Reid’s chest rumbles with a quiet growl, gently tugging me tighter against his side before he confesses, “I removed the evidence that was on file in the police’s database. Looks like the photos were emailed in, so nothing physical to dispose of, but when I tried to backtrack to find the original sender, I hit a brick wall. And after this many years, the case has gone cold and I highly doubt anyone will recognize you two at this point. Still will need to destroy whatever copies Ash has, but one less thing looming over your heads.”
My voice is barely more than a whisper as it sinks in. “You knew.”
Holding me firmly against his side, he palms my cheek, forcing me to face him. “I did, but it was after you’d already claimed Damian. There was no way to change what happened, so the best I could do was try to protect you from it.”
Moment of truth. Do I want to fix this, or cut my losses and do what I should have from the beginning; kept right on running?
But then Emmy wouldn’t have survived.
Closing my eyes, I soak up the comfort of Reid’s proximity as I weigh my options. On one hand, four mates are clearly more than enough. But by the same token, the thought of losing Damian, Hunter, and Kaige makes my chest tighten uncomfortably. I’m pissed at them, sure, but the thought of kicking them out of my life doesn’t sit right with me, either. In the grand scheme of things, it all comes down to one question.
Is it fair to hold them to a higher standard when we’re dealing with the fallout of the most epic fuck up of my life, yet none of them are blaming me?
“From this point on, as far as I’m concerned, Ash killed him,” I decree, praying that I’m not making a terrible mistake. But of every scenario I’ve run through my head, this is the only one that offers me a chance of keeping my sanity intact so that I’m not reduced to a depressed fucking zombie for the indefinite future.
“As terrible as it sounds, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Not because I want to forget him, but if there’s one thing I can do for Noah Laroque’s memory, it’s to beme.And I don’t want to be a bitter, miserable person; my life’s already sucked enough. I’m never going to be happy if I let resentment eat away at me, and he wouldn’t want that for me, either. He was a firm believer in ‘people suck, but there’s no better revenge against someone that wants to drag you down to their level than by being your best self.”
Facing Slade, I let everything click into place in my head before I speak. “You win. Starting now, we’re all getting that damn fresh start.” At his sad smile, I sweep out a hand to encompass the rest of them. “So if anyone hasanythingelse they’d like to get out, now's the time. No more secrets. One and only chance to lay it all out there, because I swear to all that’s unholy, if it comes out later after you had a blank check opportunity to come clean without consequence, I’m divorcing you.”
A sudden breeze elicits goosebumps on my skin, and Reid pulls me tighter, rubbing his hand over my arm. “Mates can’t get divorced; the bond is permanent.”
“Until death do us part, I’m aware, as is everyone else that’s wanted to kill you guys so I’d be conveniently single again.” Meeting Damian’s eyes, then Hunter’s, I declare, “I’m not going to be trapped in a miserable, loveless marriage, so if I want a divorce, that claiming mark is getting removed one way or another.” Making eye contact with the others first to ensure they know they aren’t exempt, I lean forward to warm my hands, flames licking my flesh and chasing the chill from my skin.
Dead silence stretches on for ages until Hunter clears his throat, pulling my attention to the left. “I clipped the mirror on the Aston Martin moving it into the storage unit.”
Across from him, Slade narrows his eyes. After a few seconds, he drops the hostility, sheepishly facing me. “The person that canceled their interview at Byte-Ware before you? I may have possibly encouraged him to seek employment elsewhere.”
Shaking my head, it’s hard not to smile at that. “I should have guessed as much. You didn’t kill him, though, did you?”
At my easy acceptance of his confession, he slumps in relief. “Not at all. Simply threatened, my love.”
Throwing him under the bus with glee, Cin helpfully volunteers, “No, he was too busy helping me off that asshole from the construction site that was harassing you.”
With a huff, Slade shoots him a scowl. “It was your idea!”
“You should know better by now than to listen to my ideas,” he instantly counters, amusement dancing in his crystalline eyes as his other half subtly slides into the background for a change.
Slade scrubs a hand down his face, sighing in defeat. “He convinced me it would be a good way to make up for my poor impression at dinner. A temporary lapse in judgment from a lovesick fool.”
At this point I lose the battle, grinning at their bickering display, and it encourages everyone else to let their guards down a fraction. Half-heartedly, Reid raises his hand beside me. “I might have made a copy of the security tapes before erasing them when I booted Adrian from the system.”
We all stare at him for a second in surprise before collectively bursting out laughing at the underlying confession. Between fits of laughter, Cin heads our way, tackling him off of the log onto the ground behind me.
“New rule, if we’re keeping sex tapes of our mate lying around, you have to share,” he demands, shoving his hand in Reid’s pocket to steal his phone before losing his breath in a rush.
Removing the fist he drove into his twin’s stomach, as Cinjin rolls off of him with a grunt, Reid hops to his feet, escaping with a smirk. “Do not. If anybody gets to decide who has access to them, it’s Sabrina. It simply seemed a shame to let them go to waste, and there was never a good time to bring it up.”
They both turn to me expectantly, and at this point, I can only manage a few words before gasping for breath. “I don’t want to watch them, personally. I’d be self-conscious the entire time rather than enjoy it. So how about the only people that can have them are the ones that are in them?”
Over the various sounds of agreements, Slade hesitantly asks, "Since you're fine making them, and we all know what we're doing with them... does that mean we can make requests?”
***
The lightheartednesslasts until night falls, and with it, the restlessness we’d managed to stave off returns with a vengeance. Each of them appears on the verge of bursting out of their skin, but my real concern is Hunter. Apparently, he refused to shift the entire time I was unconscious, picking fights with the others to stave off the urge instead. Worse, the one moment that his other half nearly surfaced, it didn’t manage to make it in time, the damage he suffered too extensive.
Which means when his wolfisfree, it very well may go after Reid, whocan'tshift. But with the ominous rumble currently coming out of Reid, his wolf’s clearly missed the memo.
“Doing alright?”
