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“What?”
“You asked her what her favorite color is?” She laughed as though he’d done something truly stupid in the relationship department. “Man, you have it bad. I’m married to your brother and he doesn’t have any idea what my favorite color is.”
“Yes I do,” Fox retorted, frowning. “Blue, like my eyes. You told me that yourself—or was that a lie?”
“It might have been an orgasm talking,” she admitted, wincing.
“It’s like I barely know my own wife!” Fox exclaimed, clutching at his heart. “Next she’ll say she doesn’t like my dick.”
“Quit making everything about your dick. Your brother is having a crisis.”
Atlas stretched out, wondering if he had time to take a nap and a shower. It had been a long night. “It’s not a crisis, drama queen.”
“You’re in love with a police officer. All kidding aside, this is a crisis,” Fox shot back, his amusement having evaporated. “For fucksakes, we just lost Luke, we can’t lose you too.”
“I’m not in love with her!” he said irritably. “She’s just . . . I—”
Fox paced into the kitchen and came back. “Bullshit. Bullshit. Just . . .” He waved a hand around in irritation. “Atlas is fucking a cop. Funny. Yeah. Oh shit, now they’re getting married. How is this going to play out now? You’re going to go all law-abiding too?”
“Oh, shut up, Fox,” Atlas snarled, getting to his feet and stalking over to his brother. “No one said anything about me marrying her. Fucking a girl a few times doesn’t mean we’re planning our retirement investments. Not everything in the world is about you, you know. Life isn’t all about the business.”
They glared at each other.
“In our line of work it has to be all about the fucking business,” Fox snapped, moving forward to bump chests with him like he used to when they were teenagers and he’d been bigger than Atlas. That crap didn’t work now that Atlas had at least fifty pounds on him.
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“I’m not leaving the damned business,” Atlas said, bumping Fox out of his personal space. “And the woman is mine. She’s none of your fucking business.” They glared at each other for an uncomfortable few minutes, but this time Fox deflated and looked away first.
Fox flopped down on a couch as if someone had cut his puppet strings. “I can’t believe Luke is leaving us.”
“He’s not leaving us, he’s leaving the job,” Atlas said, going back to his couch and glancing over at Luke’s. It was funny how even though he’d lived mostly at Ophelia’s since they got married, no one else ever sat on his couch. It felt wrong. His room had been left the same, too, minus the few things he’d moved to her big-ass mansion. “None of us chose this work, Fox. Dad and Uncle Scott decided we were following in their footsteps, and that was that. The only one who really wanted in was Macy, and they wouldn’t allow it.”
Fox laughed bitterly and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and now it turns out we would have been better off with baby Macy instead of Luke. Who knew?”
“Don’t be like that,” Addison said, giving Fox’s shoulder a gentle shove. “Luke is doing what he has to do—what he wants to do for his wife and family. If we ever decide to breed, we might need to slow down too.”
“No,” Fox said, chopping the air in front of him with the edge of his hand. “We were raised by people just like us. There’s no reason why any of us should have to leave the business.”
“We’re all entitled to make our own life choices,” Atlas disagreed. “Konstantin left—”
“Konstantin was just a friend,” Fox growled, still bitter after all these years. “He wasn’t family!”
“We called him our brother. Maybe it hurt me more than it hurt you when he left, but he had a chance to get out and he took it.” Konstantin had been the only ‘big brother’ who’d actually liked Atlas and treated him as more than just an annoying kid. The three older guys had been close to the same age, and at the same stage in life, but where Fox and Luke had blown Atlas off, badass Konstantin, their Russian brother, had always been inclusive and patient with him. It had torn Atlas apart when Kon had left to go straight. But once that door had been opened, Atlas had realized leaving the business was possible. “This isn’t the life everyone wants, Fox. You can’t be pissed at Luke for cutting the apron strings and making his own decisions.”
“And don’t you dare say he’s pussy whipped, Fox Larson, or so help me . . .” Addison shook a playful fist at her husband. “I know this hurts, but there’s always the chance he’ll come back later. It gives us more flexibility about where to base things out of too. Ophelia can’t move around because of her company, and even though you guys have awesome dads, relocating every few months or years doesn’t make for an ideal childhood. I can see why he’s decided to take a break.”
Fox slung an arm around Addison’s neck and his mouth twisted in disdain. “Yeah, well maybe Luke and Konstantin will become fucking golf buddies now or something.”
“It doesn’t mean they don’t love you, Fox,” Addison said softly, wrapping her arms around him. “It doesn’t mean they think less of you because you’re staying.”
Fox didn’t look at her, but Atlas did. For someone who hadn’t been around them long, in the scheme of things, she had an intuitive sense of all the stuff they tried not to talk about. Stuff like their mother.
“Konstantin had to cut ties. He had no choice if he wanted to get out of the business. But Luke? He’s not leaving the family. He’s just going to be more like Macy now.”
“He’s not going to fuck off like Kon and Mom did,” Atlas said, cutting to the chase.
“There’s no way you can know that.” Fox made the same “I refuse to think about Mom” face he’d been making since they were little.
