Page 119 of Callous Shot

Staring down at the floor, I swallowed around the lump in my throat.

Neil clapped his hands together. “Right. Now Rachel is here, it’s time to address the elephant in the room.”

“Okay, yeah. Look, we realise that us being together puts you in an awkward situation, given all this.” Daniel waved his hand between Neil and Mike. They exchanged glances, and then Mike slowly shook his head.

“Regardless of where we all stand in the eyes of the law, we don’t want you to worry about us. The three of us have discussed the situation, and we’re in agreement. If you want to be together, and it’s clear you do, then we’re not going to come between the two of you.”

My brows furrowed as I met my uncle’s gaze. “Is it going to make things difficult for you at work?”

He gave me a wry smile. “Considering the fact that my brother and my sister-in-law are currently in custody with a string of charges against them…things are about as difficult as they’re likely to get, and I have a lot to think about. But the two of you dating? No, that isn’t going to make things any harder than they are currently. Surprisingly enough, no one in this room has a criminal record.”

“We’re totally legit, that’s why,” Dan said, and Mike rolled his eyes.

“Of course you are.”

“Alright.” Neil rose to his feet, crossing the room to stand in front of me. He held out his hand, and I stood, facing him.

The hardened crime boss grasped my hand firmly, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners as his mouth curved into a smile.

“Welcome to the family,” he said.

52

DAN

“Victory Royale!” I held my controller up in triumph, grinning at Lincoln. “Your turn.”

“Watch and learn,” my boyfriend said. Slinging my legs over his thighs and leaning back against the arm of the sofa, I laughed, shaking my head at him. He was so deluded.

As he got the game set up to his satisfaction, I opened the camera app on my phone and took a photo of his concentration face. Another one to go in my folder of Lincoln expressions. Lowering the phone, I took a moment to admire how gorgeous he was, just sitting in my lounge in a plain T-shirt and sweatpants.

“What?” he said. “I can feel you staring at me.”

“That’s because you’re my favourite thing to look at. Fucking sexy.” I stretched over to kiss him. “Hey, we need to come up with a hard launch strategy.”

“A what strategy?”

“A hard launch of our relationship. You know, let people know we’re a thing. I’m pretty sure some of them know already, but⁠—”

“We all know,” came a voice from behind the sofa, and then Kane strolled into view. “No need to hard-launch anything.”

“What? King and Jay know, but how do you know?”

Dropping down onto the other sofa, he stretched his legs out in front of him. “Aside from the fact that you’re all over each other right now… What could’ve possibly given it away? I can’t think of anything. Can you, Neo?”

Neo wandered into view, smirking at Kane. “Nope. It definitely wasn’t that album of thirst trap photos of Bellingham we saw on your phone.”

I gasped. “You went through my phone!”

“And it definitely wasn’t the way you always stare at him like he’s a glass of water and you’re dying of thirst.”

Fucking brilliant. More of my teammates were here. I glared at Toby, who was grinning far too smugly, and he shrugged unapologetically.

“We didn’t go through your phone. You were looking at the photos during a team meeting, mate. Everyone could see,” Neo informed me.

“Great.” I huffed out a breath, slumping back in my seat. My gaze slid to Lincoln to find he’d abandoned the game, and now he was staring at me with his brows raised and his eyes sparkling with amusement. Traitor.

“You’ve had a massive boner for him for years. Personally, I thought it was one-sided until me and Neo noticed the way he was watching you back,” Kane said, and my boyfriend’s cheeks flushed.