Rest.
Love.
A pissed-off sigh escaped me. I rose and went to the store cupboard at the top of the landing by Nash’s room. I kept bed sets in there, lots of them, a habit I’d inherited from my ma. While my brother made sure everyone got a meal, it was my job to make sure anyone we cared about had a bed for the night.
I grabbed a set I usually used on Nash’s bed. Plain grey. Soft and clean. Uncomplicated enough that it took all of five minutes to make Locke’s bed.
Flapping the sheets dislodged one of his photos. I rescued it from the floor and put it back on the mirror, pausing a moment to study the face that was so almost his.
Logan Halliwell. He had darker hair than Locke and a jaw that seemed narrower without so much scruff, but his face was identical in every other way. Except, it wasn’t. Logan’s eyes were the same sea-green orbs that crinkled at the sides with his crooked grin, but he wasn’t Locke.
No one was.
More bikes rumbled home. The gates cranked open and I reached the window in time to see Cam lead Embry, Mateo, Saint, and Locke home.
The gates shut behind them.
Cam slid off his bike and pointed at the chapel.
Church.
No fucking way.
I snatched my phone from Locke’s chest of drawers.
Orla:Unless I hear different, we’re coming down.
The landline to the residence rang.
I picked it up. “What?”
Nash’s low chuckle greeted me. Then the easy rumble of his deep voice. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Do what you like, just keep the kids close, okay?”
“What happened?”
“I’ll tell you when I know—”
Someone talked over him. Nash said something I didn’t catch.
Then he hung up.
I pursed my lips. Some days I was better at repressing my O’Brian fury than others. Today—right now—I was goddamn fuming.
Juana came out of the bedroom, Hope on her hip, Liliana and Ivy peeking out from behind her.
Screw this. “Come on, girls. Let’s go.”
I marched out of the residence and found River loitering in the yard.
He said something about potatoes.
Juana handed him a baby.
“We’ll be back,” I told him. “Stay where I can see you from the chapel.”
I was one of the only people on earth my little brother wouldn’t tell to go fuck themselves.
Ivy and Liliana were two more. He took them on too with a resigned sigh. “Don’t kick anyone. It’s been a long day.”
