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“Thank fuck,”Jaxon breathed.
“Why? Did you think I’d bring her home or something? Brooklyn’s here, isn’t she?”Aiden asked. His voice was incredulous, as if we weren’t watching him weave around in one spot.
“We just had to be sure,”Jaxon said.
“What did she want, Aiden?”Gideon asked.
“She didn’t really say. Kept calling us her boys, and I told her to fucking stop. She pouted. Then I told her she needed to leave our level cause I was going home. I think she said she’d see us later, not sure what that means,”Aiden said.
“I should put her face at the door, so they don’t let her in again,”Gideon said.
Jaxon and I both nodded our agreement. Then, without a word, Aiden swayed in a circle and headed toward the stairs. I watched, wondering if we were going to see him tumble tohis death. I wanted to strangle him. I knew he had his issues, emotional demons that haunted him, but it wasn’t fair for him to take those out on Brooklyn.
“What are we going to do about him?”I asked.
Gideon stared out the door, as if he were picturing Aiden getting to his room and stumbling safely inside. Aiden’s safety was always one of his biggest burdens, though most of the time Aiden didn’t make it this difficult. To hear even Gideon get angry with our brother, I knew things were bad.
“He’s the least of my worries right now. If he wants to drink himself to death, that’s his choice,”Gideon finally said.
“And how are we going to talk to Brooklyn?”Jaxon asked.
“Her door is locked. I checked. So, she’s not talking tonight,”Gideon said, his voice dejected.
“We should give her the night. She did these lessons, behind our backs, on purpose. Tomorrow, we can have the semblance of a civil conversation,”Jaxon replied.
I leaned back in my chair, imagining the three of us confronting Brooklyn about secrets she’s keeping from us. I had a sinking feeling the conversation wasn’t going to be as civil as Jaxon was hoping. Protecting Brooklyn was our only goal and with Lyle still in hiding, the lunch lessons were just one more place the fucker could find her.
In bed that night, I was restless, wanting to be with Brooklyn, but knowing she likely hadn’t unlocked her door. I didn’t like having to wait for the conversation we needed to have. The longer things rolled around in my mind, the more worried I got. She had pushed us away once. I knew she was capable of doing it again. And I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
Chapter
Thirteen
Aiden
I tookmy normal seat at the kitchen island and avoided looking at any of my brothers. My head was splitting, and I had no one to blame but myself. The guilt of how I had treated Brooklyn pushed me to trying to drink and forget. The problem was, once I was sober again, I realized I had done more dumb shit.
In the very beginning, I tried to tell Brooklyn in my own way that I wasn’t good enough for her. My heart wasn’t capable of loving anymore. The moment I felt it thud with feelings for Brooklyn, I felt panic clawing at my throat and I was sure I would suffocate.
The evening at the city viewpoint, fucking her on my car had been the hottest moment of my life. When I looked down into her eyes, I saw too much shining back at me. I was moments away from blurting out some sort of random romantic adage that applied to how I was feeling. But it was just heavy enough that I had to lock it down and shove it deep.
I wouldn’t admit to anyone that I had fisted my cock in the shower before coming down for coffee, stroking myself, thinking about how beautiful Brooklyn looked leaning back on the hood of my car. I came against the shower wall, thinking about how tight and hot she was around my cock. Afterward, I felt guilty as fuck. I needed to figure out my shit.
Hurting Brooklyn didn’t feel good. Fuck, I hadn’t felt that bad in years. The shine of her eyes, unshed tears, that she felt because of me. It was almost more than I could handle. But I kept shoving at her until she abandoned me. And then I felt a crack deep in my chest that couldn’t have been anything other than the heart I thought didn’t feel any longer.
That pain had nothing on the headache I suffered from, while Gideon banged around pots and pans and Jaxon stared daggers at me. The only one that didn’t seem like he needed to be angry with me was Oliver. When I studied him over the newspaper, he looked pale and lost in his own world.
When Brooklyn entered the kitchen, a blush to her cheeks, her lips flattened and stoic, I realized I had missed something. I slowly put down the newspaper as my brothers all froze and turned to watch her. She seemed to straighten her spine and push her shoulders back. She had a black gym bag, whichshe unceremoniously dropped at the entrance of the kitchen. I stared at it, confused by what was happening.
Brooklyn didn’t speak to anyone, just went to the coffeemaker and poured her own mug. Normally, one of my brothers got her coffee and breakfast. But no one seemed to be speaking at the moment. She sat down with her mug and held her phone in her palm, focusing on whatever she was reviewing.
Gideon sat a plate near her and she just eyed him cautiously. He then sat down on his normal stool next to her with a sigh.
“We know about the classes, Brooklyn. Frank told me when I called him. He won’t be guarding you any longer. I’ll be assigning someone new,”Gideon said.
Classes? I vaguely remembered interrupting a conversation when I stumbled into Jaxon and Oliver’s office the night before. But they started talking about Missy and I was confused about what was happening with her. I felt completely out of the storyline of what was happening around me.
I knew the moment Gideon’s words left his mouth, they were the wrong ones. The blush in Brooklyn’s cheeks increased and her hands tightened around her mug until her knuckles went white. She stared at the countertop and took a number of deep breaths, clearly trying to control whatever her reaction was going to be.
