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He watches me, waiting for an answer. I mumble my address, suddenly wrung out and exhausted.
“That’s on the other side of town from your parents’ house,” he says.
“I moved out.”
My phone starts ringing again, and I dig through my purse to fish it out. Paisley is probably freaking out that I haven’t answered her calls.
“Hey,” I answer quietly.
“Chloe, holy fuck, I almost called the cops. Why didn’t you answer?”
She’s shouting, and when I look over at Bash, he raises an eyebrow.
“I’ll explain when I get home. I’m on my way.”
Before she can start firing questions at me, I end the call and stuff my phone back in my purse.
“Who was that?”
I turn to look at him, trying my hardest not to gawk. It’s hard, though. Sebastian Gilroy is the hottest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. I think an artist chiseled him directly from stone and then added a million tattoos to make him that much more appealing. Add in his brilliant green eyes that you could get lost in for days, his deep, velvety voice that makes me want to obey his every command, and the way he carries himself with so much confidence and a touch of arrogance; the man is a straight up walking, talking climax waiting to happen.
Not that I’d ever admit that. He’s my brother’s best friend. I’ve met Bash a handful of times, but I’ve never spent a lot of time with him. I don’t think it’s too far off to guess he’s swimming in seas of beautiful women who want his attention. He wouldn’t give a girl like me the time of day. Not that I’d ask him to, of course. No. Nope. Definitely not.
“My roommate.”
He arches one of his dark eyebrows. “You have a roommate? When did you move? Does Kieran know you moved? He hasn’t mentioned anything.”
Shit.
I bite the inside of my cheek, unsure of what to say. Something tells me Bash will be able to sniff out a lie from a mile away. He’s in the mafia. Which means he’s a professional at reading people. Just like my brother.
“Chloe,” he says, his low voice full of warning.
“I moved six months ago. And no, he doesn’t know. I’m twenty-five. I don’t need to tell my brother if I live somewhere else.”
He glances at me, keeping one hand on the wheel as he drives toward my townhouse. “Why are you so defensive about it?”
My shoulders fall, and I slump back. “Because if he found out I was no longer living with my dad, he would have insisted on coming to see where I live, then he would have made a big deal about the area not being safe?—”
“It’s not safe,” he interjects.
I throw my hands up and shake my head. “See, that’s why I didn’t tell him. He and the rest of you would have had a hissy fit about it, and then he would have demanded to make the place more secure or worse, demand I move somewhere he can keep an eye on me.”
The corner of his mouth ticks up. “We don’t have hissy fits. Besides, what’s wrong with that? We’re men. It’s our job to keep the women in our lives safe and protected.”
I swallow and try to ignore the rush coursing through my veins at his words. Somehow, it’s different when he gets all protective than when my brother does it.
“You know I’m not going to keep this from him, right?” Bash asks.
My head snaps toward him, and I scrunch my eyebrows. “What? Why? He doesn’t need to know.”
He pulls into my driveway and stares at the older townhouse like it personally offended him somehow. Then he turns to me, pinning me with his gaze.
“If something happened to my little sister, and he knew about it and kept it from me, I’d kill him. That’s betrayal, and we don’t do that shit. Loyalty is the most important thing to us. Plus, he’s my best friend. So, either you’ll go to him tomorrow and tell him, or I will. All of it. Are we clear?”
If he were to touch my neck right now, he’d be able to feel my pulse racing faster than the speed of light. His stern, threatening tone does something to me. Part of me wants to argue or disobey to see what he does. The other part wants to crawl into his lap and agree to do whatever he says so I can hear him call me a good girl again.
I already know there’s no getting out of this. He means what he’s saying. And as much as I want to be mad at him for it, I also understand his point of view. Even though I don’t know many of the details of what my brother does in the mafia, I do know that loyalty and trust are two of the most important things in their world.
