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My lips twitch, and I rub a hand over my mouth, erasing the reaction.
“Let me guess.” She folds her arms across her chest. “The time hath come, o’ cryptic one.”
“This is serious.” I blow out a long breath and straighten, eyes locked on hers. “What I’m about to tell you will come with questions. Questions I won’t answer.”
“Of course, you won’t.” She snorts. “And you want me to trust you.”
“In this.” I touch her cheek, the mutinous clench of her jaw. “Trust me in this, and I will trust you. Please.”
“Jesus.” She lowers her arms. “Fine. Out with it.”
“I will only say this once.” I pause, listening for movement in the workshop, beyond the walls, the doors. Then I lower my voice. “There are some bottles of over-the-counter pills for menstrual cramping.”
“You’ve got to be kidding—”
“Listen.”
Her nostrils flare, and she nods.
“Years ago, during one of Denver’s trips to the city, he raided a pharmacy, triggered an alarm, and was nearly caught. In his rush to escape, he grabbed every box of prescription medicine he could carry. He didn’t have time to look through it. He just grabbed boxes and fled. And was hit with a bullet on the way out.”
“What? Where was he hit?”
“Upper leg. The bullet went all the way through.”
“If he’d died…”
“You would’ve never been taken.”
“And you and your brothers would’ve starved to death.”
I nod. “But he did make it. Somehow, he managed to fly himself back to Hoss undetected. He wrapped the wound good enough for the journey. But he lost a lot of blood. We carried him from the plane. Wolf patched him up the best he could, and while Denver was in and out of consciousness, I saw an opportunity.”
“He left the plane unlocked?”
“That’s right. I had a few minutes to sneak in there and memorize the instrument panel, the gauges, every lever and dial. Not that I know how to use any of it. Then I went through the boxes of stolen medicine. Medicine I’d never seen before. Medicine he would never knowingly bring to Hoss.” I draw in a slow breath. “He’s very careful. And really fucking smart. When I saw those packages of pills, I knew he didn’t know about them. He didn’t know they were mixed in with the antibiotics and painkillers he grabbed in his haste. I didn’t even know what they were until I read the labels. Round plastic packets with blister packs inside for each day of the month…”
“Birth control pills.” Her face pales.
“Yes. I left a few in the plane—in case he’d caught a glimpse of them while fleeing—and hid the rest. Later, I transferred the tiny pills from the blister packs to some Midol bottles and tossed the packaging in the river.”
“Midol bottles.”
“To deter my brothers from mistakenly taking them. I knew they needed to be stored at a constant temperature through the year.”
“The cellar. You hid them in plain sight among the medical supplies.” Her breathing accelerates as she connects the reason I saved the pills to why I’m telling her now. “How many years have they been down there?”
“Four.”
“You stored them correctly.” Her brows knit. “There’s a chance they’ll continue to be effective one to five years after their expiration date. But you don’t know the expiration, right?”
“Right. But when he took the pills four years ago, they would’ve had a reasonable shelf life. They’re still effective.”
“Maybe. Why are you telling me this?”
“You know why.”
“No, I don’t. I’m not having sex, so why, Leo? Why do I need them?”
“Five minutes ago, you were an impulse away from impaling yourself on my cock.” I get in her face, gnashing my teeth. “If I answered your questions, you would’ve let me dump every last drop of my come inside you.”
“That’s not why you saved those pills and hid them away for four years. Tell me what’s going on. Tell me why they aren’t allowed in Hoss, which one of you is going to hurt me, and what I need to do to protect myself.”
“Take the pills. Every day. Don’t let anyone see you doing it. Don’t move them. Don’t let them get discovered. And stay away from my brothers.”
“And you? Should I stay away from you, too?”
“I need you to hate me, Frankie. Hate me the most. But we’re not staying away from this.” I gesture between us. “When I grovel and beg and crawl on my knees, I expect our hate-fucking to be the best fucking either of us will ever experience.”
“That’s so fucked up.” Her eyes lower to my mouth, and her pupils dilate. Then she looks away and grips the doorknob. “I’ll take the pills.”
“Don’t get caught.” I study her profile, her bobbing throat, fully aware she’s seconds from spewing a litany of new questions. “You need to go. Kody’s already looking for you.”
