“I’m the guy with his finger up his brother’s ass.”
“Lucien.”
“Lianna Monroe…” He draws out her name once again, rolling it around on his tongue like he's testing how it sounds.
“Can you stop saying my name like that? It’s weird.”
“No. I like it.”
Her eyes narrow into slits, looking like she’s two seconds away from slapping the pretty right off his face. But I know her. I know her type, and an annoyingly perfect face with a dangerous confidence that only comes from being too fuckable for his own good is absolutely it.
“Okay, whatever. You do you.”
She brushes past him and sits down beside me on the couch while Lucien tracks her movement the way a wolf watches a rabbit that doesn’t know it’s already been marked for the kill.
“They found Phoenix,” I tell her, and the shift in her is immediate. She sits forward, spine straight, every ounce of that fuck-you attitude twisting into something lethal.
“Where is he?”
“We’re waiting,” I say, widening my eyes in a silentDon’t look at me. I’m just as in the dark as you.
“Waiting for what? The other brother to show up with his fingers up his own ass? No, fuck that. I want to know where Phoenix is right now.”
Seconds pass as they lock into this silent stare-off, neither willing to back down, neither willing to look away first, when more knocking cuts through the tension brewing between them. I sigh and resign myself to not knowing a goddamn thing about what’s happening or whether Phoenix is really okay when Lucien stops me from answering it by moving toward the door himself.
Is he serious?
I’m two seconds from saying something when the door flies open, and I hear three words that kick my heart back into rhythm. “Where is she?”
Phoenix.
He bursts through the door, and I’m in his arms in under a second. The impact nearly sends us both crashing to the floor, but I don’t care. My arms wrap around him, holding him so tight I can’t breathe, can’t think, or do anything but pull him deeper into my body.
“Baby,” he whispers into my hair, and I completely fall apart in his arms, not caring who sees, because right now, all that matters is that he’s here.
I pull back, my hands gripping his face, and anger surges through me. Not anger at him, but at the gun pointed at his head and the way those bastards dragged him away from me while I stood there helpless.
“Don’t ever fucking do that to me again,” I choke out, tears streaming down my face faster than I can stop them. “Jesus Christ,I was so scared. You don’t ever do anything that takes you away from me again. Do you understand?”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m right here.” His hands frame my face, his thumbs brushing away my tears. “I’m not going anywhere. I swear to god, I’ll never leave you again. I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”
Somewhere in the background, I hear Lianna’s voice: “Did you know he was on the way here?”
She’s speaking to Lucien, but all I can do is stare at Phoenix.
“I knew Cain was getting him,” he replies calmly.
“Well, I had no fucking idea you’d be here playing babysitter.” A new yet familiar voice cuts in from the doorway.
I turn and immediately have to do a double take.
Identical.
Not similar.
Not brother-ish.
They’re identical, down to the tattoos and piercings.
