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I smiled anyway, walking up until I was at Downy’s flank.
I scooted under his arm as he raised his beer to his lips.
He took it all in stride, switching hands so the beer was in the opposite one so he could wrap the arm around my side and pull me in close.
They were talking about the dog attacks, and what it meant for the community.
And as reluctant as I was to pull him away, I interrupted Luke and said, “Downy?”
He looked down at me and asked, “Yeah?”
I tilted my head in his brother’s direction. “Your brother is here.”
The men all raised their eyes in the exact direction that Jonah stood, taking him in with their laser focused cop eyes. The women looked around confused, but that was understandable. From what Downy had told me, not many knew he had a family.
“Huh,” he said, starting in the direction of his brother, leaving me standing there watching him go.
Once Downy reached Jonah, who began talking animatedly with his hands, I turned back around to find six pairs of eyes on me, taking me in. Sizing me up.
My belly started to roll in nervousness.
“T-thanks for coming,” I managed to say.
James, the cutie with the blond hair, smiled. My heart skipped a beat, and my face flushed. His wife giggled, as did Georgia and Reese.
Luke and Nico still continued to stare at me.
Finally I lost the ability to hold my tongue and I snapped, “What are you lookin’ at?”
James’ threw his head back and laughed, while Luke just grinned.
I think I might’ve seen a grin kick up the corner of Nico’s mouth as well, but I was sure it was the beer talking.
Luke finally answered. “We’re happy for our boy.”
I blinked. “You don’t have any boys…yet. Do you?”
I looked at Reese for confirmation, and her eyes got really, really wide as she gave me some look that tried to convey what she was thinking, but I didn’t comprehend.
I looked at her Dr. Pepper and asked, “Is that why you wouldn’t go have margaritas with me yesterday?”
Reese started to shake her head, but Luke let go of her shoulders and turned her so he could look at her face.
“I was talking about Downy, but now I feel like you should be telling me something,” he growled.
She opened her mouth twice, emitting a tiny croak, and said, “I was going to tell you!”
Thinking now wasn’t the best time to watch that conversation happen, I turned around and hurried back to where I’d seen Downy and Jonah last.
When I couldn’t find them in the spot they’d been, I walked around the side of the house to the front yard.
I froze when I heard Downy ask, “And you just thought it’d be a good fuckin’ idea to walk up into a man’s property, one of whom you suspected as having an illegal dog fighting ring?”
Downy’s voice sounded rough, as well as concerned, but that’s not what Jonah heard. All he heard was the censure in his voice.
“Well, who the fuck do you think you are, yelling at me? I came up here to tell you because I’d thought my own brother would help me,” he hissed the word ‘brother’ as if it was a poisonous snake on the verge of attack. “If I’d known you wouldn’t be of any help, I’d have gone to the police department. I was just worried about my father catching me in the act, and I figured you’d be the best bet. Apparently, I was wrong.”
He started to walk away, but Downy stopped him with four words. “You are my brother.”
A tear started to form in my eye, and I smiled as I watched Jonah’s shoulders hunch. “You don’t act like you are. I only see you on the rare holiday.”
Downy was silent for a few minutes. “Your father doesn’t like me. I felt it’d be easier to keep the visits down to a minimum so he didn’t think worse of you.”
“Fuck my father,” Jonah hissed. “He’s the whole reason I lost my brother for my entire childhood?”
I blinked at the fierceness in his voice.
It sent Downy reeling, though. “What?”
“I’ve spent my whole childhood wishing you were around more. You have a better relationship with Ridley, and it sucks,” Jonah replied huskily.
I was pretty sure he was containing quite a bit of emotion, but his fifteen-year-old mind didn’t think that it was ‘manly’ to cry, so he was holding all of that emotion in.
“You can come over anytime you want to. I invited you along with her many times. I’ll try to do a better job of coming over. As long as you aren’t surprised when Jackson starts treating you like the plague, that is,” Downy drawled lightly.
Jonas snorted. “Jackson is never home. Mom’s never home. It’s like I live alone now since Ridley moved out.”
“Door’s always open, buddy. However, we need to get you down to the station to give a statement. That all right with you?” Downy asked his brother.
Jonah nodded. “Sure.”
Nodding, Downy turned, finding me at the corner of the house, and smiled. “Come here.”
I went, walking straight into his arms.
“How’d you know I was there?” I teased.
He always knew I was there. It must be some superhuman-alpha thing to always know when people were approaching, regardless of whether they make any noise or not.
“Will you tell the boys where I went? And stay here. Don’t go for a walk,” he told me.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Sir, yes, sir. Anything else, oh Lord and Master?”
His eyes flared. “You can call me that later.” He leaned forward until his mouth was against my ear, and his dick was pressing into my belly. “When I’m fucking you so hard no sound can escape your lips because you’ve screamed so long and hard that you’ve lost your voice.”
He’d growled that statement against my ear, sending shivers down my spine.
“Promises, promises,” I teased as I skimmed my lips up the column of his throat, going on tip toes to reach just short of his jaw.
