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“Brody, crazy?” Keene rubbed the side of his jaw with his finger and thumb as if contemplating my words.
I fished an antibiotic out of the container on the counter, washing it down with a sip from my mug with only a slight wince. My lip was a little more swollen, as was my hand, and my body was sore, but all in all, I was in much better shape than I ought to have been.
The man in question came up behind me, patting the counter next to the sink. I raised an eyebrow but obliged, letting him help me as I jumped up so that I didn’t put my weight on my injured hand. “He just told me we’re living together,” I said to my brother as Brody took my wrapped hand in both of his. “And I told him we had to date for at least a few months before I’d even consider it.”
“You said we couldn’t get married unless we’d lived together for six months,” Brody replied, focusing on unwrapping the bandage. He had all of my brothers’ attention on him now. “You can’t blame me for wanting to push the timeline a bit. But I’m content to follow your lead. For now. Though I am going to commandeer a space for clothes. You might not want to make it official, but you can be sure I’m going to be at your place more often than I’m at mine.” He held my hand up, making use of the early afternoon light streaming in from the window over the sink to inspect every inch of my hand. I wriggled my fingers at his request. A little red, a touch swollen, but overall, I thought it looked good. Brody must have thought the same because he grunted once before reaching for the saline solution and antibiotic cream. “Did you take your antibiotic?” he asked.
I nodded, taking another sip of coffee before turning to my brothers. “Really, none of y’all have anything to say?” I snagged a piece of toast slathered in jam from Keene’s hand, taking a huge bite.
Boone was staring at my puncture wound; his face tinged green. “That looks … painful.” He hesitated before continuing, “Were you … you know.” He waved a hand at my injury, looking more than a little concerned. The entire room had gone still. I looked from my hand to his face again before realization dawned.
“Oh, no, I wasn’t tortured. This is just an unfortunate consequence of using the tools around me to take control of the situation.” Everyone but Brody relaxed as one.
“Brody’s always been stubborn,” Keene resumed our conversation. “He does his own thing and ignores everything that doesn’t fall into line.”
“You try to handle me,” I threatened Brody, “and you won’t be happy with the results.”
He smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Sighing, I gave in. “Fine, I guess I can clean out one teeny tiny section of the closet. But you better do your share of the housekeeping. And you still keep your apartment.” A thought occurred to me, and I folded my arms over my chest. “But I amnotsharing my gun safe or weapons collection.”
Royce slid a plate of scrambled eggs next to me. “We were looking for something like that while waiting for you to wake up,” Royce said, adding a fork to my plate. “The walls all look correct, and we couldn’t find any hidden compartments other than a few hidden guns around the house.”
Matteo entered the kitchen from the door to the backyard. “She has an excellent collection. And it’s not in some piddly little wall safe.”
Royce nodded as if Matteo had confirmed his suspicions.
“It’s got to be in the floor,” Boone muttered, looking at the surrounding surface speculatively. I kept my face blank. What he was looking for was pretty much an entire floor, not in it.
Brody finished re-wrapping my hand, giving it a slight squeeze before releasing it so I could use it to hold my plate. “Not that all y’all aren’t welcome,” I said in between another bite, “but why is everyone gathering in my kitchen this morning—afternoon?”
Gideon set his tablet aside. “We all took an early lunch and ended up here for various reasons. I came over to check on you. Keene came over for groceries, Royce to make you breakfast, and Boone to apologize for his behavior. I said yesterday that we all needed time to think, and apparently, all of us felt we had enough time to decide how to feel.”
Matteo chimed in, “I just delivered your car. Your purse and cell phone are in it.” He placed the key on the counter.
Gideon raised a hand before Matteo could make a quick exit. “I know you turned us down yesterday.” Gideon had extended a job offer to Matteo, too, who’d quickly given him a “Thanks but no, thanks.” “But surely you’ll be bored teaching a bunch of kids without Lessia’s brand of excitement to spice things up.”
Matteo gave him a brief smile. “You’re assuming Alessia is the only one bringing me that type of excitement.”
Gideon gave him a disgruntled look, realizing that Matteo was admitting to being more than just a handler for me, taking away his trump card. “I’ll get you eventually,” he threatened.
Matteo just shrugged. “We’ll see,” he said before turning back out the door, exiting as quietly and quickly as he’d appeared.
Shaking my head, I commented, “Matteo will never work for A.T. He has his hands full as it is, and he isn’t the type of man to work in the light. He enjoys doing what he does in the periphery.”
Keene smirked at Brody knowingly. “I know another man who swore he’d never work for us.” Brody just stared at him for long moments, not saying anything. Suddenly, Keene started laughing. “Oh my God, is that why you brought up marriage?”
Boone and Royce started chuckling, and even Gideon cracked a smile.
“I don’t get it,” I said, looking between Brody and Keene and waiting for someone to clue me into the joke.
In between chuckles, Keene explained, “If you’re married, what’s yours is his and his is yours, meaning …”
I whirled around, punching Brody in his arm before anyone could blink. “If you think that by marrying me, you’re going to get my shares in Accardi Tactical—”
Brody grabbed my face with both of his hands. I was still sitting on the counter, and with him standing between my legs, we were almost the same height. His lips closed over mine, his tongue plundering my mouth as if he hadn’t seen me for months. My mind went blank, and I couldn’t have said my own name, let alone remember I was angry. His hands gentled on my face, angling me for a better fit, getting deeper, fanning the flames even hotter.
A quiet throat clearing broke us apart, both of us panting. I’d forgotten my brothers were still in the room. “You know me well enough to know I couldn’t care less about getting anything that belongs to you,” he said after a moment. “I’ll admit, I wouldn’t even consider taking this job if it wasn’t for you. But working with the love of my life, with the men I’ll call brothers eventually, differs completely from what Keene had in mind when he first asked me to work for A.T. after I was discharged.”
