Vail chuckled and was shushed by someone, I thought maybe Lor.
“And thatnothingwill never occur again without my approval.” His eyebrows rose. “Conall’s arm is still injured. It wouldn’t hurt for him to have some training, but I will be the one to decide when it’s an acceptable risk. Is that understood? He has already been informed of the same thing, so there will be consequences neither of you will enjoy if this is not the end of the matter.”
I nodded and a drop of sweat ran down my back in a rapidly cooling line. “Yes, Boss. Sorry, Boss.”
Sloan leaned in until his nose nearly touched mine. “I know everything that occurs in this house.”
“I’m sorry again, Boss. I was careful. We were really, really careful. But—” I rushed to keep speaking when his mouth opened again. “I hear you loud and clear. You wereso clearyou were mountain top air and I listened with both ears.” I nervously cocked my hands behind my ears, and there were definitely snickers from Vail and Lor this time. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Sloan’s lips twitched and I thought he was going to smile, but instead he cleared his throat and didn’t waste any more time on us. He left us in his office without a backward glance. It was a harsh dismissal, but at least he hadn’t shot anyone.
Rowen pointed at me and shook his head. His disappointment actually had me feeling bad.
“Don’t. Don’t say a word. Let’s just get Vail home.”
“What did you do with Conall today?” Vail asked, curiosity bright in his pretty brown eyes.
Rowen sighed and stared up at the ceiling, and all I could do was laugh.
2
ROWEN SHAUGHNESSY
The next day,I stared between Vail and Fallon with narrowed eyes, and they grinned at me in response. When Aspen and Cillian were here, I could handle them. It was three against two then, but now I was on my own and it was a lot harder. I’d been too scared to talk to them yesterday with an anger and fear I’d never felt before consuming me. They’d crawled in bed beside me late last night, and I’d let them, but now that I was calmer this morning, I could finally speak with them. It was nearly eleven, and I was going to make lunch soon, but first, we needed to have this discussion.
I had to take control of the situation.
“Enough,” I said gently but with a firmness I hated using. Aspen had warned me I needed to get tougher to control them. I hadn’t believed him.
Until now.
I was in trouble, and Aspen and Cillian had only just left. The house felt different and strange. We weren’t ourselves without the other two. Vail had become almost a walking zombie, his carelessness increasing more than usual, while Fallon’s flirting had doubled. Then there was me, and I wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind, either. I’d spent most of my career beside Cillian and Aspen, and not being there to have their backs was... paralyzing.
“We didn’t do anything.” Fallon gave me the most innocent smile he had in his arsenal, but I knew him better than that. He was worse than Vail most of the time. His soft blond hair hung in waves around his shoulders and his short stubble was as perfect as the rest of him, hiding a dimple in his chin. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief, which was a regular thing for him.
“Ye.” I pointed at Fallon and his grin widened. “We’ve already had a discussion. Ye can leave.”
He didn’t go, though. He settled deeper into the orange leather couch and threw his arm around the back of Vail, dragging Vail against his solid body. “Oh no. I amsolistening to this lecture.”
I glared at him, and he laughed, and I should’ve known I didn’t have the power of Cillian or Aspen. I didn’t want it, either. Nothing in me desired to be feared by Vail or Fallon. I wanted to take care of them, even if I wasn’t in the frame of mind to accept... whatever this was with Fallon. I placed my hands on my hips and stared down at them.
Vail pouted and his eyebrows dipped with unhappiness. I knew he didn’t enjoy being treated like a child, and I respected that, but he’d done wrong. He was lucky he hadn’t been kidnapped or hurt again. We’d been through too much to let something happen to him.
“Ye’re safe, Vail, but could ye imagine if something happened to ye while Aspen and Cillian were away? They’d be angry and worried, and they would abandon Miami, and Sloan would kill them for disobeying him. He wouldn’t have much of a choice. Do ye understand?”
Vail glanced away from me, and with the furious scowl that settled on his beautiful features, it was clear the move was purposeful, not wandering attention. His nose crinkled in irritation, tongue poking the inside of his mouth. “I know.”
“No, ye don’t know, because if ye did, this wouldn’t’ve happened.” I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. Heart hurting, I fell to my knees in front of him. I wished he could see how much he’d scared me.
“Don’t do that,” Vail said quietly, and I rested my hands on his thighs. He dropped his chin to his chest and took a deep breath. “I’m not a kid, Rowen.”
The words went off like a bomb between us, and Fallon stiffened. None of us enjoyed stepping on Vail’s toes in ways that reminded him of other people who’d hurt him. My shoulders slumped in defeat. This was what I’d been afraid of. I shook my head as I moved to sit on the couch on his other side and brought him against me. I kissed his temple. “I’m not trying to treat ye that way, angel. I love ye very much. But ye scared me yesterday.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” He stared at me from under his pretty long lashes. “And I’m embarrassed about it. I swear I never meant to forget about my phone. It was an accident. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
“Aye, it could, but with ye, it happens too often. Ye need to be more careful, Vail. I’m putting my foot down on this.”
His gaze shot to my face.
