Page 63 of Trapped Truth

“Pet Semetery is a classic.” Phoenix’s palm darts to his chest, feigning defensiveness.

“Not for an infant, Nix. It’s definitely not.”

I think my eyebrows hit my hairline when Phoenix stoops in to seize Eli’s lips in a hard kiss. Brooklyn doesn’t even blink. Ensuring my mouth isn’t hanging open, I clap my hands together as a distraction.

“Give me a job. What do you need help with?”

“Wrangling five insane men?” Her request is completely deadpan.

“I haven’t managed it with four yet. Guess I was hoping you’d have some pointers.”

“Ha! Pointers. It’s been thirteen years since this lot waltzed into my life, and I’m no closer to controlling their chaos than I was at twenty-one. Let me know if you manage it, though.”

She pushes a pot of potatoes in my direction then hands over a peeler. I set to work prepping the spuds, content to watch the group’s internal politics play out. My guys all seem familiar with Brooklyn’s family. Even Blaine is relaxing as he silently nurses a whiskey with Hudson.

Working with Brooklyn to prep vegetables is easy enough. I’m not very familiar with cooking, but it doesn’t seem to be her strong suit either. She hands the task of chopping over to Kade when he volunteers to help, leaving Eli to watch us.

“I heard Blaine’s team has confirmed the meet.” Kade drops his voice, shuffling to work next to me.

“New Year’s Eve. Raye called last night.”

“You sure about this plan, Ember?”

“No, but I don’t have a better one. If it doesn’t work out, at least we’ll have saved one more person from Madden.”

“True.” His head dips in agreement. “I don’t like sending you in there with no backup, though.”

“You know why.”

“Yeah, I get it. We need to plug this leak.”

Leaning on the kitchen counter, Brooklyn snags a carrot piece from his chopping board. “We went into plenty of sketchy situations without redundancy before.”

With eternal patience, Kade hands her another piece to munch. “That was different. We didn’t have the same resources available to us as we do now.”

“But we made it out,” she argues. “I’d wager the Anaconda Team is a hell of a lot more capable than a bunch of kids in their twenties, running from paid assassins in the night.”

I offer her a nod of acknowledgement. “We’ve got this.”

She winks back. “See? Ember has it handled. Have faith in your agents, Kade. You’ve trained them well.”

“Damn, Brooke. Can’t you take one day off?”

“Not from being your wife, no. It’s a 24/7 gig, baby.”

He smirks at her. “And we’re all the better for it.”

Everything is deposited in the oven then left to cook, freeing us up to open a bottle of wine at the breakfast bar. I hide behind the rim of my glass while raptly watching Brooklyn snuggle into Eli’s side.

“How’s maternity leave?” I ask her.

“It’s good, but I miss work.” Brooklyn rubs her still-rounded belly. “I know Hudson and Kade are holding down the fort while I’m gone. But truthfully, I’ll be happy to get back to it once my daughter is a little older.”

“Good luck getting that past Hudson,” Eli whispers.

“It isn’t up to him. My work is important to me, and I’m pretty sure he’s still limping from the last time he tried to order me around like an employee.”

Wine gets stuck in my throat, almost expelling all over them. Brooklyn laughs, gently smacking me on the back so I don’t choke.