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They said that the only way you could help an addict was if they admitted to themselves they had a problem, but we weren’t like regular people, and I saw that then.
While we were men, forged of bone and flesh like everyone else, we could bend laws, ignore government edicts, and rule our roosts like gods.
Aidan wasn’t about to do shit, not when he could afford to pay for his habit. The only thing that would fuck with him in the end was if he fucked up on the job, and then Da would be the one ramming his face into the table and dragging him to rehab.
The notion bore merit, because since the last time I’d seen him, he’d lost more weight, and looked wearier and more drained.
Trouble was, with war running on our sidelines, there was no worse a time than now for him to be stuck in some artsy fartsy rehab clinic in Connecticut.
Even as I rubbed my chin, I muttered, “Do you have a lock on Lodestar’s location, Conor?”
“No. But I can find it. I just need some time.”
“If her intentions aren’t aggressive, just meddlesome, then you have time. But the second things change, you need to change too,” Brennan intoned, and everyone heard the dominant vibe to the words. Normally we listened to Aidan. As the eldest and the heir to Da’s throne, he was in charge.
But Aidan was sick, and that was clearer now than ever.
Brennan had always bossed us around, though, so his command didn’t piss any of us off.
Finn shot his best friend a look, because he and Aidan were tight, but he agreed, “You’re right, Brennan. Look for her, Conor, find her place, and be ready for her to change tactics in the interim.”
“What do we do with her when I find her?” Conor inquired uneasily.
“Your walk-in fridge still working?” Declan questioned dryly.
Conor wrinkled his nose. “I hate putting people in there.”
“Tough shit,” I retorted. “I hate storing dead bodies in my spare room. ‘Them’s the cards that fall.’”
When he flipped me the bird, I hid my grin behind the bottle of beer and took a deeper sip.
As I did, Aoife—looking flushed and with a definite bounce to her step thanks to the quickie she and Finn had just had—and Inessa wandered out of the house, mugs in their hands.
Finn’s gaze tracked his wife, and I had to admit to doing the same. They were night and day. Aoife so wholesome and womanly, Inessa so slender and regal.
They ignored us, even though they had to know we were here, and while I was a little piqued, I was also grateful because the sight of that fucking hickey, combined with the thought of what we’d just done in my favorite car, had my dick twitching. Last thing I needed was a boner in front of my brothers.
That was freshmen year all over again, and what a fucking nightmare that had been.
“You two seem to be getting on well,” Declan rumbled slowly, and I saw he was watching Aoife and Inessa too. Not in a way that made me want to slap him upside the head, but in a protective way.
The notion had my brows rising, because Declan was weird about women. Ever since Deirdre had died—his childhood sweetheart—he’d been a manwhore. Aoife and Jacob had softened him up some, and whatever had gone down during the visits with Inessa’s family seemed to have created a liking on his part. We were protective of our women anyway, but it pleased me to know that Declan would kill for them just as much as I would.
Who the fuck knew what Brennan would protect if the apocalypse came, and Conor? He avoided guns, preferring joysticks to real weapons, but I figured he knew when to fight and the time would be when our women were in danger. Aidan? Too strung out to be of much use, but I’d seen his response to Inessa’s bruises. The fucker would back us if he could stand up without shaking.
I plucked at my bottom lip as I stared at my wife in that crazy outfit she wore. How something so prim and neat—boring, really—could get my dick so hard was both satisfying and a pain in the ass.
“She suits me.”
The three words might have been a declaration of love for the way my brothers—Aidan included—responded.
All of them, Finn too, and hell, he was more of a brother than a friend, gaped at me.
I scowled at them. “What?”
“She suits you?” Brennan mocked.
“She does.” My shoulders bunched around my ears. “She kind of slotted in well.”
