Chose me.
“I’m good,” I say. “I’ve got something to protect.”
JT’s expression is sharp, almost proud. He really thinks he’s looking out for me by asking, like we’ve quietly switched roles. But I’ve never stopped protecting him.
Not when he was ten and already too smart for his own good.
Not when Mom died and the world got real dark, real fast.
He’s a man now. Dangerous in all the right ways. But my instinct doesn’t leave. The weight in my chest stays the same.
Will. JT. Me. We’re not all blood. But that’s never mattered.
We’re brothers where it counts.
JT leans back, typing something into his phone with a smirk.
“Well then,” he says. “Let’s handle Bat Shit.”
The day crawls by, humid and sluggish, each second sticking to my skin. Will’s out again, doing laps in the beater while Ashley runs through her usual unhinged routine. JT’s working in the bar at one of the booths, headphones on, probably erasing someone’s identity for fun.
I’ve been staring at my phone in the back office, fully convinced it’s withholding information on purpose.
Then her name pops up.
[Legs]:Any updates on our favorite lunatic.
I lean back in my office chair, smirking before my fingers fly.
[Hex]:Bat Shit’s been busy. Still trailing your ex, desperate for a callback she’s never getting. Hits his dealership, waits in the gym parking lot for him to come out, then drives off like it’s all very casual.
She doesn’t respond, so I continue—
[Hex]:But she follows you too. Shop. School drop-off. Sits in her car just watching your life as if it’s her favorite tv series.
A pause. Then bubbles.
[Legs]:What does she do for work? How does she even have time for this full-time crazy gig?
I grin. Teed up.
[Hex]:Credit card fraud. Identity theft. Bank scams. Classic amateur hustle.
[Legs]:You’re kidding?
[Hex]: Nah. She’s been using three maxed-out cards tied to someone named Carol Wansley. Real Carol lives in Arizona. She’s got no idea her fake twin’s been buying gummy hair vitamins and monogrammed loungewear for the last six months.
[Legs]:Holy shit. So you’re saying I’m being stalked by a broke, delusional con artist with thinning hair?
[Hex]:The thinnest. Extensions are struggling.
[Legs]:Stop.
[Legs]:You’re gonna make me laugh out loud in front of a client.
The thought of her at work, trying to stifle a smile over my words, hits me in the feels.
[Legs]:You wanna stop by?
