Malachi was right about that. “Can’t we take him to Levi’s and Nico’s?” Shiloh asked. “He’ll be safe there, right?”
Enzo frowned. “What if your brother is watching the place? I would be.”
“We can sneak him in,” Nico said, studying Mal like he was a complex math equation. “There’s a tunnel system that runs directly into our building’s sub-basement. There’s an entrance two blocks away.”
“How did you find that?” Enzo asked, amused to learn this bit of trivia.
“Oh, we used to get hi—” Lake grunted in pain when Cree elbowed him, giving him wide eyes. Lake rubbed his side. “We used to play laser tag down there in the tunnels.”
Enzo and Jericho both snorted in disbelief.
“We can take him with us then?”
Enzo and Jericho exchanged glances, then Jericho nodded. “Yeah, but you need to keep the blinds closed and your routine the same. If Micah takes the bait about the cabin, this will all be over sooner rather than later. But I am going to need you to keep feeding him little bits of information while we get our pieces in place. Okay?”
It seemed impossible that this could all be over in a few days, but Shiloh nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
“Then get going. But be careful,” Jericho said, waving a hand towards them.
Shiloh stood, expecting Mal to do the same, but now, Nico and Mal were having a smolder off or a staring contest. “Do you think Nico will like Mal?”
Levi looked between the two and shook his head. “The way they’re looking at each other, you should just be hoping that Nico doesn’t fuck Mal.”
Shiloh jerked his gaze to his. “What?”
“We should go,” Levi said.
Shiloh stared warily at Nico’s closed bedroom door. “You don’treallythink they’re having sex in there, do you?” Shiloh asked.
They stood in Levi’s and Nico’s tiny kitchen, Shiloh’s head pressed to Levi’s chest, listening to the reassuring thud of his heartbeat. Shiloh didn’t understand how this could happen. The two were strangers. They had barely spoken a word to each otherright up until Shiloh and Levi had dropped them at the tunnel entrance to make the trek to the basement.
Levi and Shiloh had been home for about thirty minutes when Nico and Mal had arrived at the apartment, letting themselves in. Nico had taken Malachi by the hand and taken him straight to his bedroom. Where they remained.
Even now.
“It’s awfully quiet. I sincerely doubt they’re fucking. I can usually hear everything,” Levi said, making a pained face. “Everything.” Under his breath, Shiloh heard him mutter, “Kinky little weirdo.”
“Kinky how?” Shiloh asked. “Because Mal is also a kinky weirdo, but possibly a far more unhinged one. And not to be mean, but Nico seems a little…impulsive? And Mal is a lot persuasive. That is a terrible combination. What if one of them is in there asphyxiating even as we speak?”
How did this happen? Five hours ago, Shiloh thought his brother was rotting in a jail cell, and now, he was standing in the kitchen spinning truly terrifying scenarios about Malachi and Nico and their potentially life-threatening kinks.
Levi chuckled. “If they are in there having sex, do you really want to know?”
Shiloh gently banged his forehead on Levi’s chest again and again. “No. I don’t want to think about my brother banging your best friend. But we have to think about the future…what’s the word?” Shiloh wracked his brain. Oh, right. “Ramifications. That’s it. Ramifications. Like if they hook up or whatever, it could get weird, and if your best friend and roommate starts to hate my brother, then it’s gonna be weird and people might take sides and maybe you’ll dump me.”
The last part was said directly against Levi’s chest, a barely-there muffled whisper that he’d needed to say out loud but didn’tnecessarily want Levi to hear. It was bad enough he was crazy, he didn’t need Levi to know he was neurotic, too.
“What was that last part?” Levi asked.
“Nothing,” Shiloh muttered.
Levi caught him under the chin, forcing him to look at him. “Try again.”
“I don’t want you to leave me because they end up hating each other,” Shiloh confessed, heart twisting.
“Slow down, Dimples. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I promise you, even if somehow Mal and Nico end up hating each other, I’m not breaking up with you. Have you seen Ever and Arsen? They imprinted on each other like baby ducks. Felix and his husband, too. Jericho and Atticus. We just know. I looked at you and I just knew.”
Shiloh had never really understood what it meant when people used the wordswoon, but he got it now. His knees went weak at Levi’s words, his heart literally fluttering in his chest. “Knew what?”
