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Great. Hastings and me together for the foreseeable future.
She pasted on a smile. “I make no promises.”
“That’s all I ask, sister. Now, let’s figure out what we’re doing about that asshole. And the one of our blood who’s going to be showing up later.” Bradford nodded at his siblings.
Violet inched closer toward Paul, only to be tugged right back to Hastings’ side. He didn’t tuck her against him but damn it, she couldn’t ignore the heat that emanated from his body and surrounded her.
* * * *
Hastings leaned against the wall of the small room that’d been turned into an office and waited for Violet to come back. She’d gone over to the other half of the building, talking with the contractor who was finishing up the rooms there.
Right now, it was only him in here, and he had the deepest urge to paw through her bag and learn more about this woman who had enamored him from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. He forced himself to stay put. Today had been hard.
His brothers, while he loved them, seemed to want more than he was prepared to give. He was impressed by the changes in them. Livingston still carried that cold demeanor around that most couldn’t crack, but he did see the melting when he spoke to his wife. No, it was more than melting, the man fucking glowed when Daisy was on the phone with him.
“Hiding?”
Hastings didn’t start, he’d known that his siblings were out in the hall.
“I don’t hide.” He remained in the same position, against the wall, hands in his pockets and by a tall horizontal filing cabinet.
“What do you call avoiding family for years?” Bradford kicked the door closed behind him, shutting out the rest of the world.
“We all had roles to play,” he said.
“You know you don’t have to do this anymore.” Livingston tugged on the sleeves of his suitcoat. Hell, even this time of the year in California the man wore a suit.
“Don’t have to do what?”
“Serve.” Bradford cocked his head to the side and stared.
Hastings snorted. “I don’t know how to do anything else. I left as soon as I could to stop being used as a reason for the old bastard to put hands on you two. Thought if I was gone it would stop and I wouldn’t have to feel guilty that you were taking my beatings because I was the baby of the family.” Disgust tinged his tone.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
The amount of anger in that question shocked him, and Hastings turned his head to stare at Livingston. The man had barely moved, but the icy expression and flames in his pewter gaze put Hastings on alert.
“You are my younger brother,” Livingston continued. “Both of you are my younger brothers. It will always be my job to protect you. You don’t get to apologize for me doing that. I would do that any day of the fucking week for either of you. Even now. I don’t give a fuck if you are some hotshot military guy. You are my brother first and for far longer.”
He would have drawn back if he’d had room, but the wall prevented that. All he could do was watch his brother.
Livingston strode up to him and got in his face. “I know I didn’t show it and I was, probably still am, a shit brother because I locked it all down and took what I did to keep you both as safe as I could make it. But I never stopped loving either one of you, and, I’m so fucking proud of both of you.”
The eldest Rhodes brother didn’t do touchy-feely moments. He didn’t encourage a lot of physical contact, the hug earlier had been a shock. But he stepped closer and reached out his hand, capturing the back of Hastings’ neck, strong fingers gripping him in an unbreakable hold.
“Don’t you let that bastard get off easy. Our childhood was his fault. He was the fuckup, the asshole. Not you. Not any of us. We survived and we’ve fucking surpassed every goddamn thing I knew we would be.” A flex of his hand. “We never resented you for being the youngest and neither of us wanted you to go through what we did.”
Eyes locked, they didn’t speak until Bradford threw an arm around each of them. “I’m totally getting in on this.”
A rough bark of laugh escaped him and Hastings closed his eyes. He hadn’t needed to stay away from the ones who loved him.
They’d just separated when he heard her voice in the hall. Both brothers smirked at him as they stepped away.
She opened the door to the office, stepped in and stopped, dark gaze sweeping over all three before focusing on Bradford.
“Something I can help you with?”
He had some answers for that. None of which would be proper for the time and place.
