AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Whatever it is, you could’ve had it if you hadn’t wasted time trying to rip peoples’ arms off. Phone.” When he said her name again, all traces of humor were gone from his voice. “Einstein.”
She blew out a frustrated sigh as she tossed her phone on the table. “This close, Dare,” she said, pressing her index finger and thumb close together. “This close.”
“You know the rules.”
The guy who had led me to the tables jerked his chin in my direction and asked, “What about the nerd?”
“She’s a—”
“I don’t have a phone,” I said, interrupting Dare.
A short laugh left Libby but died quickly when she took in my blank expression.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. She’s a guest.” Dare gestured toward the plates of food littering the tables, and mumbled, “Eat.”
I watched in confusion as Libby passed around a stack of paper plates—one short since they hadn’t been expecting me—and everyone started serving themselves as though it was a family dinner.
Because that’s what it felt like—from what I remembered of family dinners—but that wasn’t what was confusing.
While everyone at the table looked to be around thirty, I was sure Dare was the youngest, and he was clearly the one they all looked to. The one they all listened to and respected.
Something about it felt weird. Wrong in the sense that it felt all too familiar.
Or maybe it was the nagging voice inside telling me I needed to get back to the house
—that I’d already spent far too long gone.
I quickly scanned the area, looking for any familiar faces, but found none.
“Here,” Dare mumbled, and I looked back as he pushed a plate between us.
I glanced at the plate for only a second before looking away. “I’m not really hungry.”
Dare caught my chin between his fingers, his dark stare holding mine for a few seconds. “I’m sure you’re not,” he said with a smirk as he released me, then pushed the plate closer in my direction.
“You met my sister, Libby,” he said suddenly as he took some food off the plate and popped it into his mouth, nodding toward the girl I’d spoken to earlier. “She has a thing for playing twenty questions without letting the other person ask anything.”
Sister.
I tried to ignore the relief pulsing through my veins, but it was nearly impossible. She was his sister.
But I didn’t know if I felt better or worse that she wasn’t only that intense with me, because now I knew the intensity wasn’t over—and neither were the questions. Questions I couldn’t answer.
“The twins. Diggs,” Dare continued, pointing to the guy who had brought me to the tables, and then another on the opposite side of Einstein, who I hadn’t noticed. “And Maverick.”
Now I wasn’t sure which one had had his arm around me. They were identical.
“You’re next to Einstein, and this is Johnny,” he finished, gesturing to the guy seated directly across from me.
A guy that I’d seen with Dare at Brooks Street plenty of times . . . and a guy that made me regret allowing one of the twins to lead me toward the tables.
The way he was looking at me sent a chill up my spine, and set off every warning inside me to run.
He hadn’t touched any of the food on the table, his plate was clean, and his cold, calculating stare was unyielding as he glared at me from across the table.
That look? It was nothing compared to the eyes of the assassin I’d shared a bed with for years. But I knew Kieran and knew his heart . . . and I knew I would never have to fear those piercing eyes.
This man? It was as if he was taking every ounce of his hatred and anger and pushing it onto me with one look.
