AllFreeNovel
Share Us
BRYNNE
The next week was crazy, and not just because Evan was back. That was a huge part of it, of course. Bringing my brother back to the guy’s apartment was somewhat surreal, after all the times I’d imagined actually doing it. But even with Sebastian licking his face off, my brother was a zombie. A lifeless, emotionless shell of his former happy-go-lucky self.
It turned out Santiago didn’t have a twelve-man sniper team backing us up with laser-sighted scopes. But he did manage to grab Dawson, plus three of his brothers-in-arms from another mercenary group called Redline. Together they formed a loose calvary running multiple optics from adjacent rooftops, but if it came down to a firefight things would’ve been scary. Luckily, that never happened.
Of course in mercenary terms this meant Redline had a blank check they could cash whenever they needed. At any time they could call in a favor of their own, and Silas, Santiago and Cody would be there all suited up and ready before they even hung up the phone. As frighteningly random as that sounded, I was beginning to understand. There were family bonds and blood bonds, and then there were bonds of brotherhood that could supersede the others.
For two full days my brother did little more than sleep and vomit. On the third, we checked him into an inpatient facility that specialized in getting even the most hardened of addicts clean. It was a rough few days, getting him into a bed and squared away. More than once we received calls at midnight. Each time we fought hard to keep him in the program. Each time he came within mere inches of getting discharged, or checking himself out.
Whatever they’d done to Evan — or whatever part of it he might’ve done to himself — there were no more options for him. Silas offered to tie him to a pole in the gym’s basement at one point, but that seemed overly harsh. I knew whatever demons my brother was battling, he needed to get through them himself. Once his head was clear, he had towantto get clean. We could support him all we could, but ultimately he had to do this for himself.
It just killed me that I couldn’t see him yet.
And so we sat tight, and we rode things out. Rumors about the Lozano brother’s abrupt disappearance were all over the place for a while, but eventually we stopped hearing about them. The phone calls from my brother’s inpatient center grew fewer and further between. The guys turned their attention back to the gym, catching up on all the business and networking opportunities they’d missed while helping me. And I went looking for a job. And an apartment. And a way to somehow put my life back together, and hopefully provide a space for my brother as well.
In the two weeks since the Ancellas left town things had been good between me and the boys. Good… but something had changed. They still held me at night, scooping me into their arms and kissing me all over. We still watched bad movies together, and they still took turns carrying me off to bed.
Instead of taking me fiercely though, as they had so many times before, all three of them had taken to making love to me instead. I spent each night with a different lover, kissing for hours, touching and being touched. When sex finally came, our lovemaking was slow, sensual. Tender and beautiful and all kinds of other incredible things that I wouldn’t trade for the entire world, mainly because they brought all new levels of intimacy to our one-on-one relationships that gave them a depth they’d never had before.
All three mercenaries told me they loved me in the wee hours of the morning, and always while buried inside me. They crushed me beneath their hard bodies. Kissed every inch of my body until my head was spinning with rapture. And each time, I told them I loved them back. Silas. Santiago. Cody.
All of them…
Each morning I took time to revel in our closeness and reflect happily on our newfound intimacy. Still, what I wouldn’t give to bepossessedby them again. To be thrown onto a bed and surrounded by three sexually-charged, muscle-bound hunks stripping their clothes off. Eyeing me like the predators I knew them to be… ready to devour their helpless prey.
I got another waitressing job within a week. It was a busy place and my feet hurt just looking at it, but the extra hours and high tips would pay the bills with a little left over. That is, provided I found the right place. This was something I’d been procrastinating on for some reason, but I eventually got around to even that seemingly herculean task.
I was on my way to see my third or fourth apartment when I was intercepted by Cody. Instead of taking me to see the place he drove in the opposite direction, and fifteen minutes later we were back at the Garage again. Silas and Santiago were there, and for once they weren’t beating each other senseless in the center of the ring.
“Come,” Silas grinned strangely. “We’ve got something to show you.”
Santiago nodded, and together they led me into another part of the gym I hadn’t seen before. There was a new metal door, and a staircase beyond it. We descended one floor to find a vast, open space with freshly-painted walls, two more doors, and at the far end, what looked to be the beginnings of a kitchen.
“I never knew you had anapartmentdown here!” I said in wonderment.
“That’s because we never did,” said Santiago. “It’s new.”
“And it’s available,” added Cody.
It took me a moment to register what they meant. My eyes lit up.
“Are you saying I could stayhere?” I asked. “Instead of—”
“No.”
Silas stepped in, taking my hand. His smile was a little placating, but also loving.
“We’re saying you should stay withus,” he said gently. “If you want to, that is. I mean why leave? You’re our girl. We love you, we care about you…”
Our girl.The words sent shivers through me. Happy shivers.
“We can’t do without you,” Cody went on.
“Rather wewon’tdo without you,” Santiago added with a rare grin.
“Then why are you showing me this place?” I asked.
I looked around at the bare walls, the new carpet. The fresh start. And then it hit me… and the tears started flowing.
