window, and he laughed. “There you go, being funny. And no one said Bren Monroe has a funny personality. Personality, yes. You know the kind…dull, gloomy, dark, death, but comedic, I never would’ve believed if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears. Tell me the truth, Bren. You lie at night thinking of ways to brighten my day, don’t you? Don’t be shy. You can share your feelings for me. I know you have dirty thoughts about me when you’re in the shower.”
I was gritting my teeth, and I hated to admit this, but he was starting to boil my blood.
In the murdering way.
I shot back, “You know what’s actually funny? You don’t say any of this shit when your boy’s standing in front of you.”
That smirk immediately vanished.
Got you.
He didn’t like me talking about his best friend. Then, point taken, that’s all I was going to talk about. I positioned myself a bit more, facing him, tilting my head to the side. “You’re nice and quiet whenever Blaise is around. Why is that? Hmm? Oh, and I didn’t just hear about how you might not have come to Cain, that your daddy got mad at you.” I waited a beat. He didn’t like knowing that I knew any of these things. I had to add, “And guess who told us all that information?”
“There you go, trying to be a comedian. I lied before.” He snapped forward, baring his teeth. “You ain’t no comedian.” His eyes widened and he leaned back. “Wait a minute. What do you do? I was going to say don’t quit your day job, but you don’t have one of those anymore. You ain’t a college student. You got no career. I’m at a loss. I mean, how do I even know how to insult you if you aren’t doing anything productive with yourself?”
“Zeke!” A bark came from just in front of the truck.
We both turned.
Zeke cursed under his breath, stepping back.
Like two marauding golden twins, Blaise and Cross were heading right for us. Blaise had his soccer bag in one hand, still dressed in his uniform. He must’ve had a game. Cross was eyeing him from the side, angling his body so it looked as if he hadn’t come with Blaise, more like both of them converging on the truck at the same time. Cross had been working out, lifting weights with Jordan, but I didn’t see our other crew member coming with him.
Blaise and Cross weren’t actual twins. The twins were Cross and Tasmin, his sister, and she was going to college about four hours away from us at Grant West University. But even though none of them knew about the other growing up, the results were the same. Cross and Blaise, though different moms, looked eerily similar.
They were coming in both hot and ready to handle whatever was going on.
I knew Blaise was coming in to back his boy up.
Cross was coming to either back me up or make sure I hadn’t murdered Zeke. Judging by how he gave Zeke a once-over, then eased back, it was the latter. His eyes met mine, those tawny, gorgeous, and smoldering eyes, and I caught a flash of amusement.
I scowled at him.
He thought this was funny?
His mouth only twitched again.
Oh yeah. He thought this was funny.
Then again, anytime I came across Zeke Allen, Cross enjoyed watching me at work. He told me later that seeing me do my thing was ‘fucking hot when you tear him down.’ Those were his words, not mine. But now that I was thinking about it, that’s all I wanted to do: tear Zeke down.
“The fuck?” Blaise was there in an eyeblink, and he was moving between us, pushing Zeke backwards, but looking over his shoulder at me and frowning. Cross had decided he wasn’t needed. He tossed his workout bag in the back and got in next to me. He leaned over, kissing me and saying, “You okay?” His words were so quiet, and they gave me a thrill like always. Or maybe that was the kiss, or how he ran his hand down the side of my face before leaning back, giving me a closer and more intimate look. Whatever he saw must’ve reassured him that everything was definitely okay. He nodded and pulled back, his thumb tweaking over my bottom lip in a flirtatious touch.
Hiding a small grin, he angled his body, turning toward me. One elbow rested on the dashboard and he spoke to Zeke, sounding