by Apryl Baker
Mason.
It was about fucking time.
He stood and walked down the porch steps to greet his baby brother. Mason was only twenty, soon to be twenty-one, and as arrogant as any of his brothers. He had shaggy black hair, eyes as dark as his own, and a grin that could scorch the panties right off a woman. The kid was a heartbreaker. It was going to take a strong female to knock him down a peg or two.
“Where you been? I called you a week ago.”
“Finals, fucker, I had finals.” Mason scrubbed his face with his hands. “I am a college student and not one of your fucking employees.”
“The paycheck you get from KSI says otherwise.” Viktor hauled the kid in for a hug. He’d missed him.
“Details.” Mason yawned. “I drove all night to get here. Is there someplace I can crash for a while?”
“You can use the room Gabe and I are sharing.”
“Oh, what’s this?” Mason peered around him at Gabe. “You two finally hooking up?”
“He only wishes he could have this ass.” Gabe shouted from the porch and turned to slap his ass. “He can’t handle me!”
“Motherfuckers, I will…”
“Language!”
They both turned to see Sara standing behind Gabe, her hands on her hips, looking ready to give them all a beatdown.
Gabe’s eyes widened, and he gave her a contrite smile. “Sorry, Sara.”
“We were just shootin’ the shit.” Viktor slapped his brother on the back. It sent him stumbling forward. Boy needed to bulk up.
“What did I just say?”
“Aw, fuck…” He shut up at her narrowed eyes. He couldn’t help it. Cussing was as natural to him as breathing.
Mason cracked up. “Damn, man, you’re in some shit.”
Sara’s gasp made the kid roll with laughter until she marched down and poked him in the chest. “I will not have any of you cussing like that around my daughter.”
Mason smiled his megawatt smile. It had zero effect on her.
“What is it with you Kincaid men? Is cussing a permanent part of your vocabulary?”
“Yes, ma’am, it sure is.”
“Sara, this is my youngest brother, Mason. He’s going to set up the security system for you.” Viktor slapped him upside the head. “He’s also going to watch his mouth around Delia. I promise.”
“Delia is the daughter?” Mason yawned again.
“She’s six, and you’d think she was a parrot the way she picks up things. I don’t want her going to school and repeating all the colorful words she’s learning from you lot.”
“Aww, now, Sara, it’s good to have a colorful education.” Mason winked at her, and she narrowed her eyes to slits.
“I swear to God, if you teach my child how to curse, I will kick your ass.”
“Grrr…Mama Bear’s got some claws.” Mason used his fingers to make a slashing gesture.
Viktor slapped him again. “Fucker, behave.”
“I promise to not teach the kid any bad habits,” Mason said. “Unlike my brother, I can watch my mouth. It doesn’t just spew out.”
“It better not.”
Mason slid an arm around her and hugged to her to his side. “I solemnly swear to be on my best behavior around the kid. I’ll even pinky swear it.”
Viktor growled, the sound low and deep in his throat at the sight of his brother wrapped around Sara. Fucker better back off, and back off now.
Mason looked up at the sound, and his eyes went round. He let go of Sara and took several steps away from her.
Gabe let out a chuckle, which earned him a glare hot enough to scorch the deserts of hell itself. Fuckers. Both of them.
Sara’s gaze shifted between the two brothers. The hostility coming off Viktor made her nervous. He was pissed, but at what? Mason hadn’t done anything. Except put his arm around her…was Viktor jealous? The anger vibrating under his skin said maybe he was.
It gave her hope she’d get that kiss sooner rather than later even though his anger made her a little skittish of him.
“If y’all are done, I want to introduce Mason to Delia. Don’t be offended if she hides or doesn’t say anything. She’s not good with strangers.”
“Pfft.” Mason shrugged it off. “I’m good with all women, no matter how old they are. They flock to this.” He flexed his arms.
“What would this be, exactly?” Gabe asked. “Flab?”
They all burst out laughing at Mase’s outraged expression.
“Good one.” Viktor bumped his fist against Gabe’s as they passed him on the way into the house.
They found Delia in the living room, her mother’s makeup spread out on the coffee table. She was using it on her dolls. Her blonde head bobbed as she spoke to the dolls like they actually understood every word she said.
“Delia, I want you to meet someone.”
The little girl looked up, and her eyes found Mason right away. They widened, but she didn’t run. Instead, she studied him, and he didn’t make a move toward her. He stayed still.
“This is Viktor’s little brother, Mason. He’s going to help Viktor set up the new security system.”
“Do you talk funny too?” she asked after several long heartbeats.
Mason laughed and went to squat down beside her. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
His accent wasn’t nearly as pronounced as Viktor’s, but it was enough for Delia to scrunch up her nose.
“You talk funny too!”
He placed a hand over his heart. “The feels, man, the feels. She’s hurt my feelings. I talk funny!”
She giggled when he winked at her.
“Whatcha doin’?”
“Makeovers.” She waved at all the mess on the table. “Can I make you over?”
“Why not?” Mason sat Indian style on the floor. “Do your worst, kid.”
