Page 95 of The Rook

I rolled my eyes. "No. No you're not."

Saint laughed. "I'm like your big brother, too. The one whose girlfriend you tried to steal."

I sighed. "If you two can't be serious, there's no point in us talking."

Lock decided to be the voice of reason. "Okay, relax. Everybody chill. What's the problem? I assume it's the girl. The one that has you all fucked up in the head?"

I sighed. There was no point in hiding it. Saint knew everything now, too. "Yeah, it's her."

Saint sighed. "Look, at the end of the day, Gabe's not going to throw too much of a fit. As long as you stay on the mission."

"That's the problem. Staying on mission is going to be kind of hard now. I mean, I care about her. Which is a fucking issue."

"Yeah, maybe,” Saint said. “But at the end of the day, you do have a job to do."

"Mate, was that how you got past everything with Kaya? Just doing your job?" I muttered.

Saint sighed. "That was different."

"Oh yeah? Explain to me how different it was. Because it sounds like it's the fucking same right now."

Lock intervened before the two of us could get into it. "Look, kid, I think the one safe thing to say is that you saw the mistakes we made. We fucked up. A lot. I fucked up with Saff. He fucked up with Kaya. Big time. Chances are you're going to fuck up. If you are at least as honest as you can be, you'll be all right. And if you can't be honest, which is going to be difficult in your case, then stay away. It'll just make your life easier. Look, how much does she know?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I paced back and forth downstairs in Lock's loft. "Nothing. She knows nothing. She went looking for answers at the wrong place at the wrong time. So, it's bullshit. She doesn't deserve this. She got caught up in the whole thing, and it's fucked."

Lock whistled under his breath. "So, you like her?"

I shrugged. "Too damn much."

"Just think about how she's going to feel when she finds out the truth. It's not going to be pretty. She'll never trust you again."

"Fucking hell." I scrubbed the pads of my fingers over my eyes. "I know. I fucking know. I crossed the line, and I couldn't stop myself."

Saint chuckled low. "We know the score, mate. Been there. Done that. But the difference is you have to do the job. Protect her now. She's all tied up with her father's business. You don't want that mess. When this is over and she’s safe and we have Igno, then do this. It's the cleaner way to do it. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have fucking lied to Kaya. I would tell her the bloody truth. Let the chips fall where they may. But I wasn't thinking about that. I was trying to save my family while I was trying to save her. She sort of fell into my lap, and I got sucked into the slipstream. You have a chance here, an opportunity to stay focused. If I were you, I'd choose it."

"Even though you know you wouldn't have Kaya if you had chosen sanity?"

Lock laughed. "What Saint is trying to tell you is we didn't have a choice. We were so caught up in everything, there was no thinking. There was no stopping to breathe. Saff and Kaya were the hurricanes we got swept up into. If you’ve got a chance to back this thing off, then back off. You shagged her once, okay, but it's not the end of the world."

"But I didn't shag her."

Lock coughed. "What?"

"I didn't shag her. I don't know. I kissed her and made her come."

There was nothing more humiliating than two blokes who were basically your big brothers mocking you. "Aw mate, you couldn't get your dick off?"

"I swear to fucking God, I will kill you both."

I could hear the smile in Lock's voice as he spoke. "It happens to the best of us, mate."

"Shut it."

Lock snorted. "Did she ask you the dreaded is it in yet question?"

"No. For your fucking information, she—" I shut my mouth. They didn't need to know what she'd said. "You know what? Fuck you both."

Lock roared in laughter. "Apparently, you don't mean that."

Source: www.allfreenovel.com