“Calm the fuck down, Ash, you’re just pissed because you need to get laid,” Jagger barks back at him. “Go down the club and find something to bury your dick in like normal. Problem solved.” He’s such an ass, because I’m sure that comment was for me as much as it was for Asher.
Even though Cruz is demanding my attention by the way he’s holding me, I tune into what the other two are saying, desperate to hear Ash’s response to his brother.
“I don’t want any other pussy, and you fucking know it,” he growls, angrier than I have ever heard him. That’s when I make out what sounds like a fist slamming into a kitchen cupboard.
I can’t help but jump at the loud bang. I guess I expected Cruz to be pissed, but not Asher. He’s so easy-going about everything else.
Cruz tilts his head, his stormy eyes locking on to mine in a way that makes it impossible to look away. “Look at that, you withhold sex from the lover, he turns into a fighter. Wish I had known this years ago, but Ash was never very good at abstaining until you came into the picture.”
“It’s only been a week since I arrived.” I almost laugh back. He’s hardly celibate.
“Longer than he’s ever gone, I would say.”
It sounds like another punch is thrown, and I jump in Cruz’s hold. “Shouldn’t you be stopping them?” I ask, half mortified they are fighting over me, half turned on and proud of myself for getting to the bottom of Jagger’s sneaky ways.
His eyes stay locked with mine. “Nah. They will work out their differences and all will be well again.” He says it so casually I have to assume a fistfight in the kitchen is some kind of normal around here.
My phone springs to life, dancing across my bedside table. I glance back, seeing it’s my brother again. He’s been calling me repeatedly all afternoon. I don’t want to pick up. It’s not that I don’t miss him and want to talk to him, but more that I don’t want to face reality. And my brother is reality, my old life that I’m trying to escape.
“You going to get that?” Cruz asks, and I know he can see who the caller is as well.
“Nope.”
He lowers his face closer to mine. “Why?”
I stare right into his crazy eyes. “None of your business,” I snip back as the phone stops ringing.
He drums his hand on the wall beside me. “See, I’ve only met your brother a couple of times, but he doesn’t strike me as the type to enjoy being ignored.”
My eyes widen. “You know my brother?”
His lips curve into a broad smile that instantly makes me feel uneasy. “I know a lot of people, little darlin’, and I wouldn’t be ignoring him.”
“I’m not scared of my brother,” I huff. I know most people are, he spent a long time building that reputation, but he’s my brother, and he would never hurt me.
In the kitchen, something shatters, and I remember the other two are still fighting.
Cruz raises a brow as if he doesn’t believe me. Then, my damn phone starts again. He releases his grip on me and walks over to my bedside table, studying my phone like he’s never seen a cell before.
My heart skips a beat. “Don’t. You. Dare.” I move across the room as quickly as I can, but I’m too late.
Cruz answers the call. “Daisy’s answering service, how may I direct your call?” the smug bastard says.
I shoot him a look sharp enough to kill, but he couldn’t care less, the fucker just sneers at me as he listens to my brother on the other end of the line. He’s so erratic, I never know what he’s going to do next.
My brother practically yells down the line. “Put my sister on.”
Cruz hands me the phone. “It’s for you, little darlin’.”
“Screw you,” I mouth to him as I put the phone up to my ear. “Dante,” I say his name, trying to keep my voice light and pleasant even though my stomach is already churning.
“Why are you screening my calls?” he barks.
I sigh, really not wanting to have this conversation with him, especially while Cruz is in earshot. I throw him a glare that tells him to piss off, but he just smiles at me and leans into the wall like he’s staying. I turn away from him and move over to the window. “I’ve just been busy.”
“All fucking day? I’m not calling you for a fucking chit-chat. This is important, Daisy.”
I stare out the window, wondering how much longer I have in this place before my family sends a jet to come and collect me. “What is so important?” I ask almost absentmindedly.