Sara stood there, shocked to her core. Her baby, who was terrified of strangers, was acting like Mason was someone she’d known for years. Not only that, but here was a grown man, letting a six-year-old put makeup all over his face.
Who were these men?
“She likes him,” Viktor whispered.
“She still doesn’t like me that much.” Gabe shook his head. “I’m going to go help Roy with the tractor. Thing stalled out this morning.”
“Thank you,” Sara said. “You guys don’t have to help out with the farm, but you have been, and it means a lot. Dad isn’t as young as he used to be, even though he pretends he is.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Gabe brushed her thanks aside. “We’re happy to help.”
“Where’s your mom?” Viktor asked, trying his best not to laugh as Mason and Delia engaged in a heated discussion about the merits of red lipstick versus pink.
“Dad said her friend called and asked her to come over. I’m surprised she went. She wasn’t feeling well when we left to go to the store earlier.”
“SpongeBob couldn’t wear pink, silly. It would look awful against his yellow skin.” Mason flicked his hand toward the TV where the cartoon was playing. “Red is his color. Now, Patrick could totally rock the pink.”
“He’s too pink. It wouldn’t show.”
Mason leaned down so he could whisper conspiratorially. “That’s why we use bright pink on him, like Hello Kitty pink. We’d sneak in and do it while he was asleep!”
Delia laughed and demanded he sit up and close his eyes. She proceeded to glamor his eyes up with sparkly blue eyeshadow.
Viktor pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of them, and then did a closeup of Mason’s face. This was going out to the family.
“Come on, let’s go outside. She’s perfectly safe with him.” Viktor took her arm and steered her back out onto the porch.
“What if she realizes we’re not there?” Sara worried as Viktor pulled her to the porch swing. “She’s not good with strangers.”
“She’s apparently good with the Kincaid men.” Viktor sat beside her, using his foot to propel the sw
ing.
“And I don’t know why.”
“She knows we’ll keep her safe.” He slid closer to Sara, his arm brushing against hers. This was stupid to be so close, but after seeing his brother wrapped around her, the need to be close to her was too much. He could no more resist it than he could stop breathing.
Sara sighed and leaned back. Viktor followed her, and then she seemed to realize how close he was, because she went completely still.
He started to say something, but his phone went off. He looked to see Kade’s image pop up. He let it go to voicemail. He’d ignored his brother for days. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. Besides, he needed to know Kade could run the company. His brother might be a former FBI agent, but he hadn’t run a business before. Viktor wanted to see how he handled radio silence and dealt with all the issues as they arose.
“Don’t you need to get that?”
“Nah. I’ll call Kade later. It’s probably just KSI business. He can handle it.”
“I’ve never met him.”
“He’s the oldest, so maybe that’s why he’s the stuffy one.” Viktor laughed. His brother would give him a black eye over calling him stuffy. His wife called him a prude already. Angel would start calling him a stuffy prude if she heard Viktor refer to Kade like that. It might actually be worth the black eye just to irritate the fucker.
“I remember Dimitri talking about him. He’s the one who forgot he was married, isn’t he?”
Viktor grinned. It never got old ribbing his brother about that. “Kade would be the one. If you ever meet Angel, you’ll understand why we all find it funny. She’s the least forgettable person you’ll meet. Full of fire and passion.”
“I think I’m going to use that scenario in a novel,” Sara mused. “It’d be hilarious.”
“I’m pretty sure Dimitri has the same idea. Better move fast.”
“Hmm…” She looked out across the yard, thoughtful. “Maybe we should put together a box set along that theme with a couple other authors. We could donate all the proceeds to charity.”
“That should garner you all some really good publicity.”
She shrugged. “It’s not about the publicity, though. It’s about doing something that’s meaningful and important not only for our readers, but for so many out there who feel helpless every day. The more light we can shed on an issue, the better it’ll be. Without someone speaking out, issues end up buried under so much other crap.”
Sara continued to surprise him. His first thought had been of how good something like that would be for her writing career, and she went and busted that bubble. She cared more about others and what that money could do for them than she did herself. It said a lot about the kind of person she was.
“You and my brother are pretty good friends, huh?”
She smiled, and it hit him right in the gut. She had this big, genuine smile that caused her entire face to light up like the dawn cresting the morning sky.
“Dimitri isn’t just my friend. He’s family to me.”
Viktor shifted so he could see her better. “You think of my big brother as family?”
“I remember when I saw one of his posts for his debut novel. It was probably the worst thing I’d ever seen as far as marketing. It was so awful I downloaded the book just to see if it was as bad as his marketing attempt.”
“I thought Becca did all his marketing?” His future sister-in-law brought a smile to his lips. That girl was special. He’d known it when they’d met when she and D were still in high school. He also knew that girl owned his brother, even if D was too stupid to realize it during his senior year.
“This was pre-Becca. Thank God she took over all that, or he’d have fizzled out before he got started. But anyway, I read the book, and I was moved to tears by what he wrote. It was amazing. Up until then, I didn’t think a man could honestly do a romance novel justice. I thought what I was about to read was a porn novel disguised as romance.”
“Men think about sex more than women do.”
“No, they don’t.” She shook her head when he raised an eyebrow. “Trust me on this. You only think you do.”
