Breakaway - Sadie Jacks Page 0,38
asked.
I blew out a breath. Shit. I hadn’t thought of that.
Answers, Tag growled again. We need them. Now. Before anything else comes along to screw this up.
Whatever the fuck ‘this’ is, Thane said with a sarcastic laugh. Hell, we don’t even know what we’re doing. Fumbling around in the dark isn’t my specialty or a skill set I have. I need concrete answers. Solid steps. Outcomes that are objective. We need to keep her under wraps until we find out what’s really going on. That means no visitors. No changes from normal routine. Everything stays status quo.
The TV went dark as the front lobby interrupted the movie. “Mister Thane Ladon. You have a visitor. A Ms. Ainsley Christiansen. Should I send her up?”
“You were saying about visitors?” I asked with a huge smile on my face.
I was lucky Tag was sitting between me and Thane, otherwise I probably would’ve gotten a mouthful of broken teeth.
Hollyn turned back and looked at us, her brows pinched together over her nose. “Your girlfriend is on the TV?”
I erupted into laughter.
Tag elbowed me again as Thane answered the front door concierge. “Send her up, Francis.”
Thane pushed to his feet and crouched down next to Hollyn. “No, Stretch, she’s not in the TV. She’s down in the lobby. I need to talk to her. Can you go with Tove or Tag into their suites? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable and Ainsley can be a –”
“Bitch. Bitch is the word you’re looking for, Thane,” Tag answered as he reached down a hand for Hollyn. “Come on, sweetcheeks. I’ll show you my suite.”
“Hey, maybe she wants to see mine,” I said as I scrambled to my feet.
“Then both of you show her. I don’t want Ainsley getting her claws into Stretch,” Thane said as he pushed us towards the hallway that led to the suites.
Tag kept Hollyn’s hand in his, so I grabbed her other one as we walked three across down the hallway. The other side of the penthouse held Tag’s and my suites, a gym, a pool, and access stairs in case of emergency.
“You guys have so much space. It’s like a castle,” Hollyn said as she looked through the glass windows of the gym out over the pool. “But none of you are awful.” She chuckled. “I mean, Grumpy was kinda mean, but even that wasn’t too bad.”
Grumpy grumbled next to her, too low for me to understand in his rolling thunder voice. I had a feeling that if she hadn’t done her mojo on him, he’d still be grumpy. Not to mention horrendous to live with.
A raised feminine voice came from down the hall.
I winced. Thank the gods it wasn’t me back there trying to calm Ainsley. The woman was a nightmare. How Thane had managed to stay with her for so long was a testament to his being busy all the freaking time. Not to mention lonely.
Hollyn looked up at me. “Is Thane in trouble with the girlfriend?”
Tag snorted. “Only if you consider Satan on wheels trouble.”
Hollyn’s shoulders slumped.
Bro, shut the fuck up, I yelled at him mentally. Hollyn doesn’t understand what’s going on, and with her penchant for blaming herself, she doesn’t need any extra ammunition.
He winced as he looked at me over her head. Sorry.
I shifted my eyes to Hollyn and back up to him. He needs to make this right. Now.
“They were together out of boredom and familiarity. Not because they love each other. You have nothing to worry about,” Tag said.
Hollyn didn’t say anything as we passed through the door into my rooms.
Having three master suites in one penthouse floor had been quite the trick, but since we’d inherited the property from our parents, at least we didn’t blow through our savings to buy it and have the renovations done. And considering the three suites were soundproofed and could be locked, none of us felt it was worth it to try to find separate living quarters anywhere else.
Hollyn stopped just inside the door.
Tag and I bumped up against each other in an effort not to bulldoze her.
“This is amazing,” Hollyn said in a breathy voice. “You can see out over the city for miles and miles.” She finally started walking again. Once Tag cleared the doorway, he turned and closed the door behind us.
She stood at the windows, outlined by the cityscape she admired. Her long dark hair was a sleek sheet down to the middle of her back. Standing like that, against the clear windows