AllFreeNovel
Share Us
E.Z. laughed, boisterous and loud. “What topic were we even on? You distracted me.”
“How did I possibly distract—” I stopped talking, shaking my head at myself. Why was I entertaining this?
“You got me worked up thinking about you all hot for Griffin. That, surprisingly, works really well for me. Not that I’m not going to win you first.”
I huffed, ignoring that entire statement.
“You were talking about why Griffin didn’t advance with you guys,” I said, redirecting E.Z.’s focus back to the conversation I was genuinely interested in hearing.
“Oh, right! Well, it all boils down to that he was an asshole who started late. But we had the opportunity to watch him fight one night. And he was flawless. That big fucker can move! So, we kept watching. Your father agreed with our assessment that if he could agree to work as a team and stop being such an absolute prick, he could be a real asset.”
“And Griffin agreed?”
E.Z. barked out a laugh. “Fuck no! The first time we approached Griffin to ask him to be on our team, he punched Ash in the face.”
“No, he didn’t!”
“Oh, he did. It was out of the blue. Ash started to pose the question, and boom, instant black eye. It was hysterical,” E.Z. chuckled, his body shaking.
I couldn’t help but laugh with him.
“What did Ash do?” I cringed a little in my head even thinking that name. It was disturbing how quickly it rolled off my tongue.
“It would have been a fistfight in a tight space. Against Griffin. What do you think he did?” E.Z. snorted. “He did absolutely nothing.”
“You had me for a bit this time.” I smiled. “But Elijah would never back down from a fight. I don’t believe it.”
Elijah had too much pressure growing up. Strict schedules. A punishing regimen of diet, exercise, and training. He was forced to act a certain way, behave a certain way. He prepared for a massive, important role before understanding the position's magnitude. That’s a lot of pressure to be the best, to be perfect.
As a result, he was hard-pressed to admit defeat— which could be an excellent characteristic of a leader. But he was also hard-pressed to admit when he was wrong, never backing down.
“Believe it.” E.Z. snickered, squeezing my knee. “Remember, we were trying to get on Griffin’s good side. Can’t start out our team with a full-out brawl. But Goddess, we never let Ash live it down. I claim the prize for most likely to make Ash look like he’s going to explode, and that may be the reddest I had ever seen him,” he said with a laugh. “He didn’t speak to us for a week. Naturally, that made the rubbing worse.”
I smiled, humming a sound of disbelief for the fifteenth time during our journey. As always, E.Z. took that response as acceptance. It had to be the joy in the sound. I didn’t believe a word he was saying, but I was happy.
“The next time we approached Griffin, we moved slowly, one at a time. Aiden in the lead.” He lowered his voice. “Creeping along. We didn’t want it to look like we were trying to corner the bear. It didn’t matter. That time, Aiden took the punch.”
“I call bullshit.”
“No, it’s true!” E.Z. insisted. “He was spared the black eye, though. He took an uppercut to the gut instead. Guess he got too close.”
I hummed another sound of disbelief as E.Z. wrapped my arms tighter around his midsection. I scooted closer, allowing him to close the space between us.
“Goddess, he was such an asshole. But we won him over. We just needed to figure out how to break through that intimidating as fuck beard and all that hair. I’m convinced Griffin keeps his hair long solely to keep people away.”
I snorted, it wasn’t attractive. “What did you have to do?”
“Oh, we let him keep the hair. He can hide behind it and watch people,” E.Z. replied. “It would be creepy as fuck if not for the fact that I find it hilarious. Plus, the intel he brings back is fantastic. That man catches everything. We let him hide behind his hair and watch away.”
“You know full well that I wasn’t asking about Griffin's hair.” I lightly slapped E.Z. on the shoulder.
He laughed, knowing exactly what he was doing, and adjusted so that he slid further into the cradle of my thighs.
“I was the one who cracked him. I can break through even the hardest of shells.”
“Uh-huh,” I deadpanned.
Internally, I could admit E.Z. was charming and had an impressive inventory of grins to match every situation, but I would never admit that.
