“I am amazing, but my time here will end soon enough,” he replies dryly just as the doorbell rings.
The sound has everyone freezing.
Even Dotty doesn’t move. She just wields her mop like a weapon.
“No one rings the doorbell in this house,” Jules says softly. He steps back, his hand finding a butcher knife. “Who the fuck is it?”
“Is that a bad thing?” Ansel asks, worry lining his voice.
“We’ll see,” I murmur, standing and brushing a kiss over his temple. “Stay here, okay?”
I take another knife from the block and prowl toward the front door. Wylder is standing in the foyer with a gun.
“How the fuck did someone get past the guards?” he hisses.
I shake my head, seeing a blurred image through the glass. It’s blue and gray. I have no idea who it is. “Did you not get a good look through the cameras?”
“No, they’ve been hacked. It’s just a GIF of a giant dick and balls waggling at me.”
That makes me laugh as I stalk toward the door, my breathing quieting as I near the handle. “Well, if someone did that, they can’t be half bad…”
My fingers slide against the cool brass, and then I flick the door open.
Standing before me is a smaller man—bright blue hair on the top of his head, one side long, the other shaved. He has plugs in his earlobes and a nose ring in his septum. He looks like he just walked off a stage at a rock concert.
The man’s eyes flash to the knife in my hand and the gun in Wylder’s. “Jesus, is this where you’re holding Ansel hostage? Fuck off with this shit.”
My eyebrows rise, and the knife drops slightly. Is this Neo?
“What the hell are you? Criminals? Figures.” He rolls his eyes and stalks inside the house like he owns it. “Where the fuck is he? I want proof of life.”
I open my mouth to tell him Ansel is fine when he opens his mouth and screams my butterfly’s name.
Immediately, Ansel rounds the corner and gasps, rushing to the slight man and wrapping him in his arms. Jealousy surges throughme at how close they are, but I tamp it down slightly. I need an explanation before I chop someone up. I’m assuming it’s his friend, but I need confirmation.
Thankfully, Ansel doesn’t keep me waiting. “Neo, what the hell are you doing here?”
The jealousy dissipates. Thank god. Ansel was thirty seconds away from learning just how violent I can be.
“This is Neo?” Wylder asks, cocking his head and lowering the gun.
“Yeah, I fucking am, and who are you? Why do you have a gun? Gross, by the way. You’re all gross. I hate guns. The knife I’ll allow, I guess.”
I let out a small laugh at how fierce he is, despite his size.
“How did you find me?” Ansel asks.
“Easily. Once you called, it was a breeze. These fuckers obviously suck at whatever it is they do.”
Wylder eyes me, anger in his gaze, and I shrug. As long as Ansel is happy, then I am too. I can’t be fucked as to why, as long as he smiles like that.
“So, which one is yours?” Neo asks Ansel, his eyes slipping between me and Wylder. I step forward and put my arm around my butterfly’s shoulders.
“I am.”
Neo’s gaze roams over me, and he purses his lips. “You could do better, dude. He’s not that great. Neither of them, really.”
Ansel giggles and then goes up on his tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “I think he’s pretty damn great.”
