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Gabe cocks a brow, but it’s Tanner who pins me with a suspicious stare. They both step up to me, their heights almost equal to mine, but their bodies leaner with muscle.
Then again, while these two spent their teenage and college years battling their fathers in mind games alone, Damon and I had been forced to fight through more physical means.
That doesn’t mean Tanner and Gabe are weak, it just means they are more dangerous in games that require strategy and cunning.
“We haven’t had a lot of time to talk to you lately,” Tanner says, straight and to the point. “Between the fight that happened here over a week ago and the bruises on your face now, we’re a little worried you don’t have things handled with Damon as well as you claim.”
“Bylittle, he means we think you’re full of shit,” Gabriel adds, that smile in place that only an idiot would trust. “Tanner knows what happened at the cabin.”
Of course he does. I’d forgotten about the damn newsletter they’ve started passing around.
“You’re with Emily now.”
It’s a statement more than a question, but still I nod my head at what Tanner said.
“Then how is Damon taking it? Obviously, you two fought for her, and if he’s the one walking away without her, then it’s him we need to worry about.”
I can’t argue with Tanner on this. Damon and I have never been what most people define as stable, but that doesn’t mean we’re not capable of looking after ourselves either.
“He’ll need to get past it on his own. He told both Emily and me that he’ll deal with it, so he will. If anything, we’re past the point of fighting now, so you don’t need to worry.”
From their expressions, I can tell they’re not convinced.
Gabriel purses his lips before asking, “How has he been acting these past few days?”
Annoyance flickers through me.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been at the house. I’m sure if he’s out with Shane right now, he’s fine.”
They both look at me like I’m an idiot.
“I just mean he’s not sitting around sobbing into his pillow. What Shane convinces him to do is another story, but they’re both grown men. I’m not babysitting them.”
They stand shoulder to shoulder, a wall of concern facing me.
Rather than pressing the issue, Tanner nods his head and looks at Gabe, their thoughts still spinning wheels in their heads that they, fortunately, don’t dump on me.
Am I worried about Damon? Yes. He has issues. But do I think he’s going to detonate at any second and do something stupid? No.
Still, the concern is obvious in these two.
“Listen, he’s moved past Emily before. Damon isn’t going to lose his mind over a woman. And if he does, I’ll handle it. If anything else is going on that you two need to know about, I’ll tell you.”
I turn to leave, but Tanner’s voice stops me in place, aggravation rolling up my spine to settle in my shoulders.
“Why were you at William’s?”
Damn it...
“I just drove by.”
“So then how did you know his face was bruised?”
My head falls back at the reminder that I saw Emily at William’s house. That problem has been buried beneath everything else, the question as to what she was doing there.
Telling them the truth would be like throwing her to the lions, or placing a target on her back that Tanner and Gabe would focus their sights on with every intention of taking her down.
It’s possible she really was just trying to get information I wouldn’t give her, and if that’s the case, I don’t want Tanner and Gabe seeing her as a potential enemy.
