is sunshine in my brother’s life.”
Alex’s heart thudded in her chest. “We’re attracted to each other, but I’m not sure if his feelings go as far as loving me.”
“In some ways, I’m sure my wonderful brother showed how much you mean to him.”
“He’ll surprise you. Just wait,” Julie said. “The Knights are a possessive lot. They take what they want.
You’re mine. He said so, many times. Those were Gawain’s words, but he never said that he loved her. Alex was still mulling over the idea of Gawain being in love with her when Edmund came back. His brows were furrowed and he looked like thunder. He didn’t stop to tell them who was at the door. Instead, he gave Kirsten a quick glance, then headed toward where Gawain and the others stood.
* * * *
On the dock, Branyan produced a small Manila envelope out of his breast pocket. “Okay, like I mentioned on the phone, I got this package this morning. No name, no return address. Didn’t matter. We already know our guy.” He opened the envelope and pulled out an iPhone. “A note came with it. Listen to the last part of the conversation. Luke just solved the case.”
Percival, the tech geek in the family, played the recording. No one said a thing until the conversation ended.
“Fuck.” Percival handed the iPhone back to Branyan. “The Roses went through hell because of another Rose. Greedy bitches.”
Tristan shook his head. “Fucking sad. A lot of kids are living in a hell hole their families have created. And it is all because of money.”
“Where is Luke?” Gawain asked though all he wanted to do was kick the son of a bitch’s balls.
“He’s holed up in his mother’s house, my friend. He’s not going anywhere. He said that he’d changed his mind about the whole money thing.”
“What made him change his mind?” Gawain asked although what he also wanted was to find Luke and break his balls.
“The bastard finally realized what he had done and been crying his eye balls out.
“This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t fucking smash his face. He tried to sell Alex to those vultures.” Gawain spit the words like nails. “She trusted him.”
“I know, man.”
“Branyan, I wouldn’t trust his words. Something else or someone had made him tuck his tail. I’ll bet on it.”
“That’s my hunch, too, Bors, but we go with what we have. This recorded conversation between Luke, Frieda Perez and Lucrezia Rose will lead us to our mystery man. Outside of this circle, nobody else knows about the man. Not even the police. And yet, the Roses mentioned him. This is solid. We just have to make it bullet proof.”
Gawain couldn’t stop thinking about the what ifs and every possible horrible scenario if Alex had come back straight to her grandma and aunt’s arms. They could have hurt her. After all, she would inherit everything. And what if she’d stayed with Luke? The bastard would have sold her for half a million dollars. Fucking eh!
“I want to hang them all.”
Bors clapped Gawain on the shoulder. “I’m with you, little brother. I want their guts spilled for what they did to Alex’s family. She lost a mother and a father, friends, everything. All because of those mother fuckers. But we have to do the right thing. Like Branyan said, our evidence is not hard enough to knock them out.”
Gawain nodded.
At least Alex had enough for now to start living without wondering about that night. She would go back to the Philippines and he to work, do whatever it was he always did before she came back to his life. He had work to do and missed flying. Yeah, he’d go back to his ordinary life without Alex. The thought served as a heavy stone in his stomach. Who the fuck was he kidding? Nothing would be the same once Alex walked out his door. His imp had crawled under his skin many years ago. Now, she occupied his heart. What the hell was he going to do about that?
“You okay, little bro?”
Gawain took his gaze away from the water where he and Alex swam. He nodded at Bors. “Yeah. I’m fine. So what’s next?”
“We’ll pay Lucrezia and Frieda a visit.”
Edmund joined them. “No need.”
Since Edmund had become practically a member of the family, Bors had made it a point to inform him about the family situation. He briefed him about their dad’s philanthropic and unbiased work as a judge, which earned him numerous enemies, and Bors working as an undercover agent. He wanted Edmund to stay alert when around the f
amily, especially when he was with Kirsten. He even showed him how to shoot. Edmund had also been briefed about Alex.
“What do you mean, Edmund?” Percival asked.
“They’re here. Including Miguel. They want to see Alex.”
Bors looked at Gawain. “Little bro, the past has caught up with Alex now. Time for her to shut one door and open another.”
“She may not be ready.” He glanced at Alex giggling with his sister and sisters-in-law. She’d been hurt, and more pain would come when she found out her friend and only living family had stabbed her in the back.
“She survived the first storm, rat. She can handle this next one. Especially with you on her side.” Tristan smiled at him.
“Hey, bunny. There is no turning around after this. Everything will change.”
Gawain knew. After this, Alex would most likely leave his home and move to her own house, or go back to the Philippines right away, or pick up pieces of her old life and then move on. He looked at his brothers and Branyan. They were all staring at him. Of course, things would change for him and Alex after this.
“Alex is a grown woman. Whatever she decides, I’m sure is good for her.”
“What about you? Are you grown enough to see her go?” Tristan asked with a serious face.
“I’ll not be in her way, T.”
“Because you love her that much,” Bors said matter-of-factly.
“Because I love her that much,” Gawain repeated. Fuck, yeah. He loved her.
“All right, guys. The rats are here and we’ve waited long enough. Let’s bring them in. Put them in the cage as soon as possible.” Branyan placed the iPhone back in the envelope.
“Perfect,” Bors grinned evilly. “I love it when the rats come out to eat the cheese.”
Chapter Seventeen
Everyone gathered around the picnic area. Taylor suggested that they should change and go in the house, but Bors would have none of it. He’d rather they meet the Roses in the back yard. He added that he would not spend time putting on his shirt for those piranhas. They’d already disturbed the picnic he had planned, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of enjoying his air conditioned house.
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