“You love me, boss.”
Hayden lifts one perfect eyebrow. “Do I?”
Suddenly, I’m not sure. “I think so?”
Hayden just hums and returns to the laptop that’s precariously balanced on his thighs.
Dante appears in front of me with an open bag of chips and a grin. “You want some sour cream and onion chips?”
I reach out to grab some with a scowl. “You owe me this since you didn’t check on me once.”
“Reid reported back,” Dante says out of the corner of his mouth. “Plus, you hate being babied.”
“It’s like the worst thing about you,” Jacob agrees.
“I feel ganged up on. This is no longer a safe space.” I turn to leave but Mason stops me. He nods toward the sofa, and I take a seat with a resigned sigh. “Do we at least have a mission coming up?”
Hayden hums again. “Tomorrow night.”
“Can Mason come?” Everyone turns to look at me, including Mason. “I’d feel better if he was there. I don’t like leaving him unprotected, you know, since I’m staying with him for the purpose of protecting him.”
The twinkle in Mason’s eyes makes me want to blow our cover right now, say fuck it and tell everyone, but we’d agreed to wait until the air settles. Basically, wait until Reid is mostreceptive to the news since his opinion of me is currently a little less than lackluster. I lean back in my usual spot on the sofa, watching like a hawk as Mason carefully perches himself on the edge of the wingback chair Reid usually likes to inhabit. But Reid is currently sprawled on the floor on his stomach, aimlessly doodling in his sketchbook.
“What are you drawing?” Hayden asks, curiously leaning over to sneak a peek.
“Parker bleeding out,” Reid answers without missing a beat.
Dante leans over and smacks Reid’s ass. “Hey.”
“Doing that does not in any way make me want to be nice, just for your information.”
The smile on Dante’s face is otherworldly. Reid goes back to drawing as if he didn’t just toss a grenade at him. The room is quiet as Hayden types away. The only disruption is Jacob when he wanders into the room, tugging a shirt over his head and looking very annoyed at the sight of a full living room.
“What the fuck? When was a tribunal called.”
“When I sent a text message to the group chat saying a tribunal was called to discuss the mission tomorrow night.” Hayden lifts his gaze to skewer my twin with a gut-twisting scowl. “Why are you just now getting dressed? You’ve been home all day.”
Jacob shrugs. “I was lounging in my room naked.”
Hayden’s jaw tightens, the muscle popping so hard it looks like it could snap, but he stays quiet, just returning to furiously typing on his laptop. Mason turns his curious gaze to me and I just shrug. They’ve been this way for as long as I can remember, and at this point I’ve given up trying to apply reason to their behavior.
Jacob tosses his big body onto the sofa beside me with awink and a grin. He grabs the remote from the ottoman, then turns the television on with no care in the world, as if we aren’t all sitting here waiting to discuss tomorrow night.
“Are you deliberately egging Hayden on?” I ask quietly for only Jacob to hear.
Jacob purses his lips, then makes a clicking noise with his tongue that has Hayden turning around to glare at him. He just makes a kissy face until Hayden goes back to his laptop, but I can see the hunch of Hayden’s shoulders, the flush that rises on his cheeks and works its way down his neck. My brother is a major asshole.
I grab the remote from Jacob’s hand with a scowl of my own. “Lay off.”
Jacob grabs the remote back. “Fuck off.”
“Hey!”
“I’ve got it handled,” Jacob says darkly.
I know that tone. That’s his evasive tone, the one that meansdon’t ask me or I’m going to tell you something you really don’t want to know. But what is there that I don’t want to know about Hayden? Jacob and I have lived in each other’s pockets since utero, and then with Dante and Hayden for almost four years now.
“All right.” Hayden stands with a flourish and tosses his laptop down onto Reid’s ass. “Tribunal can commence.”
