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Rachel can take me or leave me the way I fucking am. But no one, no fucking one, gets away with putting their hands on one of us.
Dark and Douchey is quicker to recover than I expected. I know I knocked the air out of him, but he’s already stepping back into my space. “Listen here, little girl,” he warns and hisses sound throughout the room.
If he thinks he can intimidate me with his size, he has no fucking idea. I step into his chest and cut him off. “No, you listen here, Dark and Douchey.” Surprise and anger lights in his eyes, but there’s something else behind that too. Alec snorts behind him, but I don’t waste another thought on it. “You don’t get to come in here and start making assumptions. You really don’t get to put your hands on one of my men. And you don’t fucking get to disrespect me by calling me little girl. I may be more than a foot shorter than you, but I can promise you, that won’t stop me from ripping out your innards and wearing them as a fucking necklace if you lay one more finger on my men or take that tone with me again. Got it?” I snap as I shove him back out of my space.
He doesn’t go far, but there’s a new look of appraisal in his gaze as he looks me over.
“She’s more than capable of doing it,” Alec chimes in. “We’ve seen her handiwork.”
He doesn’t spare a glance for his brother, still looking me up and down carefully. “Your men?” he asks.
“My fucking men,” I growl back.
“So you’re the reason why,” he pushes.
I roll my eyes as I turn my back on him and focus on Rachel. “You haven’t told him why?” I ask in disbelief. They’re close enough to play tonsil hockey in the hallway but not close enough to tell him about her long lost sister she finally found?
She shrugs, but the delicate lift of her shoulder holds all of the ire she has for him. It says a hell of a lot even before she explains, “He’s been gone.”
The silent “for years” echoes through the room. We all know just how long he must have been gone for if he doesn’t know about Jade.
“He’s back now,” I point out.
“Is he?” she challenges, but it’s not one meant for me. That’s all for him.
“Rachel,” he says, her name like a curse on his tongue. So much about what I witnessed clicking into place.
“He wouldn’t be so confused if you told him,” I argue, not really happy we are taking the brunt of his anger when Rachel has as many eggs in this basket as we do. She wants revenge for her sister, the same way I want it for mine. We really aren’t all that different.
“He doesn’t deserve to know,” she snaps. Well okay then. I trust her judgment and I’m kind of digging the protective big sister vibes she has going on right now. I nod in approval and I think she must see it because she softens. “It’s a nonfactor anyway. We would have stood by your side with or without that connection.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” he yells.
I spin on my heel and glare at him. “Listen up, Dark and Douchey, if you don’t want to be the odd man out, the only clueless idiot in the room, then maybe you should pipe the fuck down and listen. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you don’t always have to be the loudest person in the room? That you shouldn’t be when you have no fucking idea the situation you walked into?”
I turn around again and look between Alec and Rachel. “Why the fuck is this idiot here anyway?”
Rachel closes her eyes and presses her hand to her mouth, tilting her head slightly down as she does. Alec grins widely, looking fit to burst out in laughter. “Scar, meet my twin brother, Nicholis. Our connection to the arms dealer. Nico, this is Scar and her men, Kade, Luca, and Ryder. If you want to keep your fingers, keep them off these four as well as Declan and Noah.”
I give him a grimace of a smile before turning back to narrow my eyes at Nicholis. I study him warily, the same he did to me only moments ago. When I finally meet his eyes, I cock my head to the side and put my hand on my hip. “You started it,” I declare.
His lips purse as he holds my gaze, staying silent as he wars with himself how he wants to respond. His eyes flick behind me to Rachel so quickly, if I hadn’t been staring directly at him, I would have missed it.
Something close to acceptance flashes across his face. Just when I think I’ve won though, his face sets again. “I could argue you started it when you started this war,” he says, petulance lining every word.
I roll my jaw as I hold back, knowing we have to make this work somehow. “Maybe it’s not a war I started. Maybe you don’t have the whole story. Not many people do,” I confess. “Not even Rachel, but she knows enough to make her own decisions. She has her reasons for staying at our side through this. Stop insulting her intelligence and her power with this charade of unnecessary overprotectiveness.”
His spine snaps even straighter, something I didn't even think would be possible.
“Alright, enough,” Rachel commands, a cool tone of authority in her voice. There she is. There’s the woman I am accustomed to. “Whatever retort you’re about to spew at her, swallow it. She’s right. It’s been years since you’ve been back.”
His ire swings to her as his eyes flare and he cuts her off. “Not that again.”
I turn and take a few steps back until I bump into Kade’s chest. His arms wrap around my hips as we both watch the show in front of us. “I’m even more intrigued now,” he whispers in my ear. I nod my agreement as Rachel puts her hand up to stop him from talking.
“Nico, you’re the new one here. You’re the outsider. You need to accept that. Have a problem with it? You shouldn’t have left.” Her glare is full of ice and malice as she stares him down. She holds herself tall, every inch of her body used to its full power. That’s a fucking power pose if I’ve ever seen one.
His head drops a mere fraction. “Rachel, you know why I left.”
