“Andyou,” Calix growled, “don’t think I haven’t noticed you drooling all over my sister since she got back. We’ll be having a conversation about that once I’m done here.”
I was about to tell him to shut his loud, overprotective mouth, but Ras beat me to it.
“I don’t see the need for a conversation,” he said smoothly, his voice oozing danger, “when we can clear it up right now.”
My heart skipped, then it began to pound. I looked up just in time to see that crooked smile of his widen, a familiar, dark glint flashing in his eyes. I had a very bad feeling about this.
“I’m Aniyah’s boyfriend. At least one of them,” he added, glancing down at me for confirmation.
With the way the tension in the room exploded, you’d think a bomb had gone off.
“W. H. A. T?” Calix enunciated every letter like it was a separate curse.
Ras, unfazed, knelt beside me like I was the goddess he worshipped. “She’s chosen me. Just the other day, the moonlight hit her body?—”
I slapped a hand over his mouth so fast it surprised even me. “Stop talking,” I hissed. “Before you either get me in trouble or yourself killed.”
“I’m also one of her boyfriends,” Van said, stepping forward. What was this? Some kind of role call?
And then Lucus, ever the posh king, raised his glass of booze to my brother. “Well, guess the cat’s out of the bag. Me, too.”
My eyes snapped to Alic and Maso, silently ordering them to stay quiet. They exchanged a look with Nova, then, being the traitors they were, nodded.
Nova slapped her knee and burst into laughter, throwing her thumb over to them. “Oh, shit! These two as well?! Damn girl! You got some bomb-ass pussy!”
She turned to Calix, a gleeful smile on her face as she counted it off in one hand. “Five boyfriends, Calix! Five!”
She leaned in, grinning as she whispered in his ear. “They outnumber you. What you gonna do about that?”
Calix stood slowly, voice vibrating with fury. “You think I can’t handle a ragtag group like this?” He reached into his pocket, and my stomach dropped.
This was about to get real. You never knew what kind of weapons were in Calix’s pocket, and I’d just had the building fixed.
I stood up, slapping my hands on my desk, and belted, “Can I please get a moment alone with Boss Rossey and Boss Winstale?”
Everyone hesitated, but Van was the first to nod and walk out. The others followed, though not happily. The door clicked shut, and I could already tell I wanted to call them back in for comfort.
“You’ve lost your damn mind!” Calix roared. “Fuck them? Fine. Use them like toys, yes. Hell yes. But boyfriends? Labels?! Standing?! No. Absolutely not. I forbid it.”
He sliced his hand like that was the final word.
Nova's eyes lit up like she’d just gotten popcorn delivered and was settling in for a show.
Cracking my neck, I walked around my desk and bumped my chest into Calix. “You think you can forbid me from doing anything?”
He blinked, thrown off.
“I’m the Glovefox boss. Same level as you. You think you can tell me who I can or can’t be with?”
He grabbed my shoulders, the bravado melting as his voice softened. “Spend time with them. Fuck them. But don’t let them in. Don’t give them anything.”
Ghosts of his past haunted his eyes, shadows of things he didn’t want to talk about. Wouldn’t talk about.
Nova stepped up beside us. “What our big brother is trying to say,badly, is that he’s trying to protect you. You know, in the classic macho, emotionally-stunted, dickhead kind of way.”
“Yeah. Something like that,” Calix muttered.
My anger slipped away just as fast as it came, replaced by something warmer, heavier. I wrapped my arms around both of them, pressing my head into Calix’s chest.
