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“That’s right. You want to be an adult, right? Well, this is the real world. You want a favor from me, then you have to offer one in return.”
I felt like I was a kid again, outmaneuvered by Colton when I’d thought I was beingsosmart. “Fine. What do you want?”
“Tell me who you’re living with.”
And just like that, he slips his leash.
I almost burst out laughing at how quickly he’d done whatever he wanted.
He quickly added on, “I’m not asking for names or addresses or anything. I know you want your space, and even if I hate it, I’ll give you that. I just can’t comfortably sleep at night unless I hear directly from you that everything is okay. That you’re safe. That you’re living with people who care about you and will look out for you.” He paused, then softened his voice more. “My job is very dangerous, you know? If I can’t sleep properly, it might affect my performance.”
I rolled my eyes, wishing he could see that over the phone. “What, are you taking lessons from Dane, now? Guilt tripping is beneath you.”
“I’m a man who uses whatever weapon at my disposal works the best. You’re one of the few who is sweet enough that guilt works.”
Even after he told me that, I couldn’t exactly refuse. Even if he were joking about it affecting his work, I had no doubt he really was worried. If reassuring him that I was okay helped ease his burden a little, well, I owed him far more than that.
“The people I’m staying with are taking good care of me,” I assured him. “They haven’t done anything to hurt me, and I don’t believe that they would.”
“They? When Jarrod told me you were staying with four men, I really thought he’d lost his mind. I figured he’d gotten old and senile and we’d get to put him out of his misery.”
“You mean ‘have’ to put him out of his misery, right?”
“No, I meant exactly what I said.” The prickly way the Quad interacted with Jarrod never failed to amuse me, and his comment was no exception. “I never figured our sweet, innocent little Kenz would be shacking up with four men.”
“I’m only innocent becauseyouall always scared off my boyfriends,” I pointed out.
“Of course we did. What sort of useless bodyguard would let their charge around boys with less than pure intentions?”
I didn’t bother to hide my laugh that time, amused by the way he pouted over the line. Still, I kept us on track. “Yeah, well, these aren’t boys.”
“Wonderful.That makes me feel better.”
“Stop frowning—you’ll give yourself wrinkles. Don’t worry, they aren’t interested in me at all.”
“They aren’t? Then they’re idiots who don’t have two brain cells to rub together and I should kill them for that.”
“And if they had wanted me?”
“Then I’d kill them for that.”
“So they need to die either way?”
“I don’t make the rules, Kenz, I only enforce them.”
I smiled, enjoying the easy back and forth. Sure, I was keeping things from him, and he was keeping them from me, but our long, shared history made me feel like I was home again.
I’d missed this. Even though they annoyed me, they were my family.
“I really am okay,” I promised him. “You have enough problems of your own without taking on imaginary issues with me.”
“Fine. I won’t kill anyone—yet.Just promise me that if things go wrong, no matter how small the problem seems, that you’ll reach out to us. We care about you, Kenz, and we’ve got your back.”
“I know you do. I probably haven’t every really thanked you for it, but I know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you all.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Colton muttered. “I might still come and put a bullet through one of those men’s skulls as a warning.”
“Since when is a headshot a warning?”
