We finished our food and returned to Klaus’s place for the night.
“What are you doing?” I asked Klaus as he undressed in our room with Anson. With Ryder gone, we could have separated, but whenever Anson and I were together, we slept together. I didn’t know why we did it. I suppose maybe it was a comfort thing. All I knew was that my bed was lonely when he and Ro were gone.
“Going to bed,” he muttered.
“With us?” Anson glanced at me.
“Looks that way.” Klaus climbed beneath the covers. I shrugged and followed Anson in.
He got the center, and I took the outside.
“You feeling lonely?” Anson asked Klaus.
“I guess,” he muttered, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.
I didn’t say anything. I knew loneliness all too well.
“She’ll be home soon,” I murmured. “Ro wouldn’t leave us forever.”
“She wouldn’t,” Anson agreed softly.
We were all quiet for a moment before Klaus spoke.
“I am OK with her wanting more to join us. If you’d have asked me five years ago, I’d have fought to be the only dick in her life, but I don’t know. I love her. I want her to be happy. I mean, not Lorenzo De Luca and Cole Scott happy, but I’d be OK with Ethan. I suppose in the big scheme of things, if she asked for those two, I’d be OK, too.”
I grunted at that.
“I’m OK with him, too, but he already said no,” Anson said. “So I think it’s a moot point. In the end, it’s whatever she wants. I assume we will have Cole to deal with for the long haul.” His voice held that irritated note to it I’d become familiar with over the years.
“Cole is a good guy,” I murmured. “He’s just… possessive.”
“Nuts. The guy is nuts,” Anson said. “Can’t stand his ass. Never could. The only reason I held back for so long back then was because of Rosalie. Now?”
“You’ll hold back for Ellis,” Klaus said.
Anson sighed. “Fuck. You know I would.”
“You’re a good man, Anson,” I said. “I think you’ll be good with Cole once you two settle in with one another.”
He grumbled softly, but didn’t say he was going to kill him. That was progress.
I’d take it.
10
KLAUS
“How is New York?” I asked Ryder. I’d called in to check on things with him since it had been a few days, and he’d been radio silent.
“Busy. Loud,” he replied in a monotone.
“So you’ve settled in?”
“Enough.”
I sighed. “Have you spoken to Anson?”
I knew he hadn’t, but I was really trying to make this work. Ryder was one of my best men, but I wasn’t a fool. He’d be good for Rosalie. Plus, I liked having one more on our team in the event we had to face down some angry horsemen.
