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"Nah, babe. It's just that isn't usually the song people think of when they hear my name, is all. Guys, this is Gus. West's girl."
"Oh, I knew she was going to be blonde," one of the women on the couch announced, drawing my attention.
I knew it the second I saw her.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
The same face from the pictures in his wallet.
His sister.
As was the woman beside her.
"Lissa, right?" I asked, giving her a tentative smile, feeling uncharacteristically awkward, unsure of myself.
"West has been bitching about us down in Florida, has he?"
"I've heard some stories," I admitted.
"Oh, you want to hear some stories. Wait until you hear what we have to say about West," the other sister, Angie, declared.
"What stories about me?" West asked, walking out of what looked to be the kitchen, eating ice cream out of a bowl, the spoon half-raised to his mouth as he looked at his sisters. "What?" he asked, brows furrowing as he looked at his sisters, then some of the women around him.
Finally, his friend Sugar cleared his throat, drawing his attention in my direction.
His face displayed half a dozen emotions in the span of a moment.
Shock. Pleasure. Sadness. Regret. Confusion.
And fear.
It went ahead and stayed stuck at fear.
Which was a smart place for it to be.
His arm moved out, placing the bowl down on the bar.
"Auggs..." he tried, voice placating as I carefully put the puppy down. "Auggs, let's talk about it, yeah?" he tried as I started moving closer, coming around the bar, near the kitchen.
He darted, leaping over the couch, making his sisters let out a shriek, then circling back around, scooping up a cute, pudgy little five or six-year-old, and holding it up in front of him.
"Are you really using a child as a human shield right now?" I asked, feeling the smile spread even as I tried to hold onto my anger.
"She's small, but she can take it. I don't think I can."
The laugh burst out, loud and uncontrollable as he dangled the kid around, her legs swinging side to side as she let out a confused, yet delighted squeal.
And, ah, yeah.
My ovaries just about burst.
"Put the poor kid down," I demanded, shaking my head at him, cheeks hurting from the smile I couldn't tamp down.
"What do you think, squirt?" he asked, pulling the girl up to pretend to whisper in her ear. "Do you think we can trust her?"
"She's pretty," the girl insisted, immediately making me fall half in love with her.
"Yes, yes she is. But there is deceit and viciousness under all that pretty. She could be plotting to take me down as we speak. What should we do?"
"Have a tea party?"
"I, ah, I'm not sure how that will stop her, Captain. But who am I to question my superiors? Put the kettle on!" he declared, putting her down on the floor, sending her off running toward the hallway between the kitchen and bar.
"Nope. No," I said to the women gathered around, all of them giving gooey eyes to West. Lissa even holding a hand to her heart. "You guys are supposed to be on my side. Don't give him heart eyes because he's good with kids."
"Right," Angie agreed, nodding. "He did a bad, bad thing."
"Auggs," West started, taking a breath so deep it stretched his chest wide before releasing it.
"You're a complete bastard," I told him, then winced down at another of the kids.
"Don't worry," one of the women said. "They're used to the cursing."
"I know I am," West agreed, nodding.
"I would have understood you had orders. And, believe me, I informed Reign of my feelings already."
"Yeah?" Sugar asked, smirking. "How'd you do that?"
"With my fist. The good one," I clarified.
"Oh, man. I wish I had been there to see that," another woman said, appearing from the hallway with the kid from before. She was tall and blonde with a pretty killer rack.
"Are you Lo?" I asked, trying to remember some of the descriptions West had given me about his people.
"I am."
"Reign said he owes you money."
"I bet he does," she agreed, something knowing in her smile, but it was beyond me. Insider stuff.
"You punched an outlaw biker president?" West clarified, and I wasn't sure what his tone was.
"I sure as hell did. He had it coming."
"God, I love you," he admitted just a split second before his eyes bugged out, his lips parted, his entire body looked like it was going to implode.
Meanwhile, my ribcage felt like it cracked open, my heart swelled so big.
Which was cheesy.
But also true.
"You what?" I asked, tone breathless.
"He said he loves you," Lissa repeated when he refused to.
"And now he is too chickenshit to repeat it," Angie added.
"You're not helping," he hissed at them, his hand raising, rubbing across the back of his neck, at a loss of what to say or do.
