Ignoring his petulant question, I glanced at the others and explained, “I want to make sure she’s okay with company before we all go barging in and bombarding her with our emotions.”
“You’re right. She’s already had a group of men talking over her at once. We can wait.” Sin stepped back and leaned against the wall.
“Let us know when she’s ready,” Grim added.
Malice huffed, but fell back as well. “We will be right here.”
With a final glance at them, I knocked softly on the door before opening it and calling, “Merri?”
I spotted her straight away, but it was obvious that despite my attempts to alert her, she hadn’t heard me. She was pacing back and forth behind the suite’s couch, muttering angrily to herself.
“Red,” I tried again, careful to keep my voice low so as not to startle her.
Creeping closer, I put myself in her path and caught her before she slammed into my chest.
“Chaos, fuck! I didn’t see you.”
“I noticed. I’ve been trying to get your attention since I walked into the room.”
She glanced around, searching for the others.
“I asked them to stay outside until I made sure you were okay with us being here.”
Her brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You seemed pretty over company when you stormed out.”
“Well, yeah, but that was”—she waved an arm wildly—“other people. Not you guys. Last I checked, none of you were trying to force your decisions down my throat.” Tipping her head to the side, the ghost of a smile crossed her lips. “Which, come to think of it, is a big departure from your norm.”
“We’ve learned a few things these last couple of weeks.”
“Have you?”
I glanced back toward the door. “Yes. All of us have taken past experience to heart. Just say the word, and we’ll all be here to talk this through.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip before responding. “I get final say, but since it impacts all of us, I think it should be a group discussion, at the very least.”
“Agreed.” As I turned to walk to the door, she stopped me with a hand on my arm. “What?”
Face stricken, she looked into my eyes, then cast an uncertain gaze down. “What if it’s not yours?”
My gut twisted at the unease in her question. “Mine specifically or one of the horsemen’s?”
“Both? Either?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t change anything.”
“How can you say that?”
“As far as we’re concerned, any child of yours is ours. Period.”
Her posture relaxed so quickly she reminded me of softened butter. “Oh,” she murmured, her eyes glowing with what I thought was pleasure. “In that case, definitely let them in.”
I’d barely finished calling, “Come on in,” over my shoulder before Sin stumbled through the door with all the grace of an oafish cartoon character. He might have agreed to give us space, but that didn’t mean privacy. I’d bet my horse he’d been pressed against the door, sharing every word we said with the others. Ihad to fight back a chuckle because I got it. I’d have done the same.
Righting himself, Sin feigned nonchalance as he shot Merri a wink and sidled up to her. Malice was right behind him, with Grim bringing up the rear. Once all of us were in the room, Grim leaning up against the door while Sin and Malice hovered on either side of our girl, I returned my full attention to her.
“All right, Red. We’re all here. Tell us where your head is at.”