He would beg to disagree. If she had any idea of the thoughts running rampant through his head right now, she’d be up and running back inside.
“I reached out to Dimitri through Facebook after I cried for a good hour because of his book. I wanted him to know how much I loved it and how atrocious his feeble attempts at marketing were. He wasn’t even pissed. He laughed because he knew how bad it was. I took him under my wing after that. Introduced him to some bloggers who got his books out in front of readers. We’ve been friends since then. He sorta became family after a while, always checking on me and Delia.”
“Sounds like my brother. Family’s important to him. To all of us Kincaid men. Our father instilled that in us. God, family, and then country.”
“Isn’t your father a soldier?”
“He is.”
She frowned. “I would think country would come before anything else, with his career and all.”
Viktor laughed. “Common misconception. Most soldiers have those same values in that order. God first, our families because they are the very heart that beats in our chests, and then our duty to country. Sometimes country comes before family because of the situation, but not in our hearts. In our hearts, our family is always first.”
She nodded, seeming to take her time digesting his truths. “Could you forget you were married?”
“I sure as fuck hope not.”
The sheer horror in those words made Sara burst out laughing. Viktor might push her buttons and inspire more than a few wet dreams, but the man could make her laugh.
He leaned closer, his eyes smoldering. “What about you, moye sokrovishche? Could you forget you were married to a man who loved you and treated you like the precious treasure you are?”
Sara sucked in a breath. How did such a rough-looking man say the sweetest things? “What does that mean?”
A grin toyed with his lips. “It means my treasure.”
This man. Sweet baby Jesus.
He pressed closer until his shoulder was right up against hers. “Could you forget, Sara?”
She shook her head, not trusting her voice.
His head dipped until it was right by her ear. “You would be a hard woman to forget too.”
A shudder raced along Sara’s spine when his warm breath caressed her ear.
“Sara?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to kiss you.”
Thank God.
A black Dodge Ram rolled to a stop in the driveway, breaking them apart. The man who got out made her muscles tense up, and Viktor’s entire demeanor changed when he felt the change in her. His eyes went hard, and he stood, braced his feet, his stance spoiling for a fight. He made sure she was behind him.
While that was sweet, Sara pushed around him and faced her husband’s best friend.
“Sara Jane Riley. Just who the fuck is that?”
The man in front of them snapped his jaw tight. He was tall, his sandy blond hair messy. The jeans and flannel shirt defined his body. This man had played sports at some time. It was the way he carried himself. Football would be Viktor’s guess. He’d played the sport, as had all his brothers in high school.
“I’m Viktor Kincaid. Owner of Kincaid Security and Investigations. Who the fuck are you?”
“This is Andy Crawford, Roger’s best friend.” Sara wiggled around him, and he shot her an irritated look. Didn’t she know when he put her behind him, she was to stay there?
Andy crossed his arms, mimicking Viktor’s stance. “What’s he doing here, and why did you look like you were about to start the make-out session of the century?”
Sara rolled her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic, Andy. Viktor’s here to…”
“I’m here to keep her abusive husband the fuck away from her and her daughter.” Each word out of his mouth sounded like a missile aimed right for Andy.
&
nbsp; “The fuck?” Andy’s gaze shot to Sara, and Viktor tried to put her behind him again, but she sidled away from him and walked down the steps.
“Andy…”
“Don’t you dare ‘Andy’ me, Sara Jane. Roger said you were telling lies about him, and now you’ve gone and hired someone to keep him away from his kid?”
“He hit his kid so hard her tooth went flying across the room,” Sara snarled. “Don’t you dare come here spouting that self-righteous attitude with me, Andrew Michael Crawford.”
He frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Viktor jumped the steps, landing right beside her. This woman kept putting herself right in the path of danger. If Andy was Roger’s best friend, he might be just as dangerous as her asshole husband.
“I’d be careful what you say to her.”
Andy’s attention snapped to him, and Viktor smiled lazily. He hoped the guy tried something. A good fight was what he needed to release some of this pent-up frustration he was carrying around.
He enjoyed the fact Sara moved a little closer to him when Andy took a step forward. The signals she gave off confused him. He wasn’t sure if Andy was a threat or not.
“The night I left him, he hit Delia.” Sara shifted again, this time brushing right up against Viktor. “The doctor said we were lucky. They thought at first her jaw was fractured, but it wasn’t, thank God. Hitting me is one thing, hitting my baby is another.”
“You’re telling me he hit you?” The quiet words startled Viktor. They were full of bewilderment. Did he not know the kind of man he called friend?
“Yeah, Andy. Roger hit me. I took it for a long time, but no one touches my kid.”
“Is she okay?”
“She will be.” Sara took a step toward Andy, and Viktor towed her back. She glared at him, but he ignored it. He knew in that moment she didn’t consider Andy a threat, but Viktor wasn’t willing to take that chance. Not if he was Roger’s best friend. This could be an act.
“What are you doing here, Andy?”
He looked from Sara to Viktor, his lips thinning. “I got a call from Roger. Said his mother ran into you and some guy in the grocery store. He wanted me to come and see what was up, since you took out a restraining order on him.”