“Oh stop that,” I can’t help but giggle, swatting his arm.
Sam huffs a breath. “A bunch of children, all of you. West, a littlehelp please?”
West shrugs. “I don’t know, it’ll be hard to talk about anything un-sexy with Siren here.”
“You are all ridiculous.” I roll my eyes. Obviously, I’m the one who needs to direct the conversation. “West. How long have you and Sam known each other?”
My beta turns in his seat, grinning at me. “I stand corrected. There are zero sexy things about this story. Sam and I met when my dad hired his to work for him. We were ten.”
My heart warms at the thought of a little Sam and West playing on a playground together. “That’s damn adorable.”
“Aw.” Hayden leans forward slightly. “So tell me, has the stick always been stuck that far up his ass, or has it gotten worse with age?”
West gives Sam a fond look, even as the alpha flips Hayden the bird. “He was…different. I could tell right away he wasn’t used to the prissiness of the other kids at the private school we attended, but that just meant when he came across some older kids bullying me, he stepped in. We’ve been inseparable ever since.”
“My dad started training me when I was eight.” Sam says roughly, only meeting my eyes briefly in the rear-view mirror. “Ex-Military, though he denies any involvement with Special Ops. He worked private security for Mr. Monroe, and it was always important to him that I knew how to protect myself.” He pauses, and I catch a hint of a grin in the mirror. “He’s gonna love you.”
My heart picks up speed. “You think?”
“Oh yeah. He might like you even better than me.” He chuckles lightly. “My mom, gods rest her soul, was the only person who could put him in his place.”
“What happened?” I ask, my voice quiet.
“Breast cancer. She passed the year before I met West.”
I lean forward, my hand resting on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose a mama.”
“What happened to yours,Lisichka?” Kole’s voice is gentle.
“I…” my voice catches in my throat. “Mabel and I…we came home one day and she was on the ground, bleedin’. I think…I think Cian had somethin’ to do with it, but now that he’s dead, I guess I’ll never know.”
“My father had business dealings with yours, years ago,” Kole says quietly, his hand tightening on my knee. “When this is over…perhaps we can see if my brothers can scrounge up any information.”
His brothers. The two legitimate sons of the Vasiliev family. “Are you on good terms with them?”
“I was not at first,” Kole admits, shrugging. “But once they figured out that I would never take the spot as head of the family from them, they eased off. We have come to an…understanding.”
“We don’t have very good luck with family, do we?” West laughs humorlessly. “Turns out my dad could be mixed in with this whole beta-supremacy bullshit.”
“I’d venture to say we have the best luck with family,” I chime in, looking around at my guys. “After all, I have all of you now, don’t I?”
“Damn straight, Trouble.” Sam smiles at me in the rear-view mirror. “Damn straight.”
twenty-four
Jo
An hour after we switch cars, I’m nestled into Kole’s side, breathing in his gunpowder and rain scent, my feet stretched on a sleeping Hayden’s lap. The black SUV we have now is way more comfortable than the van we were in before. As an added bonus, it’s not drenched in the pheromones I was pumping out when we left the safe house so we can actually relax. A classic rock song plays low on the radio, West asleep in the front passenger seat while Sam taps his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat.
The whole thing is oddly domestic in a way that makes myheart flutter.
On the first half of the drive, I filled the guys in on, well…everything. My childhood, to killing Daddy, how Declan found me and took me to New York with him, and how he spent the next few years making sure I was ready to go to Thornfield.
Each of them had known different parts of my past, but now everyone has the whole story.
Kole’s fingers play with my hair absently while he stares out the window. I’m not sure what he’s looking at, considering it’s two hours past sundown so it’s dark as hell, but he has this thoughtful look on his face that makes me want to crack his brain open and take a peek inside.
I realize I don’t know much about Kole. Sure I know about his affiliation with the Mafia, what he’s done at the request of his daddy, and that he would kill for me…but that’s about it.
