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Her answering smile is full of brilliant challenge. Then she slides her gaze to my brothers. “When we first met, I called him Sparky for that same reason to piss him off.”
Rico chokes back a laugh, and Kaden grins in a way that means he’s going to remind me of this for all eternity.
Raking a hand through my hair, I heave an exasperated sigh and shake my head at them all. But just when I think I’m about to beat my dear brothers unconscious with my bat, Kaden speaks up again.
“He’s practically never had an attention span longer than five seconds,” he says, his dark eyes serious as he holds Kayla’s gaze. “So the fact that he has kept such unwavering attention on you, and for so long, really is saying something.”
Kayla’s mouth drops open, and emotions pulse across her beautiful face. She turns to me.
But before she can say anything, Rico straightens in a flash and snaps, “Incoming.”
We all whip around to stare out the window.
A car screeches to a halt on the road outside. Then an angry-looking man in his fifties jumps out and storms towards our front door.
Kayla groans. “Ah, fuck. That’s my new bodyguard.”
“Want me to bash his head in?” I ask.
She starts to laugh, but then realizes that I’m serious. While suppressing an amused smile, she shakes her head. “Uhm, no. It’s probably best if I just leave.”
Angry pounding comes from the door. Then the handle rattles as well, which means that one of my brothers must have locked the door behind them when they got here. Probably Rico.
“I’ll, uhm…” Kayla begins as she turns to my brothers and gives them a smile that is somehow both apologetic and grateful. “I’ll see you around.”
They all nod.
Spinning the bat around, I rest it on my shoulder as I start towards the door with Kayla beside me. It’s far too soon to let her go. In fact, if I had a choice in the matter, I would never let her go at all. But I don’t want to mess up her relationship with her parents, so I suppress the urge to murder the man currently pounding on my door.
“We’ll figure this out,” Kayla says, brushing the back of her hand against mine.
That small touch sends a bolt of electricity up my spine. I flex my other hand on the bat in order to stop myself from grabbing her and keeping her here with me forever.
Forcing out a long breath, I manage to reply, “Yeah.”
And then we’re at the door. After unlocking it, I deliberately shove it open much harder than necessary. It forces the man outside to leap back to avoid getting hit by it. With the bat still on my bare shoulder, I glare out at the now flustered-looking bodyguard.
“Ms. Ashford,” he says, his eyes locked on her. “You cannot simply…” Then he trails off as his gaze darts up to me.
I’m shirtless and very obviously closer to Kayla than six feet.
Alarm flashes in his eyes. Then hesitation. Then he seems to make a decision, because he clenches his jaw and pulls out a gun from inside his suit jacket.
He has only just managed to raise the gun and point it at me when fear crashes over his features instead.
Shoving the gun back into his jacket, he holds up his hands in a panicked show of surrender.
Twisting slightly, I glance over my shoulder to find my brothers standing in the hallway behind us. Both Eli and Rico are holding a gun, their weapons aimed straight at the bodyguard’s forehead. Kaden stands between them, spinning a knife in his hand while a true psychopath smile curves his lips.
My heart squeezes tight.
But I turn back to the bodyguard.
“Yeah, you should probably pretend that this never happened,” Kayla says to him while lifting her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug.
“Ms. Ashford,” he replies, his voice stern. But then his gaze drifts to the bat in my hand, and he seems to change his mind about what he had been about to say. “We should leave. Now.”
Kayla scoffs and then simply turns towards me. Wrapping a hand around my jaw, she yanks my face down to hers and kisses me so possessively that I think my heart stops beating for a second.
