Addi pressed her hand to my shoulder. “It’s been a while. Are you not feeling any better about the breakup?”
I shrugged.
“She misses you too,” she whispered, looking at me with pity.
Biting down on my lip until it hurt, I avoided looking at any of them for fear I’d lose it and burst into tears. That woman had crept into my heart and then destroyed it and no matter how much I missed her, I couldn’t risk her doing it again, because I didn’t think I’d survive.
Fern
“Am I ever going to get rid of you three? Haven’t you got better things to do than hang around and take me for lunch?”
I sat in a booth next to Jarrid, opposite Tom and Sean.
“Nope, you’re family now. The annoying little sister none of us ever asked for.” Sean raised his eyebrow as he threw a French fry in his mouth. “Anyway, we need updates on your sad love life. It makes us feel better about ours.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m happily married to the love of my life,” Thomas replied.
Sean rolled his eyes. “And don’t we all know it? Pussy whipped, Boss, and you know it.”
“Seriously, how long are you going to run my business before you and everyone else stops calling me that?”
Sean shrugged. “When you stop showing up at the office, despite being ‘retired' and even then, probably never. It’s your name on the building. You’re the boss.”
“Are you really retired?” I laughed at Thomas’ recent announcement. “Like, old man retired?”
He shook his head. “I’ve stopped offering protection. I still teach protection stuff to government agencies I can’t talk about, but do I want to be hunting down criminals and putting myself in danger when I’ve been doing it all my adult life? Do I want to be putting Lissa and my kids in danger? Do my old man knees beg me daily to stop? Do I want a quieter life?”
I took a bite of my sandwich as Sean mouthednever going to happenmaking Jarrid and I laugh as Thomas smacked him around the back of his head.
“Anyway, enough about me. How’s your sister and Ari?”
I smiled. “It’s taking time for us to make things okay again, but they are doing good. James signed her over the house and a mysterious amount of money appeared in her bank account, which I’m guessing had something to do with you.”
Thomas winked. “I may have had a little word with James and told him about the people I knew in the prison he was being sent to.”
James was currently on remand, charged with a whole list of crimes, including my attempted rape, the dark web kidnapping plot, his attack on me at the interview with Lauri, and the things he’d done to win cases over the years… which was a lot. Thomas reassured me there was no hope of him getting out in this lifetime.
“See, can’t stay out of it,” Sean hissed as he ate another fry.
“And dare I ask?” Jarrid paused before whispering his next word like the sound of his name might break me. “Charlie?”
My face twisted and tears filled my eyes as I thought about the man I loved who’d refused to utter a word to me or even be in the same room as me since that fateful day. I’d sent cards, messages, voicenotes, I’d even resorted to sending flowers, hoping he might get annoyed and reach out to tell me to stop, but nothing.Not a word. I had loved silent moments with Charlie, but this silence was deafening.
“He still won’t talk to me.”
“Still?” Sean gasped. “The man is an idiot. Do you want us to kidnap him and trap him in a room with you until he does talk?”
I let out a soft laugh, wiping my nose on my sleeve, making him grimace.
“I don’t think that will help, but thanks.” I rounded my shoulders, looking between the three men who I missed having around. “Enough about me. Tell me about you guys. What’s going on?”
“Tom took my guns,” Sean bit out. “The fucker claims I’m dangerous and is making me see a shrink.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “You tried to strangle a woman in your sleep. You almost killed her with your bare hands, so you’re damn right I took your guns. You need to sort your shit out, you idiot.”
Sean glared, tutting loudly. “Such a fucking drama queen. She was fine.”
“She can’t talk. You damaged her vocal cords. What if you’d killed her?”
