but would tear apart anyone else who says it, even us.
“I love you, man, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. You guys all call me a man
whore, and you are not wrong. The face and fucking are all I bring to the table.”
“It’s a term of endearment,” he says, cracking a grin. He sobers, thumping his fist on the table,
making the glasses wobble. “I don’t make mistakes,” he says flatly, eyes laser-focused on my face.
“Random, but ok.”
“Seriously, I picked you, brother. I hand-picked you all. This family works because you’re in it.
You bring a lot to the fucking table.”
The air crackles between us as I flatten my hands on the table and scowl at him. He looks like
he’s ready to go to war. “We all play our parts now, but don’t pretend you planned on me. That’s
bullshit. You wanted Jonas and got stuck with me.”
Ransom rears back with a frown, “What the fuck? Do you seriously believe that?”
“Well…yeah. How else should I read it? You zeroed in on Jonas and spent a bunch of time with
him. You barely spoke to me.”
He snorts, rolling his eyes. “You dumbfuck. Even back then, you were a charming fucker.
Remember that one guard? The one that used to sneak you chocolate bars? Your charm worked for
you even back then. That’s what I was after. Someone with your kind of natural charisma is
invaluable.” He folds his arms on the table and leans in. “Anyone with eyes could see how protective
you were of Jonas. I knew you wouldn’t go anywhere without him, so I spent a fuck of a lot of time
getting to know him.”
This is not computing. At all. “But…Jonas’s math abilities…”
He shrugs casually. “Didn’t have a clue about them until after I’d decided on you. It was like
Christmas morning, the day that I realized what he could do. But make no mistake Zach, you were my
pick. You have never been a tag-along. Fuck, if anything, Jonas was…for a couple of days at least.
Then I picked him too. But even if he hadn’t been who he is…I still would have pulled him into the
fold because, without him, there was no you.”
I stare at him dumbly, mouth open, catching flies for way too long. His low chuckles turn to belly
laughs as he takes in my expression. “I just drove a freight train through your whole worldview,
didn’t I?”
I nod because, yeah, he did. I’ve spent the last twenty years trying to earn my place in this family,
