The argument I’d originally been preparing for Gray came out slow and almost confused as I tried to make myself look away from Evans. “It’s a coincidence.”
“Which part?” Gray challenged. “That he’ssuch a nice guy? That he’s beenrepeatedlyasking her out? Or that it’s been happening sincelast fall?”
My stare finally met his, but I kept my voice soft, considering Evans was now in a full-blown argument with whoever he was talking to. “I told you, he’s harmless.”
“No, y’all seem to think I gave you an option just then,” Briggs seethed. “Someone loop me innow.”
“Get to your sister’s before I drag you there,” Evans shouted before ending the call and tossing the phone onto the table. He barely took a breath before gesturing irritably to the device and explaining, “A guy moved in next to me last fall, so he’s in the unit across from Wren. He asks her out constantly, and she obviously ate that up at first, but I kept shutting it down, because that’s my job with babysitting the flirt. And, even though she kept trying to find ways around me, I think she eventually got tired of him. But he’s nice—toonice. He’s rubbed me the wrong way since he got there.”
My stomach dropped—fell straight to the floor just as Gray added, “Same,” through clenched teeth. “There’s a guy next to Mallory. Same on all counts.”
Thatch cleared his throat as he sat up, tapping on his phone as he did.
“Y’all too?” Briggs asked as he gripped the edge of the table.
“Not exactly,” Thatch answered hesitantly. “This guy moved in across from the girls sometime after Chloe and I started dating.”
“I remember,” Briggs muttered, also sounding like he wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a concern or not. Like he wasn’t sure if he’dmissedsomething.
Which, I would’ve sworn he hadn’t—thatIhadn’t—if Evans’ account hadn’t been so eerily similar.
“I think it was in the fall,” Thatch said a little uncertainly as he pocketed his phone. “It was before Briggs and Lainey got married, because Lainey was still living there. He still comes over to talk to Chloe nearly every night when we get home, and he’s annoyingly nice, but that’s where it ends. He’s never asked her out. Honestly, I think I’m more his type than Chloe is. They just talk about whatever books they’re reading.”
There was a soft knock at the conference room door before Chloe came in, smiling like the world was full of sunshine, or that she was powering it. “Yes?” she asked, as if she’d been summoned.
Considering Thatch had been on his phone, she probably had.
Thatch tipped his chin up at her, his expression brightening just looking at her, despite the tension filling the room. “Can you remember when Davis moved in?”
The conference room exploded into chaos the second the name left Thatch’s lips.
Evans and Gray shot out of their chairs and leaned across the table as they yelled at Thatch and each other because, apparently, Wren’s guy was namedDavistoo, before all three of them started yelling at Briggs about protection.
Briggs and Rush had shot each other knowing looks even before all the yelling had begun.
And I was going to be sick.
If this was what Lainey felt like at every minute, I felt terrible for her. But I was definitely going to be sick.
“Tell me what you did wrong,” my dad yelled from the training room, his face turning purple with his anger.
My stare shifted to my second oldest brother, who didn’t bother trying to hide his cruel, victorious smirk. “I let him sneak up on me.”
“No,” Dad shouted. “No, you look at me when you answer me. You own your failures. Now, tell me what you did wrong!”
I squared my shoulders as I faced him, my head held high and voice clear. “I let him sneak up on me.”
“You let him sneak up on you,” he echoed, disappointment dripping from his words and expression. “If your enemy sneaks up on you, you’re dead. Then you haven’t just failed yourself, you’ve failed your fellow Marines and your country.” Stepping so close I had to tilt my head back even more to maintain eye contact, he jabbed his finger at me as he seethed, “Never let down your guard. Never let anyone catch you unaware. And never let your enemy?—”
I turned, already swinging for the person I’d been able to sense creeping up behind me. Clipping the youngest of my brothers in the jaw, I quickly went on the attack until he was flat on his back, blood pooling from his nose.
With heaving breaths, I turned back to my dad, and felt my stomach clench and heart twist at the disappointment that had somehow deepened.
“Was that supposed to impress me?” He jerked his chin in the direction of my still-gloating brother. “Don’t forget, you would’ve already been dead.”
“Hey,” Gray said, suddenly crouched at my side, voice soft in the middle of all the madness. “It’s okay, just breathe.”
Never let down your guard.
