AllFreeNovel
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“Nothing else you’d like to share?” Brigham asked, suspicious of his sister’s response or lack thereof.
“There’s nothing else,” Zsanine replied, doing her best to be convincing. “You have anything to share, Brigham?” Zsanine asked, trying to deflect.
“Nope, I don’t,” he readily replied. “But if I did, I would just say it. You know, if there were something going on, something or someone new in my life, I would share that with the ones I love.”
Zsanine’s eyes narrowed in response to what she knew was a dig at her. If she could have kicked Brigham under the table, she would, but he would betray the kick.
“Straight up,” Shareef II added. “If there were something I’d share, too, but I’ve been so busy grinding, I haven’t made time for anything else.”
“Exactly,” Zsanine agreed, feeling a bit of reprieve. “Busy grinding.”
“If there is someone new, he has to be vetted first,” Mustapha said, looking directly at Zsanine, plainly cutting through any innuendo.
“Definitely,” Brigham agreed, honing in on where Mustapha took the conversation. “I’m busy, but I always have time to kick somebody’s ass about my sister.”
“Brigham,” Zsa Zsa pounced.
“Apologies for the language, mom, dad, but I mean every word of it.”
“I second and third all of that,” Shareef added. “Well whooped is what he would be if he stepped out of line about Z.”
Her brothers nodded their agreement. The agreement they had about protecting Zsanine had never been unspoken. They made their position plain from what they said to the way they behaved. When there had been guys interested in Zsanine before, who were brave enough to articulate or express that interest in some way, her brothers pounced, effectively driving him away if he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the scrutiny and intimidation. That’s part of why she never readily shared any love interest. They ran them away or kept them away because of their protective posturing. Zsanine appreciated their protective covering in a lot of ways. It did keep the bad guys away, but it also kept guys away, period, good or bad. She never had to find out on her own because there hadn’t been one who passed her brother’s muster. Although Zsanine was confident Zander could pass any test her brothers proposed, she would much rather keep him to herself, at least for the time being.
“Wait, wait,” Zsanine interrupted. “First off, you all are being quite presumptuous. Thanks, mom.”
“You’re welcome,” Zsa Zsa smiled knowingly.
“And secondly, why so violent?”
Mustapha looked at her directly again. There was no smile on his face and no uncertainty in his voice.
“It’s necessary.”
