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“Until you broke in,” Jack grumbles as he stands and brushes off his boxers before offering me a hand.

I take it, and he helps me to my feet before he turns to help Eli up.

“Sorry I attacked you, man.” Jack smirks. “You went down hard.”

“Only because I figured it was you attacking me.” Eli shakes his head. “You need therapy.”

Jack glances at me before nodding. “I do. Fuck, I would have beaten you to death if you hadn’t said anything.”

“I would have stopped you before death, Jack.” Eli grabs his shoulder. “You were defending Harper. I get it. We all have a bit of a hair trigger regarding her. We’ll get back to being able to come and go as we please with open lines of communication soon.”

Jack grabs my hips and drags me into him. My hands go to his chest. His blue eyes dance with mischief.

“Since we’re up...” He leans down.

My breath catches in my throat, and my body heats. We didn’t do anything except climb into bed earlier. It’s why it took me so long to fall asleep, but I didn’t want to push Jack. Maybe he didn’t want to push me either.

Eli strips down to his boxers and steps up behind me. Lifting my hair off the back of my neck, he kisses my nape. “I could use some sense of control.”

My breath shudders out of me. I like being under Eli’s control. But I need to point out, “Are we worried someone might have heard you two fighting?”

Jack curses softly, but steps away. He grabs a pair of sweats and pulls them on before turning back to us. “Feel free to start without me. I’ll join in.”

He opens the door and steps out into the hallway. The door snicks shut behind him.

“Is he okay, kitten?” Eli wraps his arm around my waist, holding me to him as he kisses my bare shoulder next to my tank top strap.

I blow out a breath and look at the door. “Therapy should help. Maybe you being here will help. He seemed reluctant to fall asleep when it was just the two of us. Like he had to be alert, just in case.”

Eli’s sigh flutters my hair. “I think we’re all going to be more alert for a while, kitten.”

I turn in his arms and put my hands on his bare chest. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about tonight?”

I can’t begin to imagine what he’s feeling right now. What he’s dealing with. His parents’ divorce sounds like it was coming for a long time, but his mother’s arrest must have been a shock.

He rests his head against mine. “I don’t know what to think. If she’s part of the problem, she should be made to pay. But if she’s just a cog that gets taken out, another one will replace her.”

I hate to ask it, but his mother never liked me. “Do you think she had anything to do with Zach’s attacks on me?”

“I hope not, kitten.” There’s fear in Eli’s voice. “Because if she was part of it, I don’t think I could ever forgive her.”

I hug him close to me, resting my head over his heart, listening to the steady beat. What Zach tried to do was unforgivable. I hope for all our sakes that it was his and Tanner’s idea and not any of my guys’ parents.

No one should hate their own parent.

Luke

I’m walking back to my room at Caden’s from working out when Penny steps out of her room. She’s fully dressed and has her purse with her.

“Going somewhere?” I ask.

She turns, startled, with her hand over her heart. “Look, don’t sneak up on the recent kidnap victim.”

“Fuck.” I straighten, realizing my mistake. “Sorry. Not my intent.”

She blows out a breath. “I know.”

She glances at her phone.