I shook my head. “I know I wouldn’t have opened up,” I confessed. “Because I wouldn’t want to burden you?—”
“I fucking hate that goddamn word,” Hudson snapped, interrupting me. “Stop using it. You’re not a fuckingburden, Corvus. You’veneverbeen a goddamnburden.” He spat the word like it disgusted him. “You’re mybrother. My fuckingfamily.” He gripped the back of my neck and brought our foreheads together. “Us against the fucking world, remember?”
My throat closed up, and tears threatened. We’d made that promise as mere little kids who were broken and struggling and only had each other to lean on.
“Us against the fucking world,” I croaked.
Hudson nodded. “Promise me when you’re struggling, you’ll come to me?” he asked. “And I’ll do the same. We won’t do this again. I thought something happened to you last night, Corvus. You scared the fucking shit out of me.”
I sighed as he released me. “Yeah,” I rasped. “I’m really sorry about the disappearing act. I just…”
“Spiraled,” Hudson finished for me. “I get it.”
I chuckled. “I’m getting punished for it later, I think. Amongst other reasons.”
Hudson smirked. “Kinky.”
I laughed and flipped him the bird. “Fuck you.”
He stole one of my animal crackers. “Not my type, bro.”
Chapter Nineteen
Michelle
I laid plates on the table and set the three pizzas I’d ordered in the center. I couldn’t eat more than two or three slices, but I knew Kip could put away an entire pizza by himself if he was hungry enough. Add in three other men, and it was just safer to order three. Four might have been better, but the pizza shop was running a deal on three pizzas, so three it was.
“I’ll get Hudson and Corvus,” Kip told me. He pressed a kiss to my forehead then slipped out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with Kreed.
“You really didn’t have to buy lunch,” Kreed said. “Hudson and I could have grabbed something on the way home.”
I shook my head. “I don’t mind. It was as simple as ordering pizzas,” I assured him. “Besides, I think this will be good for Corvus to have you two here with us for lunch. He won’t say it, but he needs your support. And I think now would also be a good time to tell him your plans for his parents.” Especially since my idea of beating the shit out of them had been shot down. Buthonestly, they deserved a damn good ass-kicking for what they’d done to Corvus.
Kreed nodded but didn’t respond since the three other men appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. Kip had Corvus’s hand captured, and he led him right over to our side of the table, settling him into the seat between us.
“Take a seat and eat,” Kip said, dragging his own chair out. “I’m sure we’re all starving.”
Hudson grunted. “Someone got animal crackers and only let me haveone.”
Corvus huffed in annoyance, watching as Kip set two slices of pizza on his plate then did the same for mine. I took my own seat, smiling gratefully at my husband. He was such a caretaker.
“Youstolethe animal cracker. I told you I wasn’t sharing.”
I laughed softly.
“Protective of your food?” I teased.
Corvus’s cheeks reddened, and he shook his head at the same time Hudson drawled, “No. He wasn’t sharing becauseMommygave them to him.”
I reached over and gripped Corvus’s chin, turning his face to mine. Leaning in, I smoothed my lips over his, and hesighed, leaning into me. I didn’t let the kiss last long, only enough to tease both of us, then released him.
“You’re adorable.” I nodded my head toward his food. “Eat, bub.”
“I made some phone calls while you two were outside,” Kreed announced, looking at Corvus.
Corvus stilled, his pizza halfway to his mouth. I rubbed his back, hoping to encourage him to continue eating while Kreed filled him in on the plan. While Kip and I wanted to have a bigger hand in dealing with Corvus’s parents because he was ours, this worked for us. At the end of it all, Corvus would be safe and freefrom his parents, and that was what we wanted for him most of all.
“Eat,chibi,” Kip gently ordered.
