Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,25

open. I’m heated, Bren. Seriously fucking heated. Please tell me you guys are going all-crew on him? Or maybe not.

That’d be evidence, wouldn’t it?

Never mind.

Code words now.

When I want you to beat someone up, I’ll use the word ‘hug.’ I really really really want you to fucking hug the fuck out of the Zach guy.

Wait.

Zeke, right?

I’m still confused on who we’re hating, but I need to know because I’m seriously hating. I’m looking him up. I can cyber stalk his ass. I’ll find everything there is to know about him, so you can, you know—hug him. For me. Extra hard.

Race is in too.

—Still The Best Twin

BREN

Two days later and we had everyone in our living room, my phone sitting in the middle of the coffee table.

“This is a nice couch.”

No one groaned hearing Blaise’s smug comment, but I knew everyone wanted to. He’d been rubbing it in since he showed up, and Zellman hadn’t been able to talk him into losing a game of cards. Turns out that Cross’ brother wasn’t a big gambler when it came to cards. He mentioned something about ‘reforming himself’ so he couldn’t do cards, but when Blaise pushed for the reason behind the invitation, Cross told him. Grudgingly.

This morning, a new couch was delivered to our front door, no cards were ever dealt.

“Shut up,” Jordan sniped at him, throwing Tabatha a glare, too. “No one fucking asked for your charity.”

Blaise snorted, leaning back on the couch, throwing his arm up on the back. “Right. Instead, you were hoping to con it out of me.” Leaning forward, elbows to his knees, he gave Jordan a hard look. The smugness was gone. “And it’s not charity. I now own something in your house. Do you not get how much pleasure that brings me? I can rub it in your faces anytime I want.”

Jordan’s eyes narrowed. He was standing against the back wall and he readjusted, crossing his arms over his chest. “We can take a knife to it, throw it out. Problem solved.”

“Good thing I took insurance out on it. I’ll just send another one.”

Jordan’s head looked ready to explode. His problem wasn’t really Cross’ brother being here. It was Tabatha, who hadn’t said a word since she entered the house. She was standing in a corner by herself, with a similar posture as Jordan, her arms hugging herself.

“Blaise.” A welcomed interruption. Aspen, Blaise’s girlfriend, had come with him. While Blaise was a jackass of most proportions, she was the opposite. Quiet. Long legs that she told me once had put her in a few modeling jobs. She was a natural beauty with willowy blonde hair and green eyes. I was also convinced she was made of magic, because while I didn’t totally understand it myself, I’d become fiercely protective of her. It seemed she had the same spell over Blaise. He was a kitten around her. And her slight admonishment worked.

Blaise eased back, throwing her a regretful look.

She patted his arm before he whipped it around her, pulling her onto his lap.

She gasped in shock, but then was shaking in silent laughter. Blaise had his head buried in her neck, whispering things to her that no one wanted to know.

Tabatha was eyeing them, a keen look of her own regret tightening her face. Her mouth pressed in and she seemed to suck in some air and held onto it. As she expelled it, her gaze went to Jordan before flicking away, her head folding down.

“Okay.” Cross took charge, sitting on the recliner beside the coffee table. He gave his brother a dark look. “Can you stop?”

Blaise grinned over the top of Aspen’s head. “Feeling sick, brother? Too much drinking last night?”

“If I’m sick, it’s because—” He rolled his eyes, turning to me. “You ready?”

I nodded, my eyes moving to Tabatha one more time. She’d been told Jordan’s reaction and had agreed to come, but when she didn’t move forward from her corner, I took in how her hands were trembling. She stuffed them farther around herself, her own arms now covering them.

Hiding.

Pain sliced through me because there’d been a time when I had done the same. The problem was that what you were hiding from never went away. It just grew in size and power. I said to Cross, my eyes on her, “It’s time.”

My own stomach was tied in a knot as I took the seat beside Blaise.

Aspen was still on his lap, but she had shifted so it seemed she was more just