I blow out a steadying breath. “Yeah, Dare, she did. So, fucking quick too. I reckon if I was dressed as the creepy IT clown, I would have been less inconspicuous.”
“No one sees past our disguises. Ever. They are…” Kai muses. I get it’s him just talking out loud, but it pisses me off.
I interrupt him mid-sentence. “She did, Kai. And worse still, I couldn’t do a damn thing about it because I was so caught up watching her.”
Darius chuckles again, “What happened next? Please tell me she called her security and she stood around cheering while they beat your sorry ass. No shit, Ram, our Dads would be flipping in their graves if they knew.”
I ignore the slur but admittedly squeeze my eyes shut because all our dads would be furious. “It’s even worse than that.”
They both shut their fucking arguing and laughing.
“It happened really quick okay. Clearly, someone has been training her…”
“Go on.” Kai’s dropped all pretence of being pissy. He’s done a one-eighty on me, and is barely swallowing back his laughter again.
“Once she removed her knee from my nuts, she gave me a shove and shut the door on me.”
Darius stops chuckling. “So, hang on, let me get this straight. Not only did she peg you one but then she laid you out on your ass?”
They both suck an air in expectantly. And I ignore it.
“I’ll have you know I’m going to remember this conversation because you think I fumbled. I can’t fucking wait until you two meet your fated Omega…”
Darius gets deadly serious in a split second. “Ramses, I’m not being a prick, but you do realise it’s going to be her, right? Since you are basically a bad duplicate of me.”
Except for the punchline, I would have believed him.
I scoff, rolling my eyes. “No, you are a poor imitation of me and always have been, Dare. I am the first born, meaning I got all the brains, agility, and the looks.”
“Bull-fuck, you’re just impatient and tried to murder me on the way out. Even mom said you were taking out the competition before I could even take a breath of air. Funniest shit is you’re still threatened by me, even though I am your brother.”
“I love how you two always argue about who is the better brother, but even all our dads said mom saved the best till last.”
“They felt sorry for you, Kai. You were and still are, the runt of the litter.” Darius gets all serious, giving our younger brother shit. But it’s the way it’s always been with the three of us. And the order we were born was the order the doctor chose, nothing else. Usually in triplets, one is bigger, stronger, but our beautiful mom gave birth to three identical boys. Identical in looks, size, and weight. Although, technically, I was born first, and first born gets full kudos until you die. Everyone knows that.
“Okay, we can sort this shit out later. Or not. I need you to check the feed on the cameras to see if they’ve left or if I’m walking into a trap,” I suggest as I move through the office starting to do a full wipe down. Fingerprints or sharing DNA is a sure-fire way for us to get caught, and even though she made me see stars, I’m switched on enough to know how I need to get out of here—without a trace, like the ghosts we are.
As much crap as we give each other, it doesn’t really matter, we are as solid as solid can be. I need my brothers like I need air to breathe, although Darius’s comment about her being our Omega, as opposed to just mine, isn’t the first time we’ve discussed the possibility that Heidi is all that and more.
Kai’s fingers race loudly over the keyboard—he’d be checking the closest cameras, while Dare would be trailing behind him in cyber terms, clearing away any trace of us. Firewalls are not impenetrable despite what the experts say, and jumping into secure networks is something the three of us can do half asleep. It’s the removal of your digital presence that is harder to do, but that too is something we’ve mastered.
“You’re clear. Hey, Ramses, you got to let us take over from here, Bro. I get it, she’s your one and only, but you need to let me and Darius have a chance too.”
And that’s what’s hard about it, and even though there’s a big part of me that can admit she probably is going to be their scented match, and their compatible partner, I guess for the first time in forever I want something just to myself. Not that I begrudge them her. I guess that’s another sign of how screwed up she gets me. Not even properly ever meeting her, putting a face to a name, I’ve been pulled into her orbit twice.
The first time Heidi and I met, messed me up for a long fucking time. Years really. Without exaggeration. Being the person who found her after she was attacked altered everything in me. It would have affected anyone with a heartbeat but that night changed everything.
I can remember the night. It started with harmless flirting while I was serving her at the bar and it ended with me carrying my bleeding girl to her team. Everything happened with hyper-speed once the lights were cut but nothing would or could stop me getting to her. It was as if I had a barb in my chest pulling and dragging me toward her. Of course, I wasn’t fast enough, not from lack of trying that’s for sure.
I found her, and then in the next moment she was snatched from my grasp by her team. And despite knowing they were getting her medical attention and I had to let her go, it was still hard to do. And I get, for obvious reasons, I had no choice but to disappear but there’s a gnawing guilt even now knowing I left her so vulnerable.
Though feeling the lingering effects of her strength just now, turns some of my shame to pride.
Wiping the last trace of me from the office, I race down the fire escape and come out a couple of floors below before I use the key we swiped to go back up to the office we have on short term lease. And then I sit in my little cubicle in my dark black jeans, faded game shirt and baseball cap surrounded by our team of geeks offering online support for the latest fad game sweeping the globe, NutFite.
There is some fucking money to be made in gaming. And there is no shortage of customers. Our biggest customers are little dudes or dudettes using their parents’ credit to buy worthless jewels, making me and my brothers richer.
I flick over from my phone to the headset and Darius is back talking a mile a minute.
