“It did. No thanks to you,” Samson grumbles as he grabs his axe from the ground and kicks the man over so he’s now lying face up.
“I mean, you all had it handled. And don’t look at me, Wylder did nothing as well.”
“I was monitoring the situation,” I say. “It was six against three.”
“More like three against three,” Dalton says, holstering his gunand glancing at me. “As you and Cade did nothing, and Samson was a shit shot.”
Samson grumbles as he grabs the man and lifts him up. He groans, and Samson jostles him slightly. “Shut up. Much worse is going to happen to you.”
“Since you two did nothing, you can carry these assholes to the basement.”
I tuck my gun into the holster beneath my jacket and feel the weight of the bulletproof vest on my chest.
My lips twitch slightly as I move toward one of the men that Matthias has placed a foot on, and lift him up.
“Come on! I just lit this. And it was expensive,” Cade says as he takes a long puff of his cigar. Smoke wafts around him, and then he places it in the corner of his mouth and moves toward one of the men Harley is restraining. “Fine. I’ll smoke while I walk. I can multitask.”
Harley laughs softly. “Yeah, right.”
Cade waggles his eyebrows as he lifts one of the men easily off the ground.
“All right, come on,” I say. “We need to find out what you’re doing trespassing on the Buckinghams’ property.” The man I have against me glowers at me, his eyes narrowing. “And don’t give me that look. You need to conserve your energy for the truly awful stuff we’re about to do to you.”
23
WYLDER
Samson, Cade, and I drag the men into the basement. It’s a slog, mostly because they started fighting halfway through the yard, so we knocked them out. Cade and Samson used the butts of their weapons to put the two men they’re dragging to sleep, while I used the pressure point at the side of my captive’s neck. He’s weak; went out without a fight.
This was far too easy. My hackles rise as we place them on separate metal tables and restrain them. The tables are drilled into the ground to stop them from being used as weapons.
We learned to do that the hard way.
As we do, I hear a knock on the basement door. I suppress a sigh, knowing who’s waiting behind it. “Samson, Harley, and Dalton, you can watch these men while we speak to our…significant others.”
“Ah, he’s serious,” Dalton says, clutching his chest dramatically. “Look at our stoic older brother, finally all grown up.”
I ignore him. I am serious about Neo. I have no plans to deny it. As far as I’m concerned, I want the whole world to know we’re together.
Not that we’ve labeled it as such…but we are.
I won’t accept anything less.
Harley’s lips thin. “If Jules is out there, I want to see him. He’ll be worried.”
I nod, and then stalk toward the door, slipping out. Jules is the first person I see, and I call out to Harley, who rushes past me, crashing me into the wall.
Asshole.
“Oh, thank the gods,” Jules says, his accent thick. He grabs on to Harley’s biceps and drags his hands to his chest. “I was so worried.”
Maybe weshouldstart a betting pool on them. From how Neo is smirking at the two, I imagine he’s already plotting it.
My gaze turns toward Ansel and Cade, and then Wyatt and Matthias, the couples tucked into one another, whispering words of comfort to each other.
Neo flips me off as my attention returns to him. I bite back a smile at his greeting.
I can see the relief on his face though. I know he’s happy I’m safe.
