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“Thatcher!” Stellan shouted as I clenched my fists at my sides.
“This has nothing to do with her pussy,” I told him, wanting to put my fist through his smug face. “She’s innocent. She was beaten by that bastard, and all she wants is to be free. Live a normal, SAFE life. That’s what I want her to have.”
“Away from here? You gonna let her give her cunt to someone else?” Thatcher asked, then took a drink from his glass.
“That’s enough!” my dad said, standing up. “We are waiting on Blaise to make the call. He will decide what we do. You know that. But for now, she needs to stay with you. In the stables. It’s safer than the cottage. Now that they are looking for her, she has to be kept out of sight.”
“Fine. She stays in my room. I’ll keep her safe. Out of sight,” I replied, feeling a small ounce of relief.
“With your dick shoved in her many holes,” Thatcher said.
“I’m this fucking close,” I warned him.
He swirled his glass. “To what?”
“BOYS!” Stellan said, holding out a hand to both of us. “Enough.”
I turned my attention back to Stellan. “I was going to take her riding today.”
He shook his head. “Not today. We are adding more security. Keep her inside the stables. Bring her into the house. Use the theater, the pool. Sebastian said she loves books. Take her to the library. Whatever. Just not out in the open.”
“Fine,” I replied, ready to get out of here and back to Rumor.
I didn’t like this. I didn’t want to sit and wait on Blaise to make a call on our next move. He didn’t know her. She was just a woman he wanted us to do right by since we had killed her abusive husband. She was more than that. She wasn’t expendable. We were her family. She had no one else.
“Fuck her, son, but don’t get attached,” my father warned me.
“Too late,” Thatcher drawled over his glass.
I turned and left the room before I took a swing at him and ended up with his knife at my throat. Crazy fucker pushed me too far sometimes. This was one of those times.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I got back to the main floor and followed the sound of Birdie’s giggling coming from the kitchen.
I had to help Rumor. Save her. I wasn’t going to let anyone put her in front of the fucking Insantos gang. We’d never had a run-in with them, and as far as I knew their leader, Falcon Socorro, wasn’t a pleasant man. They would get nowhere near her. Last night had been as close as it was going to ever get. They could all go fuck themselves.
When I walked into the kitchen, my chest eased slightly at the sight of Birdie standing on a stool, bent over a cupcake with a squeeze tube of icing, while Rumor slowly turned it for her. Pink icing was on her nose, and Birdie held up the tube in her hands to squirt some on her cheek this time. Rumor threw her head back and laughed. I stilled, watching her.
I’d never heard her laugh like that before. It was…it was…no. I shook my head. I wasn’t getting sappy and shit. She had a great laugh. One she needed to do more often. I wondered how long it had been since she’d laughed that way.
She turned her head then, and her green eyes locked on mine. The sparkle in them was almost painful. She was happy. The constant uncertainty and shade of fear that never seemed to leave her was gone. I wanted her like this all the time. She deserved it. If anyone deserved it, she did. I just didn’t know how the fuck I was going to give that to her.
She was being lied to every day by people she was starting to trust. Me. Maeme. Even Sebastian. I hated it.
“Hey.” Her smile began to fade as she studied me, and I quickly saved it by smiling. The one I had perfected in childhood.
“You look good in pink,” I told her.
She laughed again, but not as carefree as before. There was tension in her shoulders. She was worried. I’d unintentionally put it there. I kept fucking up with her.
“We made Barbie cupcakes!” Birdie announced happily. “Eat one.”
I walked over to see the dozen cupcakes that were covered in pink icing with a white B in the center. “It’s not very manly. Not sure I can eat that,” I teased her.
Birdie placed a hand on her hip. “Don’t be stupid.”
“Birdie!” Maeme scolded as she walked into the room. “I have told you that ladies do not say stupid.”
Birdie lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “And I told you that I am not a lady yet, Maeme.”
