Page 146 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

“Firstly, yes, he is. And secondly” — Aria's hand finds mine on the couch — “you take all the time you need to work out what you actually need, not what you think you're supposed to want. These are massive decisions, Alexia. Nobody expects you to have it sorted in a few days.”

“Speak for yourself, bestie,” Betty says, sprawled sideways across an armchair with her wine glass balanced on her stomach. “I expect her decision by tomorrow night. I've got a bet running.”

“With who?” I ask. “Can I get in on it?”

“With myself. It's that you can decide all you want, but those men are not going anywhere.” She points her glass at the enormous bed visible through the open bedroom door. “Now, look at that custom, ginormous bed. That is a pyjama-party bed just waiting to happen. We are sleeping on the Mothership tonight, ladies, and there will be face masks.”

“The Mothership?” I ask, not sure if I heard her correctly or if I've had one too many glasses of wine.

Aria rolls her eyes. “It's what the guys call our bed. Custom made, big enough to fit a small village. There were... issues... in the beginning, over the sleeping arrangements.”

I rest my chin on my hand. “Why didn't we ever think of doing that? We just had a Google calendar. Sleep was soft pink. Other... nocturnal activities was purple.”

Betty rolls onto the ground, groaning as she tips her wine into her mouth. “How did I end up having the most boring sex life between the three of us?”

Aria and I glance at each other and fall into a fit of giggles.

I go back to the house the next morning for a change of clothes, and the second my key's in the door I realise how much I've been dreading this.

“Hello?” I call it into the hallway, half hoping, half not sure what I'm hoping for. “Anyone home?”

Nothing. The kitchen's empty. The lounge room's empty. I stand in the middle of the silence for a second, realising there isn't going to be an answer to my call.

“Yeah,” I say, to no one. “I guess that's something I'm just going to have to get used to.”

FORTY-TWO

Zachary

I'm bad company tonight and everyone at the bar knows it.

It's been five days. Five measly days since she walked out of our lives. Five days since she decided that life without us was easier than with us. Five days since I've eaten anything more than a handful of pretzels or half a protein bar Marcus keeps shoving in my face. Five days since I've slept properly, shaved, or thought about anything except the fact that nothing's ever going to be the same.

“You right, boss?” Priya asks, sliding past with a rack of glasses, not quite looking at me directly, like I might bite.

“Good as I'll ever be,” I mumble, mostly to myself.

She just gives me a pitying look that makes me want to hide in my office, except my office is full of little notes Alexia left me the last time she was here, so I'd have something to keep me company on the long nights.

“That's too bad,” someone says, right behind me, a voice I don't recognise.

Then a bag comes down over my head and the whole world goes black.

Whoever's behind this doesn't bother being gentle about it. Hands under my arms haul me backward off my feet before I can get a word out. Bundled into what I'm fairly sure is a van — door slam, diesel smell, seatbelt yanked tight enough across my chest to bruise. Nobody answers a single question I ask, and I'm hoarse by the time the car stops and I'm told to climb some steep stairs. Metal underfoot. Then I'm inside, pushed into a chair, hands still bound.

There's a chorus of other voices. Voices I know better than I know my own.

“You're going to fucking pay for this!” Marcus. And judging by the edge in his voice, he's already contemplating exactly what he's going to do to pay them back. Count me in.

“I suggest you move your hands from my body, or it will literally be the last thing you do before I mail them to your loved ones.”

Oh, good. Rhys is here.

“Guys, are you okay?!” I shout.

“Z! Yeah, I'm okay, but these wankdickasses are about to be very not okay!”

And then we feel it.